


Gensokyo my Beloved

by Fonzi



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Action/Adventure, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-01-31 12:42:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 70
Words: 696,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18591499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fonzi/pseuds/Fonzi
Summary: It's late spring, year 125 in Gensokyo when a mass spiriting-away of outsiders takes place. The Hakurei shrine maiden thinks this is just a minor incident, easy to resolve. But is it...?





	1. A Rude Awakening

 

 

Disclaimer

All characters and events in this story are entirely fictional and any possible similarities between them and real people and events are purely coincidental and not intentional.

The same goes for any similarities between the story's original characters and the original characters in any other work of Touhou Project fanfiction.

This story is based on the Touhou series, and all its canon characters, locations and events are a property of Team Shanghai Alice, ergo ZUN. For the full list of these characters, locations, events, etc., please visit touhouwiki dot net.

* * *

Foreword

Greetings, any potential readers! This is Fonzi the Survivalist, presenting my very first written work of fiction. Before you decide to read it, however, it would be only fair to tell you what to expect from it before you waste a few days of your time reading something you won't even like.

This story will feature OC's. Lots of them. If you strongly dislike any and all non-canon characters, you should probably turn away.

As for the genre of the story, a slice-of-life adventure would probably fit it the best. There's a little bit of almost every genre in the mix, but the two aforementioned genres are the most prominent. If you are looking for an action-packed, fast-paced story, this fanfic will probably disappoint you. That is not to say that there is no action or fighting present in it. However, it's not all this story has to offer.

What I attempt in this story is a realistic depiction of life in Gensokyo from an outsider's perspective. Yes, I know, this concept has been overdone to death, but I took it as a sort of personal challenge to prove that I can still introduce something original and unique into this clichéd concept. At the same time the story will focus on the lives of Touhou's heroines and other characters as they live their lives in the times of peace as well as times of conflict.

Arm yourselves with patience and lots of snacks, dear readers, for this story is going to be LONG. If you prefer one-shots, run. Run far away, before this monstrosity consumes you.

Now, whether or not I managed to introduce new elements into the established Touhou universe without breaking the canon, I'll leave up to your judgement. Fanon elements will also be present, although not dominant. Should you notice any canon-breaking flaws, hesitate not to point them out for me. I am after all, still only learning…

As you also might have noticed, I do not come from an English-speaking country and English is not my first language. That, however, gives me no right or excuse to spam this site with unreadable pieces of trash, riddled with spelling, as well as grammatical errors. While I'm always trying my best to avoid them, I'm still only a human.

I shall wholeheartedly accept your criticism, as long as it will remain on constructive level.

Well, I guess that's all I wanted to say, folks. Now comes the story itself. Please enjoy…

* * *

Prologue

Ever since the creation of the Great Hakurei Border around the land of Gensokyo, there have been records of people being spirited away from the outside world. While many keep wondering why does this phenomenon keep occurring despite the presence of a multi-layer magical barrier, there have been many theories and hypotheses made on this matter by Gensokyo's native inhabitants. But regardless of the reason, this phenomenon is almost as natural part of Gensokyo's existence, just as magic, or the youkai.

Outsiders rarely have it easy there, and many attempt to find their way back to the outside world immediately after their spiriting away.

There are, however, exceptions and some of these individuals decide to settle there permanently.

But what happens when there's simply too many of them appearing at once? And what happens when Gensokyo's keeper of order and balance has to deal with two incidents simultaneously?

Perhaps something like this…

* * *

Chapter 1 – A Rude Awakening

The light of the morning sun gently fell upon the hills, the trees, through the windows of the houses to announce the start of a new day. A calm breeze playfully swayed the leaves on a line of sakura trees making them rustle. A birds' singing could be heard in the distance. A few brief moments of perfect tranquility before the hustle and bustle of everyday life started all over again.

It is in this very short moment in the morning, when people are dreaming. For a few seconds, a person's eyes start moving rapidly, as if trying to replay the happenings of a lifetime flowing through one's mind in a single moment.

Some say that the dreams are merely scattered bits of information from one's previous experiences put together in a seemingly logical or downright illogical way by our sleeping brain. Some dreams, on the other hand, contain scenes of events, locations and people we have never seen, heard of, or read about and yet, they all seem somehow awfully familiar. Are they premonitions from the future? Visions of the afterlife? Flashbacks from the previous life? Images of some parallel worlds? Visualizations of our deepest desires, or simply, just some random scenes produced by our subconscious imagination?

They may be all of these things and they may be nothing… Who knows?

But no matter what dreams we have, be they pleasant or disturbing, memorable or forgettable, fantastic or boring; they all become meaningless once you hear THAT sound…

* * *

…*beep*…*beep-beep*…*beep-beep-beep*…*be-*

"Aaaaw, damn it! Just let me sleep for a little longer… please." muttered the young man, still half asleep as he hit the button on his digital alarm clock to stop the annoying sounds.

Content that the machine stopped making that infernal racket, he lay back on the pillow adjusting his head position to make himself more comfortable.

Knowing that he shouldn't fall asleep again, he at least tried to recall what sort of dream he had just a few seconds ago.

It was one of those flying dreams, where he either floated around idly, enjoying the beauty of the vast landscape around him, or he dashed through the sky at incredible speed with no particular destination in mind. It was a feeling of endless freedom and excitement. These were his most favorite type of dreams, rivaled only perhaps by his occasional perverted ones.

He was just trying to recall where his most recent dream took place, when all of a sudden…

*riiiing*….*riiiing*….

"Now you too?" angrily asked the young man, this time addressing the words to his cell phone, which was the new source of noise, as it was now ringing and slowly moving towards the edge of the night table due to its vibration mode.

"Yeah?" asked the youth, halfway yawning as he picked up his phone.

"Good morning, Kyou-chan," started the familiar female voice from the phone, "just calling so that you wouldn't oversleep again."

"Don't sweat it, mom, I had set an alarm clock." replied the early caller's son. "Besides, you never called when I actually did oversleep. So, what is it about this time?"

"Gee, you don't have to be so wrought-up, first thing in the morning." stated the mother. "Ok, Kyouichi, listen. Today I'm leaving on that business trip to Osaka that I told you about earlier."

"Oh, so that was today?" asked Kyouichi, a little surprised that he had almost forgotten about it.

"Yes, I'll be gone for a whole week, so I left you some money to cover your possible expenses on the "usual place"." said Kyouichi's mom with a hint of sadness in her voice.

The young man sighed into the phone's microphone. "All right. I'll manage somehow… .And you try coming back in one piece too."

"My son is worried about me? Awww, how nice… Don't worry, Kyou-chan, I'll be fine. Besides, it's not the first time I'm leaving you to fend for yourself. You need to learn to be self-sufficient." Kyouichi's mom paused herself for a bit. "I'll bring you something nice from Osaka when I come back."

Kyouichi smiled. "I will do my best, then… See you in a week, mom. Take care."

"You too. Bye for now."

Kyouichi put his cell phone back on the night table standing next to his bed. He was just sitting there on his bed motionlessly for about 30 seconds, trying to gather enough willpower to get up and get ready for another day.

"Ok, on your feet, soldier!" he commanded himself. "Enough laying around! Time to get ready for another…..*yaaaawn*..day."

Wiping his sleepy eyes, he proceeded to the bathroom in his small apartment. After using the toilet, washing his hands and his face, he looked at himself in a mirror hanging above the washing basin. In its reflection stood a young, 186 cm tall man. His skin complexion was somewhat pale for a Japanese, as he never used to spend too much of his time outside. His stature was average – not too skinny, nor too muscular. His eyes were a mixture of gray and green. His dark-brown, shoulder-length hair now needed some serious combing. When he was done, he walked back into the bedroom, where he took his glasses from the night table, put them on and went to the kitchen. He poured some water into a kettle, put it on the stove and lit the gas. He took some sweet pastries he found in the bread box and started eating. As he was about to start eating his second sweet bun, he recalled this morning's phone call. He stood up and walked up to one of the wall lamps in the far corner of the kitchen. It was that lamp which had no light bulb in it. Kyouichi deftly unscrewed the lid made of milky-white glass to reveal its content. Just as his mom said, there was some money left inside.

"20 000 yen, eh?" whispered Kyouichi when he was done counting the money. "That's more than enough for one week."

He decided to take 3 000 yen for today, put the rest back into the lid and screwed it back onto the lamp. He then put on his casual blue jeans and a black t-shirt. The water in the kettle was already boiling, so he turned the stove off and poured the boiling water into a porcelain cup with a small motif of a landscape and a rising sun on it. He then put a tea bag with black tea into the cup along with some sugar and stirred it for a while.

The clock in the kitchen was showing 7 : 21. Knowing that he didn't have much time left before his first lecture starts, he quickly gobbled the remaining 2 sweet buns and sipped his hot tea as fast as he could. As soon as he was done eating, he dashed into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

"I should really get going now." thought Kyouichi as he put down his toothbrush and grinned at the mirror to make sure his teeth were all snowy-white now.

In less than one minute he put his cell phone, his money and his keys in the pocket, grabbed his handbag with notebooks and pens, put on his dark gray sneakers, left his apartment and locked the door.

He could be really fast when put under pressure of time.

* * *

Running down the street on the outskirts of Tokyo, Kyouichi made his way to the bus stop, where he would wait every morning for a bus to take him to the college on weekdays, or to the warehouses where he worked part-time on weekends.

A few minutes later, a bus showed up and stopped. Its doors opened and several people, Kyouichi included, entered the vehicle.

The bus was half-empty, so Kyouichi took a seat on the right side next to a window.

The weather was pleasant today, as there were just a few clouds in the morning sky, and the strong wind from yesterday was now replaced by a gentle breeze. Spring was almost over, but the weather during the most of the days in May would suggest that it just started recently.

Kyouichi just quietly stared outside the window as the bus was passing through streets with gradually taller buildings, denser traffic and larger crowds of people.

In some 20 minutes the bus reached its destination. The young student got off and continued a few hundred meters on foot through a park with rows of sakura trees lined along both sides of the path. There were playgrounds, food stalls and a big fountain in the center of that park.

At the end of the path, Kyouichi turned left, passed through an opened gate of the university campus and marched on towards the tall white building with hundreds of windows.

Not willing to wait for some stupid elevator, Kyouichi quickly took the stairs up until he reached the 3rd floor of the building.

He followed the corridor, still full of students making their way to their respective lecture rooms. Among all those students, he caught a glimpse of a familiar person.

* * *

"Yo, Akane." said Kyouichi as he greeted a girl with long dark hair in a pony tail. "Ready to enjoy another fascinatingly boring history lecture?"

"Oh, good morning, Kyou-kun." said the girl, obviously still not fully woken up. "If my last semester's history grades were not so terrible, I would have surely taken a day off today."

"Heh, well, mornings aren't exactly my favorite time of the day either." he replied, feeling compassion for his tired classmate.

They both entered a medium sized classroom with about 30 seats. Akane took her usual seat in the second row near the window, and Kyouichi, who was trying to avoid as much attention and responsibility as possible, made himself at home at one of the desks in the last row.

There were usually about 15 people attending this history lecture, so there were always plenty of vacant seats.

Kyouichi shortened his time until the professor's arrival by idle chit-chat with his other classmates, occupying the backmost seats of the classroom.

The chatter was interrupted as the classroom door opened and the professor, a shorter, young looking man, still in his 40's entered.

All the students were on their feet. "Good morning, students." the professor greeted the class with his ever cheerful tone.

"Good morning, Tatsuhita-sensei." echoed a unanimous greeting of the students as they bowed to the professor.

"Man... One thing that hasn't changed since grade school." thought the young student of anthropology as he recalled the same style of greeting ever since he started attending school.

The usual long and not exactly exciting history lecture started. Kyouichi had a really hard time trying to concentrate on the professor's words. It seemed that everything he heard simply leaked right out of his head. Instead of taking down notes of important dates of important events, he just stared outside the window and played with his hair. He closed his eyes and rested his head on the wooden desk, wishing that the lecture would end soon. As usual, he started daydreaming about flying. He imagined himself as he was lying on a cloud, just drifting wherever the wind would take him. It was a very relaxing feeling, and before he knew it, Kyouichi's daydreaming turned into real dreaming.

….

….

….

"..i...aru….n?"…."….maru...an!"…."Ishimaru-san!" called a man's voice somewhere in the distance.

"Whoa! What?" panicked Kyouichi as he was shaken from his nap. On his shoulder he could feel a tight grip of Tatsuhita-sensei's hand. The whole classroom burst into laughter.

"Is that desk comfortable?" asked Tatsuhita-sensei with a raised eyebrow, but still in his usual friendly voice.

"Yeah, just a bit too hard for my taste." replied Kyouichi, as he straightened up in his seat.

Again, the students started laughing.

"Well, I just think you should be more responsible, Ishimaru-san. Otherwise you will find the end-term exams even harder than this desk." remarked the professor, letting go of Kyouichi's shoulder and knocking on the desk for emphasis.

"This isn't grade school anymore." continued the lecturer. "You are a 20 year old young man and as such, you can't be always relying on the help of other people." he referred to Kyouichi's habit of copying notes from his fellow students. A common practice among university students, but still frowned upon by some teachers.

"Twenty-two."

"Pardon?"

"I'm 22, not 20." Kyouichi corrected his teacher.

"In that case, you are two years past due to learn some independence and responsibility."

Kyouichi opened his mouth as he wanted to say something for his defense, but he remained silent, because he knew, although he hated to admit it, that Tatsuhita was right.

He was always lazy and carefree, relying on the help of others, trying to achieve the maximum with minimum effort and acting only when there was almost no time left to act.

And ever since he moved to Tokyo after his parents divorced, he became even less caring.

He stopped doing sports, lost contact with his old friends and basically didn't have a life save his school and the part-time job.

* * *

As the lecture ended and Kyouichi moved to a different classroom, this time on the 1st floor, he was contemplating about how he should change his way of life in order to find things which his current life lacked. Friends, motivation, self-confidence, a meaningful job, love, a reason to get up in the morning… In one word: happiness.

The rest of the day went on without any embarrassing incidents happening to Kyouichi.

"Finally, it's over." he sighed and within 5 seconds, all his things were packed up and he was ready to go home.

The sky turned from blue to orange, as it was already past 5 p.m. As Kyouichi was leaving the halls of the building, he encountered one of his few friends from another faculty. He was a bit shorter than Kyouichi, with short black hair. He was wearing a white shirt and black pants.

"Oi, Kyouichi!" shouted the young male student standing in the hallway. "Are all of your today's lectures over?"

Kyouichi nodded both to greet his friend and to answer his question. "Say, what are you still doing here? Waiting for your girlfriend?"

"I wish…" said Kyouichi's friend. "I'm waiting for my brother to come pick me up by car."

"Well, well, someone is living in luxury." stated slightly surprised Kyouichi.

"Actually, he called me that there has been some major traffic accident just a few blocks from here, so all the bus lines will be delayed until all that mess is cleaned up."

"…you serious?" asked Kyouichi, apparently in disbelief to his friend's words.

"Look for yourself if you don't believe me. Anyway, if you don't want to wait until the road gets cleared, you can always just take the subway."

"Yeah… Although I would be taking quite a detour." mumbled Kyouichi to himself.

"Well, I'm just trying to help…" shrugged the young male.

"Ok, you convinced me. Subway it is." said Kyouichi after a while of thinking. "Thanks, Hideo."

"You're welcome." said Hideo. They both said their farewell and Kyouichi walked out of the school building. He passed the courtyard, then the park, but instead of waiting at the bus stop, he continued several hundred meters onward, until he came to a subway entrance.

Despite living in Tokyo for nearly 5 years, he took the subway only a few times, because the nearest station to his home was still over 2 km away. However, today was an exception.

Before he entered the underground he could see, 2 ambulances with their sirens on passing by and turning to an adjacent street, where his usual outbound bus line would go through.

"I guess things like that really do happen in real life too…" thought Kyouichi as he walked downstairs.

* * *

He checked the time and bought a ticket. Then he proceeded through a turnstile and again downstairs to the designated platform. He didn't have to wait for too long, because the train was just arriving at the station. He got onboard and marked his ticket. Then he just found a nice quiet place to sit down. Since there was nothing to look at through the window, he just closed his eyes and listened to the sound of the moving train. He knew that it would take at least 30 minutes before the train arrives to Kyouichi's destination.

"What a hassle." he whispered at the thought that he would still have to walk over 2 kilometers from the station, then do some shopping, go home and make some dinner.

With his eyes closed and lulled by the train's rocking, Kyouichi, for the second time today, fell asleep.

He was flying above an ocean at a very high speed. In the distance he could see a huge island with a very tall mountain. The sky was black with storm clouds and crisscrossed with lightning bolts every few seconds. The wind was fierce, turning raindrops into merciless water needles. The waves were as tall as houses, but Kyouichi knew that he absolutely had to reach that island at all costs. He lowered his head and tried to fly even faster. The island was getting ever closer. Just a last few kilometers, just last hundreds of meters, just….

When he had almost reached the island he felt being swept by a gigantic wave which caught him from behind and violently smashed Kyouichi against the shore with devastating force… But Kyouichi could still hear… screams?

"What the...?! An earthquake?!" Kyouichi opened his eyes in shock, only to see complete darkness. People's screams were coming from every side as the whole train car was shaking violently. Sounds of heavy hits and breaking glass could be heard for over 10 seconds.

Kyouichi on the verge of having a heart attack just curled up and covered his head. It was the only thing he could do as he waited for this horror to end.

When all became quiet, Kyouichi checked if he wasn't injured. He did receive quite a few hits from unknown objects during that madness.

"I'm still ok. Thank God!"

He instinctively reached inside his left pocket and took out his cell phone to use it as a flashlight. A weak light faintly illuminated the interior of a completely wrecked train car. Of course, the phone had no signal, so it could only serve as a light source now. There was broken glass everywhere, some seats were torn out and the back section of the car was completely smashed and dented in.

Kyouichi gasped loudly in shock. If he was sitting back there, he would have been dead by now. His heart was still pounding like mad and his legs were shaking from the shocking experience, when he noticed something very strange… He was alone…

He could have sworn that there were at least 10 people in that car when he got on.

"Where the hell is everybody?"

He would have sworn that he heard people screaming right next to him and then, in less than 30 seconds everyone was gone.

"They couldn't have fallen out of the windows…" he tried to come up with a reasonable explanation for everyone's sudden disappearance.

Indeed, they couldn't have… The subway tunnel was completely collapsed, leaving no open space for people to fall off.

"Hello~! Is anybody here~?" called Kyouichi from the top of his lungs.

No response came.

Wondering what the hell could have happened, Kyouichi slowly walked to the front of the demolished car. He tried to look into the next car through the small window on the door, but he could see nothing.

"Hello~!" he tried his luck again, and again to no avail.

"Damn!"

He took a few steps back and tried to force-open the door.

*kick* the door didn't budge.

*kick* the door still didn't budge.

"Open….up…..you…..goddamn….door!" yelled Kyouichi as he went berserk on the car door. But the door still resisted the onslaught.

"Fine. Fine!" he looked around the broken car and took a metal bar he found on the floor.

"If you're not gonna open that way, I'm gonna pry you open!"

He jammed the metal bar in a small gap between the door and the hinge and pulled it with all his might.

"Hnnnrrghhhhh!"

A series of cracking sounds echoed inside the metro car as he pulled, concluded by a loud slam.

The door finally succumbed to the force of leverage and was now wide open. To Kyouichi's great surprise, the second car was also empty.

"This isn't funny anymore."

He could see pretty much the same scenery as in the previous car: smashed windows, torn off seats and rocks which forced their way in through the windows.

"What kind of day is this?" complained Kyouichi. "First some brutal mass traffic accident and now an earthquake!"

But what bothered him the most were the missing passengers. He was alone on a subway train buried deep under ground with no idea of his exact location and no way of calling for help.

"I'm gonna die here." is what he thought as he slowly walked to the door leading to another car further in front. This time he was luckier, because the door wasn't seriously damaged and could be opened with ease. What he saw in the third car, however, nearly made him drop his cell phone.

"Light!"

Kyouichi couldn't hide his happiness when he saw it. It was faint and still very far, but it was there. Whatever the source was, he was determined that he would reach it or die trying. He dashed through the car, and then through another, and then he saw it clearly. It was daylight without a doubt. He knew that it was impossible, because he was in the underground, but that didn't bother him at the moment. He saw hope that he could get out of that train and he ignored all his skeptic thoughts. Full of excitement, he opened the door to the last car and he saw that the front half of that car was completely torn off and missing. But even more noteworthy was the fact, that this car was not inside a tunnel, but outside on a small meadow.

* * *

Kyouichi covered his eyes, which were blinded by the sudden exposure to the bright light.

After a while his eyes adjusted to the new environment and Kyouichi took a long, long look around. He witnessed one of the most bizarre things in his life: the train was jutting out from a tiny hill as if it was just leaving a tunnel, but this was no tunnel. There were no railroad tracks coming from that "tunnel". Also the hill was too small for it to contain such a long train. It just didn't make any sense. Now focusing his attention on the landscape, Kyouichi had absolutely no idea of his whereabouts. There was nothing in sight but hills and forests.

As he looked behind, he saw a huge mountain in the distance.

"Just like in that dream…" he thought.

He looked at his trusty cell phone to see if there was any signal, but the bar next to the antenna icon was hopelessly empty.

Although he had no idea what happened, he knew that he couldn't stay here. The sun was about to set. He had to choose some direction and keep moving until he finds some city, village or just anyone who could help.

Since the distant mountain was the only distinctive landmark in sight, he decided to walk towards it.

"Maybe there's some mountain resort there." he thought to himself, trying to remain optimistic.

He walked to the end of the meadow and entered a forest.

 


	2. Neither the First, nor the Last

There were no paths to be seen, so Kyouichi just had to make one. He stopped every few minutes to check if he was heading the right way. Even though the mountain was really huge, it was quite hard to see with all those trees blocking the view. Furthermore, it was getting darker.

Kyouichi checked the time: 19 : 04.

"Damn! Less than one hour of daylight left. But how come it's already so late? When I got on the train it was barely past 6 p. m. Was I really knocked out or something?"

He speeded up a bit. If he wouldn't be able to reach the mountain, he would have to make shelter in this forest. He shuddered to think that he would have to spend a night in the forest and become prey of wild bears or whatever beasts that might have been dwelling here.

As he walked, he noticed what noise he was making with each step he took. The dried up leaves and small fallen branches crackling under his feet gave away his presence from even far away.

He stopped to check his heading again and to rest up a bit. The forest terrain was difficult to traverse even for an experienced hiker, let alone for a lazy, untrained indoor type such as Kyouichi. Sitting down on a large fallen branch, he muttered to himself: "There's no way I'm going to reach that mountain today."

"If only I could find a better vantage point, maybe I would find some other significant landmarks besides that mountain. But where the hell am I? This is nowhere near Tokyo and THAT is definitely not Mt Fuji. Has the whole world gone crazy, or is it me who's going crazy? Oh look, I'm talking to myself now... That's the first sign of going crazy."

Understanding that sitting and talking to himself was not going to help him in any way, Kyouichi stood up. He picked up a fairly straight wooden stick he saw lying on the ground, next to where he was sitting. What was once a part of a tree branch could now serve as a walking stick.

"I better look for some tall hill nearby, so I could get a better view." thought Kyouichi aloud.

He turned right and saw just the hill that could have a decent view of the surrounding area. It was still approximately 1 km away, but compared to the distance from the mountain, it was much, much closer.

Kyouichi started walking towards that hill with the help of his recently acquired walking stick.

It was already getting dark, but he knew that he would be able to reach the top of the hill before the evening falls.

As he walked towards his goal, he had this eerie feeling of being watched by someone. He didn't shake off that feeling even after stopping to look around.

"I'm just being paranoid." he thought to himself.

And so, not paying any more attention to his uneasy feeling, he reached the foot of the hill.

* * *

Looking up the hill, he could see some tiny dancing lights in the distance. Thinking that the lights were fireflies, he continued to climb uphill. The climb was more tiring than he thought and Kyouichi started panting for air.

"Damn, I need to start doing some exercise." he complained about his poor stamina.

As he was nearing the top of the hill, he saw, that the dancing lights were rather large for fireflies. Also, the feeling that someone was just looking over his shoulder still lingered inside, in fact, stronger than ever.

"Almost there…" he motivated himself.

Just a couple of meters, just a few steps... Goal! After a hard struggle, the top of the hill was finally conquered. The view from there was quite spectacular. Not only could he see the mountain more clearly, he could also see, that there were huge waterfalls coming from the foot of the enormous mountain. As he looked at the other side, he could see the small meadow, where he started his bizarre journey through the unknown land. It was now very far away and Kyouichi himself was surprised that he managed to walk such a distance in just an hour.

His attention, however, was immediately captivated by one of those lights that he saw earlier.

It just dashed in front of him and then soared up into the sky. Turning his head to follow the light, Kyouichi saw a small group of those lights, swirling around in the treetops. He tried to focus his sight to identify the mysterious light source, but it was already too dark to see anything but the silhouettes of the trees and the lights themselves. As he took a step towards the tree with the lights, he tripped over a rock and almost fell down. Kyouichi still maintained his balance thanks to the walking stick. The noise he made, however, seemed to have caught the attention of those weird lights. Several of them flew right towards him and hovered around him, as if they were scanning him. Now Kyouichi saw vividly, that the lights were emitted by something he had never seen before. He gazed with his mouth open at one of those creatures. It looked like a miniature of a girl, or like a doll with insect-like wings. It even had miniature one piece dress. In both of its hands were some glowing spheres which were the source of that light.

From all the fantastical creatures Kyouichi ever heard of, these beings were a textbook example of fairies. Stunned by this unbelievable sight, he just stood there without motion for a few moments. As soon as he took a step, however, the fairies attacked. One of them threw the shining spheres at the surprised Kyouichi.

"Aaaargh!" he screamed in pain as both of the spheres hit him directly in the chest. The hit was strong like a punch of an average adult man and it slightly burned too. Soon after, all the other fairies started throwing these energy spheres one after another, as they kept reappearing in their hands. Kyouichi was heavily bombarded by the shining orbs. Not needing much time to think, he just started running to find some cover. He wanted to get down from that hill, so he dashed for his life to the edge of the hilltop, when he suddenly stopped. And a good thing he did, because this side of the hill was much steeper then the one he used to climb up here. He wanted to find another way down, but before he could turn back, he was hit from behind by another barrage from the fairies, sending him down the steep hill in an uncontrollable fall.

* * *

"Noooo!... Ugh!... Dammit!... Whoa! That was close!...Oh, fuuu….!" he covered his head just like during the earthquake in the subway and endured the fall until he finally stopped.

He groaned in pain as he was slowly standing up. His t-shirt was riddled with numerous holes and tears after the unpleasant fall and the fairies' attack. He reached his hand underneath the t-shirt. When he pulled it back out, it was covered in blood.

"Youch! I'm all messed up." he said as he tore his t-shirt into straps, so he could use them as bandages.

He tied the makeshift bandages around the most serious wounds, when his eyes saw something which raised his spirits high.

"Is that… a path?" Kyouichi couldn't believe his eyes. Although it was almost completely dark outside, this was without doubt a path. It was the first sign of civilization he found in this wilderness.

"Wherever it leads, I'm sure to find some settlement if I follow it." he encouraged himself to take the path in one direction or another.

* * *

With each step he took, he could feel the pain of his wounds and bruises. He was tired, hungry, thirsty, beat up and cold, because he sacrificed his t-shirt to make bandages. However, his mind was only focused on following the path.

After about ten minutes of walking, he saw a wooden signpost in shape of an arrow with something written on it. Taking out his cell phone to cast at least some light on the sign, he could read the writing: To Hakurei Shrine.

"Hakurei Shrine? Never heard of it." muttered Kyouichi. "But if there is a shrine, that means there has to be a village or a town somewhere nearby."

Not wasting any more time, he continued to walk further down the path. After about 15 minutes, he walked up to a crossroad with another wooden signpost, but he wasn't curious about reading it, since in the distance, he saw a set of stone stairs, leading up a hill to a large torii illuminated by the moon.

* * *

"This must be the entrance to that shrine." he thought as he carefully walked up the stone stairs. He tried to make as little noise as possible in order not to provoke any fairies which could be lurking everywhere.

Upon reaching the top of the hill and passing under the torii, Kyouichi found himself in a well maintained shrine yard with a small Shinto shrine in its center. He cleansed himself at a small stone temizu water basin standing near the torii gateway before he entered the sacred shrine grounds. First, he took a wooden ladle with his right hand, pouring water on his left hand, then switching hands and then rinsing his mouth. Finally, he took the ladle in both hands and tipped it over to spill the water over the ladle's handle to cleanse it. Once cleansed, he could now enter the sacred grounds. He slowly walked towards the shrine. There was a large wooden donation box placed in front of the shrine's entrance. Kyouichi took a look inside, but the box was empty.

"Maybe the donations were already taken by the priest…" thought the young wanderer.

But the whole place looked deserted. The priest of the shrine was obviously not around at the moment. Despite this fact, Kyouichi stepped to the altar, threw all the coins he had in his pocket into the wooden box, bowed twice, rang a bell, clapped his hands twice and prayed.

He prayed to the shrine's deity and asked for help. Help to survive and to find some shelter for the night.

* * *

When he was done, he bowed once more, turned back and headed down the stairs and back to the crossroad. Shining the cell phone generated light upon the sign, he could see four arrows pointing in 4 different directions: To Hakurei Shrine, To Forest of Magic, To Youkai Mountain and To Human Village. There was also an indication that there used to be more signposts, but some of them were missing.

Someone scratched words: "keep out" under the sign showing the direction to Youkai Mountain.

"Human Village?" chuckled Kyouichi. "Aren't all villages inhabited by humans?"

Although he found the name of the village funny, to say the least, he also knew that this village may provide just the shelter he made his expensive prayer for.

He silently walked down the path, illuminated only by starlight and the moon. He kept walking, and walking and at long last, he saw many flickering lights in the distance. Those weren't fairies, because these lights didn't fly around erratically. Despite his pain, which hasn't eased up one bit, he started running towards the village.

"I made it! I made it!" repeated Kyouichi as he entered the village.

* * *

It still wasn't that late evening, so the streets were still quite lively, with plenty of people walking around, chatting with each other, drinking sake and preparing food...

"Food!" a heavenly smell of roasted meat, fish, freshly boiled rice and other delicious things hit Kyouichi's nose. He hurried to some random person who was preparing some food and started explaining his situation:

"E-excuse me…I-I think I'm lost, but that's not important now… I'm starving. I would give you everything I have for just a bowl of rice."

The person was a young, black haired man, wearing a dark-red kimono with yellow zigzag pattern on the edges of the sleeves. He could be 30 years old, or so Kyouichi thought. He was sitting on a stool in front of a nabe pot, waiting for its content to cook properly.

The man measured Kyouichi up with his dark eyes from head to toe, with an expression of surprise on his face.

"Could you possibly be…." started talking the man in red, "an outsider?"

"Well, I'm not from this village, if that's what you're asking." replied Kyouichi, not quite sure what the man meant by "outsider".

"Like I said, I'm lost. I have no idea where I am or how I ended up here."

"You must have come from the outside world then." said the man as he took two pairs of chopsticks and offered one pair to Kyouichi.

"Here, eat up and don't be shy to ask for seconds." smiled the man as he invited Kyouichi to have some nabe with him.

"Thank you very much, kind sir." Kyouichi bowed down to the man as he accepted the offer and sat next to him on the ground.

"I'm Mizuto Saitou, by the way…"

"Kyouichi Ishimaru, pleased to meet you, and once again, thank you for the food."

"You're welcome." Mizuto made a gesture towards the nabe.

"Itadakimasu~!" said both Kyouichi and Mizuto at the same time and started eating.

* * *

"Ahhhh~! That sure hit the spot!" said Kyouichi after eating a satisfying amount of nabe, patting his belly.

"Would you like some more?" asked Mizuto.

"Actually, I wanted to ask you..."

"Yes?"

"What is this place and what did you mean when you said that I must have come from the outside world?" Kyouichi started interrogating. "I am still in Japan, aren't I?"

"Well, yes... and no." replied Mizuto, having problems to find the right words.

"You are now in Human village, in Gensokyo."

"Gensokyo? A fantasy land?" wondered Kyouichi.

"Quite a fitting name for these here lands. You see, this was once an ordinary place, which was a part of Japan... Well, maybe not so ordinary, as it was heavily populated by youkai, hence the name Gensokyo."

"Youkai? I thought those only existed in myths." Kyouichi just couldn't believe what he was being told.

"Well, looking at your injuries, I'd say you already had the pleasure of meeting some of them." stated Mizuto and continued explaining. "Yes, youkai do exist and most of them, by nature, attack humans, since they are their most favorite food. The humans living nearby, or those who were trying to pass through were often attacked and eaten. At first, it was only taken as a bunch of rumors and folktales to scare children, but as more and more people were mysteriously disappearing, people started to believe them. They sent messengers to all nearby towns to ask for help. Not long after that, whole regiments of warriors, priests and exorcists started coming to help the troubled villagers. The youkai presence was indeed confirmed and these warriors and exorcists went to battle. The battles turned into a long war, with each side struggling for victory. Since the war took so long, the soldiers and priests settled here and founded their own colony, even bringing their wives and families to live here. Since the youkai were not organized, they only attacked by small numbers, so as long as there were patrols in the villages, they were relatively safe. As the battles went on, the humans started to gain more and more power, which developed into magic abilities and they could seriously challenge the youkai. However, even youkai grew ever stronger, so the tide of war was constantly shifting from one side to another. Knowing that the youkai could never be completely exterminated, the high priest of the Hakurei clan, along with other high priests, have decided to create a magic ward to seal off the youkai infested land to prevent them from attacking the humans. They prepared for some powerful ancient ritual, when the most unexpected thing happened."

"What happened?" asked Kyouichi.

"A youkai of immense power appeared before them and offered them truce and help with the creation of this ward. At first, they were reluctant to cooperate with this youkai, but it was also obvious that if she wanted to betray them or kill them, she would have done so long ago without any problem. The sealing ritual required one of the priests to be the center and remain within the sealed area, while 11 other priests would form a gigantic circle around the central priest. Several other powerful youkai also took part in reinforcing the barrier. Nobody knows how large was that circle in diameter, as no one can say with certainty, how large Gensokyo is exactly. The high priest of the Hakurei clan offered himself to be the in the center, since he was born here, in the village near the shrine founded by his ancestors. The ritual itself did not take place at the shrine as you'd expect, but in the very middle of Gensokyo, which is an area further to the west. The shrine of the Hakurei lies on the easternmost border of Gensokyo and is supposedly a part of the Great Boundary. As the priest began to perform the ritual, the youkai also cast a spell or something. They say that there was a mysterious bright light shining from the earth towards the sky, slowly broadening and forming an enormous circle. It was probably much larger than expected, because the circle swallowed up several of the surrounding villages as well. It is also said, that in the very moment when the circle was complete, a dragon could be seen flying in the storm clouds above. That was the creation of the Great Hakurei Barrier, the year zero and the beginning of Gensokyo as we know it today. The dragon was and still is worshipped as a deity by humans and youkai alike. We even have a great statue of the dragon just down the street. Anyway, after that, the youkai entrusted the maintenance of the Great Barrier to the Hakurei priest as well as responsibility for the safety of humans within Gensokyo. The youkai sage explained that she cannot keep other youkai from attacking the humans for long, because she needed to take a long rest after casting such a powerful spell. The Great Boundary not only prevents the youkai, but also humans from passing through it from both sides, or so should it be." Mizuto paused himself to drink some water.

"If that's so, then what am I doing here?" asked Kyouichi after hearing the history of this strange land he was now supposedly in. Although he usually didn't pay much attention during the history lectures at his collage, he was now absorbing every single word. It was just too fantastic not to pay attention to.

"Well, even though the barrier is a very powerful one, it is far from perfect. I'm no expert on this matter, but from time to time there have been cases of objects, humans and youkai crossing the barrier from the outside world. You see, this barrier is more than just a mere magic wall forming the border of Gensokyo. It is a boundary between two different realities, or so I've heard. You could say that Gensokyo exits within a different world, a different dimension."

"Then how come I managed to cross the border?" Kyouichi demanded an answer.

"Like I said, I'm no expert, but either you just managed to find a gap in it, or you posses some magic power, or… you were spirited away by some youkai." Mizuto started naming some explanations. "You're neither the first, nor the last person who came from the outside. I know several of them myself. However, few are those who actually managed to survive and made it to the village. From some tales I've heard, that when a human is spirited away to Gensokyo, he or she may appear anywhere within its boundary, and believe me, most of Gensokyo's locations are deadly dangerous for an outsider... You can consider yourself very lucky, my friend."

"Lucky?! You have no idea what I've been through." Kyouichi was slightly agitated by Mizuto's last remark. He didn't consider himself lucky at all. "First I nearly died in an earthquake, then I found myself in the middle of nowhere and wandered for hours without knowing where I was going, then I was attacked by some fairies or something, making me fall down a steep hill and messing myself up. Sure, I was lucky to find the village, but…"

"Indeed, you were very lucky to encounter only fairies." Mizuto stood up, walked into his house and then came back out with some water, cotton wool and some medical ointments.

"Fairies are the weakest of all youkai inhabiting Gensokyo." continued Mizuto with explaining. "They are also the most thriving, numerous and diverse kind of youkai."

He then asked Kyouichi: "Please, put down those bandages and let me take a look at your wounds."

"Sure." nodded Kyouichi, unbinding his makeshift bandages. "Please, continue. Tell me everything I should know."

"I really don't know all that much, but I'll do my best to explain what I know. However, if you'd want some more in-depth information about the village, Gensokyo or the youkai, then I suggest you should talk to someone else." Mizuto soaked some of the cotton wool in the water and started washing Kyouichi's wounds. "I'm just a simple fisherman."

"Were you born here?" asked Kyouichi, slightly clenching his teeth as the wounds still hurt.

"Yes, I was, and I have spent most of my life here in this village. This is after all, the safest place for humans in all of Gensokyo. I live in this here house with my wife and children."

"So, that nabe was meant for them, right? I'm sorry, I wouldn't have…"

"That's ok, lad, like I said, there is still plenty for everyone." Mizuto interrupted.

"And where do you go fishing? I haven't seen any rivers or lakes nearby." Kyouichi continued questioning the fisherman.

"There is a small stream just south of here." Mizuto pointed at the opposite side of the village as Kyouichi arrived. "However, if you really want to catch something bigger, then Misty Lake is your best choice. I even have a fishing hut there."

"Misty Lake? Where's that?"

"Well it's too dark to see it now, but the lake lies near the foot of the Youkai Mountain."

"That's quite far from the village." stated Kyouichi, staring at the dark silhouette of the distant mountain. "Isn't it dangerous there?"

"Of course, it's dangerous. That's why we fishermen are always accompanied by a few warriors and youkai fighters. You see, all of Gensokyo's human inhabitants are descendants of the families of warriors, priests and native villagers of this land. Of course, there are a few outsiders as well." Mizuto smiled at Kyouichi as he dipped one piece of cotton in some unknown ointment.

"And when was this Gensokyo created? You mentioned something about year zero or something."

"The year zero only marks the creation of the Great Hakurei Border. Gensokyo itself is much, much older than that. I really don't know what year it is in the outside world, though." frowned Mizuto, taking the soaked piece of cotton and started applying the ointment on the wounds. "This might sting a bit."

"Yoooouch!" screamed Kyouichi from the searing pain. "You call that "a bit"?"

"But Gensokyo was sealed precisely 125 years ago, so here it is year 125."

"That means it happened in year 1885 by our date." muttered Kyouichi to himself. "But according to the old calendar, the new year started in April, so it could have been in 1884…But how come there is no knowledge about this in the outside world?"

"There isn't?" asked surprised Mizuto, pausing to think for a while. "Hmm, well, I'd say that everybody who knew anything about the creation of the barrier was sealed within it."

"Hmm... 125 years. That wasn't so long ago."

"No, but like I said, there is much, much more to the history of Gensokyo, long before it was sealed. But I never was too much into history, so I really don't know much about it." Mizuto was still wiping Kyouichi's wounds.

"Really? You seem quite knowledgeable." said Kyouichi through his teeth while enduring the pain of disinfection.

Mizuto chuckled. "Oh, no, no, no. I only like to collect legends, folktales and other stories. We fishermen really like telling and listening to these stories to help pass time. I never really paid much attention to history during my school days."

"Tell me about it…" replied Kyouichi, smiling.

"There. Your wounds are treated." said Mizuto, who was now binding Kyouichi's disinfected wounds with some proper bandages.

"Thank you very much, Saitou-san."

"Just call me Mizuto, like everyone does."

"Ok then, Mizuto. Thanks for taking care of me." Kyouichi bowed down to show his thanks as soon as he was all patched up.

"You should rest a few days. Don't do any hard work and you should heal up in no time."

"Yeah, I shall."

"So, is there anything else you wanted to ask…?" asked Mizuto, but before he finished his sentence, a young woman stepped outside from his house. She was almost as tall as Mizuto, had short dark hair and she was wearing a dark flower patterned kimono.

"Should I help you with that nabe? Oh, we have a guest? Good evening." she smiled and bowed to Kyouichi. "My name is Minako Saitou, pleased to meet you."

"Likewise. I'm Kyouichi Ishimaru and I come from the outside world, as I have just found out." said Kyouichi also bowing down.

"Minako, my wife works here in the village as a tailor." explained Mizuto.

"Oh, my…" called Minako. "You were spirited away from the outside world? That must have been a terrible experience for you. I'm glad you made it to the village safe and sound. If you like, you can stay in our house for the night."

"That is very kind of you, thank you." thanked Kyouichi.

"I'll just take the nabe inside. The kids are already hungry." said Minako as she took the nabe pot and entered the house.

Kyouichi then spoke again after a moment of silence. "Tell me something about the village."

"The village is the largest human settlement in Gensokyo. It has something over 2 000 inhabitants. Humans and youkai live here in peace... most of the time."

"Youkai live here in the village?" asked Kyouichi surprised by Mizuto's words.

"Indeed, they do. Know that humans are in minority here in Gensokyo. Also, it's not like all youkai are hostile, bloodthirsty monsters that eat humans. Some are really friendly too."

"Like the one who assisted the priest of the Hakurei clan with the barrier?"

"Oh, you mean Yukari Yakumo... Well, I... really don't know anything about her besides the legends." Mizuto looked a bit embarrassed by not being able to answer Kyouichi's question.

"What sort of legends?" Kyouichi kept bombarding the fisherman with more questions.

"Well, the legends about Yukari-sama are about as many as there are inhabitants of Human Village. Most of them say that she has been around for thousands of years and that she disappeared after the creation of the Great Hakurei Barrier. To where? Nobody knows. I have even heard tales that some people have seen her or even met her in person, but the stories are as doubtful as some of their tellers. They were all like "my friend's friend once told me" kind of thing. Personally, I'd say that over 80 percent of those legends are all made up."

"So what you told me about the creation of the barrier was also just a legend?"

"Oh no, that really happened." continued Mizuto.

"What about that youkai?"

"Yukari Yakumo really did exist. There are even historical records about her. If you're interested, you could take a look around the archive here in the village. Sure, there are people, who claim to have met her, but since they have no proof about that, it is not certain whether or not these stories are true. I really can't say. I haven't met her or anything."

"And... what happened to the Hakurei high priest?" Kyouichi wanted to know more.

"The priest died of old age. Obviously."

"I figured as much. But who is now responsible for the safety of humans and the maintenance of the Great Barrier?"

"His great-great-granddaughter, Reimu Hakurei. She is the last living descendant of the Hakurei clan. She usually hangs around the shrine where she lives, but she also shows up down here in the village every once in a while."

"I've just been to the shrine." said Kyouichi looking at the direction of the road leading to the shrine. "The place looked deserted."

"Then you must have come while she was out somewhere." shrugged Mizuto.

"I see."

"Rarely anyone from the village visits the shrine these days since the roads are too dangerous, but if you want to know more about the barrier, then you should go talk to her. Also, see that old man wearing overalls?" Mizuto pointed at an elderly man sitting by the campfire with a bottle in his hand. "He's Naota Tanisake, a friend of mine. Like you, he is an outsider, but he has lived here for as long as I can remember. He has a lot of experience and can tell you a lot about life in Gensokyo from an outsider's perspective."

"Then I'll go talk to him." said Kyouichi while standing up.

"All right, then I'll go and help Minako set up the guest room for you." Mizuto shortly after stood up and went home.

* * *

Walking about 50 meters down the street to the campfire, Kyouichi could see the old man more clearly. He was wearing white, short sleeved shirt and brown working overalls. His balding head still had some gray hair. He was apparently drinking sake and wasn't indulged in conversation with anyone else by the fire. Kyouichi just greeted him as he would greet anyone.

"Good evening. I'm Kyouichi Ishimaru. Are you Tanisake Naota-san?"

The man lifted his head and Kyouichi could see that he was drunk.

"Whaddya want, runt? I don't take apprentices." said the old man with a gruff voice.

"Mizuto said you could tell me a lot about life in Gensokyo as an outsider."

"Oh, did he? And why would that interest you so much, kid?"

"Well just a few hours ago I was somehow taken to this place from the outside world."

"What did you say?" upon hearing those words the old man put down his sake bottle, stood up and took a close look at Kyouichi.

"I said that I'm an outsider too." repeated Kyouichi louder.

"You... You're all patched up in bandages. I thought that it was just some crazy fashion trend of the young generation, but those are bandages." the man's voice suddenly became more serious and friendly.

"It's not every day that an outsider, especially so inexperienced makes it safely to the village. No offense. Please, come sit here by the fire." Naota offered a place for Kyouichi to sit.

"Thank you." Kyouichi sat down on a log next to the old outsider.

"I am Naota Tanisake, but you already know that right? Hehe. Want some sake?" smiled Naota as he picked up his half empty sake bottle.

"No, thanks." Kyouichi declined the offer. "I'd like to know something about this place."

"No doubt, no doubt." he took a few gulps of sake from his bottle. "The most important thing you need to know: Don't ever leave the village alone unless you have to or are able to defend yourself."

"But I have to return home." argued Kyouichi. "Maybe I'll stay here till I heal up, but then I really have to go back home."

The old man frowned. "You really don't get it, do you? Once inside the barrier, there is no way back. Didn't Mizuto tell you anything?"

"But if there is a way in, there has to be a way out."

Kyouichi's mood suddenly changed to bad, when he heard that he probably won't be able to make it back home.

"That's what every outsider thought when they got spirited away here, but the barrier doesn't work that way."

"What do you know?! Have you ever been to the edge of Gensokyo?! Have you ever tried to return home?!" Kyouichi asked with a raised voice.

"Not me, but I know several people who did try and none of them ever succeeded. They said that they were wandering for days, thinking they are going straight, but they kept coming over and over to the same place again as if they were walking in circles. Eventually they all gave up on that idea and returned to the village. They were all exhausted and disoriented. However, they all got accustomed to life in Gensokyo sooner or later."

Those words were like a cold shower for Kyouichi. The thought that he would have to live here from now on for the rest of his life was too great a shock to believe. He just couldn't admit that he was stranded here; that there is no way back home. What will happen to him now? It will take days before his mother returns home and finds out that he is missing. And even if the whole country sets out to look for him, they won't be able to find anything.

"Why? Why was I spirited away to this place?" asked Kyouichi, not directing the question at anyone in particular.

"It was probably the meddling of the border youkai." came an unexpected reply.

"Border youkai? What border youkai?" Kyouichi wanted to know at least where he should direct his anger, if nothing else.

"The very same who helped to seal off Gensokyo." answered old Naota with a hint of anger in his voice. "Yukari Yakumo."

"What? But didn't she disappear forever after the barrier was formed?"

"That's only one story out of many. But I have met her personally some 20 years ago."

"Oh, really?" asked Kyouichi with a bit sarcastic tone, obviously not believing the old man's story. "And what did you do?"

"Nothing really." replied Naota plainly. "I didn't know who she was back then, but she said that I have surprisingly got used to living here in Gensokyo, or something along those lines. She just vanished after that and I haven't seen her ever since, good riddance. By the time I told this crazy story to one of the locals, he said that I have probably met Yukari Yakumo, the youkai of boundaries. After that I did a bit of research on the myths about this youkai and some of them claimed that she can freely travel through the barrier to the outside world and back. Also, it is said that she sometimes takes random things and even people from the outside world here to Gensokyo, just for fun."

Kyouichi suddenly felt a tiny bit of hope.

"If that's true, then this Yukari can also return things and humans back to the outside world, right?"

"Maybe. But she's a youkai, and she doesn't seem to have the slightest intention of returning the ones she spirited away back to the outside world. Youkai can never be trusted. They are unpredictable and their way of thinking is almost impossible to comprehend. Another problem is that no one knows where she lives or where she might show up. Most of the villagers have lived their whole life without ever seeing her."

"Damn!" cursed Kyouichi, as even his tiny bit of hope was shattered.

"Get over it, kid." Naota tried to comfort him. "Even if you do encounter her, which I hope for your sake you won't, you would most likely not be able to convince her to take you back though the barrier."

Kyouichi let out a heavy sigh. To start a new life... To find a new meaning to life... To find new friends... To find a new home... To be able to take care of oneself... All those things he needed to find and achieve to survive here flooded his mind.

"Say, kid," Naota broke the long silence. "What messed you up so much?"

"Huh? Oh, that. I'm not quite sure myself, but those creatures looked like fairies or something." Kyouichi wanted to talk to take his mind off his hopeless situation.

"Fairies did THIS?" the old man looked at Kyouichi as if he was just fooling around.

"Well, just a small portion of the wounds are caused by the fairies. The fall down a hill was more serious, though."

"Hmmm…" the aged man looked concerned. "It is quite unusual for fairies to be so aggressive."

"What can you tell me about them?"

Naota took another few gulps from the bottle. "They are like insects of Gensokyo. You can find them basically everywhere. However, they are mostly attracted to places where there are people, like this village, for instance."

"What?! They are here too?!" Kyouichi nervously started to look everywhere around as if he was expecting an ambush.

"Relax, kid." Naota calmed him down. "Most of them are harmless. The fairies are a physical manifestation of all sorts of natural phenomena, so there are many, many different kinds of them. They look like tiny humans and have wings, but their abilities and behavior differ from location to location. They like playing pranks on humans, so if you're not careful enough, they may steal food right from your plate, hide your daily used objects around the house or put salt in your tea when you're not looking." chuckled Naota as he recalled those things happening to him. Kyouichi smiled weakly and kept listening. "That happens to me even today." complained Naota. "People say that fairies aren't very clever, that they aren't more intelligent than animals, but of course, there are exceptions. Some of them are at least as intelligent as humans and can even speak our language. If you ask me, they all just pretend to be dumb, but they know all too well what they are doing, those little tricksters. Recently, the First Fairy Post Office has even been established here in the village." said Naota while pointing at some distant buildings of the village.

"The... what?" asked Kyouichi, not sure if he had heard the man right.

"My reaction exactly when I was first told about that idea. Apparently, one girl from the village really loves fairies and she somehow managed to befriend some of them. She was supposedly just leaving some food outside of her house for them. Then she started feeding them from hand. Eventually, more and more fairies kept coming to her and over time, she managed to tame them and teach them various things. Today, she runs the First Fairy Post Office and despite much skepticism from the villagers, the post office works surprisingly well. Until then it was believed that fairies cannot benefit humans in any way, but I guess times are changing."

Kyouichi was scratching his head. "This is some crazy-ass world I got myself into…"

"I felt the same way, kid. But it really isn't all that bad here. Even with all the youkai, life here has its charms."

The two of them were just sitting there silently, staring into the fire. After a few minutes, Kyouichi stood up and bowed to the old man.

"Thank you for time and your company. I think I should go to Mizuto's place and get some sleep."

"Good night, kid, and if you need anything, this is where I usually hang around." said Naota waving to Kyouichi as he was leaving him alone by the campfire.

 


	3. Outside World Blues

Kyouichi walked back to Mizuto's house. He took off his shoes and left them outside. Then he entered. He found himself in a narrow corridor of an old style Japanese house with 6 doors, 3 on each side and a seventh door, through which he entered. Since he didn't know, which door leads to the guest room, he just called out: "Sorry to intrude. Mizuto-san, are you here?"

The first door on the right side opened. "Ah, Kyouichi, come in, come in." invited Mizuto. "Let me show you the guest room."

He then walked to the end of the corridor to the third door on the left side. As Kyouichi was passing by the second pair of doors, he noticed that one of them was ajar and someone was peeking through the gap. As soon as he looked at the peeking person, the door closed.

"Must have been one of their kids…" he thought.

Taking the last few steps through the corridor, Kyouichi turned left and entered a small room. It was supposedly a guest room, but the place was cluttered up with various tailoring equipment and materials. There was a whole heap of woolen balls of various colors and sizes in a wicker basket, stacks of cotton fabric and linen were taking up a major part of the room and countless coils of thread were lined up on all shelves. In the middle of the room, there was still some free space; just enough for one person to stretch on the floor.

"I know it's not much, but at least it's better than sleeping outside." said Mizuto with a humble voice.

"I don't mind at all." Kyouichi reassured him.

"Since we never had any guests staying for the night, Minako uses this room as her storeroom and workshop." explained the fisherman.

"Like I said, I don't mind. Even if you offered me to sleep in the corridor, I'd gladly accept."

Kyouichi slowly sat on the floor.

"Oh, wait, I'll bring a futon for you." Mizuto then walked off somewhere and in a moment he was back with the promised futon.

"Thank you." said Kyouichi as he helped Mizuto to put the futon on the floor.

"There. All set up. I'll leave you for now; you need a good rest. Oh, and I'll be leaving early in the morning to fish at the lake, but I should be back by evening." he informed his new guest. "Until then, you could ask Minako to give you a tour of the village or play with the kids or whatever you like. Just don't leave the village alone."

With that last warning, Mizuto closed the door and went to sleep. Kyouichi undressed himself, lay on the futon and covered himself.

* * *

"A nice long nap and I'll feel much better…" he thought. He closed his eyes and tried to think of something pleasant. He was tired after all he's been through, and on a normal day he would have fallen asleep without a problem. But today wasn't a normal day. It was a day, when the most unbelievable things of Kyouichi's not-so-interesting life happened. No matter how hard he tried not to think about them, no matter how tired he was, the flashbacks of today's events kept him awake and haunting his mind.

"What happened in the subway? Where did all the passengers disappear to? Where is this Gensokyo exactly? Why did I appear here? Do people really live here with youkai? What does it mean that Gensokyo is sealed off from the outside world? Is there a way through the Great Barrier? Will I ever see home again? What will my family do? What will I do?"

Kyouichi was just laying there for about an hour and thinking of all sorts of worst-case-scenarios that could happen to him. Then he just couldn't take it anymore. He sat up in his futon, looked around the room, and then he dressed up. Slowly opening the door of the guest room, he stopped to listen for a while. All was quiet. He then tiptoed his way through the corridor, quietly opened the main door and again closed it when he was out. He saw that Naota was still sitting by the campfire, throwing in some more firewood. Besides him, there was no one else on the street. Kyouichi put on his sneakers and went towards the campfire.

* * *

The old man didn't seem to have noticed him until he sat down beside him and stared into the fire for a while, his eyes dimly reflecting the flickering flames.

"Can't sleep?" asked Naota.

Kyouichi nodded, but remained silent.

"I know exactly how you feel. Trust me, the first night is the worst."

Kyouichi still didn't say anything.

"Are you sure you still don't want some?" asked Naota holding a full new sake bottle.

This time, Kyouichi accepted. "Yeah, I think I'll have some."

Naota smiled and opened the bottle and passed it to Kyouichi. "Sorry, but I don't have any cups or glasses here with me…"

Kyouichi didn't mind that and took a few big gulps right from the bottle. "Ahhhh! Oh yeah, I needed that."

He passed the bottle back to Naota, who did the same. Naota then started talking: "I was spirited away when I was 14. It was during the Second World War. It was in summer. I went to the woods with my father to help him get some wood for his work as usual. I had marked several trees the day before which he could use, so I went on ahead of him. When I got to the marked trees, I expected my father to be right behind me, but he wasn't. I had waited there for 5, 10, 20 minutes, but he still wasn't coming. I was worried that something happened to him, so I just left my tools lying on the ground and ran back the same way I walked to the marked trees. After about a minute I found him as he was chopping down some other trees, which he found perhaps more suitable. I was relieved to see that nothing happened to him, so I just waved at him and went back to get my tools. I was absolutely certain that I took exactly the same path to the marked trees, where I had left the tools, but as I went further, I could not recognize my surroundings. I kept walking and finally reached the place where I had left the tools, but they were gone. Even stranger was, that the trees were somehow unmarked. I thought I was losing my mind. I didn't know what to think, let alone what to do. So I just decided to return to my father, but the path back was not the same. Instead of getting out of the forest and into my village, I found myself on some road overgrown with higan flowers, with no sign of any village nearby. I didn't know if it was real or just a bad dream, but I followed the road down the hill. It was already getting dark by that time. Then I thought I saw something like a ghost near the path. I can't really describe it, but that very sight sent me running like the wind. The path took me all the way to another forest which I didn't recognize. Heck, even the plants growing there didn't seem to be from this country. I just kept walking through the forest, which just didn't seem to have an end. It was dark and I thought that I would never find my way out, but in the darkness I had seen a light. I followed it and after a few minutes, I got out of that creepy forest. The light was actually more lights, it was this here village. When I asked the people where I was and heard the answer, I thought that everyone had gone crazy including me. One of the families then took me into custody and raised me until I was adult and able to stand on my own. It was very hard getting used to live here. And not a single day has passed without thought about my home and my family."

The old man again drank some sake right from the bottle and passed it to Kyouichi.

"So, what about you, kid? Will you tell me your story?" asked Naota.

Kyouichi took a deep breath, another few gulps of sake from the bottle, which was already half-empty and told Naota how he ended up in Gensokyo with all details.

"That was quite an adventure you've experienced, young one." acknowledged Naota after hearing Kyouichi's story.

Kyouichi's mood got somewhat better and even the pain of his wounds eased up. Was it because of the sake or because he had shared his problems with someone? That wasn't important. The important thing was that he knew he wasn't alone with this problem.

"You mentioned earlier something about not taking any apprentices…" Kyouichi changed the topic. "Are you a craftsman?"

"I used to be." replied the old man. "I was a carpenter like my father. By the time I was spirited away, I already knew a thing or two about woodwork. Since the folks here didn't seem to be too… technically advanced, my modern techniques and design of my products became quite popular here. I even helped with the designs of many houses, which were built more recently. I'm even partly responsible for that Fairy Post Office building."

"Wow, that's really something…" said Kyouichi in amazement. "But why are you still wearing your working overalls when you said that you retired?"

"Heh, force of habit, kid, force of habit." laughed Naota and again drank from the bottle.

"How did you get used to this place? Can you give me any advice?"

"Yes. Make friends. Many friends. Walk around the village, talk to people and offer your help whenever you can. As for the youkai, avoid them, but if you can't, then act as politely as possible and you should not be harmed. Be careful though, most of the youkai in Gensokyo look exactly like humans, so it's often hard to tell if you're dealing with a human or youkai. Some of them however, have more… distinctive features like wings, animal ears and tails or just downright strange clothes. One of my friends is something like a guard or a youkai fighter, his name is Yukiyama. I can make arrangements so that he would accompany you, should you ever decide to travel outside the village. Oh, and yeah, you should find some work. Nothing is for free, even in Gensokyo."

"Yeah, but what sort of work? I'm no craftsman or a warrior."

"Everything can be learned, boy. Just ask around the village. I'm sure there's someone who can teach you something and make you useful." Naota cheered Kyouichi up. "But first, you should let those wounds heal up."

"I know. You don't have to tell me." muttered Kyouichi and he finished off the rest of the sake in the bottle.

"Umm… Do you know anything about Reimu Hakurei?" asked Kyouichi all of a sudden.

"What, the shrine maiden? Yeah, you can see her in the village doing shopping once or twice a week. I've been here before she was born, but the first time I had seen her was… I think seven years ago."

What else can you tell me about her?" Kyouichi was curious.

"Hmph, not much really." shrugged the old carpenter, who apparently never seemed to care much about anything that didn't concern him directly. "I haven't talked to her, I've just heard that she supposedly keeps the peace here and according to some, she is already responsible for resolving numerous youkai related incidents. Personally, I think it's all just part of the village legends. She's just a kid after all, even younger than you."

"But Mizuto told me that she knows a lot about the Great Boundary…"

"Mizuto collects all sorts of farfetched folktales. You can't take everything he tells you too seriously." Naota growled back.

"The same he thinks about those who claim to have met the border youkai." remarked Kyouichi.

"Ha! Even I have my doubts, kid. The youkai I met 20 years ago could have been just about any other youkai. I just told one of the folks here what she looked like and the guy told me that it could have been Yukari. Other than this… theory, I have no proof, so yeah…" Naota paused himself for a while. "And if you're really into every rumor and folktale, then you should also know that this Hakurei girl hangs around with all sorts of youkai, right at the shrine. But I really don't feel like going there to check, oh no."

"I'll just have to ask her then." said Kyouichi.

"Then I suggest that you wait here in the village until she comes by to shop. It's already a miracle that you made it to the village at night and as far as I know, miracles don't happen twice." lectured Naota.

"I think the sake is starting to take effect." the young man yawned, opening his mouth wide.

"I was about to go home too, anyway. We can talk again tomorrow, kid." said Naota while standing up.

They both bid each other good night and parted ways. Kyouichi again silently sneaked into the Saitou house, into the guest room and stretched himself on the futon. Within less than five minutes, he was sound asleep.

* * *

"Children, breakfast!"

"Coming, mom!"

Some voices have awakened Kyouichi. He sloppily put on his glasses and checked the time on his cell phone. It was just a few minutes past 9, but for him, it was still too early to get up. After all, he had no reason to be up early. As of yesterday, he officially no longer attended school and was no longer assigned to his current part-time job. People in the outside world might think he just got sick or something, but only Kyouichi knew that he would not see any of the people from that world any time soon. His head still hurt a bit after yesterday's sake, so what's the harm if he prolonged his nap by a few more hours? He put his head on the pillow again and fell asleep.

Finally he woke up, all fresh, but it was already past noon.

"Oh, crap! I don't wanna waste my day like this!"

He put on his clothes and went to the kitchen, where Minako was preparing something.

"Good morning, Kyouichi. Even if it's already afternoon." greeted Minako with a pleasant smile.

"*yawn*…morning." yawned Kyouichi. "Um…where can I like… wash myself or something?"

"The bathroom is right opposite the kitchen." answered Minako.

Kyouichi opened the sliding door to the bathroom. It was a small room with a wooden ofuro. The water was most likely supplied by a well somewhere behind the house and heated by a coal or firewood heater with a water tank, almost like a modern boiler. Kyouichi undressed himself and unbound his bandages. First, he used one bucket of water just to clean himself. There was no shower in this house and it was most likely so in all the other houses in the village. He had to be careful even while cleaning himself, as any soap in his wounds would burn him like hell. When he was done, he just wrapped himself in one of the towels he borrowed from the hanger and went back to the guest room. Minako was already there, standing and looking thoughtfully at a bunch of different kimonos.

* * *

"Ah, Kyouichi-kun, there you are. I noticed, that you're missing your upper part of your clothes, so I was thinking which kimono would suit you the best." started Minako full of excitement.

"Well, I…" Kyouichi didn't even get to finish his sentence as Minako kept explaining.

"I was thinking, like you can't ruin anything if you go traditional, but since you are not so traditional, as someone from the outside world, maybe some of these here would suit you better…"

"But…" Kyouichi again failed to interrupt Minako.

"I'm not sure if I have the right sizes of the less formal models right now, but I still think that traditional style would go better with your personality…"

Kyouichi wondered how can she judge someone's personality when she barely knows him and how does "traditional style" fit his personality. Meanwhile, Minako finally decided to pick a simple, traditional, white kimono with a black hakama.

"Go ahead, try it on." urged Minako.

Kyouichi just stared at her with a raised eyebrow…

"Oh, of course, I'm going already…" she suddenly realized, that people need some privacy while changing clothes. She left the guest room and closed the door.

"Now this will be fun to wear…" mumbled Kyouichi as he finished putting on the kimono and tying the hakama around his waist.

* * *

As soon as he was dressed up, Minako was already knocking on the door. "Can I come in and take a look?"

"Yeah, I'm already dressed up."

Minako opened the door and looked at Kyouichi in his new attire. "M-hm. Just as I thought; it suits you really well. Now you look like a native inhabitant of Gensokyo."

"Thank you very much. I can pay you for it right now…"

"Oh, no, no, no!" Minako shook her head in disagreement. "Think of it as a welcome gift. I had a talk with my husband yesterday and he said that until you purchase your own house, this will be your home…"

"I... I can't thank you enough for your kindness. I'll do my best to find some work soon and as soon as I earn enough money, I'll buy my own house." promised Kyouichi. He still hoped that he would be able to return home one day. But since he didn't know when or even if that day would come, he just had to prepare for proper life in Gensokyo.

"Well then, how about I showed you around the village?" asked Minako.

"That was my plan, originally. If you're not too busy, then I would gladly take a tour of the village."

"I don't work on weekends, so I'm not busy. But first, you should eat something. You already missed the breakfast, so lunch will be your first meal today." said Minako as she went to the kitchen, followed by Kyouichi. Actually, lunch as a first meal was nothing unusual for Kyouichi back in the outside world. That is, unless his lectures started in the morning, when he had proper breakfast, just like all normal people.

"I made some onigiri today." said Minako while serving the onigiri and tea.

Kyouichi was hungry, so he ate 4 onigiri rice balls in a blink of an eye. Then he just slowly sipped the hot green tea.

"You make some of the best onigiri I've ever eaten." praised Kyouichi.

"I'm glad you like them…" Minako replied with a happy smile. "So, shall we go for a walk then?"

"Yes, please show me the village."

"Ok, let's go."

Minako put on her sandals and Kyouichi his sneakers.

"Hmm, this doesn't go too well with the kimono." he stated. "But the hakama almost completely covers my feet, so I guess that's ok."

"If you want some sandals, I know a good shop." informed Minako as they both left the house.

* * *

The weather today was just as nice as yesterday. Kyouichi for the first time saw the Human Village in broad daylight. It was a beautiful village with traditional Japanese houses lining the streets. Some of the houses however, were built in European style. The whole village looked like a mixture of two different countries. Far in the distance, Kyouichi saw the Youkai Mountain and not far from its foot, he saw an area covered in thick mist.

"That must be the Misty Lake." he thought.

As they walked down the street, several villagers greeted Minako and curiously looked at Kyouichi.

"You're quite popular here, Minako-san." stated the outsider.

Minako blushed. "This is a small village. Pretty much everyone knows everyone around here."

"If you say so…"

They passed the fireside where Kyouichi met old Naota. The fire was already extinguished, and nobody was sitting on the logs around it. People on the street were doing their everyday activities: working in their gardens, repairing their houses, selling various things. The children were playing tag or hide-and-seek. Kyouichi also saw several armed men dressed almost like him as they were patrolling the village. The street slightly turned right as they walked further. After a few moments, they walked to a large circular area with many market stalls. In the middle of the marketplace was a large bronze dragon-shaped statue. The dragon looked like a serpent with hands and horns. It could be something over 2 meters tall and 3 meters long. Its eyes were made of some odd white gems and it seemed that they had some kind of inner glow.

"This is the statue enshrining our highest order dragon deity." explained Minako. "It is said that the dragon is thicker than the oldest tree and so long that he blocks out the sky. He is said to live in the ocean, or the heaven, or in the rain. His cry can rend the heavens and create thunderstorms. When he stirs about, earthquakes occur. However, he is also Gensokyo's god of creation. Some say, that he appears in Gensokyo's greatest times of need. Last time he was seen was when Gensokyo was sealed. This statue is said to be able to predict the weather. Depending on the color of its eyes, you can tell what the weather will be."

"Really?" asked amazed Kyouichi. "So what does it mean when its eyes are white?"

"White means that it will be sunny, blue means rain, grey means cloudy… But when they are red, that means something very strange is happening in Gensokyo. It was so during many youkai incidents… Thankfully, everything was somehow resolved."

"That reminds me… do you know about Reimu Hakurei?" asked Kyouichi.

"I'm a bit surprised you know about her."

"Mizuto told me."

"Well, Reimu-chan is a nice girl. Last year she bought a yukata from me for the summer festival. But usually she just buys new miko clothes from me."

"And… does she really resolve all those incidents with youkai?"

Minako looked a bit puzzled. "Well I think she really did resolve… at least some of them."

"What incidents were there?" Kyouichi wanted to know.

"Well, for example, once there was this thick red mist that suddenly appeared one day all over Gensokyo. It was kind of scary. It blocked out the sun and somehow it made people feel weak and dizzy. Nobody was allowed to go out of their houses. We were all wondering what could be causing the mist, but before anyone from the village set out to investigate, the mist suddenly dissolved."

"Strange…" stated Kyouichi as he tried to imagine how it must have been.

"We later discovered that it was Reimu-san's work that stopped that strange mist. She even got a reward from the village chief for that one…" recalled Minako with a spacey look on her face.

"What was the source of the mist then?"

"Well, I… don't really know, but I've heard that it came from the Misty Lake…"

"Say, aren't you the least bit worried about your husband who goes fishing there?" asked Kyouichi.

"No." smiled Minako. "Or to be exact, not anymore. You see, before the incident with the red mist, the lake was a much revered place, which nobody dared to approach. Those few foolish fishermen who went there back then never returned. But once the mist incident was resolved, Reimu herself assured us that the lake area will be much safer for humans from that day on. People were hesitant to believe at first, but after some time, they started to go fishing at the lake again. Eventually, a small fishing colony was founded. Of course, the youkai still lurk everywhere, waiting for their prey, so the fishermen are always escorted by guards to the lake. Well, not just fishermen, but everybody who has any business outside the village."

"What about other incidents?"

"Hmm…" Minako was thinking. "Oh, there was this really loooong winter. It lasted until Satsuki."

"Satsuki… wait, that would be May by our calendar. That's really long, but how do you know it was caused by youkai?" Kyouichi kept asking.

"Ehehehe…" Minako giggled in slight embarrassment. "I really cannot say that it was caused by youkai with certainty, but if you live here for some time, you soon learn that Gensokyo is a place where wonderful and mysterious things happen quite often, and that is all because of the youkai."

"Did Reimu solve that one too?"

"Some say that she did, some say that it was just an unusually long winter that comes once in a hundred years… There were many other incidents, but I really don't know much about them…" Minako frowned.

"Ok, sorry for being so curious. Let's move on." suggested Kyouichi.

"Yes. I almost forgot I was supposed to show you the village." Minako stared walking again and Kyouichi followed her.

"So, as you can see, this is the marketplace." she explained. "The stalls here only sell food and other basic staples. Specialized goods are sold at shops like those over there."

"Oh!" called Kyouichi as he read one of the shop signs. "Saitou textiles. Is that really your shop, Minako-san?"

"Yes, that's where I sell all sorts of clothing for all sorts of occasions. Well, it's not really my shop since it's rented by the village council. I pay a monthly rent of 25 000 yen, but having a shop in the village center shows some prestige. That way, more people… and youkai come to buy my clothes than from other tailors."

"Oh yeah, about the youkai… aren't they dangerous?" wondered Kyouichi.

"Many people and youkai learned to coexist in peace with each other. If you ask me, youkai tend to be much better customers than most humans. They are also more polite."

"But there are also those who will attack humans on sight, right?"

"Yes, and that's why people must be careful at all times when traveling outside the village."

Minako kept walking towards some large mansion-like building just at the edge of the marketplace.

"That there is the village hall." she pointed at the building. "We don't have to go there now, but every inhabitant of the village has to be properly registered there."

"I… I'm still hoping to return home if there is a way…" said Kyouichi.

"I understand that, Kyouichi." Minako looked at him with compassion. "I don't know anything about the Great Boundary, but if there really is a way, then Reimu would be the first person I'd talk to."

"I intend to. I'm supposed to wait here until she comes to shop here."

"Hmm…" Minako took a look around the marketplace. "I don't see her anywhere..."

"That's ok, Minako-san, I still need to heal up before I can even think about returning home."

"I've never heard of any outsiders who managed to return home, but I'm just a simple woman who makes and sells clothes. You should definitely try and look for a way home. Me and Mizuto will support you as much as we can."

"Thanks. I hope I'm not causing you much trouble…" thanked Kyouichi.

Minako just shook her head. "Trouble? We are glad to have you with us… even if it's just for a few days."

"Is that so?" wondered Kyouichi.

"If it wasn't us, then any other family would surely take care of you…" Minako reassured him.

"One thing I have to admit… People here sure are nicer than where I come from."

* * *

Kyouichi kept following Minako through the market district. Among other shops, he could see a butcher shop, a tanner's workshop, a smithy, a carpenter's workshop, a stonecutter's workshop and many more. There was also a small tavern and several people were sitting outside, enjoying their drinks and talking. Minako then suddenly stopped at one of the shops and pointed at it. "This is the shoe shop I mentioned earlier. Let's get you some fine sandals to fit your kimono."

"Ok, let's…" agreed Kyouichi and entered the shop with Minako.

The shop was quite large inside and offered quite a selection of traditional, formal, informal, heavy-duty or ceremonial footwear. Since it was spring, the spring and summer footwear was dominating the shelves. The shoes and sandals were made from all sorts of materials such as rice straw, wood, leather, even silk and snake skin. Minako didn't hesitate for a second and she deftly made her way through a few other customers to one of the shelves. Kyouichi also weaved his way though the shelves and people in the shop to Minako. She had already picked 3 different pairs of sandals for Kyouichi to try on.

"Come, come, don't just stand there, try them on!" she urged.

"Are you always so energetic when you're shopping?" asked Kyouichi as he was putting on the first pair.

"I just really like to try out new things, especially clothes and shoes…" she explained. "Besides, I've still got the whole village to show you. We shouldn't waste much time here."

"You're not planning to take me to every single shop in the village, are you?"

"Don't worry, I'll just show you the most important places here…" she replied. "Now let me take a look at you… These are quite nice, but I also like this pair. Why don't you try on these too?"

Kyouichi sighed and tried out all the pairs which Minako picked for him.

"Alright, we'll take these, these and these here." said Minako after a while of thinking.

"Whoa, wait a second." Kyouichi objected. "I don't think I have that much money with me..."

"I'll be paying for them." said Minako with a cheerful smile.

"You can't be serious…"

"Like I said, the clothes will be your welcome gift. And the sandals are a part of that too."

"I guess I can't really refuse then..."

Minako then paid for the 3 pairs of sandals and the shopkeeper packed them in a decorated bag made of coated rice paper.

"You can put one of the pairs on right away." Minako suggested.

"Yeah." Kyouichi nodded and put on a pair of quality cherrywood sandals.

* * *

"It will take a while getting used to walking around in these." muttered Kyouichi as he almost tripped on his first steps in the new sandals.

"Once again, thank you, Minako-san." thanked Kyouichi while exiting the shoe shop with Minako.

"You're welcome." smiled Minako and pointed at one of the streets. "We'll be going down that street now."

Kyouichi just followed her without a word. They entered a street adjacent to the marketplace and followed it. The street was also lined with small shops, but there were more houses than shops. Kyouichi noticed that there were more of those armed patrols on this street. Taking a closer look, he noticed their uniforms also had a golden dragon shaped insignia on their chest.

Their shoulders were decorated with various amounts of golden stripes, probably showing their rank or skill. They wielded mostly swords and spears, but some of them were armed with bows and arrows.

"Who are these men, Minako-san?" asked Kyouichi with a hushed voice.

"They're the Ryuuken warriors." explained Minako. "They serve and protect the village and its inhabitants from aggressive youkai. Some of them are stationed at the lake to guard the fishermen. Some escort the woodcutters, hunters, farmers and those who need to travel outside the village. They also help to resolve youkai incidents."

"Hey, that's a great idea, Minako-san!" Kyouichi rejoiced. "I could ask them if they could escort me to the shrine…"

"Ummm, Kyouichi, that won't be so simple..."

"Why not?"

"Their numbers are not too great and every man is needed at one place or another. They won't accompany just anyone either. You will need to find work that requires one to leave the village or special approval from the village chief, and of course, money."

"I see." muttered Kyouichi. "But why are there so many of them on this street?"

"See that building over there?" Minako pointed at large temple-like building further down the street. It had a large courtyard surrounded by a tall stone wall. Two of the Ryuuken guards were standing at the entrance.

"That's their dojo."

"What if I joined them?" Kyouichi speculated, but Minako brought him back to earth.

"I don't think that will be possible for an outsider. Since they are native Gensokyo inhabitants, they also inherited some magic powers from their ancestors. I've heard that people in the outside world don't have such power and cannot learn magic."

"Eh? Does that mean that you also inherited some magic powers?"

"Yes, every human born in Gensokyo has some potential to learn magic and be able to defend himself against youkai if need be. But not everyone has equal potential to learn and to fight."

Kyouichi was amazed. "That's incredible, Minako-san."

"Oh, I'm not that incredible." replied Minako modestly. "At best, I could defend myself from a couple of fairies. When I was little, I dreamed of becoming a sorceress or something like that, but learning magic is no easy feat. Instead of taking the path of magic, I decided to make a living of my greatest talent and hobby - sewing. If everyone in the village was a warrior or a wizard, there would be no one to grow crops, make clothes or build houses…"

"Good point…"

They passed the training grounds of the Ryuuken and headed further down the street when Minako turned left to another street.

"Over there…" she continued, "…is the village school. It's one of the newer buildings in the village, but was already renovated several times. It originally started just as a history school in 117, but later became an affiliated academy."

The school was a two storey building built in old Japanese style. However, the second floor seemed to have been built more recently. The roof was covered with dark-green clay tiles.

"You attended this school?" asked Kyouichi.

"Yes, it's the only school in the village after all. I was already adult when I started attending it, tough." answered Minako and nodded. "Keine-sensei, who was my teacher, still teaches Gensokyo history. She's been around since the founding of this village."

"So she must be pretty old by now." stated Kyouichi.

"Well, she's a youkai, a were-hakutaku to be exact."

"A what?"

"You know, the legendary spiritual beast resembling a lion with horns that is said to visit and advise only kings of virtue. It is known as Bai Ze in Chinese folklore."

"Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I think I heard about it somewhere." Kyouichi recalled. "According to that legend, it visited the Yellow Emperor, Huang-di and it explained that there are 11 520 youkai in the world describing each one in detail and even teaching him how to deal with each of them. The emperor wrote all that knowledge down in a book known as Bai Ze Tu, which of course no longer exists."

Minako nodded. "Yes, and one such hakutaku, I mean were-hakutaku is Keine-sensei."

"Why were-hakutaku?" asked Kyouichi with a confused look.

"That's because she's half human and transforms into a hakutaku when the moon is full." answered Minako. "Ever heard of werewolves?"

Kyouichi slapped his forehead with his palm. "Oh! Now I get it… And if she knows so much about history, maybe she can tell me something that would help me find a way home…"

"Uhh, there's a little problem with that." objected Minako. "You see, it's better to leave her alone when she's transformed."

"Right, the moon was full yesterday." Kyouichi recalled as he wandered for hours through Gensokyo wilderness and found a path to the Human Village only illuminated by moonlight.

"But don't get me wrong." Minako continued. "She is one of the friendliest youkai in Gensokyo. Her power is to manipulate history, but that is quite difficult to explain. Apart from being a teacher, she is also a guardian of the Human Village. She really loves humans and is willing to protect them in case of serious danger. When transformed, she still maintains all her human features but she grows a pair of horns and her eyes turn red. She's not really dangerous to humans in that form, just a bit… edgy. That's why people prefer to avoid her during that time."

"I think it's the same with all women during their… time of the month." jested Kyouichi.

Minako giggled. "Hehe, more or less, yes."

"By the way," Kyouichi digressed, "your children also go to this school, right?"

"Yes, both Tadao-kun and Chitose-chan go to this school. Chitose is older so she's in 2nd grade and Tadao-kun is a 1st grader in middle-school. I wanted to introduce you to them yesterday, but I figured that you needed rest after what you've been through."

Kyouichi tried to imagine a 13 year old boy and a 14 year old girl, who would bear both Minako's and Mizuto's features. His mind, however, still lingered on their teacher, Keine-sensei and her supernatural origin and knowledge. He asked Minako after a moment of silence: "Isn't this Keine-sensei transformed only during the night of full moon?"

"Yes, but she isn't very "social" even during daytime when the moon is in its full phase."

"Alright then. If Reimu won't be able to help me, then I'm paying this Keine a visit."

"You can usually find her at school on weekdays, otherwise she's at home." said Minako while moving on. "Come, I'll show you where she lives."

* * *

She walked a bit faster and Kyouichi had to speed up a bit as well. They passed by a large building that looked like a warehouse and at the second turn, Minako turned right to another street. The street eventually led to the southern gate of the Human Village. It wasn't really a gate, just a road leading further outside the village. The village itself had no fortification, walls or even a fence. In the distance, Kyouichi saw a thick bamboo forest and a few hills were visible behind it. Minako stopped at the fourth house from the northern side of the street. "Okay, so this is Keine-sensei's home."

The house looked just like any other Japanese style house in the village. Etched on the door were three kanji characters of the owner's family name.

"Kamishirasawa?" Kyouichi read the writing on the door.

Minako nodded. "Yes, Kamishirasawa Keine lives right here, but as I said earlier…"

"It's best to let her be during the time of full moon, yeah." Kyouichi completed Minako's sentence while looking at the forest in the distance.

"Um, do you know where that road goes to?" he asked.

"The southern road will take you to the Bamboo Forest of the Lost." replied Minako.

"That sounds like a scary place."

"It is." said Minako with an unusually serious tone. "The forest is enchanted, pretty much like the Forest of Magic. Bamboo grows so quickly that the forest constantly changes and one can easily get lost in there. Somewhere inside the forest lies a mysterious mansion called Eientei where Lunarians are said to reside. I haven't been there myself nor, do I know any human who was, but sometimes a few youkai from Eientei come to visit the village and some of them sell medicine."

Minako made a gesture for Kyouichi to follow her and walked back where they came from.

* * *

She headed further north without turning to the street with the school and the warehouse. If Kyouichi's sense for navigation was correct, they were getting back to the marketplace, however from a different direction. Along the way Kyouichi saw an interesting new looking building with a touch of both eastern and western architecture. A sign was hanging above the entrance: First Fairy Post Office. The building was rather tall in comparison to other buildings in the village and even had a small tower on its roof. Only now did he notice that many fairies were flying in and out of that tower and traveling with something that looked like small sacks to some unknown destination.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Kyouichi in amazement. "So this is that place Naota was talking about."

"You already met Naota?" asked Minako. "He was working on the design and made many pieces of furniture for the post office too." she added.

"Yeah, he told me about that…" said Kyouichi while staring at the flocks of fairies busily sending and bringing letters and small packages.

"I haven't yet tried using the services of this post office, since I don't know anyone who lives outside the village personally except for Reimu Hakurei."

Kyouichi seriously thought about sending a letter to the Hakurei Shrine to ask for an appointment with Reimu, but he quickly dismissed that idea as he didn't want to waste money on anything unnecessary.

"She will eventually show up in the village anyway." he quietly thought.

They continued walking down the street and Kyouichi could now see a part of the familiar marketplace at the end of the street. Besides the post office, there were other small shops and a couple of red lantern stands on that street. As they were about to enter the marketplace again, Minako turned right instead. Right at the beginning of the street stood opposite of each other two large buildings. One had a symbol of a red cross painted above the entrance.

"This is the village hospital." explained Minako. "It doesn't look like much, but it's enough to treat people with all but the most serious of diseases and injuries."

Looking left at the opposite building she continued: "And this is the village fire station. There's always something going on in Gensokyo and not once fires had to be put out in the village."

Besides these two buildings, there were only houses on this street so Minako and Kyouichi just turned back and walked into the marketplace.

* * *

"Okay, Kyouichi, I'm going to show you one more place in the village and then you can do whatever you like." Minako smiled at him.

"One more place?"

"The Hieda house, also known as the village archive." she specified.

They walked across the marketplace and entered a street between a shop with ceramics and a tavern called Drunken Oni. Among the smaller shops on this street; a flower shop a sweets shop, a bookstore and a bakery Kyouichi saw more houses with beautiful gardens. He read the name tags on the doors of each of the house, when he found one with the name Hieda engraved on it.

"This is the village archive?" asked Kyouichi with a doubting tone and expression.

"It is the house where Gensokyo's chronicler, Hieda no Akyuu lives. She lives here with her family. Some people find her a bit… strange, but she will kindly welcome anyone who seeks knowledge about Gensokyo. Her compendium, the Gensokyo Chronicle is also a part of the material used by Keine-sensei when teaching history."

"Another useful person worth visiting if Reimu can't help…" noted Kyouichi.

"Well, I hope you enjoyed our little tour of the village." said Minako while clapping her hands together.

"I did." replied Kyouichi. "Thank you for your time, Minako-san."

"You're welcome." she replied. "I'll be doing some more shopping. The kids will be hungry when they come home after playing outside and you too, no doubt."

"I guess I'll look around the village a bit more."

They bowed to each other and parted ways. Minako headed back to the marketplace and Kyouichi walked slowly back to the Saitou house, looking more closely at all the shops along the way and paying more attention to the people on the streets.

* * *

"I wonder if any of them is a youkai…" he thought.

He didn't notice anything out of the ordinary on any person he saw so he just kept walking and thinking what will he do next.

Again he looked at the fireside, where some people usually gathered in the evening, but since it was still only afternoon, there was nobody sitting there and the fire wasn't lit yet.

Shrugging his shoulders, he sat on one of the wooden logs to take a short break from all the walking. He picked up a small, half-burnt wooden twig from the ashes of the fireside and started drawing something like a small map of the village, or at least those parts where he had already been to. It was just a bunch of squares and lines in the ashes. As he was about to mark the residence of Keine Kamishirasawa and Hieda no Akyuu on his "map", he heard a bunch of male voices coming closer towards him. One of them sounded quite bossy and resolute. He didn't hear what they were saying until they got close. Kyouichi turned around and saw four men wearing the Ryuuken uniform. The bossy voice belonged to the leader of the squad; a tall, darker man with black hair in tied in a very short pony tail and black moustache. The other men followed him without a word. Kyouichi only heard his last sentence as the men passed him by.

"…then we shouldn't keep them waiting."

He watched as they headed to the edge of the village, to the road where he had come from yesterday. That's when he got an idea. He quickly stood up and ran as fast as he could to catch up with the squad of Ryuuken. But running in footwear he wasn't used to, and with the hakama, wasn't all that easy. As he was getting closer to the leaving men he shouted: "Excuse me!"

*huff*….*huff*….*huff* "Excuse me for a second!"

Kyouichi stumbled for a bit but kept on running towards the four Ryuuken warriors. They stopped and turned around to see who was delaying them. Catching his breath, Kyouichi stopped before the men and bowed down in a sort of apologetic manner.

"What is it, young one?" asked the leader. "We are on duty right now and are about to leave. We don't have any time for you at the moment. Just return back to the village."

"Can I ask where you are going?" asked Kyouichi.

"To the lake." replied the man in charge. "We are to replace four guards stationed there. They too need to take some rest from time to time. Now if you excuse us, we'll be going."

"Could you please let me come with you?" begged Kyouichi. "I only need to get to the shrine."

"I just said that we are going to the lake, not to the shrine." growled the warrior back. "Now beat it!"

"But sir, the shrine is along our way to the lake." objected one of the subordinates.

"Our orders..." shouted the leader who was apparently annoyed, "…are to march directly to the fishing colony at the Misty Lake, relieve four guards of their duty there and replace them; not to escort someone to the shrine. I hope I made myself clear enough. If you need to go outside the village, ask at our headquarters. They might provide you with some guards to escort you. If they consider your business important enough, that is."

He turned his back to Kyouichi and commanded: "Come men, we're going!"

"Yes, sir!" shouted the other three men in unison and turned their backs on the outsider.

 


	4. Meeting Gensokyo's Heroines

As they started marching to the lake again, Kyouichi just shouted out of the blue: "Do you perhaps know someone called Yukiyama?"

The men suddenly stopped, as if they just hit an invisible wall. The leader turned around to face Kyouichi again. He looked a bit surprised at the mention of that name.

"Well, do you?" asked Kyouichi again.

"I AM Soujirou Yukiyama." answered the leader. "But I don't think I have seen you before, stranger."

Kyouichi smiled. "Where are my manners? My name is Ishimaru, Ishimaru Kyouichi."

"And where do you know my name from?" asked Yukiyama.

"From one of your friends, Naota Tanisake. He told me that he could arrange you to accompany me if I needed to travel outside the village."

Yukiyama slightly opened his mouth and nervously scratched his head and Kyouichi could only wonder what could possibly make such an authoritative man so insecure. He muttered something inaudible under his nose and then looked up to Kyouichi.

After a heavy sigh he reluctantly replied: "Alright! But only because you're a friend of Naota's."

Kyouichi smiled smugly. "You're all heart, Yukiyama-san."

"Yeah, whatever. Just follow us and don't drag behind or get in our way! Understand?"

"Absolutely."

With that said, the Ryuuken marched off from the Human Village, followed by Kyouichi. The road had a slight uphill rising. Kyouichi looked around to admire the beauty of Gensokyo as he walked. The landscape was quite diverse, ranging from vast plains through hills, forests to the mountains far in the distance. The tallest of these mountains was the Youkai Mountain, towering above Gensokyo. It was so huge, that its peak was hidden, somewhere above the clouds. The road slowly sloped down again and stretched several hundred meters before them until it gradually blended with the land in the distance. A nice fresh breeze was blowing and pleasantly cooled Kyouichi while swaying his hair. The warriors marched on without saying a word. They walked for about a half an hour until Kyouichi recognized a familiarly looking crossroad with a wooden signpost. Just a few dozens of meters from that crossroad was a set of stone steps leading up a tall hill where the Hakurei Shrine was located. Although he couldn't see it from where he was now, he knew that it was there somewhere behind the blooming sakura trees. The group marched until they finally stopped at the crossroad.

* * *

"Well, here we are." announced Soujirou Yukiyama. "But I don't know who's going to escort you back to the village."

Only now did Kyouichi realize that he didn't think his plan completely through.

"Oh well," he shrugged, "if I made it to the village yesterday, so I can make it today…"

"What are you talking about?" asked Yukiyama curiously.

"I'm an outsider. Just yesterday, I found myself in Gensokyo and found the road to the village by chance."

"An outsider? And you dare to walk back to the village on your own? You are either extremely bold or foolish. These lands are teaming with youkai. If they see you, you'll end up as their snack."

"But as long as I'm at the shrine, I should be safe, right?"

Yukiyama put his palm on his forehead and sighed. "Listen… when we replace the men at the lake, they will return to the village taking this road. It will take a few hours before that, however, so you just stay here at the shrine until then. Ok?"

Kyouichi nodded.

"I'll inform them that you're here, so don't wander off anywhere."

"Alright," replied Kyouichi with a calm voice as if to soothe Yukiyama's anger, "you're the boss. I'll wait here for the relieved guards."

Yukiyama turned to his men. "Ok, let's move! We've wasted enough time already."

* * *

Kyouichi stood on the crossroad for a while and watched as the four men became tiny dots in the distance. He then turned to the stone stairs leading to Hakurei Shrine and slowly walked up. He passed under the torii, cleansed himself by the temizu and walked along the paved road to the shrine yard sprinkled with fallen cherry petals. His heart started thumping a bit faster as he saw two persons sitting on the shrine's porch. They were still too far for Kyouichi to see them in detail. All he could figure was that one of them was wearing black clothes and the other one was dressed in red. They were apparently in the middle of a conversation. As Kyouichi got closer and closer, he noticed that both of them were young girls. They could be in their mid-teens. The one in black dress and white apron was dressed like a witch, complete with a black witch's hat. She had blond hair tied in a braid on one side of her face. She held a cup or something and listened to the other girl. The other girl was wearing red and white, although somewhat unusually styled miko outfit with detached sleeves, revealing her shoulders and a yellow neckerchief. Her long black hair was tied in a ponytail and decorated by a large red ribbon. She was talking to the witch-like like girl with excitement and happy expression on her face as if she had just won in a lottery.

"…I couldn't believe it at first and thought that it was just some kind of prank." she said.

The witch girl replied: "I guess even miracles happen sometimes, ze." and she sipped tea from her cup.

"But something like that should happen regularly and not be classified as a miracle." said the black-haired girl. "This is a shrine after all, and at shrines people leave donations."

"That's not the main reason why people visit shrines, you know." replied the blonde.

"The problem is that people don't even come to this shrine in the first place…"

Kyouichi stood about ten meters away from the two girls who didn't even notice him and listened to their conversation with amusement. Finally, after a while the witch looked at Kyouichi and asked her friend: "Hey, Reimu, is that a friend of yours?"

The girl in red-white turned her head to Kyouichi and gave him a confused look.

"Eh? He looks like one of the Ryuuken, but I don't know him…" she muttered.

Kyouichi politely greeted, bowed to the girls and introduced himself.

"Kyouichi Ishimaru?" asked the black haired girl. "Are you with the Ryuuken? Is there something wrong in the village? Are there problems with youkai?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down." interrupted Kyouichi, "I'm no Ryuuken; just a human from the outside world."

"Eh? Really? An outsider?" the girl looked even more surprised. "Outsiders are usually dressed in weird clothes, but you look pretty normal to me."

"I'm an outsider, alright." acknowledged Kyouichi. "I just got here yesterday. As for my clothes, they're brand new."

"And where did you appear?" asked the curious girl.

"I don't know exactly. But it was approximately a few kilometers that way." he pointed in the direction away from the shrine. "I was lucky enough to find a path to the shrine, but since there was nobody here I just prayed here and kept following the road to the village."

"You were here?" she asked with a raised voice, as if Kyouichi just said something bad.

"Yes, it was already evening. I thought that this shrine was deserted, so I prayed here to find some shelter for the night and what do you know… It actually worked."

"So it was you who put all those coins in the donation box?" she asked while standing up.

"I think it's already obvious enough that it was him who left the donation yesterday." answered the blonde witch instead of Kyouichi.

"Well, yeah, I did." confirmed Kyouichi, not too sure what to think or say. "I always had my pockets full of change so I just put all the coins right in… I hope that's not a bad thing…"

The black haired girl stepped forward to Kyouichi so quickly, that he thought that she was going to attack him. He took a step back but the girl suddenly stopped and bowed.

"Thank you very much for the donation!"

Kyouichi was confused by her strange behavior and just said: "Eh... you're welcome."

"Oh come on, Reimu." the witch shook her head. "He donated to express his honor to the shrine's god, not his love for you."

The girl in red-white blushed and quickly straightened herself up again. "I know that. It's just… it's just been so long since someone actually visited the shrine to pray here and leave some donation."

"Isn't that what shrines are for?" asked Kyouichi.

"Usually yes." replied the witch, "But rarely anyone visits the Hakurei Shrine so it's quite understandable that it doesn't get much, if any donations."

"Yeah, cause the roads are all dangerous for normal people to travel and the Ryuuken have more important business than escorting villagers to the shrine." reasoned Kyouichi.

"Yup, that pretty much sums it up." nodded the blonde girl. "But how did you get here? Don't tell me you went alone."

"Not really. I just tagged along with one of the Ryuuken patrols on their way to the lake."

"A wise move." said the blonde. "Now that I think about it… I think we forgot to introduce ourselves to you. I'm Marisa. Marisa Kirisame, an ordinary magician."

While Kyouichi wondered what could be "ordinary" about being a magician, the black-haired girl bowed again. "Reimu Hakurei, the shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, pleased to meet you."

"Likewise." said Kyouichi to both girls. "Now to the reason why I'm here… I want to get back home. I asked a few people in the village about this place and they told me about the Great Barrier and that one can't or shouldn't be able to cross it. But sometimes it happens anyway, and so, people from the outside world sometimes end up here. I don't really care to know how or why I managed to get here. I just want to know if there's a way out. And the people recommended me to ask you, Hakurei-san. So I ask you: Is there a way back through the Great Barrier?"

As he asked that question, he felt his heart beat quickly in anticipation. He swallowed his saliva and prepared himself for the answer which would determine his immediate future. He could feel that he was nervous and he started to sweat. Reimu just stood there for a while without words, without motion. Then she finally spoke: "First of all, you can call me by my first name. As for your request... Yes, there is a way to the outside world."

Kyouichi's heart made a summersault upon hearing the positive answer. "T-there is?"

"Yes. I've already helped many lost outsiders who were lucky enough to get to the shrine. You see, this shrine lies on the edge of the Hakurei Border. Although we can't see it, the barrier stands right here and separates Gensokyo from the outside world. The shrine is something like a gateway. The only gateway…"

Kyouichi bent down and begged: "Could you please take me back to the outside world?"

"I can." smiled Reimu. "Do you want to go now?"

"Yes! Please." urged Kyouichi.

He completely forgot about his injuries which needed at least a week to heal up and insisted on returning home, even without saying goodbye to all the people he met here and who helped him.

"Very well," said Reimu, "then please step inside the shrine."

"Oh, Reimu, Reimu!" called out Marisa. "Can I come too? I knew about the shrine being a gateway, but I've never actually seen the outside world before. I want to see, I want to see!"

"Well, I guess you can…" shrugged the shrine maiden. "Then go into the shrine with Kyouichi and wait until I prepare for the ritual… It's been a while since I checked on the donation box in the outside world too."

As Reimu walked somewhere behind the shrine to prepare, Marisa grinned at Kyouichi. "Oh boy, I'll get to see the outside world! Yay!"

* * *

They both stepped into the shrine. It looked like an averagely furnished house on the inside. There was a small table in the middle of the large room, a futon, a couple of wardrobes, commodes with drawers, a byoubu folding screen and a small furnace for heating and cooking.

They sat down on the floor next to the table and waited until Reimu was prepared.

Finally, they could hear her footsteps getting closer and soon after, she entered the shrine.

She held some strange box in one hand and a gohei wand in the other one. She put the small wooden box on the floor and from it, she took something that looked like incense sticks and small circular stands. She gave some of those incense sticks to both Marisa and Kyouichi. "Here, put these incense sticks on the stands and then arrange them in a circle."

"How big should that circle be?" asked Kyouichi before he even put a single incense stick on a stand.

"Big enough for the three of us to stand in." specified Reimu.

In less than a minute, Marisa and Kyouichi affixed 8 incense sticks to the wooden stands and arranged them in a circle which could have about 3 meters in diameter.

"Good, now, each of you take one incense stick to hold during the ritual and sit in the circle, facing east." Reimu instructed.

Kyouichi and Marisa did as the shrine maiden said and waited for what would come next.

Reimu again took something from the wooden box and she closed the sliding door of the shrine. She then stepped forward and started lighting the incense sticks with matches that were apparently not of Gensokyo origin. The order in which she lit them seemed to play an essential role in the ritual of passage to the outside world. Finally, she lit Marisa's and Kyouichi's incense sticks and took the gohei in her hand.

"Okay, now close your eyes and breathe slowly, as if you were meditating."

Kyouichi closed his eyes and took slow, deep breaths. He could smell the strong scent of the burning incense and hear Reimu's rhythmic footsteps and rustling of paper on the gohei wand.

Reimu was probably performing some sort of ritual dance, but Kyouichi didn't want to mess the ritual up by opening his eyes, so he just concentrated on his breathing instead. After about a minute, Reimu's footsteps stopped somewhere within the circle. A long silence followed. Kyouichi could only hear the faint sounds of breathing. He still didn't open his eyes, even though he thought that the ritual had ended. At last, Reimu spoke: "You can both open your eyes now."

* * *

As Kyouichi opened his eyes, his jaw dropped… He and both girls were still sitting in the middle of the circle. However, the shrine's interior changed beyond recognition. All the furniture was gone and it looked like the shrine suddenly aged a hundred years. The floor was covered with a thick layer of dust and there were spider webs all over the room. A few rays of sunlight were shining through the holes in the roof.

"What the hell happened to the shrine?" asked confused Kyouichi.

"This is the Hakurei Shrine, as seen from the outside world." explained Reimu.

"So it's really true… I'm back where I belong…" thought Kyouichi to himself and watched as Reimu opened the aged sliding door of this falling-apart shrine.

"Gee, Reimu, this place needs some serious cleanup." stated Marisa. "It's almost messier than my home."

"Well, it's not like I come here every day… Besides, it would take more than just a broom to return this place to its former glory." replied Reimu and stepped outside of the shrine.

Marisa and Kyouichi followed her. The outsider took a long look around, trying to figure out where he was.

"So, that's it?" asked Marisa with disappointment. "This is what the outside world looks like? Boring~!"

The surrounding area of this shrine was remotely similar to that of Hakurei Shrine in Gensokyo; hills, forests, mountains… and not a single sign of human civilization in sight.

In place where the Youkai Mountain would stand in Gensokyo, there was only a range of some smaller mountains. As Kyouichi made a slow 360 degree turn to look around for the second time, he stopped and looked at Reimu and Marisa with a questioning expression on his face.

"So… Does anyone know which way to Tokyo?"

…

"Tokyo?" asked Reimu as she looked up at Kyouichi after checking the empty donation box. "I've heard of such place, but I have no idea where exactly it is. I think it was called Edo once…"

Kyouichi's hopes suddenly diminished as he figured out the truth. "This is bad…"

"Eh? You're from the outside world and yet you don't even know your way home?" asked Marisa.

"You don't get it, Marisa!" shouted Kyouichi back with his voice full of frustration. "The outside world is thousands of times larger than that Gensokyo you live in. I don't even know where we are! Tokyo might as well be hundreds of kilometers away and I don't even know in which direction."

"That's right." confirmed Reimu. "The outside world is huge and one could get lost here quite easily."

"Alright, alright. I was just asking, sheesh. You don't have to yell at me." said Marisa. "But doesn't this place remind you of Gensokyo?"

Reimu nodded. "Yes, this is what Gensokyo looks like from the outside world. The barrier separates the two worlds and this shrine is the gateway."

"So where's the Youkai Mountain then?" wondered Marisa.

"According to one legend, there was once this tall mountain called Yatsugatake. It was a home to a goddess named Iwanagahime. It was supposedly taller than Mt. Fuji, which is said to be the home of Iwanagahime's younger sister, Sakuyahime. When it became known that Yatsugatake was taller, the goddess of Mt. Fuji, Sakuyahime, tore it down out of jealousy." explained Reimu.

Marisa started snickering for some reason. "Sakuyahime… So the goddess now works as a maid, huh?"

"Konohana no Sakuyahime is her full name." said Reimu to be more accurate.

Kyouichi wondered what could Marisa be referring to and laughing at, but he still didn't quite understand one thing.

"But the mountain stands tall in Gensokyo. It would only make sense if Sakuyahime tore the mountain down AFTER the creation of the barrier. The mountain in the outside world would be gone, but it would still remain in Gensokyo. But Gensokyo was sealed off only some 125 years ago and the legend is most likely much older than that." Kyouichi began questioning the legend.

"Well many, many strange things happen in Gensokyo." Reimu speculated. "It could be that the goddess of Mt. Yatsugatake was merely hiding the mountain and as soon as the Great Barrier was created, she saw Gensokyo as a sort of refuge where her mountain could stand proud, without fear of being torn down again by her envious sister goddess… It's possible that it appeared in Gensokyo just after it was sealed. After all, even the Scarlet Devil Mansion appeared in Gensokyo suddenly one day…"

"Wow! Reimu, you never cease to amaze me." Marisa admired Reimu's logic. "But… what are you going to do now, Kyouichi?"

Kyouichi was silent for a few seconds, trying to consider all his options. Trying to walk from here in hope of finding some settlement was out of question. Furthermore, he was still injured after his tumble down the hill, so he wasn't even in condition to travel long distances. Since neither he, nor Reimu and Marisa knew which direction leads to Tokyo, Kyouichi's only option was to return back to Gensokyo. There he had a place to stay and basically free food, at least for the time being.

"I…."he stuttered, "I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused, but I don't know how to get home from here..."

"Don't apologize for something that's not your fault." Reimu comforted him. "I am the one who's sorry. This is the only location in the outside world I can go to from Gensokyo."

Marisa looked at Reimu with a confused expression. "Reimu is apologizing? Now that's something you don't see every day. You're not feeling sick, are you?"

Reimu didn't seem to pay attention to her friend's sarcastic remark. "Come, I'll take you back to Gensokyo. That's the best I can do for you now. If you need a place to stay, there's plenty of room in the shrine…"

"Oh, no." Kyouichi objected. "I'm already in custody of the Saitou family in the Human Village. But I thank you for your kind offer."

"Saitou? Wait… Saitou, Saitou…" Reimu was thinking hard, trying to recall any association with that name. "Oh! You mean that lady who has a textile shop in the village?"

"Yes, and her husband who's a fisherman…" Kyouichi completed the information.

"I see… Well, they are a good family."

The trio entered the old shrine again and closed the door. Marisa and Kyouichi again sat down in the circle formed by eight incense sticks on stands. They repeated all the procedures of the ritual of passage and within a few moments, they found themselves back in Gensokyo, inside the Hakurei Shrine.

* * *

"We're back. You can open your eyes." announced Reimu.

Everything looked exactly the same as Kyouichi remembered. As Reimu was putting out the burning incense sticks she muttered: "The only one who could possibly take you exactly to where you lived would be her…"

"What, you mean Yukari Yakumo?" asked Kyouichi.

Reimu gave him another surprised look. "Yes. How do you know about her?"

"The village is apparently full of legends about her… Some say that she disappeared forever after the creation of the barrier, others say that she's still around and even that she's the one who brought me here. I'm not sure what to believe myself…"

"Well, me and Marisa can assure you that she most certainly hasn't disappeared."

Marisa nodded. "Yukari can appear whenever and wherever she wants. She's really impossible to predict. Once she suddenly appeared at my house… without knocking… scared the hell out of me, ze. She's the most powerful youkai, if not the most powerful being in Gensokyo."

"Ha! I already defeated her more than once." said Reimu with pride.

Marisa turned to Kyouichi, covered her mouth with her hand and whispered: "Or in other words: Yukari let her win…"

"I heard that, Marisa!" Reimu threateningly looked at the witch.

"But it's true." Marisa continued. "Yukari didn't even try to win that time… In fact, she never does and yet, her attacks could overwhelm even an army of youkai."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Kyouichi halted the conversation. "You got me lost there… Are you trying to tell me that you fought her?"

"I did, and I won fair and square." replied Reimu while crossing her arms and slightly tilting her head up.

"But why?"

"Because the world would be a better place without youkai. They're nothing but trouble."

"That's a bit too harsh." stated Kyouichi. "No, seriously, what did she do?"

"More like what she didn't do. You see, there is this barrier that separates Gensokyo from the Netherworld and that barrier once weakened so much, that it became possible to cross from both sides without much effort. That's not a good thing. I later learned from one of the ghosts that her friend, that is Yukari Yakumo, is the only one who can fix this problem…"

"Go on…"

"So I searched high and low to find this Yukari, but I only met her shikigami. She insisted that I couldn't see her mistress because she was sleeping. But since this was an urgent matter, I had no choice but to force my way to her."

"So you fought against her shikigami?"

"Yes. It was a longer battle than expected, but in the end, I won. The shikigami told me that her mistress is active during night, so I tried again, looking around the Netherworld, this time at night. Of course, the shikigami was there again but this time I made short work of her. Soon after, her mistress Yukari showed up. She didn't seem to be in a hurry to fix that weakened barrier even if I told her about it, so I just gave her a slight… motivational push in the right direction."

"By attacking her?" asked Kyouichi in disbelief. "Weren't you afraid at all?"

"Well, not really." answered Reimu calmly. "I knew that I was facing a powerful youkai, but I didn't know that she was the most powerful one… I've fought many strong youkai before, so I was quite confident about my victory."

"But you could have died!"

"Oh, you meant if I wasn't afraid of dying… Not since I introduced the Spell Card System of battle."

"The what…?"

"The Spell Card System." repeated Reimu. "It is a form of bilateral contract between the humans and youkai of Gensokyo to resolve any kind of conflict in a sort of a duel which would allow both parties to show off their skills in a beautiful, non-lethal display of magical power. Much like a sport event. Spell Cards are special named techniques, the use of which requires a declaration of intent. Once declared, the card activates its spell and releases numerous magical projectiles in a specific pattern which we call danmaku and the user enters a sort of trance. The users can keep up their spell for as long as they have energy, but if they sustain a certain amount of hits, their spell will break. Danmaku can be also used in a non-declared manner and without using a Spell Card. This is pretty much just firing the projectiles in a straightforward manner. This form of attack is weaker than Spell Cards and is mostly used to break the opponent's spells. During an enemy spell, one should attempt to dodge all the projectiles until the spell either runs out of energy or is broken by direct danmaku fire or your own spell. The number of each parties' Spell Cards must be determined in advance of a duel. The first party to use up all their Spell Cards loses. The winner is entitled to only what was agreed upon before the duel. If they're not interested in the opponent's offer, they can refuse a duel. Winners should allow losers a rematch. And if a youkai defeats a human, they still cannot kill them."

"O-kay, so you're telling me that every single youkai in Gensokyo abides these rules?"

"More or less, yes, they should."

"But how did you even come up with such an idea?"

"Well, you see, back in the day, resolving incidents was really quite dangerous. Many times people put their lives on the line when fighting youkai. With these rules, however, I don't need to fear for my life and the youkai don't need to worry about consequences of defeating me…"

"Consequences of defeating you?"

"Well, as the descendant of the Hakurei clan, it is my inherited duty to oversee the Great Hakurei Border and to keep people in Gensokyo safe from the youkai. If I died, it could have dire consequences on the existence of the barrier. It could even collapse and that would be disastrous both for Gensokyo and the outside world alike… But that is just a theory…"

"I see… So whether this is true or not, the youkai must have quite some respect for you, right?"

Reimu smiled. "Perhaps, but they don't show it very often."

"So, let's say that youkai won't really harm you because the barrier could collapse," speculated Kyouichi, "but what about other humans who would be dueling with youkai? What prevents THEM from just being killed and eaten?"

"There's more youkai in Gensokyo than humans." she explained. "Now imagine that every single youkai would go out and eat one human every day… Then there would be no humans in Gensokyo at all. The youkai need us humans, because we believe in them… Without that their power would diminish, just like it happened in the outside world. Apart from that, they need to use their abilities every now and then, so their magic wouldn't wither away, and the most common way of using their powers is to attack humans. The Spell Card Rules offer a solution which benefits both sides and enables them to coexist here in relative peace."

"I still don't understand how do youkai live if they can't eat humans…" wondered Kyouichi.

"Oh, but they still do. Although it's rather rare." said Reimu while taking a tea kettle from the top of the furnace. "Outsiders like you are their most common victims."

"Now that's a comfort." muttered Kyouichi ironically. "Is that the reason why I was… abducted here?"

"Most likely not." replied Reimu and poured some hot tea in three cups on the table. "Youkai can't just take away humans to eat them. That's why the barrier stands in the first place. The only one who can do something like that is Yukari and she doesn't eat humans. Besides, it's not like youkai NEED to eat humans, more like they favor us as the most delicious of foods."

"Ahhh, so youkai have adopted to a new diet…" deduced Kyouichi.

"They can live without eating humans, but they still wouldn't hesitate to eat them, given the opportunity."

"I see…" Kyouichi took a sip of the black tea from the cup. "But boy, have we digressed… So you defeated Yukari in that Spell Card duel?"

"Yes, the Spell Card Rules make it possible for even weak humans to challenge even the powerful youkai, but as Marisa already pointed out, it was more like she let me win…"

"Why would she do that?"

Reimu also sipped some of her tea. "I don't know. She's a youkai. Their thinking patterns can hardly be understood."

"What happened afterwards?" inquired Kyouichi further.

"Well after I finally managed to beat her last Spell Card, which took me more than just a couple of rematches, she agreed to fix the weakened Netherworld barrier. But still, I don't think she did a thorough job about it…"

"But Reimu…" Marisa joined the conversation after a long while, "You forgot to mention the most important thing… that Yukari has become your friend after that…"

Reimu almost choked on her tea. "Friend?! More like a nuisance that comes by when you least expect her to pester you or steal your food."

"Reimu is just exaggerating." stated Marisa. "It was Yukari who helped her resolve one of the incidents."

"She was the one who dragged me out of my futon in the middle of the night, saying that there was something going on…" argued Reimu.

"Yes, and she had a good reason for that too…" countered Marisa. "She knew about the incident with the fake moon and even teamed up with you on resolving it."

"So that I would do all the work while she slacked off in the back… And YOU…" she pointed her finger at the witch, "You thought it was US who were responsible for that incident and attacked us!" Reimu pointed out.

"Maybe, but still, it was Yukari's Spell Card that got me that time, as I recall, not yours. And besides, you always complain about being bored. She just did you a favor by letting you know about an incident that needed resolving." Marisa jabbed back.

Kyouichi, who was completely lost in this conversation and had no idea what the hell were these girls arguing about, just calmly watched and enjoyed drinking the black tea. He even helped himself to refill his cup without asking. He just really liked black tea…

"So…" he suddenly interrupted Reimu's and Marisa's exchange of opinions, "you are acquainted with Yukari Yakumo."

The two girls just stared at him silently for a while until Reimu muttered a barely audible reply: "Well, yes. Acquainted…"

"I sometimes don't get you, Reimu," stated Marisa. "It's true that Yukari has a bit strange manners, but… she's one of the nicest youkai I've seen. And what's more, she really seems to like you…"

Reimu opened her mouth to say something, but she just sighed as if she lost all her arguments.

Kyouichi again, full of new hope turned to Reimu. "If what Marisa just said is true, then I humbly ask you to petition Yukari-sama on my behalf if you meet her. Please ask her if she could send me back home."

"Perhaps…" she started uncertainly, "Perhaps you're right, Marisa."

She seemed very reluctant to admit to have a friendly relationship with a youkai. "Perhaps she's not so bad after all…"

Her serious expression was suddenly replaced by a smile. "Don't worry, Kyouichi, we'll be sure to tell her about your problem. If she doesn't know about it already…"

Reimu started looking around herself as if she was being annoyed by some invisible insect. "Yukari? Hey, Yukari~! Are you here?" she called out loud.

But there was no response.

"Strange…" she shrugged. "Usually if you just mentioned her name, she would take it as an invitation, but... she doesn't seem to be here."

"Maybe she's still hibernating." reasoned Marisa.

"It's been long since spring started, but it would be so like her to sleep a bit longer…" added Reimu.

"Or maybe she doesn't want to show up." Kyouichi named another possible reason.

"We'll be on a lookout for her." Marisa assured him. "But it can take anywhere between a few days to several months until she might show herself. You better prepare yourself for a longer stay here, in Gensokyo…"

Kyouichi rolled his eyes and snorted. "What other choice do I have?"

"Well if you knew your way home from the Hakurei Shrine in the outside world…" speculated Marisa.

"I already told you, I don't know." replied Kyouichi and he turned his head to Reimu. "Did those outsiders you have sent back really know their way home?"

She put her index finger on her chin, trying to remember. "Hmm, now that I think about it, some of them really had no clue how to get home from there. Those who knew their way home were most likely those who actually visited the shrine in the outside world and managed to appear in Gensokyo somehow… They were the ones who appeared near the shrine here. That's why I asked where you appeared when you got spirited away."

"I don't even think I'd be able to find my way back to that place to show you…" regretted Kyouichi.

"But some of those who even knew their way home decided to stay here of their own free will." informed Reimu.

Kyouichi wondered what could make any outsider want to stay here in this strange and dangerous place. He asked another question: "Did this Yukari ever return any outsiders back to their home in the outside world?"

Reimu looked down. "That I really don't know, but she might be the only one who can do it…"

"I understand… For now, I have no other option but to settle down here, in the village and prepare myself to stay here… indefinitely." mumbled Kyouichi more to himself than to Reimu and Marisa.

"Don't worry, if you know how to stay out of trouble, you may find life here to be really splendid…" Marisa cheered him up.

"Funny, that you of all people should say that…" remarked Reimu with a sarcastic tone. "So in other words, don't act like Marisa and you should have no trouble living here…"

"And don't act like Reimu, and even youkai may be friendly towards you…" Marisa returned the blow.

Kyouichi just smiled and shook his head. "How did you two become friends anyway…?"

"By fighting against each other." answered Reimu. "But that's a long story."

"Why does that not surprise me…?" said Kyouichi.

"Hehe, it may look like we're often arguing about something, but only the best friends are not afraid to point out their mistakes and imperfections to each other." replied Marisa.

Reimu, Marisa and Kyouichi had a couple of more cups of tea and chatted randomly off topic.

Kyouichi was happy that he made some new friends today. Possibly, they could be the key people for his plan to return home one day… and if not, he at least now had someone to talk to and ask questions about Gensokyo. Since both girls claimed to be specialized in youkai extermination and resolving incidents, any outsider in Gensokyo would feel much safer by their side. As the hours went by, Kyouichi remembered his agreement with Yukiyama to wait at the crossroad for the returning patrol of Ryuuken.

* * *

"Thank you for your hospitality, but I think I should go and wait for the patrol to escort me back to the village."

"Ok, Kyouichi, please come again sometimes." said Reimu as Kyouichi was standing up.

"Yeah, come by to play sometimes…" said Marisa.

"Play? I need to get a proper job if I plan on living here." objected Kyouichi. "But if I'm not a bother to you and if I find some time… and someone to escort me, then I'll most certainly come here again."

"Of course you're not a bother." reassured Reimu. "But sometimes, it may happen that you won't find me at the shrine, like yesterday."

"Oh, and where were you, by the way?"

"Just hanging around at Marisa's place." she replied.

"I see… Well like I said, I'd really like to come again, if I get the chance."

"I also plan to shop in the village in a day or two, so I'll stop by the Saitous to say hello." planned the shrine maiden. "If you won't be working somewhere by that time..."

"No, I won't be working yet, I still need to heal up…" said Kyouichi and slowly walked along the stone paved path back to the torii with Reimu and Marisa.

"Heal up? What, you hurt or something?" asked the witch.

"Yeah, I was attacked by fairies before I found the shrine and took a tumble down a hill."

"Sounds to me like the fairies are asking for a lesson in pain…" said the magician while cracking her knuckles.

"What, you plan to shoot them down with your danmaku or something?" asked Kyouichi in jest.

"Of course! What else?" she replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Wait, didn't Reimu say that danmaku is harmless?" asked the outsider.

"I just said that it's non-lethal; not harmless." Reimu corrected him. "You know it kind of hurts to get a direct hit from such a projectile. The stronger ones can even knock people and youkai unconscious."

"So it's still dangerous…" stated Kyouichi.

"Yeah, but the fairies, you see, they're a special kind of youkai…" explained Marisa. "Even if they are mortally wounded, they just… respawn. You can't really kill them. They are like tiny fragments of natural phenomena."

"Immortal youkai?" wondered Kyouichi.

Marisa continued explaining: "Well, they too have their lifespans, but they simply resurrect once they die."

"Yes, in general, youkai have much longer lifespans than humans and some of them are indeed immortal…" Reimu added some facts. "Their other physical attributes, such as strength, speed, vitality, perception and intelligence may differ from youkai to youkai, but are usually also better than those of humans."

Kyouichi stopped at the torii and looked at the road to the lake. The sun was already low above the western horizon. Far in the distance, he could see a few white dots slowly moving along the road towards the shrine."

"Those must be the relieved guards." he said. "Well then, I guess it's time to say farewell for now."

Marisa turned to Reimu with a determined look. "I think I'm going to do some fairy hunting." and then she walked back to the shrine. "Hey, maybe we should invite some folks for a hanami (flower viewing). It IS spring after all."

Reimu looked thoughtfully at the shrine. "Hmm, you're right, we didn't have a hanami this year yet. Although the best hanami are in the Netherworld, watching the cherry petals fall at the shrine also has its charm… Maybe sometime in the next week we could have a hanami here. You are welcome too, of course." she said to Kyouichi.

Marisa was back after a short while with a bamboo straw broom in her hand. "Well then, I'm going to ask at the mansion if they'd like to come."

"Hmph, it'd be better if they didn't come, but… whatever." muttered Reimu.

"But first," said Marisa while sitting on her broom as if she was about to take off, "I'm a hunt me some fairies! Or just any unfortunate youkai who happens to be in my way, ze."

After that she took off and soared up into the sky and into the distance…

Kyouichi just stood there, stunned by the amazing sight he just witnessed. He opened his mouth, pointed at Marisa, who was now far away and looked at Reimu with a confused expression.

"What?" she asked as if she couldn't understand what's so unusual about today's evening sky.

"She just… flew away…" muttered Kyouichi under his nose.

"Oh, that! Hehe, well, all I can say is: welcome to Gensokyo…" replied Reimu with a smile. "I can fly too… In fact, I think almost everyone can."

"Errr… Yeah… ALMOST everyone." emphasized Kyouichi, staring enviously at the tiny black dot in the sky.

"Well then, see you next time!" said Reimu and returned back to the shrine.

"Yeah, see you…" said Kyouichi and carefully walked down the long set of stone stairs. By the time he made it down, the four relieved Ryuuken guards were already waving at him from the crossroad. He hurried up a bit, so not to keep the men waiting. He sort of expected the same attitude from them as from Yukiyama, and so, he even prepared himself to get scolded for going to the shrine without any official permission. But as soon as he greeted the men, his stress dissolved.

* * *

"Ah, you're the outsider who was so desperate to get to the shrine." said a young looking warrior with short, light-brown disheveled hair. He looked like a new recruit, but he already had three golden strips on his shoulder, so he could have some skill.

"I'm Lieutenant Akiyoshi Takamori," he introduced himself, "and you must be Ish… Ichi…"

"…Ishimaru, yes, that's me." said Kyouichi, helping the young lieutenant to recall his name.

"Oh, sorry that I forgot your name…"

"That's ok, Takamori-san. It's sometimes hard to remember a name of someone you haven't yet met."

"I usually don't forget people's names." explained Lieutenant Takamori. "It's just that Captain Yukiyama was in quite a hurry to replace us in our duty so he muttered your name really quickly…"

"Sorry to cause you trouble…" apologized Kyouichi.

"What trouble? We're not currently on duty… Besides, the shrine is along the way between the village and the lake, so we would've passed by here anyway."

"I see. That's good…"

"So how about we slowly went back to the village while you told me something more about yourself?" suggested the young lieutenant.

Kyouichi and the four guards slowly walked to the village, and he told them about himself, about his situation and about his reason to visit the shrine.

"So you just wanted to get back home…" said Takamori.

"Yes, but since I wouldn't know which way to go, I just decided to settle here until my plan B works… or fails."

"Plan B?"

"To get back home with the assistance of Yukari Yakumo… Well, legend or not, she's the only one who could do something like that… or so I heard."

"Eeeeeh? So the Hakurei shrine maiden claims to know that youkai personally?"

"So she said." confirmed Kyouichi. "But it seems that she appears rather sporadically and randomly, so it can take uncertain amount of time before she visits her again… And another problem would be to convince her to help me... Truly miserable chances of success, but even if there's a tiny bit of hope, then I won't give up."

"So you'll be staying here for quite some time as I see it." Takamori summed up.

Kyouichi nodded. "Perhaps even permanently, but as I said, I still haven't given up."

Finally, Kyouichi and the guards had reached the outer premises of Human Village. As they were slowly walking down a small hill, Kyouichi noticed that the roads from the village lead to some other smaller settlements.

* * *

"I thought that Human Village was the only village here…"

"No, it's not the only village, but it is the largest one… or to be more exact, the one with the largest human population." replied Takamori.

"Are the other villages safe?"

"What you're looking at now are just small branch settlements, too small to be even called tiny villages. They're still an external part of the Human Village, but there are other remote villages in Gensokyo besides this one. As for the safety of these settlements, us Ryuuken do regular patrols, just like at the fishing colony, so they're relatively safe. Not as safe as the inner village, though. Usually farmers and woodcutters live in these settlements, protected by warriors."

The group of five men entered the village. Kyouichi could see that the campfire was already lit, and again, some people gathered around it. The sun was slowly setting behind the hills in the west. Kyouichi was already quite hungry, so he planned to go to his new "home" to have some dinner.

"Well, here we are." said Takamori and turned to his fellow guards. "Let's go to the tavern, I could sure go for a few tankards of nice cool beer right now…"

"Thanks for your protection, Lieutenant Takamori." thanked Kyouichi and bowed.

"No problem. But next time, make sure you'll be leaving the village with some sort of official permission. Ok?"

"Alright, I'll try…" smiled Kyouichi.

As they parted their ways, Kyouichi went back to the Saitou house.

* * *

"I'm back." he announced as he entered the house.

Standing in the corridor in front of him was a young girl with short, dark-brown hair, wearing a dark-blue skirt and white shirt with short sleeves, staring at him with a confused look.

"Ah, you must be Chitose-chan, right? Your mom told me about you. I'm Kyouichi Ishimaru, pleased to meet you."

Kyouichi stretched out his opened hand to shake hands with Chitose, but the girl just called out: "Mom! There's some weird guy in our house!"

"Huh?!" Kyouichi was a bit freaked out that Minako and Mizuto haven't told their children about him.

Right after that, however, the girl giggled. "Just kidding! Yes, I'm Chitose Saitou. I know about you, Kyouichi. Mom told me that you'll be our onii-chan from now on."

"That's saying a bit too much, really…" said Kyouichi. "I'll just be living here until I can be self sufficient and buy my own house... or get home."

Chitose came closer to Kyouichi and pulled his hakama twice. "Hey, hey, Kyouichi, how does the outside world look like, huh? Tell me, tell me!"

"Ehehehe… sure, but I'm really hungry right now." said Kyouichi and his belly growled.

As soon as he said that, the kitchen sliding door opened.

"Ah, Kyouichi-kun, welcome back! The dinner will be ready soon. You can wash your hands and wait in the kitchen." said Minako and disappeared back into the kitchen.

Kyouichi did as she said, washed his hands and sat at the dining table. He could see Minako stirring something at the stove and a nice smell of something delicious permeated the air.

"Today we'll have katsu curry." said Minako over her shoulder.

"Yay, my favorite!" rejoiced Chitose.

"Did you take a look around the entire village, Kyouichi?" asked Minako.

"Errm… not really. I've just been to the shrine to meet Reimu."

"Huh?! I hope you didn't go alone."

"Of course not! I just happened to catch some… errr… friendly Ryuuken guards headed to the lake."

"Oh, speaking of the lake, I think Mizuto should be back in an hour or so." she informed. "I guess he'll just have to reheat the curry…"

"Does he go fishing every day?" asked Kyouichi.

"That depends…" explained Minako, "but usually every two days."

She then took some plates from the cupboard and placed them on the table along with chopsticks.

"But more importantly, what did Reimu tell you?"

Kyouichi briefly explained everything he learned and experienced at the shrine and how he decided to stay in Gensokyo for the time being.

Minako was apparently very interested. "That's unbelievable! I've never heard that Reimu can access the outside world through the shrine and that she personally knows Yukari-sama…"

"Well, me neither, but it seems to me that I won't be seeing my home anytime soon." stated Kyouichi and watched as Minako took a large bowl with the curry and put in the middle of the table.

"Mom, can I be a youkai hunter too when I grow up?" asked Chitose while looking at her mother.

"If you study hard enough at school and practice a lot, then why not…?" answered Minako with a carefree tone. "But now you should tell your brother that the dinner is ready."

"Yes~!" called Chitose and walked out of the kitchen to call her brother.

A couple of seconds later she returned back to the kitchen with her younger brother. The boy was slightly shorter than Chitose. His hair was similar to his father's, short and black. He was wearing a brown, short sleeved kimono with some leaf patterns.

He glanced at Kyouichi and nervously greeted: "G-good evening."

"Good evening," replied Kyouichi. "I'm Kyouichi. You don't need be so shy."

"My…" continued the boy, "…my name's Tadao Saitou, p-pleased to meet you."

Kyouichi smiled to break the ice. "Same here, Tadao-kun."

"Well, now that you're all friends, let's enjoy our meal." said Minako.

"Itadakimasu~!" called everyone and clapped their hands before they started feasting on the katsu curry.

* * *

"Thanks for the meal!" thanked Kyouichi as soon as he finished his portion of curry.

"Well, now that you'll be staying here for a longer period of time, it would be good if you got registered at the village hall as a proper citizen." suggested Minako as she took Kyouichi's plate to wash it.

Kyouichi had no objections. "Alright, we can go."

"Oh, but not today. It's already closed now."

"Fine, then we'll go tomorrow."

"Are you going anywhere else today?"

"Maybe I'll go and see Naota-san, or maybe I'll check out some tavern and have a drink or two." Kyouichi considered his options.

"Okay, but please, don't try to go anywhere outside the village…"

"Sure, sure. I'll stay right here." he promised.


	5. Old Man's Advice

Before he left the Saitou residence, he first went to the guest room where he had his jeans. It wasn't the jeans he wanted to get, but the contents of their pockets. He took the money and the cell phone. Looking at the display, he noticed the battery was half-empty.

"Hmm, I'm not going to need this any time soon…"

He turned the phone off and left it in the room.

* * *

When he stepped outside of the house, he looked at the people around the campfire to see if Naota was there among them. After a while he noticed the old man sitting by the fire, again with a bottle in his hand. This time, however, he was talking to some other people, so Kyouichi just thought he'd stop by later. He walked down the street to the marketplace and looked around for a tavern. Besides the Drunken Oni, the only other similar establishment in the market district was the Uzume tavern, named apparently after Ame no Uzume no Mikoto, the goddess of dawn and revelry. Kyouichi was wondering where should he go first and after a while of thinking, he decided to check out Uzume. The building of the tavern remotely resembled a shrine, and in front of it there were several bamboo tables and chairs where visitors could have their drinks and chat. All of these tables were now occupied, so Kyouichi entered the tavern itself. As soon as he entered, his ears caught a pleasant tune coming from somewhere further in the tavern and his nose was smothered by a mixture of smells of aromatic incense and delicious food. The interior of the tavern was neatly furnished with bamboo chairs and tables, and there was even a non-smoking section divided from the smoking one. Approximately in the middle of the tavern, there was something like a stage, where several musicians were playing that soothing music using traditional Japanese instruments. It was more like a restaurant than just a simple tavern. Apparently, it was very popular among the villagers, since it was also crowded inside. Kyouichi just saw a couple of people who were about to leave, so he waited for the opportune moment to sit at the table. Immediately after sitting down, a waitress dressed in a bright colored yukata brought him a menu list. Since Kyouichi wasn't hungry, he ignored the meals list, and instead, he was looking at the beverages. One particular name caught his interest: The 8 Million Kami (or the 8 mil. deities ). It was listed in the special mixed drinks section.

"Huh? Eight Million Kami?" he read the name of the drink.

"Yes~!" answered the waitress with a wide smile "It's our special blend."

"Why is it named like that?"

"Because it's an alcoholic drink which consists of many different ingredients with different flavors, thus having a unique and delicious taste. The exact recipe is a secret, of course, but if you concentrate on the taste, you can tell which ingredients are there." explained the waitress. "Oh, and it's quite strong, so some people say that you will actually see all 8 million kami if you manage to chug down a whole glass."

Kyouichi grinned and rubbed his hands. "O-ho, yeah! I wanna try it."

"Yes~! Anything else, sir?"

"No, that will be all."

"Please wait a moment…"

The waitress disappeared somewhere behind the bar. As Kyouichi waited, he took a look around to see what people were visiting this tavern. He did notice a few strange individuals with unusual clothes… Well, unusual clothes for Gensokyo, because they looked like ordinary clothes from the outside world. There were 5 people dressed like that sitting at one table. That alone was somehow very suspicious to Kyouichi and he tried to listen to what they were talking about, but the tavern was quite noisy, so he couldn't make out anything of what they were saying.

"Yes~, your drink, 8 Million Kami, sir, please enjoy~!" said the cheerful waitress while putting the drink on the table.

"Oh… Thank you."

Kyouichi picked up the transparent glass with the mixed drink and observed it closely. The drink was a multi-layer blend of different drinks with different colors. It sort of looked like a rainbow in a glass… with ice cubes.

"Mmm… smells… fruity and… of alcohol… " he commented after taking a few whiffs of the beverage.

He slowly tasted the drink. The top layer was red colored and tasted like strawberry, but many other flavors blended in as well.

"Not bad… Not bad at all! In fact, it's great!" praised Kyouichi.

He slowly drank his mixed drink and enjoyed its changing flavors… From the red layer on top, through orange, yellow, green and blue to violet on the bottom. He could taste strawberry, orange, pineapple, kiwi, the blue layer was some peppermint booze and finally blackberries, all mixed with a neutral alcohol essence.

After about 15 minutes he finished his drink.

"Ahhh~! Now that was a drink!"

The waitress was right. It was quite strong… Perhaps its alcohol concentration in the individual layers wasn't all that strong, but it was their mixture that made it strong.

However, Kyouichi felt like he would have to drink at least 2 more glasses to get really drunk. But that would be no good right now… He paid for the drink and as he was leaving, he took one last glance at the people dressed like outsiders who were still sitting at the nearby table.

"Perhaps they really are outsiders like me…" he thought, but his uplifted mood made him care little about it, so he just left the tavern. He recalled that he wanted to see Naota again, so he briskly walked back to the campfire. Old Naota was still there, drinking as usual and still talking to some people… This time Kyouichi ignored the other people and just rudely interrupted their conversation.

* * *

"Yo, Naota-san! Guess what! I've been to the Hakurei Shrine today…"

Naota and his companions turned their heads to Kyouichi and stared at him quietly with surprised expressions.

"And guess what more…" he continued, "The shrine maiden knows a way to travel to the outside world and back… and I've even been there for a short time…"

Everyone was still quietly staring at him like at some apparition.

"Come on, people, aren't you surprised at all? Aren't you glad at all, Naota-san? It means you can return to the outside world! You always dreamed about that, right?"

Naota just grabbed Kyouichi by his wrist and stood up. "Please excuse us for a moment." he bowed to the men he was conversing with just a while ago. He then started walking somewhere, still holding Kyouichi's wrist. He took him to the other end of the street and entered one of the European style houses. He then closed the door, let go of Kyouichi's wrist and slapped him a good one.

* * *

"Hey! What was that all about?!" asked Kyouichi as he rubbed his cheek.

"That's my line!" shouted Naota. "What did I tell you about not leaving the village, huh?! You could have got killed!"

"I didn't go alone!" argued Kyouichi. "I met that acquaintance of yours, Soujirou Yukiyama. He escorted me all the way to the shrine…"

"You did?" asked Naota with a surprised tone. "…You should have said so. Sorry about that slap." he apologized.

Kyouichi was a bit confused. "So that was it? You were just worried about me? I thought that I had said something I shouldn't in front of all those people…"

"Huh? Oh, no… that's fine." said the old man. "They all know that I had always wished to return home… But is that what you said really true? About the miko and her ability…"

Kyouichi nodded. "Yes, it's true. But the thing is, she can only access one location. The Hakurei Shrine in the outside world. It is a desolate, abandoned shrine somewhere in the mountains, so I had absolutely no idea which way would take me home… But you," he pointed at Naota, "you're different. Your spiriting away was different… I was asleep while riding on a train, but you were fully awake when you just wandered into Gensokyo by yourself. It's possible that the shrine lies somewhere close to your home. Maybe you would know which way to go…"

Naota frowned and sighed. "It's true that once I counted every single day spent in Gensokyo and dreamt of returning home to see my family, but… not anymore."

"What?! You don't want to return? Why?" Kyouichi couldn't understand.

"Too much time has passed already. Everyone I had known in the outside world is either dead or living somewhere else by now… And if not, I'd most likely not recognize them anyway. Oh, no. For me, Gensokyo is now my home. I got over it, really. I made a few friends, I had a fulfilling job and a bottle of sake every day. But still, it makes me mad to see that innocent, unsuspecting people from the outside world are just being taken here and separated from their loving families… And I blame the youkai for that."

"So you decided to stay…"

"Yeah… But you… still have a reason to return home… You have your home, your family, your friends... But how to return to where you were taken from, I really have no idea."

"Well, the miko said that she personally knows Yukari Yakumo, but nobody knows when she will visit her again. I haven't set my hopes too high on returning home."

"It was most likely her who was behind your spiriting away in the first place... and mine too. Why would she bother returning anyone home? Youkai are no friends to humans. I despise all youkai; that's no secret."

"Well, anyway," shrugged Kyouichi, "I'm forced to live in Gensokyo whether I like it or not. And even if a miracle happens and Reimu convinces Yukari to send me back, it can take months, even years before she decides to show up. I just have to try and live a new life here…"

"Yeah," nodded old Naota, "and a good start would be trying not to get yourself killed."

Kyouichi smiled. "I already told you, I wasn't even considering leaving the village by myself. I just happened to come across this Yukiyama fellow… He didn't seem too friendly, to tell you the truth, but as soon as I mentioned your name, his attitude made a 180 degree turn… I wonder why."

Naota chuckled. "Hehehe, let's just say he still owes me a favor."

"I see…" muttered Kyouichi and wondered what kind of favor it might be.

"Say, how are your wounds?" Naota changed the topic.

"Pretty well, I must say." replied Kyouichi. "They're healing up faster than I expected. I don't know what kind of ointment it was that Mizuto used, but it seems to work. The wounds don't even hurt anymore… unless I touch them, that is."

"That's good to hear." smiled the old man.

"Umm… is this your home, Naota-san?" asked Kyouichi after he realized where he actually was.

"Oh, yes. This is where I have lived ever since I became an independent, self-sufficient man. Please, come in, and have a sit." invited Naota.

Kyouichi followed him to a living room furnished with a dark-brown oak table, three dark-red upholstered armchairs a tall bookshelf and a fireplace. The parquet floor was covered by an expensive looking, red, black and white carpet with ornamental patterns. Kyouichi took a seat in one of the armchairs. It was really comfortable.

"Would you like to drink something?" asked Naota.

"No, thanks, I've just been at Uzume." declined Kyouichi without even considering the thought that Naota could have non-alcoholic drinks in his house.

"As soon as I earned enough, I just picked a location and had my own house built." explained Naota.

"Hmm, I hope I can become independent too… I just feel like I'm a burden to the Saitou family."

"Well, you're only partially correct about that, but you'll find that out soon enough." replied the retired carpenter. "But it was a great feeling to finally have my own house. Many memories are bound to this place… The happy ones and the sad ones too… We've been through a lot during all those years, this house and I… I can only agree with your intention to become independent as soon as possible. You'll fell much more personal freedom once you have your own place to call home. And who knows, maybe, one day you'll be helping some unfortunate outsiders by offering them a place under your roof, just like the Saitou family offered theirs to you."

"But before that, I have to have a steady income. A job." said Kyouichi.

"Yes, a job. Preferably not too dangerous one."

"I still have no idea what job I could apply for."

Naota just smirked. "I'll let you in on a secret, kid. They often value outsiders here worth their weight in gold."

Kyouichi snickered, thinking that Naota was just making things up. "Really? And why would that be so?"

"I ain't kidding ya." said Naota. "It's because they value the knowledge of the outside world; of its inventions, technologies and even art…"

"Hmph, you're not serious. Do I really look like some sort of scientist or engineer? Oh, and I'm definitely no artist either."

"Then you'll just have to find someone who can teach you some craft or find some job that doesn't require much education." advised Naota. "It would even be good if you came up with something new that no one here in the village does. Maybe opening up your own business… I don't know…"

"Hmm, thanks for the tip, but to start an own business requires some initial capital… Something like that isn't cheap. I would have to save up really a lot of money to start a business of my own, and even then I'd probably still need to loan some extra cash. And to figure out what would be a good business here, I'll need to know the village a bit better."

"Ohohoho~, kid," laughed old Naota, "You didn't really expect to become a filthy rich tycoon of Gensokyo in one day, did you? Of course it takes time and money, but everything can be achieved if one really wants and puts his effort into it. And if one knows the right people."

"Now that sounded a bit shady, Naota-san." joked Kyouichi, "Do you have some connections here that I should know about?"

"I didn't mean anything shady, kid, but if that's your preference, you could give it a try. But it's at your own risk…" Naota warned Kyouichi.

Kyouichi made a surprised and amused smile. "Er… you do realize that I was only joking, right?"

"Heh! So was I, kid." smiled the old man.

Kyouichi also smiled and looked at the window, even though he could see nothing through the curtain. "You know what would really piss me off?" he asked suddenly.

"What?"

"If I got a chance to return home as soon as my business here would become successful…"

"Haha, well at least you still haven't lost your sense of humor, kid." remarked Naota. "With that, you'll be able to adapt to new life here much faster and easier… and without the risk of losing your sanity."

Kyouichi turned back to Naota and replied: "Maybe I already lost it and I'm just taking everything with humor as a result."

"Well, whatever the case, it's good for you. One can't always cry over spilled milk for his entire life, right?"

"I guess so…" agreed Kyouichi.

"Starting tomorrow, you could start asking people what jobs are there to be had in the village." suggested the ex-carpenter.

"Yeah, I plan to get properly registered at the village hall, so I could apply for a job here…"

"…and pay taxes, and get a mandatory life insurance, and save money for your retirement fund, and get permissions to leave the village and hire Ryuuken escorts, and get an official permission to buy or build real estates and so on, and so on…" Naota finished Kyouichi's sentence.

Kyouichi made a quiet whistle. "Wow, I'm surprised that there's such bureaucracy here."

"All adopted from the previous generations of outsiders like you and me, who thought that it would be oh-so-much-better if these simple peasants and warriors were governed by a set of laws from the "perfectly advanced" modern society of the outside world." remarked Naota ironically.

"You don't seem to be very fond of this system. Would you rather be if things remained here as they used to be?" asked Kyouichi.

"Sure I would. Why should this small isolated world need to establish new politics if there's absolutely no need for it? It's not like it's gonna help these people live their lives any better in these youkai infested lands."

"To me it doesn't seem like a bad idea." argued Kyouichi. "It at least helps people by providing equal possibilities, rights and duties for everyone, regardless of their social status. Besides, the whole village looks like a mixture of "old" and "new", of east and west… I actually find such system quite fitting…"

"Hmmmm…." Naota paused himself for a long while, thinking about it. "Perhaps there really is some truth in those words…"

"Anyway, good system or bad, it's here, and we have to live by it, right? Like I said, tomorrow I'm getting proper registration and official admission to the village. Tomorrow, I become one of the citizens of Human Village…"

"You're right." nodded Naota. "We should celebrate this somehow, and not argue about our political opinions. Although I have mixed feelings about this, we should throw some welcoming party or something…"

"Why the mixed feelings?"

"While it's good to see a new face here, it's also bad to see that people just keep disappearing from the outside world. What was the point of creating that goddamn barrier then? If it can't even fulfill its sole purpose of protecting the rest of the world from the youkai scourge, it's the same as if it didn't even exist. I say that the humans were merely tricked by the youkai when they agreed with the sealing of Gensokyo. It was probably just their plan to make the whole world believe that they don't exist while they could cleverly kidnap people here so they could feed on them… That wretched Yakumo hag tricked the foolish Hakurei priest into cooperation with the barrier creation. While it's impossible for humans to cross, the youkai can travel freely in and out without a problem… and while the shrine maiden naively thinks that she's helping the humans, she's just a puppet of the youkai..."

"Ehm-ehrm!" Kyouichi interrupted Naota's monologue by loudly clearing his throat. "I'm not really curious about your wild conspiracy theories, but I think I'm slowly beginning to understand why you hate all youkai so much."

"You don't understand at all…" muttered Naota suddenly with a sad voice, "why I hate the youkai…"

* * *

After that he remained silent for a long while, just staring at the floor. Kyouichi realized after a while that he had probably hit a sensitive string of Naota's past. Feeling that something isn't right, Kyouichi figured that it would be best to leave Naota alone for now. He stood up, bowed and quietly took his leave. Perhaps one day he will find out the reason for Naota's grudge against all youkai, but not today… He walked back up the street towards the campfire, still feeling the remains of the awkward atmosphere in Naota's living-room. It was already dark outside and Kyouichi didn't have any more plans for today. Ignoring everyone on the street, he returned to the Saitou house to have some rest. As he was in the corridor, he could hear that Mizuto was already home and talking to Minako about his today's catch. Kyouichi didn't even bother knocking or telling them that he's back home and he just shut himself in the guest room and stretched himself on the futon…

"I'm tired…" he said whith his mouth agape in a yawn, "and I didn't even do any exhausting activity."

Knowing that he'd probably fall asleep as soon as he closed his eyes, he undressed himself from his kimono. Tomorrow he'll have to get up early, so it would be better if he went to bed earlier too…


	6. A New Life Awaits

Small miracles supposedly happen every day, or so some people say. One such miracle was that Kyouichi woke up early in the morning all by himself and what's more, he even felt quite refreshed. Today was his big day after all. Today he would open up an entirely new chapter in his life. One that he didn't even imagine in his wildest dreams. Starting today, he will officially become one of the denizens of Gensokyo, a fantastical land full of supernatural beings and people with various magical abilities. Of course, he is only an outsider and as such, he doesn't have the predisposition to learn any form of magic, but he will at least be admitted into the society of the village.

Without dressing up, he walked straight into the bathroom. This time he decided to have a proper bath, rather than just cleaning himself like he did yesterday. His wounds were only stinging a little bit now. In a matter of few days they should heal up completely. As he was relaxing in the ofuro full of nice warm water, he was trying to plan his schedule for today. What should he do after he gets all the paperwork at the village hall done? Just wander around the village aimlessly, or to revisit Naota and have that welcome party they were talking about, or perhaps he should visit the village archive? He had a lot of options, but he couldn't make a decision at the moment, so he just closed his eyes and relaxed a bit longer. When he had enough, he got out of the ofuro, dried himself up and returned to his room to dress up. His kimono was formal enough so he didn't need to think too much about what to wear for his admission. He opened the sliding door to the kitchen and greeted Minako and Chitose:

"Good morning, Minako-san, Chitose-chan."

"Oh, good morning, Kyouichi," greeted a slightly surprised Minako. "I was about to go and wake you up, but as I see, you already had a bath and dressed up…"

"Good morning, onii-chan." greeted Chitose as she was drinking her tea.

"But I'm not really your brother, you know…" said Kyouichi.

"I know, but it's fun to imagine that you are." replied Chitose.

"Whatever…" the outsider muttered, when his nose caught a pleasant smell. "Mmm, something smells good… What's for breakfast?

"Tamagoyaki." answered Minako while serving the fried egg omelet roll on a plate. "Here you go, Kyouichi."

"Thank you, Minako-san. Itadakimasu!"

Kyouichi ate the tamagoyaki with appetite and had a few glasses of milk afterwards. Chitose looked at him after she finished her tea and asked: "Hey, onii-chan, will you tell me something about the outside word?"

"Hm? What about it?" he asked after he drank the second glass of milk.

"What magic do you have in the outside world?" asked the curious girl.

"Hahaha!" Kyouichi started laughing. "We don't have any. We only hear about it in fairy tales, or see it in movies and anime and such…"

"Huh? Movies? Anime?" wondered Chitose while scratching her head.

"Errr… never mind. Suffice to say that there's no such thing as magic in the outside world, as far as I know."

"Then how do you defend yourselves against the youkai?"

"There's no need…" smiled Kyouichi. "There are no youkai."

Chitose looked very surprised. "Eeeeeh?! No youkai? Did you hear it mom? It must be a very nice and peaceful place then…"

"Actually, no." opposed Kyouichi.

"Why not?" kept asking the curious girl. "Youkai are the worst enemies of humans. At least most of them are… If you don't have any youkai in your world then why isn't it peaceful there?"

"I'll correct you a bit… Not the youkai are the worst enemies of humans, but the humans are the worst enemies to themselves. We have crimes, wars, terrorism, racism..." explained Kyouichi, "As if the natural disasters, poverty and all sorts of diseases weren't already bad enough. Even without the youkai, there will always be conflicts… as long as there are people."

"I didn't know it was so terrible there…" said Chitose with the same surprised look.

"But don't get me wrong. It's not like the whole world is being ravaged by war or something… Fortunately, there are much more peaceful places than war zones in the world. And of course, there are many, many wonderful people in the world… I was merely trying to say that it isn't a perfect peaceful world as you might think. Perhaps Gensokyo is a much better place then the rest of the world. But I barely spent any time living here to claim something like that, right…?"

"Well, here in Gensokyo, we only have to defend ourselves from the bad youkai. But there are many good ones too…"

Kyouichi hoped to see some other youkai besides the fairies, preferably the "good" ones, but so far, he hasn't seen any of them in the village.

"Hey, Kyouichi," asked Chitose suddenly. "Did you come from a peaceful place or from a war zone?"

"Me? I came from a peaceful place, in a big city of Tokyo. With many, many buildings, some of which are as tall as smaller mountains. It's so big that I would have to walk for almost an entire day from one end to reach the other. There are roads everywhere, and people travel around in cars or buses or motorcycles or trains - all of these are vehicles that people use to travel fast and far…"

"Eh~? Amazing!" exclaimed Chitose.

"Okay, Chitose-chan," said Minako, "You can talk with Kyouichi-kun later, but right now he has to go to the village hall so that he can become one of us."

"One of us? Yay, so you will also learn about using magic, right?" cheerfully asked Minako's daughter.

"Umm, Chitose-chan, Kyouichi and all the outsiders like him can't learn magic like people born in Gensokyo." explained Chitose's mother. "You know Naota-san, right? He also can't learn any magic, since he wasn't born here."

"Oh, no! That's bad. How will he defend himself if he meets a bad youkai, huh, mom?"

"By making sure that he doesn't meet them in the first place. This village here is the safest place to be in Gensokyo. As long as he's here, he doesn't need to worry… Now, let's go before the village hall gets too crowded."

"Okay, we'll go…" agreed Kyouichi.

* * *

Before he left, he went to the bathroom once more to brush his teeth, but instead of toothpaste, there was some unknown creamy and powdery mixture in a glass jar and a pile of paper rags next to it. Uncertain of the jar's content, Kyouichi took a whiff before trying to put any of that stuff in his mouth. It smelled almost like regular toothpaste with a mixed scent of some unknown herbs.

"Well, here goes nothing…" said Kyouichi as he put some of that creamy substance on one of the paper tissues. He slowly opened his mouth and started wiping his teeth with it. The "paste" didn't taste very well, but at least it got the job done. After a few minutes of "brushing" his teeth, Kyouichi rinsed his mouth with fresh water. He was now ready to go.

Minako was already waiting for him in the corridor.

"Ready to go?" she asked.

Kyouichi nodded.

"Alright, then, let's go."

* * *

They left the house and walked down the street to the market district where the village hall was located. There weren't a lot of people in the streets yet. Besides some Ryuuken guards, there were only a few villagers strolling about. Kyouichi and Minako kept on walking without words until they reached the marketplace, where they could already see the village hall building and the dragon-deity statue standing in front of it.

"Here we are." announced Minako. "Let's get in…"

Upon entering the building, they found themselves in a large hall with many doors leading to various offices. The door in the middle had a large sign with words "the main office" written on it. There were only two people standing in front of it and waiting to be called in. Kyouichi and Minako took their place at the end of this short line and waited.

"I came with you not just because we're taking you into custody, but also to pay my monthly rent for the shop." Minako explained. "Better sooner, than later…"

"Say, how long does this admission process take, Minako-san?" Kyouichi wanted to know.

"Not much." she replied. "You'll just fill in a form, sign it, then I'll sign it and finally, you'll get an ID card within a couple of days. The paperwork should take no longer than 10 minutes, though."

* * *

Finally, as the person standing in front of them left the main office, it was their turn. In the meantime, a fairly long line of people has already formed behind Minako and Kyouichi, so it was a good idea to get up a bit earlier today. A young secretary opened the door and called them in.

"You may come in, please."

Minako bowed and Kyouichi did the same. "Thank you."

They entered the office room with one large, low-leveled, Japanese style mahogany conference table. Sitting at that table covered by a pile of various documents, scrolls, books, quills and ink flasks with different colored ink was an elderly man with long grey hair tied in a ponytail. He had long grey sideburns and a goatee. He was dressed up in a luxuriously looking kimono. It was mostly dark-green and black with golden ornamental patterns. The man's face still looked relatively youthful, at least in comparison to someone like Naota. As Kyouichi entered with Minako and greeted him, the man nodded. "Good morning to you, Saitou-san and…" he curiously looked at Kyouichi whom he couldn't recognize.

"Ishimaru Kyouichi, pleased to meet you."

Minako immediately explained: "Apparently, he's been spirited away from the outside world two days ago and he was lucky enough to make it to the village."

"What? Another outsider?" asked the village chief. "Say, Ishimaru-san, did something strange happen in the outside world?"

Before Kyouichi could answer, the chief continued: "Because, you're about the tenth outsider who's come to get admitted here over the last few days… I wonder what's going on."

Both Minako and Kyouichi exchanged their surprised looks. Kyouichi did recall that he had seen a group of outsiders yesterday at the Uzume tavern, but didn't pay much attention to them.

"All of these outsiders seemed to come from Japan, as do you… from a certain city known today as… Tokyo." said the man as he read a couple of documents, which were probably the admission forms filled in by the other outsiders.

"Of course, it is my duty to ask you as well," continued the man, "before we can make you an official citizen; where were you last before you found yourself here?"

"T-Tokyo…" replied Kyouichi with an uncertain tone.

The chief looked concerned. "Hmm, so another one, huh…? Can you remember what happened before you were spirited away?"

"Well, I do recall I was riding on an underground train back home, but I had fallen asleep." explained Kyouichi as he was trying to recall the event from two days ago. "I was certain that I wasn't alone on that train… As I was awakened by what I think was an earthquake, I could see nothing but darkness and hear screams of other people everywhere around me. But as soon as that earthquake stopped and I made some light, I could see nobody. Everyone seemed to have disappeared. I walked all the way to the very front of the train, but there wasn't a single person to be seen. As I reached the front car… I was no longer underground, but somewhere outside… in the wilderness. I found the road to the village by sheer luck. It was already dark by that time, but I somehow made it all the way here. The first person I met was Mizuto Saitou and he treated my wounds and offered me a place in his house…"

"Hmm… I see…" replied the village chief while scratching his goatee. "All the testimonies of the other recent newcomers from the outside world and you had one thing in common… They all said they were riding this… train… thing…"

Kyouichi suddenly recalled what Mizuto told him on the first day. "I… I've heard that when one gets spirited away, he can appear at any random location in Gensokyo…"

"I guess that's not only a theory…" thought the village chief aloud. "The most common places for outsiders to appear are the Hakurei Shrine and the Road of Reconsideration. But as it seems, people can get spirited away to basically any place in Gensokyo."

"Shrine's the most common place for outsiders to appear?" asked Kyouichi. "I've been there yesterday and the miko said she hasn't met any outsiders recently."

"Well, some of them claim to have appeared right near the village, the others near the Forest of Magic and some near the Bamboo Forest of the Lost… None of them mentioned the shrine."

"Do you know where I can meet those other people from the outside world?" asked Kyouichi in hope of getting some explanation from the other outsiders.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot give away any personal information about anyone, unless you're a relative or one of the Ryuuken militia."

"Alright. Never mind… As you already know, I've decided to stay here in Gensokyo for the time being…"

"Hehe, for the time being he says…" chuckled the village chief. "As if there was a way for us humans to cross the barrier to the outside world."

"You'd be surprised, but there actually is. The Hakurei shrine maiden knows how to travel through the barrier and even take people there and back. But as the shrine in the outside world lies somewhere deep in the mountains, I did not have any clue as to where should I go to get home… Returning here was my only option."

The elder gazed at Kyouichi with his eyes wide open in amazement. "Well I'll be… I've lived here for nearly sixty years, and you barely for three days, and yet you seem to have found out something I had no idea about…"

"How come you've never even heard about it?" wondered Kyouichi. "Aren't you in contact with the shrine maiden?"

"Of course we are in contact with the Hakurei Shrine. It's just that… she never brought anything up about it. Apparently she just kept returning most of the outsiders back through the shrine without our knowledge."

"Only those outsiders who found the shrine in the outside world would know their way back home… Those who were spirited away form other places, like me, wouldn't know which way to go from there… Not even the shrine maiden could help me."

"I see… But that means you're not staying here "for the time being" as you said, but for the rest of your life, Ishimaru-san."

"Umm… you may not be completely correct about that one either…" remarked Kyouichi.

"Don't tell me you know something more…" smiled the elder.

"Maybe… Surely you've heard a legend or two about Yukari Yakumo, right?"

"The ancient youkai of boundaries, borders and gaps, who by historical accounts originally came up with the idea of sealing Gensokyo and made an agreement with the Hakurei clan to erect the Great Boundary. In 1885 Gensokyo was sealed. That was the last time the Dragon-god was last seen… and the last time anyone reported a sighting of Yukari Yakumo as well…"

"Yes, that youkai." nodded Kyouichi. "She's supposedly the one who can travel freely through the Great Boundary and even take things and people from one side to another… Some say that she's still here."

"Don't tell me you believe in that legend…"

"I didn't. That is until I've heard directly from Reimu Hakurei and her friend, Marisa Kirisame, that they personally know the youkai. However, this youkai shows up on a very irregular basis, so only time can tell when she'll show up again."

"Honestl,… To think of all the new things I find out about Gensokyo in this old age… and from an outsider…"

Kyouichi shrugged. "I just got good advice form good people, I guess… But you may be right about me staying here for my whole life. Who can predict how such a youkai will react to someone's request to return them back. Especially if she could be the one who spirited me and others away to this place…"

"I should let the Hakurei shrine maiden know about all the other outsiders as well. Maybe this is another incident that needs to be resolved." said the elder and noted something down on a sheet of paper.

"Well now, Ishimaru-san, I've almost forgotten that you're here to get your admission, right?"

"Heh, yeah, I almost forgot about that too…"

The elder reached in one of the shelves and took a sheet of blank admission form. "Here you go. Just fill in the information about yourself and sign here… And this form is for you, Saitou-san."

Kyouichi took the form and a quill and filled in the basic information about himself; name, date of birth, address (both in the outside world and his new one in Gensokyo), and education.

Finally he signed the document and let Minako sign it as well.

"Ah, so you've filled it in?" asked the elder as he took the document and briefly checked if it was filled in correctly. "M-hm, okay, then… Your ID card will be ready within 3 days and sent to your current address… I'm guessing you'd also like to apply for some job here, right?"

"Yes, that would be great, but I'm not sure if I'm qualified enough to apply for anything…"

"Since you're an outsider, it is also necessary for you to have proper knowledge about Gensokyo and a certificate that confirms that."

The elder took another sheet of pre-written form from one of the shelves. "You shall enroll for studying at the Kamishirasawa Affiliated Academy. There you'll learn not only about Gensokyo and the youkai, but you'll also get to choose a studying guild where you'll learn specific knowledge and acquire specific skills in a particular area of your interest, which will enable you to qualify for a job in that particular area. Of course, as an outsider the study of magic will serve you no purpose, but you are free to study anything else. Until then, you'll only be able to get part-time jobs here. Or perhaps you could start your own business, if you save up enough money for that…"

"So I'm going back to school?"

"Well, you probably already know how to read, write and count to ten, right?" smiled the elder as he was filling in Kyouichi's application form to Kamishirasawa School. "You'll only need to take the last stage of the elementary education before you get to choose your studying guild. You will start attending the school from tomorrow until winter, when you'll do the final test to get your elementary certificate and then you'll get to choose a guild."

"Do all the outsiders have to study at that school?" wondered Kyouichi.

"All of those who wish to find some decent work here and are older than 6 years. The knowledge about the life in Gensokyo may be in fact even more important than any practical skill which helps people apply their trade. Even if you were older than me I'd still highly recommend you taking the final course of the elementary education, just to increase your own safety…"

"I heard one of the teachers is a youkai…" recalled Kyouichi.

"Yes, indeed. Kamishirasawa-sensei, the one who founded the school is a youkai, but you don't need to worry. She's the kind of youkai who'd rather sacrifice her own life than see a human suffering. She's a great teacher. You'll like her too…"

"Umm… Mr. Village Elder?" Kyouichi addressed the elder.

"Hm? What? Did I forget to introduce myself again?" asked the elder who looked a bit embarrassed. "It's been happening to me quite often lately. I must be getting old. My name is Toshimi Fukukane, and as you can see, I'm the current village elder since 108. I've been thinking about retiring soon… I should leave this job to someone younger and more competent, but maybe I can still manage a year or two… But I think you wanted to ask me something, right?"

"Yes, I'd like to take a part-time job. Are there any offers?"

"Hmm, let me see for a moment…" said the elder and searched the shelf with the documents behind him. "Ah, yes, there's still one left here…"

"Only one?" inquired Kyouichi. "One job offer in the whole village?"

"Well, there haven't been many offers lately anyway, and now that we've experienced this sudden wave of immigrants from the outside world, most of the part-time job offers were already taken. If you came a bit sooner, then you'd have a wider choice. But it's true that people don't offer employment as much as they used to, these days." complained elder Fukukane.

"Well, I guess the global economic crisis has hit even Gensokyo." supposed Kyouichi. "And what sort of part-time job is that last one?"

"A sales assistant in a bookstore." answered Fukukane. "It's close by, you'll just return to the marketplace and turn left, that is to the west, and enter the street between the Drunken Oni and the ceramics shop. It's called Starlight Glyph. It's the only book shop in the entire village so you can't miss it."

Kyouichi already knew where the bookstore was, since he took a small village tour with Minako yesterday. It was on the same street as the village archive, the house of Hieda family.

"Oh, I think I know where it is." said Kyouichi. "So what are the details about this job?" he asked.

"Well, selling books, helping with book transcriptions, keeping the shop clean and so on… 5 days a week from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and a wage of 300 ¥ per hour."

Kyouichi nodded to the offer. "Better than nothing… Alright, I'll take it."

He used to work part-time at many places, doing many different and often physically exhausting jobs. This job seemed quite good to him because it wasn't too hard and he could start working even if he wasn't fully healed up. Furthermore, it wouldn't conflict his school timetable, since the elementary grade lessons usually ended even before noon.

"Hmph, working at a bookstore… How hard can that be?" he thought.

"Okay then, just sign this contract here and you can start working there tomorrow already." said the elder and passed him the contract to sign.

Kyouichi quickly scribbled his autograph on the contract and the deal was sealed.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" asked the elder as he stamped the contract with the official seal of the village council and folded it up.

"I think that's all from me for now," replied Kyouichi, "but I think Minako-san still has some business with you."

"Yes." nodded Minako. "I've come to pay the monthly rent for the shop beforehand…"

"So, you're already paying rent for Minazuki (June)?" asked Fukukane.

"Yes, it's better to pay sooner than to wait until the end of next month when the financial situation is the worst…" explained Minako. "That way I will know exactly how much money I can spend until the end of the month."

"Good thinking, Saitou-san." acknowledged elder Fukukane as he was taking the rent from Minako. He then jotted something down on a paper that looked like a ledger and let Minako sign another document.

"Thank you very much." he nodded as he took the signed document along with Minako's rent of 25 000 yen. "Is that all?"

"Yes, that will be all, thank you." replied Minako and bowed with Kyouichi to the village chief. "Goodbye."

"Until next time." the elder said his farewell.

The secretary, who was in the office the whole time now stood up from her smaller table in the corner and opened the door for them to see them off and call in the next person in line.

Kyouichi and Minako bowed once more and left the office.

* * *

"Well isn't it great, Kyouichi-kun? You even got a part-time job." said Minako with a cheerful voice. "And don't worry about the school. The elementary certificate tests are a piece of cake."

"You know, I'm kind of looking forward to studying at that school…" said Kyouichi as they both left the village hall.

"Well, Kyouichi, do you have any plans for today?"

"Hmm, not really." he shrugged. "Maybe I'll say hello to Naota-san again. Or maybe I'll check out the archives… I don't know."

"It would be better if you had some friends of your age here, but since you're a newcomer you don't know many people around here…" stated Minako.

"Well, the only friends closest to my age so far are Reimu and Marisa."

"Marisa?"

"Yes, Marisa Kirisame. Apparently, she's a good friend of Reimu, but I don't know much else about her besides her name." explained Kyouichi.

Minako was silently thinking for a while. "I think there's a family by the name of Kirisame here in the village, but I'm not sure where they live."

"So Marisa lives in the village?" thought Kyouichi. "If that's so, then Reimu doesn't come here just to shop, but to visit her fiend as well…"

As Minako and Kyouichi were nearing the Drunken Oni, Kyouichi decided to check out the village archive after all.

"Oh, so you'll be visiting Akyuu?" asked Minako. "Okay then, I'll be going back home, because I still have some work to do. If you need anything, you know where to find me."

"Well then, I'll be seeing you, Minako-san." bowed Kyouichi.

"Oh, and please, say hello to Hieda-san for me, ok?"

"Will do." Kyouichi acknowledged and waved his hand as he entered the street where the archive was located.

* * *

Before Kyouichi reached the house of Hieda, he stopped by the bookstore, where he was supposed to work from tomorrow on. The bookstore had one large display window filled with some of the best selling books in the village. A wooden sign with the shop's name written both in roman letters and katakana; "Starlight Glyph" was hanging above the door. The shop was closed today, so Kyouichi at least took a look at the books in the window. There were both handwritten and block printed books in the window and some of them were even illustrated with some high quality pictures. His attention however was captivated by one book that had a real photographed picture on its cover. It was a photo of the Ryuuken barracks. Even though Kyouichi barely saw that building himself, the book's title "The Legacy of Ryuuken" suggested that the depicted building is indeed their dojo. He was surprised to see such a book in Gensokyo, but he soon realized that it was only 125 years ago that this area was sealed off. That means they could have at least some basic photographic technology here, since the history of photography dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. When he briefly looked at all the books, he kept on walking to where he planned - the Hieda house.

As he was standing in front of the door he felt a bit nervous, but he gathered his courage and knocked on the door before he entered.


	7. A Girl who Forgot to Forget

"Umm, hello?" he called out. "Is this the village archive?"

In a room with one table and many shelves filled with books and scrolls he saw a little girl turned back to him as she was leaning over some book with a writing brush in her hand. As Kyouichi called out, the girl seemed a bit jumped by this unexpected visit. She put down her brush and turned to see who just barged into her house and asked if this is the archive.

"Ah, someone who came to seek knowledge." said the girl as she stood up from the table. "Yes, this is the village archive and my home. I am Hieda no Akyuu and I'm pleased to meet you."

"I'm Kyouichi Ishimaru, and it's a pleasure to meet you as well, Miss… wait a second…" Kyouichi suddenly paused himself as he realized something. " _You're_ Hieda no Akyuu?! The village chronicler?"

He truly couldn't believe his eyes and ears, since the girl who was standing before him didn't look much older than 10. She was short, barely exceeding half of Kyouichi's height. She had short purple hair and eyes of the same color. She was wearing a kimono-like outfit with a green vest with yellow, flower-patterned sleeves and a dark-red shortened version of hakama with a red-white laced obi sash. Her hair was decorated by a light pink flower-shaped ornament, which looked exactly like the flowers on her sleeves. Despite her childlike appearance, she radiated a very mature and intelligent aura, which Kyouichi couldn't even explain. His first impression of her was: "This girl is a youkai… probably."

"Yes, but I'm not just the village chronicler, but Gensokyo chronicler." answered the girl.

Kyouichi just silently stared at this child for a couple of seconds before he spoke again. "I… eh, no offense, but I imagined you somewhat… older. Are you a youkai then?"

The girl giggled and shook her head. "No, no. I'm a human, don't worry."

"But I guess you're not so ordinary human, right?"

"Well, we all have our abilities, don't we?" answered Akyuu with a question.

"And what's your ability then, Akyuu-san?"

"To remember everything I see and hear and an inability to forget anything… even from my previous lives. Though the memories are limited to the relevant information to the Gensokyo Chronicle."

"Whoa!" exclaimed Kyouichi. "That's quite something. But isn't it… you know… too much to bear?"

"Indeed it is." nodded Akyuu. "As a Child of Miare I started working on the Gensokyo Chronicle more than 1200 years ago and I remember everything since my first incarnation's birth until now. Even this conversation will be forever recorded in my memory. It really is a bit too much for a mere human…"

"Child of Miare? Are you referring to Hieda no Are? That oral historian who helped to compile Japan's first written historical record - the Kojiki?" asked Kyouichi as he recalled something he learned at school. "He really was famous for the ability to remember all sorts of stuff."

"Yes. And I, Hieda no Akyuu am his child. The ninth incarnation to be exact." replied the chronicler. "You see, the names of my previous incarnations were all puns on numbers: Aichi, Ani, Ami, Ayo, Ago, Amu, Anana and Aya. So as the ninth incarnation, my name is Akyuu, whereas Hieda no Are is a pun on zero."

"But isn't 1200 years longer than 10 generations?"

"That's right, but a Child of Miare is born in the Hieda family only once in a hundred years, give or take a few decades… But I still remember the events that occurred even when I wasn't physically here. From my informants, that is. I'm the first of the incarnations born after the barrier's creation."

"Amazing…" whispered Kyouichi. "Then you're just the person I'm looking for."

Akyuu smiled. "If it's about history, then I certainly can help."

"Then please tell me everything you know about the Great Boundary, or more importantly, about Yukari Yakumo." requested Kyouichi.

"Hm? Yukari-sama? And why are you so curious about her?"

"Because I'm an outsider and she might be my only way back home."

"I see…" muttered Akyuu. "In that case, I got good news and bad new for you, Ishimaru-san…"

"Oh boy…"

"The good news is that I've known Yukari-sama personally for quite some time… The bad news is that I've only seen her once as the ninth Child of Miare and I don't know when or even if she'll appear next time. I may not even have to live long enough to see her again in this life…"

Kyouichi sighed, because he heard the same thing about that youkai from several different sources.

"Yeah, I heard she appears only once in a few months or so, but if you are her friend or whatever, then why shouldn't you live long enough to see her again?"

Akyuu was silent and hesitant to answer for a while, but she answered after all: "Because with each time I reincarnate, my lifespan becomes shorter…"

"Does that mean that one day you will end your reincarnation cycle and finally enter afterlife?"

"That's one of the possible outcomes, yes." replied Akyuu.

"That means someone else will have to continue recording the events in Gensokyo."

"That's right." nodded young Akyuu. "But that won't be my problem anymore…" she added with a cute smile. Despite her not too pleasant fate, this girl who bore the whole history of Gensokyo on her shoulders seemed to be rather laid-back. She was even cheerful, as a child of her age would be.

"I'm not really sure if any of the historical records regarding Yukari-sama will help you, but I'll bring some anyway."

"Thanks, Akyuu-san."

* * *

In just a little while Kyouichi heard some slow and heavy footsteps coming from the hallway of the Hieda residence.

"…Akyuu-san?" he asked while peeking over the corner to the hallway. He saw a huge pile of books slowly moving towards him. Akyuu was apparently trying to bring them all in one go and Kyouichi could only see her hakama as she was carrying that half of a library to the living room.

"Are you nuts?! Let me help you with that!" said Kyouichi and took a major part of the book pile from Akyuu's overburdened hands.

"Ah, thank you, Kyouichi-san. I hope this will be enough…"

"Enough?! Are you kidding?! You brought a whole library with you! I might even figure out a way to bypass the Great Boundary by myself before I finish reading half of these books."

"Don't worry. It's not like these books deal only with Yukari-sama. Rather than that, they each contain some shorter passages about the great youkai and her deeds."

Akyuu and Kyouichi put all of the books on the table in the living room and then they started browsing.

"Hmm… Are all of these books a part of the Gensokyo Chronicle?"

"Yes, you'll find a record of every important and less important event and person in the history of Gensokyo in those books. Naturally, something about Yukari-sama too."

"Still, you can't really expect me to browse through all of these here…"

"Well no, but you can borrow them if you like." suggested Akyuu. "They're all copies, so it's okay."

"Are you really sure?" double-checked Kyouichi.

"Yes, I keep several copies of the whole compilation, so no worries." Akyuu reassured him.

Kyouichi took another look at the whole pile. "Hmm… I might need a hand cart or something to take all of these books home."

"Oh, right. I should at least give you some bags for them…" thought Akyuu and opened one of the drawers in the living room. From the drawer she took out a large, solid looking cotton bag.

It was big enough to contain all the volumes of the Gensokyo Chronicle.

"I think this should be enough." said Akyuu.

"Oh, this is perfect." said Kyouichi and immediately started packing the books in the bag.

"Say, Akyuu-san…"

"Hm? What is it?"

"I can imagine you compiling the Gensokyo Chronicle, but making copies of it… That's just… wow… I can't even imagine how much time it must have taken."

"Oh, but I don't make the copies all by myself. I just lent the original to the bookstore just across the street and they made transcriptions in case of the original being damaged or destroyed. Furthermore, they keep making more copies, so that one day, everyone will be able to buy their own copy of the Chronicle."

"So that's what I'll be doing as my part-time?" Kyouichi asked himself.

"Huh? You'll be working at the Starlight Glyph?" asked Akyuu.

"Yeah. Starting tomorrow. It was the only part-time job left…"

"That's great Kyouichi-san!" exclaimed Akyuu with joy. "That means we're like colleagues now."

"Eh… Yeah, but like I said, it's just part-time."

"But who knows…? Maybe you'll like that part-time job and start working there full-time." speculated Akyuu.

"Maybe…" replied Kyouichi uncertainly when he finally put the last book into the bag, "but I'd still prefer to return back to my home in the outside world…"

"Well then, I hope the information you'll find abut Yukari-sama will help you when you finally meet her."

"If there is a chance, then I will take it." said Kyouichi resolutely. "But even if I'm stuck here for the rest of my life, there's no harm in knowing an extra thing or two about this Gensokyo."

"No harm indeed." nodded Akyuu. "In fact, I think this knowledge may prove vital to your life here."

"Thank you very much for the books Akyuu-san." thanked Kyouichi and bowed to the little chronicler.

"The house of Hieda always welcomes everyone who seeks knowledge about Gensokyo, be they human or youkai." said Akyuu while flashing her cute smile.

"But still… Don't you at least want some cash for me borrowing those books?"

"Well I could ask for money for borrowing the books, but I think that you'll need every single coin as an outsider here, so you can borrow the books free of charge. Besides, I think you have a right to borrow them for free, since you'll probably be helping with making more copies."

"Alright then. I appreciate it… Thanks."

Kyouichi then picked up the bag and was about to leave.

"What, are you leaving already?" asked Akyuu. "Won't you at least stay for a cup of tea?"

"I thought you were busy, so I just…"

"Busy? You could say that I work on compiling the Gensokyo Chronicle in my leisure… I have lots and lots of free time. So, how about some tea?"

"Alright, I guess…" shrugged Kyouichi who didn't want to bother Akyuu too much, but he also had no real plans for today.

"Great! Please wait a moment."

* * *

Akyuu again disappeared somewhere in the back of her house and let Kyouichi waiting in the living room. As he waited and waited, he took a random volume of the Chronicle from the bag and browsed through its pages. He briefly read one random passage in the book; "Year 124 and the Flying Palanquin Ship Incident…"

"Year 124? That was one year ago… So this volume must be dealing with recent events." thought Kyouichi. As he was about to read the article about the incident, Akyuu returned to the living room with a platter with two cups of tea and a tea-pot.

"Sorry it took so long…" she apologized.

"Oh, that's ok. I'm not in a hurry or anything." said Kyouichi. "Say, Akyuu-san, where's your family?"

"I'd introduce them to you if they were here, but both of my parents are out at work right now. It's just me and my pet cat here." she beckoned to the corner of the room where a black cat was lazily lying on a pillow, occasionally swinging its tail.

"Alright, I was just curious…"

"So, um… how long have you been here as an outsider?" asked Akyuu as she was putting sugar in her tea.

"Today's the third day." answered Kyouichi while closing the book he was holding and putting it back into the bag.

"Really? And I thought that you've been here for at least a month or so…"

"Why would you think that?"

"Well, you're wearing clothes like people from Gensokyo, you got a part-time job and you came asking about the Great Boundary and Yukari-sama, so I thought that you must already have some experience with life in this place." deduced the 9th Child of Miare.

"I barely have any experience, though. I've just heard some rumors here and there, but I don't really know anything about Gensokyo." replied Kyouichi and took a sip of the hot tea.

"So you'll be learning everything from scratch…"

"Pretty much. From tomorrow on, I'll be also attending the Kamishirasawa School…"

"Keine-sensei will be your teacher for most of the subjects." informed Akyuu. "She's also an old friend of mine."

"And what about Yukari? What is she like in person? Can she be reasoned with or should I just give up on my crazy dream of returning home?" inquired Kyouichi.

"Of course she can be reasoned with. She's not like most youkai. Some say that she's mischievous or even dangerous, but she's got a really good heart. She may cause some trouble for humans from time to time, but she'd never go as far as directly harming anyone."

"Maybe not directly, but it still hurts when you're forcedly separated from your family."

"Well, one thing I can tell you with certainty, Yukari has done many seemingly incomprehensible deeds during her looooong existence, but know that there was a reason for each of them. You'll find out if you read about her in the books I gave you."

"A reason?"

"Like purposefully losing duels or even wars in order to achieve some greater goals… That is the way Yukari-sama thinks and acts. She may be really carefree and whimsical, but she is also extremely intelligent and cunning, as you'd expect from such an ancient being. Even if she can overcome everything with her sheer power, she often chooses to rely minimally on that power and rather use her deception. She can easily tell what effects will certain actions have even in distant future. In a sense, she's almost like a prophet."

"So, have you got any advice as to what should I do when I meet her by any chance?"

"Hmm… Well just greet her politely and act like a gentleman and you should have no problems with her. She's very friendly for a youkai. She's got lots of friends among youkai and humans alike."

"Yeah, I've already asked the local shrine maiden to talk to her about my problem. She also claims to know her personally."

"So, you've already met Reimu Hakurei? That's good for you, but she's just one of her friends out of many… You see, Yukari-sama's influence reaches far and wide and many of the most important, prominent and powerful youkai and humans are her good friends."

"So, she basically has the whole Gensokyo under her thumb…" stated Kyouichi.

"Actually, that's what they say about Reimu, but yes, I believe that the statement would rather fit Yukari-sama…"

"So, maybe I should become friends with more of Yukari's friends to increase my chances."

"That is certainly not a bad idea." agreed Akyuu. "Having as many friends in Gensokyo as possible is probably the most important thing for a good life… But be warned, while it's okay to become friends with most of the humans in Gensokyo, befriending youkai is often much more tricky and dangerous. You'll learn about most of the youkai at school, so once you know enough, you'll be able to peacefully deal with most youkai even without any magical abilities. Some youkai are naturally human-friendly, but much more common are the dangerous ones. For a human trying to befriend such a youkai can be extremely dangerous, but not impossible. The best place to try something like that would be in this village. Even if the dangerous youkai often come to the village, they won't attack anyone, but you shouldn't try their patience either." advised Akyuu.

"I don't have any suicidal intentions, so I won't be testing anyone's patience."

"To become friends with a dangerous youkai is one of the greatest achievements a human can accomplish. It's nothing you should try without any experience, though."

"Do you have any friends among the dangerous youkai besides Yukari Yakumo?"

"Well, no, I don't have any friends like that. And Yukari-sama isn't really dangerous, because she's a benevolent youkai. Although she's the most powerful and therefore, potentially the most dangerous, she really hasn't harmed anyone in a worse way than spiriting someone away or by means of a danmaku duel. But she likes to tease others by pranks and so on…"

"Okay, but why are you telling me to befriend the really dangerous youkai if you don't have any such friends yourself?" wondered Kyouichi.

"I'm not telling you to. I'm simply saying that although it's very difficult, it's still possible. The more friends you have among the youkai, the lesser the chance that you'll be attacked by the youkai. Understand?"

"Ah, I see… That's really clever."

"During your life here in the Human Village, you'll be sure to meet many youkai, even if you might not realize it. Almost every human here has some youkai friends, but rarely anyone can proudly say that they have a friend who is otherwise a very dangerous and hostile youkai…"

"So the greatest chances to encounter youkai are here?"

"Not the greatest, but they come by quite often. However, the one you'd like to meet the most almost never ever appears in the village…"

"Avoiding too much publicity, isn't she?" wondered Kyouichi. "Then I guess that "Youkai Friendship Plan" is my best option, huh?"

"I believe I haven't mentioned that she likes to sleep a lot." said Akyuu in addition. "And when I say a lot, I mean a whole lot."

"Oh, right, I think Reimu or Marisa said something about her hibernating or something…" recalled Kyouichi and took another sip of the tea.

"Yes, that she does," confirmed the chronicler, "but her hibernation should be over by this time, I believe. However, even when she's not hibernating, she still usually sleeps through most of daytime. She's a nocturnal youkai."

"Well what do you know, something we have in common…" murmured Kyouichi.

"What, are you nocturnal too?" asked Akyuu.

"Yeah, or at least back in the outside world, I used to work, study, play and basically live the most during nighttime."

"Well, nocturnal humans aren't so uncommon anymore, Kyouichi-san. Even I prefer to write during the night." admitted Akyuu. "On the other hand, even daytime youkai aren't as rare as they used to be. In fact, a good 50% of current youkai in Gensokyo are active during daytime."

As Kyouichi drank the last drops of tea in his cup, it occurred to him to ask Akyuu another important question: "Did Yukari ever… send anyone back to the outside world… even if she spirited them away here?"

Akyuu also finished her cup of tea and put it on a plate with a silent chink. She looked like she was thinking or tying to recall something and after a few seconds she smiled again with her usual cute smile. "Yes, Kyouichi-san. Yes, she did… Even more times than Reimu and all her predecessors together… Although, you are right, she was in most cases really responsible for people's spiriting away."

"So she's just playing with humans like with some toys?" asked Kyouichi, who still had very mixed feelings about the great youkai of boundaries.

"Even I, a friend of Yukari-sama for over a millennium will never be able to fully understand her mind," admitted Akyuu, "but if I should sum up her personality in just a few words, I'd say that she's… mischievous, but very kind-hearted."

"Thanks, Akyuu, for at least keeping my hopes up." said Kyouichi while nodding to her. He slowly stood up from the table, this time, really ready to leave. "I'll be going now, but I think I'll be coming for a visit quite often to consult things about Gensokyo."

"Please do," approved little Akyuu, "…and don't think that you're a bother or something, okay?"

"Alright, alright…" said Kyouichi. He took the loaded bag in his right hand - it must have weighed at least 25 kilos.

"Umpf…. Oh, by the way, Minako-san of the Saitou family sends her regards…" said Kyouichi as he was standing in the doorway.

"Oh, thanks… But how do you know Saitou-san?"

"I live in their house." explained Kyouichi. "That is, at least until I'll have my own place to live at or until my wish to return home becomes true…"

"Well, then please send my regards to Saitou-san as well. In any case, I wish you good luck, Kyouichi-san." said Akyuu, seeing Kyouichi off. "And do your best at the school and your part-time job."

"Alright, be good, Akyuu-san."

* * *

Bidding each other farewell for today, Akyuu returned back to whatever she was doing before and Kyouichi, with his hands full had to return back to the Saitou residence to drop off the books, so he could study them later. He laboriously carried the bag all the way to the northern part of the village, where the Saitous live; ignoring all the weird looks that the villagers on the streets gave him.

"I… I'm home…" panted Kyouichi when he finally opened the door on the house of the Saitou family. The heavy bag full of books made his way home quite exhausting.

"Oh, hello there, Kyouichi-kun." Minako greeted him. "Have you been shopping?" she pointed at the bag.

"No… I'm coming directly… from the archive." whispered Kyouichi still catching his breath. "Akyuu-san sends her regards…"

"So what's in the bag?" she inquired.

"I believe it's a copy of the most up-to-date version of the Gensokyo Chronicle… and probably something more…"

"You borrowed them?"

"More or less… I simply wanted to learn about something…" Kyouichi gave an uncertain answer.

"And I suppose you'll be going somewhere else now." wondered Minako.

"Sure, it's only noon, after all." replied Kyouichi, dragging the bag to the guest room.

"If you wait 15 minutes, the lunch will be ready."

"Sounds good."

Kyouichi unloaded the books from the bag in the already cluttered-up guest room, leaving even less free space in the room. There were 21 books in total. Some of them, however, didn't seem like they were a part of the Gensokyo Chronicle. As he tried to sort them into some chronological order, he heard Minako's voice calling: "Lunch is ready~!"

"Well then, let's freeload while I can…" said Kyouichi to himself in a joking manner.

* * *

He walked into the kitchen, where the whole family including Mizuto was already gathered at the table. Luckily, there was still some room for him at the table next to the children, Tadao and Chitose.

"Ah, Kyouichi-kun," said Mizuto, waving his hand at him, "please, sit, sit." he invited, "I heard that you're already admitted…"

"Well…" started Kyouichi, but was interrupted by Minako.

"Oh, come on, Mizuto, you can ask him about that after the lunch."

"Sure, I can, but I'm curious…" opposed her husband.

"Suffice to say, that I've been admitted, but I'm still waiting for my ID." the outsider summed up.

"Oh, you'll need a photo for that too." said Mizuto as he searched his inner chest pocket on his kimono. "This is how it looks like."

He took out a small, approximately 8x10 cm lacquered paper card with his photo and basic information about him.

"You're right." said Minako. "I forgot to tell him… Yes, you'll need to have a picture of you taken as well."

"So should I go back to the village hall now?" asked Kyouichi.

"No, there's no need." Mizuto calmed him down. "You can have your photo taken at the Ryuuken headquarters. There, they'll put the copy of your ID in their database, you'll get a stamp on your card like this one." he pointed at a small red circular stamp on his ID card. "And that's all. After that you're free to go."

"So I'll go to the Ryuuken HQ after lunch then."

"Er… Well, no, you won't." objected the fisherman. "You should wait until your card arrives and then go and have your picture taken and the ID confirmed at the same time. Otherwise, you'd have to go there twice. It could all have been avoided if Minako didn't forget about it, but it's nothing to fret about."

"That's right." agreed Minako. "I could go there with you if you like."

"We'll see…" said Kyouichi.

"Mom, we wanna eat already!" Chitose tried to apply her authority.

"Ok, ok, coming right up." said Minako as she went to the stove to serve the food into bowls.


	8. A Seemingly Pointless Stroll

After Kyouichi finished his meal, he thanked and bowed to the Saitous, telling them that he'll be yet going somewhere in the village. The truth was, he didn't quite know where he wanted to go yet, but he certainly didn't feel like spending the rest of the day in the guest room reading the borrowed books. He was thinking about seeing old Naota again and have that welcome party they talked about yesterday, but he decided that it would be better to have the welcome party after he gets his ID card.

Besides, he wasn't even sure if the retired carpenter would want to see his face again today. Their last conversation ended up in an awkward silence when it came to talking about youkai… For a moment, Kyouichi was even seriously considering visiting the shrine today, but shortly upon realizing the folly of this plan, he dismissed it as another one of his daydreams. Counting his remaining money, he even gave up on the idea of having some drink. He really had no idea what to do, so he just walked where his feet would take him. All within the boundaries of the Human Village, of course. At first he just strolled around the familiar streets near the marketplace, but to put more meaning to his wandering about, he decided to explore those parts of the village which Minako hadn't shown him yet. He didn't find anyone or anything particularly interesting in those unexplored streets and alleys.

The only noteworthy thing that caught his interest was one peculiarly looking building near one of the western farms. Kyouichi stood there, at the edge of the village, on the road leading west to the mentioned farm and turning gradually south, before it disappeared somewhere in the vast crop fields. This road seemed more frequently used than the one leading north and south. Even now, Kyouichi could see small groups of people walking down that road to and from the village. Oddly enough, none of them were accompanied by Ryuuken warriors. Many of them stopped at that strange building, standing approximately half way between the farm and the village.

Further beyond the building, there was a path leading southwards, eventually ending up at a distant large regular formation of stone objects – probably the local cemetery. However, the young human had his eyes fixed solely on that uniquely-shaped building that people seemed to be visiting on their way from the farms. By Kyouichi's rough guess, it was at least 300 meters away from the village, and the farm could be something over a half a kilometer away. He wondered what that building could be. It looked like a crossover between a ship and a shrine. At first, Kyouichi thought that it's just some odd granary, since it was standing near a farm, but for what convenient purpose would it be located there, away from other farm buildings could Kyouichi only guess. Not to mention its weird design... Seeing as more and more people were stopping by and apparently entering it, his curiosity and temptation to check out that unusual structure increased gradually.

He looked behind him to see if there wasn't anyone on the street headed to that building so he could at least ask them what it was. Luck smiled upon him, because he saw two people leaving their house right there where Kyouichi was standing. They looked like a wife with a husband. The husband looked like a middle-aged man with his fair hair slowly turning gray. He was wearing unusual clothes – like a black robe or a cloak and was possibly twice as old as his wife, if she indeed was his wife.

* * *

"Can we help you, young man?" asked the man, looking at Kyouichi, "Because you've been standing in front of my house for at least 5 minutes. If you came to buy something, my shop's open every weekday…"

"Oh, sorry… I didn't mean to." Kyouichi apologized. "I was only wondering what that interesting building on the road to the farm was. I've seen many people enter it and then leave after a while."

"Huh? What rock have you been living under until now, stranger?" asked the man. "You don't know about the Palanquin Ship? It's been converted into a temple last year."

"The Palanquin Ship?" repeated Kyouichi. The name sounded really familiar to him for some reason. A second later, he realized that there was an article about it in the chronicle, but he didn't really read it.

"Yes. Now known as the Temple of Myouren. You really haven't even head about it?" wondered the man in the black robe. "So you must come from another village then…"

"Actually, I come from the outside world."

"Ah, well that explains why you haven't heard…"said the man, putting his hand to his forehead to shield his eyes from the bright sunlight as he looked at the building in the distance.

"It all happened one year ago..." continued the robed man. "That building was actually a flying ship crewed by youkai. It was passing even above this village on its course to Hokkai - its final destination located on the outer edges of Makai. There, the youkai crew was supposed to free their friend and their spiritual leader from her imprisonment. On their way to Hokkai however, the ship caught the attention of the shrine maiden, who according to the news articles, thought that it was a treasure ship. Of course, there was no treasure onboard, just a bunch of youkai, so as a shrine maiden that she is, she decided to prevent the youkai from causing whatever incident they might have had up their sleeve by dueling them. However, even with all of the crew defeated, the ship continued in its course without stopping. Eventually, the ship reached Hokkai and the Hakurei shrine maiden, after learning the youkai's plan, wanted to see who was sealed off in the depths of that hellish realm. Upon opening the seal, she met Byakuren Hijiri – once a human monk, who sought the secret of immortality, driven by her fear of meeting the same fate as her younger brother, Myouren. She indeed did manage to keep her youth using her power, but fearing that her power might eventually disappear, she helped many youkai in many ways. However, she also liked humans. She always had a vision, a dream of a future, where humans and youkai would peacefully coexist with each other. But the humans who were always at war with the youkai never gave her vision a chance. In fact, they feared her and despised her due to her benevolent attitude towards youkai. In the end, they conspired against her and sealed her away in Makai, where she was supposed to remain for all eternity. That was until a band of her most loyal youkai followers, who were previously saved by Byakuren, decided to free her. As the ship arrived at Hokkai, Byakuren was released from her seal. Of course, Byakuren, being a friend of youkai was seen as a potential threat by the Hakurei shrine maiden, so they ended up dueling. In the end, Byakuren was defeated, but Reimu didn't seal her off again. It seems they have made some agreement, but I don't know the details. In any case, Byakuren was finally given freedom after more than a thousand years. Boarding the Palanquin Ship, she made a decision to settle down here, near the Human Village. The ship was at first used as a granary, but later it was remade into a temple, where Byakuren lives and serves to this day. After such a long time, she finally got to see her dream fulfilled… at least partly."

"Whoa!" exclaimed Kyouichi, who patiently listened to the story behind the strange building. "And that happened last year, you say?"

The man in black robe nodded. "We are just on our way there. Would you like to come with us?"

"Wait. Doesn't that count as leaving the village? Won't I need a permission and an escort?"

"No, as you can see, it's just a few hundred meters away and the farm over there still counts as a part of the village." explained the man. "Besides, I am offering you an escort so there's no need to bother the Ryuuken patrols now."

Kyouichi wondered if that man was some sort of magician, but he didn't ask anything. He just nodded to his offer. "Yes, I'd like to see the temple from inside."

"Then come with us." said the man and started walking towards the temple followed by his young wife.

"People visit this temple really often." the man kept talking. "And even youkai come to pray there."

"So… another reason why the Hakurei Shrine is barely visited by anyone, huh?" presumed Kyouichi.

"I'd say that the Hakurei shrine maiden wouldn't be too pleased to have so many youkai visitors." said the man, "But yes, since this temple is so close to the village, the Hakurei Shrine can't expect to have many visitors."

"That's a little bit unfair." stated Kyouichi who believed that people should be more thankful for the services of the Hakurei shrine maiden.

"The whole life is unfair, young one…" replied the man.

* * *

They continued to walk down the path and after a short time they came to the recently established temple. They entered and found themselves in the praying room of this unusual Buddhist temple. There was a large Buddha statue in the back of the room and in front of it they saw a meditating figure of a young woman sitting and meditating along with other temple visitors.

"That lady over there is Hijiri-san." whispered the man to Kyouichi's ear.

Kyouichi took a good look at that woman. She had long, wavy, light-brown hair. He didn't see her face, because she was facing the statue, but Kyouichi could see that she wasn't dressed up like a Buddhist monk at all. She was wearing a black and white dress with long strips of black fabric going across the middle and white strips of fabric going across the arms. She was also wearing some kind of long cape which remotely looked like the robe of the man who came with Kyouichi.

"Well, are you going to pray here or have you just come to have a look?" asked the man.

"I suppose I could stay…" whispered Kyouichi and joined other temple visitors in their meditation.

After some time, Byakuren Hijiri slowly stood up and the other people did the same. She then took some object that looked like a scroll and unrolled it. A sudden flash of bluish and violet light illuminated the entire temple. The light seemed to be coming from that scroll she was holding. As Kyouichi looked closer, he could see that the scroll was covered with some large symbols or letters of some unknown language that were radiating that violet glow. As Byakuren unfolded the scroll, she lifted it above her head. This made it look like the upper part of her hair was violet, while the lower part of her hair was still light-brown.

"Oh, the world of dharma is filled with light." she started chanting, "May the light of Buddha shine on your path of life and illuminate your souls. May it wash away all your sins, hatred and sorrows and fill your hearts with love and joy. May it enlighten your minds and bodies and protect you from illness as well as from evil. May it dissolve all doubt and show you the one truth. May it bless you and let it reflect itself upon this world through your good deeds. May it shine brightly, not letting you stray away from the righteous path and may it guide us all to the ultimate goal – a future where all beings, humans and youkai alike live alongside each other in love and harmony, not only in the afterlife, but in the present world as well."

A sudden bright flash from the scroll blinded Kyouichi and probably everyone else in the temple for a few seconds as Byakuren finished her blessing chants. Shortly after Kyouichi regained his sight, he could feel as if his soul had a nice big energy drink. He couldn't even describe this strange feeling, but he felt like it gave him hope… hope and willpower to carry on living no matter what misfortune might strike him during his life.

"Whoa!" Kyouichi exclaimed. "This Byakuren sure knows how to lift one's spirits."

Based on that story he heard about her from the man in the black robe, Kyouichi sympathized with Byakuren and her ideals without even knowing her or talking to her. He could now understand why her temple is so popular among the denizens of Gensokyo, but he could also understand that Byakuren's vision, no matter how righteous and virtuous it was, could hardly ever become true. At least in this world. There will always be humans who will despise the youkai and there will always be youkai who will hunt humans. Even if there would be only one race of beings in the world, there would still be conflicts. To achieve ultimate peace would seem like an impossibility to Kyouichi, but Gensokyo seemed to be the closest place to a real Paradise on Earth.

"Her blessings give hope and strength to those who need them." said the robed man, "But naturally, the temple is only popular to those humans and youkai who agree with her ideals. In other words, you may find some of the most human-friendly youkai and some of the most youkai-friendly humans among the temple visitors."

"Oh, so there are youkai here too?" asked Kyouichi and started looking around at the people in the temple.

"Shh~! Not so loud, young man. It's not very polite, you know." the man warned him with a hushed voice. "Of course there are youkai here too. They're all over Gensokyo. We are the minority here. Even Hijiri-sama herself is a youkai."

"Huh? Didn't you say that she was a monk or something?" Kyouichi whispered his question.

"She became a youkai, through her extensive devotion to magic." whispered the man back.

They slowly left the temple along with other people and were headed back to the village.

* * *

"So humans can become youkai too?" asked Kyouichi while walking.

"Naturally, they can. By many different ways and depending on many different conditions, humans, animals and even objects can become youkai."

"I see…"

Kyouichi started to think of all sorts of conditions required for someone or something to become a youkai – based on what he heard in fairy tales and legends and such. Before he knew it, he already reached the village with the unknown robed man and his wife who didn't say a word for the entire time.

"Well, here we are, back in the village." said the man. "As you already know, this is my house and my shop at the same time. But I'm afraid my shop will be of little use to you since you are not a Gensokyo native…"

"Really? What are you selling here?" wondered Kyouichi.

"Mixed goods, but mostly magical items like wands, trinkets, potions, scrolls, decorative Spell Card cases, spell books, robes and so on."

"So I'm guessing that you're a mage then."

"Yes, although not the best one, but still good enough to make business here." replied the mage.

"I see. So it seems I really won't be your customer…"

"So it seems… Unless you were a collector or if you wanted to buy a gift for your magic-using girlfriend or something…" said the merchant mage.

"Errr… yeah…" uttered Kyouichi while thinking: "Don't be ridiculous, old man."

"Well anyway, even if you could use magic I couldn't help you today, since I'm closed on weekends."

"Alright, alright… Well it's been nice to meet you, mister. I should get going now…"

"Yeah, likewise, young outsider. And if one day, you would somehow gain the ability to use magic, then I hope to see you at my shop, hehehe…" said the man in jest. "And don't let the youkai eat you."

With that said, the mage turned and slowly walked towards his house. Kyouichi started to walk back home, throwing one last glance at the mage's house. After he made a few steps however, he suddenly stopped upon realizing something surprising. He turned again to check if his sight wasn't fooling him and if he wasn't imagining things, as he often used to. This time, however, it seemed his senses were sharper than he thought. His eyes weren't deceiving him, for he could clearly see the name etched on the door of the mage's house, just before he opened them to enter. The name said: Kirisame.

"Wait! Waaaaiiiiiit~!" yelled Kyouichi at the mage who was about to enter his house after his wife.

"What is it? Did you forget something?" asked the mage.

"You're Kirisame-san?"

"Yes, what about it?"

"You're Marisa's father?"

The man just opened his mouth and looked at Kyouichi with an expression full of surprise. "…You…" he said after a while, "…you've met my daughter?"

"Well, yes. Just yesterday at the shrine… Is she home at the moment?"

"She… she doesn't live here with me…" Kirisame-san slowly replied. He closed the door on his house and walked towards Kyouichi.

"How is she doing? Is she healthy? Does she have everything she needs? Is she…"

"Whoa, mister, slow down!" Kyouichi stopped Kirisame-san's barrage of questions. "I've only been in Gensokyo for 3 days and I met Marisa only yesterday. I barely know a thing about her. I thought that she lived here in the village like everyone."

"S-sorry… I overreacted there a bit…" muttered Kirisame-san. "It's just been so long since I've last seen her…"

"Where does she live then?" asked Kyouichi. "Why doesn't she live with you and her mother?"

"Her mother passed away long ago, when Marisa was just a baby." explained Marisa's father with a sad and serious voice. "I took care of her as best as I could, but I knew that I couldn't take on her mother's roles upon myself as well. I got married again for Marisa's sake, even though I knew my new wife was no replacement for her true mother. I really do love my wife, but as Marisa grew up a little, she and my wife didn't get along too well. Eventually, Marisa decided to move away on her own. She was already a much better magician than me in her age, so she settled down in the Forest of Magic, where she built her own house by magic. She visits me only on rare occasions now… She works as a youkai hunter, much like the Hakurei shrine maiden. The two are really good friends, or so I heard."

"Yes, it seems they are…" nodded Kyouichi. "But I barely know them yet, to tell you the truth. However, they both seemed like nice girls, so I guess that I'll eventually get to know them better."

"If that's so, then please… I know that I may be asking too much, but please, at least tell my daughter that I love her very much… and ask her if she could pay me a visit sometimes… at least once. It's been ages since I've last seen her…"

Kyouichi just stood in silence and after a while he replied: "Alright, Kirisame-san… But I'm not promising you anything, so please don't put your hopes too high."

"Thank you, noble young man… Thank you…" humbly thanked the mage as he bowed down several times to Kyouichi.

"And my name is Ishimaru. Ishimaru Kyouichi and I really don't think that I'm noble…"

"Ishimaru-san, is it? I'll be expecting you. Even if you won't convince Marisa to come, just telling me how she is doing will be enough for me."

"Although I have no idea where she lives exactly, I think I'll be seeing her sometime during the next week. There should be a hanami at the shrine."

"Once again, I thank you, Ishimaru-san. You're one of the very few people who know Marisa and visit the village."

"Well duh, I live in the village with the Saitou family."

"I don't know all the people in the village by name, but the name Saitou does seem familiar…"

"Maybe it's because of the textile shop in the center of the village…" Kyouichi helped to refresh Kirisame-san's memory.

"But of course! That lady… I think her name is Minami or something like that."

"Minako." Kyouichi corrected him. "She lives at the northern edge of the village, just if you wanted to know…"

"Well then, I look forward to seeing you again, Ishimaru-san." said Kirisame-san, turning back and heading home again.

"Say…" said Kyouichi suddenly, "Haven't you tried using the services of that Fairy Post Office to contact your daughter?"

"To be honest, I wouldn't trust a fairy even with taking out my trash. I did hear a lot of praises on that post office, though. Still, I think if Marisa saw some fairy trying to make her way into her house, she'd most likely make short work out of it with magic."

"Alright." said Kyouichi, chuckling at the thought of Marisa zapping some poor postal fairy. "I was just wondering. See you next time, Kirisame-san."

Kirisame-san bowed and returned back to his house. Kyouichi also headed home after that, since he couldn't think of anything else to do or anywhere else to go.

* * *

"Oh, you're back early." said Minako when she came to see who was knocking on the door of her house.

Kyouichi just shrugged. "Walking around the village alone and without any goal just isn't much fun…"

"True, but don't worry, you'll make more friends at school, I'm sure." Minako reassured him.

"I think I'll take a look at those books I borrowed."

"Okay then, I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything."

Kyouichi closed himself in the guest room, where he tried to make a bit more room on the floor. He then took the first volume of the Gensokyo Chronicle in his hands and skimmed through its pages. He certainly didn't intend to read all of those books from start to finish. He just wanted to know something more about the great youkai of boundaries, Yukari Yakumo. Something that wasn't just a legend or an opinion, but a historical fact. As he skimmed through the pages for the second time, he came across that name, almost at the very beginning of the book.

"Ah, here's something…" he muttered as he was checking the date of the event regarding this youkai. "Holy…! That really was more than 1200 years ago!"

Kyouichi returned a couple of pages back to the article's title – The need of recording the history of a land called Gensokyo; by Hieda no Aichi. The whole article was about a dozen pages long thesis describing various reasons for starting the compilation of the Gensokyo Chronicle. Not only was this area populated by humans, which alone would be a reason to start a chronicle, but also by youkai, who were residing in Gensokyo long before humans settled there. The humans didn't settle directly in Gensokyo, but rather in its surrounding areas. They didn't know about the youkai at first, but they found out about them shortly after they had settled, over 1200 years ago. It was because of the youkai, that this land was called Gensokyo – literally meaning Land of Fantasy or Land of Illusion. Many of the youkai were hostile, so humans rarely ventured deeper into their territory. Some of the youkai, however, were friendly towards humans such as the kappa. Among the non-hostile youkai was also one of great wisdom and power. Her name was Yukari Yakumo.

She often used to appear out of nowhere to surprise humans and to cause mischief, but she never meant harm. Many human warriors have tried to hunt her down simply because she was a youkai, but they were unable to defeat her no matter how hard they tried. She seemed to be curious about humans, but not just any humans. She seemed to be mostly attracted to exceptional and gifted people whose abilities could be considered supernatural. One of those humans was Hieda no Aichi. According to Aichi, Yukari appeared to her when she was a child and told her that she has a very interesting ability – to remember everything. Although Aichi didn't believe it at first, it seemed that her power "awakened" one day and she was able to recall events even from the first day of her life. Before Aichi became 18 years old, Yukari appeared to her again and suggested that Aichi should compile a chronicle similar to Kojiki, but about Gensokyo and its inhabitants. Since that day, Aichi and Yukari became friends. Yukari would regularly inform Aichi of noteworthy events and Aichi would record them into the chronicle.

"Hmm, interesting…" muttered Kyouichi. "So this Yukari is older than the recorded history of Gensokyo… Let's see if there's anything more about her in this volume…"

Kyouichi found another article which mentioned Yukari. Its title was: Saigyou Ayakashi – The great youkai cherry tree. This article said that there was once a very talented poet called Saigyou Houshi who lived from 1118 to 1190. He loved nature, which inspired him the most in making his poems, so he spent most of his time traveling. When he felt that his death was near, he decided to take his final breath under the most beautiful cherry tree he could find. A few decades later, after Saigyou's death, the cherry tree under which he died became even more beautiful. The rumors of its divine beauty spread across the land and many people wanted to see the tree. Many of those who saw it were charmed by its beauty into resting at its roots. But the tree actually drained the essence from their souls and eventually it developed youkai abilities. It could then charm anyone near it into resting under it – permanently.

The cherry tree became known as the Saigyou Ayakashi. Since it was very dangerous, it was placed in the Netherworld by Yukari Yakumo, where it couldn't kill anyone, since everyone in the Netherworld is already dead. The tree's influence however, reached even beyond the borders of Netherworld, affecting people in the world of the living. It weakened the boundaries between the two worlds so that it could draw the living into the Netherworld and kill them there. Apparently, placing Saigyou Ayakashi in the Netherworld was but a temporary solution. Yukari Yakumo tried to find a way to seal the tree so that it would never bloom again and therefore render it harmless, but she only managed to weaken the tree's influence. By that time she hadn't yet mastered her ability of manipulating boundaries to the extent where she could seal the tree completely or erase it from existence.

That changed when she met another unusually "gifted" human child – Saigyou Houshi's daughter. Her name was Yuyuko Saigyouji. She was blessed (or perhaps cursed) with powers relating to death and spirits of the dead. She was unaware of that power, but as more mysterious and unexplainable things started to happen around her, people started to believe that she was cursed or possessed by a demon. At first, Yuyuko could only control a few spirits and communicate with them.

However, her powers developed to a point when she could invoke death, although inadvertently. Ever since then, she was treated like an outcast, even by her own family. It was sometime during this period of her life when she met Yukari Yakumo. Since everyone despised and feared Yuyuko and her powers, Yukari became her only and best friend. As they were getting to know each other a bit more, Yukari told Yuyuko about the Saigyou Ayakashi, the great evil youkai cherry tree and about her plan to seal it. She even told her how to get to the Netherworld and showed her the youkai cherry tree itself. A couple of months later, Yukari Yakumo finally figured out how to permanently seal off Saigyou Ayakashi and she went to tell the news to Yuyuko. However, she couldn't find her anywhere where she used to hang out.

The last place that came to her mind was Hakugyokurou – the huge mansion with a shrine overlooking the Netherworld. In one of its many gardens was the Saigyou Ayakashi. When Yukari appeared near the cherry tree, she had found her friend Yuyuko lying underneath its partly blooming blossoms in a pool of blood and a knife in her hand. It was too late to save her. She committed suicide, most likely because she couldn't bear to live with such horrible powers.

Although Yukari was crushed by this tragedy, she didn't lose her mind. She even got a better idea as to how to seal off the Saigyou Ayakashi – using Yuyuko's body to create the seal. She then sealed both Yuyuko's soul and Saigyou Ayakashi's cherry blossoms, so that it would never bloom fully again. At the same time, Yuyuko's soul was meant to forever remain in the Netherworld and never to enter the reincarnation cycle, so that she would never feel pain again. Such was Yukari's wish.

After receiving her final judgment, Yuyuko was granted eternal residence in Hakugyokurou in exchange for the task she was appointed to by the great Yama judge - to manage the souls of the dead. Thus she became the princess of the Netherworld. There she could put her powers to good use. However, upon entering the afterlife, she lost most if not all of her memories from the time when she was alive. Yukari visited her again after a longer period of time to start their friendship all over again. The most recent addition to the article made by Hieda no Akyuu states that Yukari and Yuyuko remain as best friends even to this day.

"Now that was one heck of an evil cherry tree." stated Kyouichi when he finished reading the whole article. It gave him a hint that Yukari was a good-natured youkai, at least toward her friends. However, he also learned that she was mostly interested in exceptional humans gifted with extraordinary powers. Since Kyouichi considered himself as a completely ordinary young man, who has led a boring life even by the outside world standards, he saw his chances of ever meeting Yukari as very low.

"But why would she take me here then?" he contemplated. "Was it really her doing? Do I have some latent powers which I don't know about? …Yeah, as if… A whole train got spirited away after all. I really doubt that every single person riding it would be gifted with unusual powers. In fact, I doubt that anyone was…"

Kyouichi was really curious about the true reason why he and many other people with him and before him found themselves in Gensokyo. However, his contemplations would have to wait, since he heard Minako calling: "Supper is ready~!"

"What a perfect timing!" he sighed, closing the first volume of the Gensokyo Chronicle. "All that reading made me really hungry."

Hoping that some day all his questions will be answered when he reads enough books and meets many people, he left the guest room and headed straight into the kitchen.

* * *

By the time Kyouichi finished his meal and returned to his room, it was already too dark to read. Since there were a lot of flammable materials in the guest room, it had no lamps or candles.

"Oh well, I'm getting up early tomorrow anyway." he said to himself. "I might as well get used to this routine…"

He got undressed and stretched himself on the futon. Going to sleep without setting an alarm clock made Kyouichi feel a bit uneasy. Especially when he knew that he shouldn't oversleep.

"Hopefully, Minako-san will wake me up in the morning…" he thought.

He closed his eyes and just waited until he drifts away into the world of dreams, but for some reason he just couldn't fall asleep. Maybe it was because he was excited about his first day at the new school or because he was a bit nervous before he started working part-time at the bookstore. This was nothing unusual to Kyouichi, since he usually had a hard time falling asleep after a weekend, because now his mind had to focus on more important things. He even came up with a name for his little sleep disorder – the Sunday Syndrome. In the end, however, he always managed to clear his mind of stress and fall asleep, although a bit later than intended.


	9. Back to School

As the sun rose again, Kyouichi was awakened from his dream by Minako-san.

"Mmmmm….*yawn*…what?" he mumbled from his sleep.

"Wake up, Kyouichi-kun. You don't want to be late on your first day at school, do you?"

Kyouichi quickly opened his eyes. "Of course I don't, Minako-san… Thanks for waking me… *yawn* …up."

"You're welcome." said Minako with a smile. "Now why don't you take a bath before I prepare the breakfast?"

"Hey, I'm not a 5 year old. I know what to do when I wake up."

"Okay, sorry…" Minako apologized. "It's just that I always have to tell my kids what to do… I'm just not used to the fact that you're a bit older than them."

"Then why did you decide to take me into custody so easily?" asked Kyouichi as he was folding his futon. "It seems that you're already busy enough with your work and your children to be feeding a freeloader like me…"

"It may seem to you that way, but here in the village, there's a policy for those who take outsiders into custody to receive some extra financial support and tax advantages." replied Minako.

"Really? So I'm not a dead weight for you?"

"Really." assured Minako firmly. "And don't you think that we've taken you in only because of these advantages. We are all humans after all and we have to help each other. Especially in times of need."

"Alright then, at least I won't have to feel bad about living here…" said Kyouichi on his way to the bathroom.

"Of course not. Now go and take a bath."

* * *

Kyouichi took a quick bath, cleaning himself and drying up immediately afterwards. He got dressed and rushed into the kitchen to have breakfast. The whole Saitou family was again gathered at the table, having breakfast. Minako was making some sushi rolls, the children were talking and laughing about something and Mizuto was reading some local newspaper called Bunbunmaru.

"Oh, it's onii-chan! Good morning." called Chitose from the table as Kyouichi entered.

"Good morning to you all." greeted Kyouichi.

"We'll go to school together, right?" asked Tadao-kun.

"Yeah, but not to the same class I think…"

"I know, but it's a bit funny to see a grown up like you to go to school with us." remarked Tadao.

"I heard that I'm not the only one, though."

"That's right." said Chitose. "There were even much older people than you who attended the school."

"The school is quite fun." said Tadao. "You'll learn a lot about Gensokyo and the youkai and there is a lot of clubs to join."

"To tell you the truth, I never joined any school clubs before…" admitted Kyouichi. "Well, I did some martial arts for a couple of years, but that wasn't a club at our school…"

"Really?" asked Mizuto from behind the newspaper he had stretched before his face. "So you must have a strong body."

"Well, not really…" frowned Kyouichi. "It's been years since I last did any physical activity besides my part-time jobs."

"Why did you quit?" wondered curious Mizuto.

"Because my parents divorced and I moved to Tokyo with my mother. Our financial situation wasn't exactly good, so instead of continuing my training there, I had to find a part-time job to help support the household."

"Sorry to hear that… But knowing some form of martial arts would increase your chances of survival at least by a bit, should you be attacked by some youkai. Of course, if you were attacked by a strong youkai, it wouldn't help you even if you were a master of martial arts and adept in using magic."

"Nah, I don't think there's any need for me to keep training martial arts." rejected Kyouichi. "Besides, I don't think anyone would train me unless I was a Gensokyo native."

"That only applies for joining the militia." Mizuto corrected him. "However, you could train under one of their sensei. Even our Tadao-kun trains there. All you need is some money."

"There we go again – money. It seems that I'll need a lot of money on a lot of more important things than training. And I'm afraid I won't be able to pull it off with just some part-time job."

"Well, as you wish. I'm not going to force you into anything."

"We can talk about this later, Mizuto-san. I have other things to worry about now."

"Okay…" nodded Mizuto and finally put down his newspaper on the table. "Good luck at school and your new part-time job then."

"Thanks." said Kyouichi before he swallowed the last sushi roll on his plate.

"Come on, onii-chan!" Chitose called at him. "We'll show you the way to school."

"I already know where the school is." replied Kyouichi. "But sure, I'll come with you."

He put on his sandals and off he went to school, accompanied by the Saitou siblings.

* * *

"I wonder if I'll have to buy my own textbooks too…" thought Kyouichi as he was passing through the marketplace.

He could see many other children who were obviously also headed to the Kamishirasawa School. For Kyouichi it was his first day at this school, but for all the other kids it was just a regular day in the middle of the school year. The good thing was that he only had to go through the last stage of the elementary education, but since the school year already started some time ago, he had to catch up with all the previously lectured lessons.

"Here we are… Kamishirasawa School…" he said in his mind as he was just a few meters away from that building. He took a deep breath and entered the school along with other, much younger students.

He found himself in a small lobby and he watched as the crowd of students gradually divided into several streams, each going in different direction.

"Damn, I don't even know where I am supposed to go."

"The 6th grade elementary class is on the ground floor." Chitose explained. "Just go through that door, turn left and keep following the corridor. The last classroom to the right should be it, right, Tadao-kun?"

Her brother nodded. "Yes, that's where I had my lessons last year.

"Okay, thanks."

"We'll be going upstairs to our classes, but we can meet during lunch break if you like." suggested Chitose.

"Okay then, rendezvous at twelve in the school yard." noted Kyouichi to himself.

"Good luck then, onii-chan. See you around." said Chitose while smiling and waving at Kyouichi as she slowly headed upstairs to her classroom.

Kyouichi smiled back and did a thumbs-up gesture to show that he will try his best. He went through the lobby door and turned to the corridor by his left side, as Chitose told him. He felt a bit awkward and anxious as he made his way through the corridor full of children who stared at him curiously. When he finally reached the corridor's end, he read the sign above the door: A – 6.

"This must be it…" he said while opening the door.

* * *

He could immediately see that he wasn't the only odd fellow in the classroom. He saw a whole group of familiarly looking people dressed like ordinary people from the outside world.

They were the same people he saw back at the Uzume tavern. He slowly walked up to them, bowed and introduced himself to the whole group.

"So you too?" asked a young man who could be as old as Kyouichi. He was a foreigner – probably from America or Europe, but he could speak Japanese quite fluently. He had short and spiky blond hair and light-green eyes. He was wearing a yellow tank top with the name of a famous NBA team and black baggy shorts.

"You're just like us. You were riding on that subway train, right?" he asked.

Kyouichi nodded.

"Oh, I think I remember you, young man." said a young lady, looking at Kyouichi. She could be in her late twenties. She had dark-brown straight hair affixed in the back by a pair of decorative chopsticks and she was dressed in a light-pink blouse, dark jacket and knee-length skirt. "You were wearing a black t-shirt and blue jeans... and you were already sleeping when I got on the train." she said to Kyouichi as she recalled the event from a couple of days ago.

"Isn't this situation just amazing?" asked another person – a middle-aged man with very short black hair with a bald spot on his head and glasses. He was wearing a dark-grey suit with a red tie. To Kyouichi he looked like a teacher, doctor, lawyer or some other sort of intellectual.

"For years I've read about mythology, ghosts, youkai, magic, UFOs and otherworldly realms, all the while trying to prove their existence. And here I am now… in a land that is like straight out of a fantasy novel."

"That's really great, mister, but not everyone like you is so happy to be here…" said a young looking man in a trainman uniform with an agitated tone. "I have a wife and kids. They… they must think I'm dead by now… I really don't know what the rest of you are planning to do, but I'm going to try and find a way out of this place. I'll read every single book they have here if it can help me get back home."

"Then we have the same goal." said Kyouichi to the trainman. "But I'm afraid it won't be that easy…"

"I think I'd rather die than to be stranded here…" the man continued. "Why does something as unthinkable as this have to happen to me?"

"Oh, stop whining already!" shouted a girl who was apparently a part of the group of outsiders. Judging by her high school uniform and her appearance, she could be 16 to 18 years old. She had short brown hair and eyes of the same color. She seemed a bit tomboyish and was obviously annoyed by the trainman's constant complaints.

"At least we're not dead." she continued. "Sure, most of us would like to get back home, but as this Kyouichi fellow said, it's not going to be easy. But if we really want to get out of this place, then our first step will be to learn something about it."

"This girl speaks some sense." acknowledged the man in the suit. "I'm eager to learn as much as possible about this place so that I'll be able to write a book about it after we'll all manage to return home one day… But that might take years, perhaps even decades."

"And perhaps there even isn't a way out of here…" said the young lady in pink blouse

"Such a possibility exists, indeed." said the man with glasses. "But for now, we'll just have to gather, analyze and consider every bit of information about this Gensokyo if we ever wish to find out whether or not is there a way back to the outside."

"Well, I don't know how much you already know," said Kyouichi while taking a seat at a vacant desk near the other outsiders, "but during the last three days I managed to learn a few things about this place from various people. You see…"

Kyouichi was about to start explaining what he already knew, but he stopped immediately as the classroom door opened and the teacher entered.

Her unusual appearance alone commanded Kyouichi's attention. She was a tall, young woman with long silver hair with a slightly bluish tone and brown eyes. She was wearing a navy-blue dress with short white sleeves and a red ribbon tied at the bottom of the collar. She was also wearing an unusual square-shaped hat, remotely similar to those worn by scholars, only with a small house-shaped extension, decorated by another red ribbon on top.

"Good morning, everyone." she greeted the whole class with a pleasant voice and smile. "Before we start with our usual lessons, I would like to make an announcement. As you can see, we have quite a number of... ummm… transfer students this year."

The attention of every regular elementary school 6th grader in the class now shifted from the teacher to the group of approximately 10 people who "transferred" to Kamishirasawa School from the outside world. A few more outsiders came into the classroom while Kyouichi was talking to the group of those 5 people who were already waiting there.

"These students," she continued, "will be your classmates and friends from now on, so I'd like you all to welcome them among us. I hope you will all get along well with each other."

The teacher then turned around to take a piece of chalk in her hand and scribbled something on the blackboard. She then turned back to the class and took a step to the side, so that the whole class could see what was written there. It was the teacher's name.

"Most of you already know me well... I hope. To all of you new students, my name is Keine Kamishirasawa." said the teacher while pointing at the blackboard. "But you can all call me Keine-sensei. Now, why don't you all newcomers come over here and tell us something about yourselves?"

Kyouichi and all the other outsiders slowly stood up from their chairs and walked up to the blackboard. Kyouichi was standing somewhere in the middle of this group. The man in the suit was the eldest of the group, so he introduced himself as first.

"Good morning, Keine-sensei, good morning, class and good morning, fellow transfer students. My name is Hikaru Nagahashi. I'm 46 years old and before I "transferred" here I used to be a paranormal researcher. I collected and studied all sorts of materials on various paranormal topics such as ghosts, spirits, demons, legendary beasts, magic, extraterrestrial beings and UFOs and so on… But I must say that I hadn't even imagined that one day I would find myself in a place such as this… Gensokyo."

"I'm pretty sure none of us who are standing here ever imagined ending up here, Nagahashi-san." thought Kyouichi as he listened to Nagahashi's brief introduction.

"Ok, thank you, Nagahashi-san." said Keine-sensei as she jotted something down into her class register. "Everyone, say hello to Nagahashi-san."

"Hello, Nagahashi-san~!" choired the children in the class.

Next in line was the tomboyish girl in a high school uniform. She took a step forward and bowed to the entire class.

"Hello, I'm Midori Iwakami, I'm 16 and I was an ordinary high school student before I appeared here… I look forward to studying here with you, but at the same time I wish to return home… That's all."

"Same here, Iwakami-san." thought Kyouichi as he was preparing words for his own introduction.

"Thank you very much, Iwakami-san." said Keine-sensei and again she jotted something down into the class register.

The students greeted Midori with a unanimous "Hello, Iwakami-san~!"

Without waiting, the man in the trainman's uniform stepped forward and nodded to greet the class.

"My name is Yuujin Ueda, I'm 31 and I am an engine driver of the Tokyo underground railways. Frankly, I can't wait to get home… It's been three days already… I just want to find a way back…"

"Yeah, yeah, we've heard that one before." thought Kyouichi. "I too hope to find a way home… only with less whining. Besides, I don't think many folks here even know what an engine driver means…"

Keine-sensei noted down Yuujin's name and the children welcomed him like anyone else.

The next person to introduce herself was the lady who was dressed in pink blouse and gray skirt and jacket.

"Greetings, my name is Sayuri Hayashi… Umm… I better keep my age to myself. I used to work in a travel agency, but then I found myself here… I don't know what else to say… I like children… and I like vanilla ice-cream and I sometimes have a cup of sake… But only occasionally. Oh, and…"

"Yes, yes, thank you. That will be enough for now, Hayashi-san…" Keine-sensei interrupted her. If she didn't, Hayashi-san would probably go on until the end of the lesson. Now it was Kyouichi's turn to say something about himself, so he also stepped forward and a little nervously, he started: "Umm…. Yo! I'm Kyouichi Ishimaru and like all these people, I appeared in Gensokyo three days ago. I'm 22, by the way… and I am… I was a student of anthropology… Learning about people, various cultures and society as a whole. Not very interesting stuff, to tell you the truth, but at least there's no math there, hehe… (okay, I better stop before I embarrass myself too much). Well, that is all. Nice to meet you all…"

The class greeted him as usual and Keine-sensei noted his name down as usual. Kyouichi again stepped back and watched as the foreigner standing beside him stepped forth.

"Hello, I'm Daniel Morrison. I'm 21 and I originally come from L.A., California. I moved to Japan with my parents when I was still in grade school and I slowly got a basic grasp of the language, but I still have difficulties sometimes… Oh, and I don't study at a university or anything… I started working as a car mechanic after I graduated from high school, but I guess you don't even know what that is, do you? Well, never mind… I just hope to return home safely… not that I have anything against you…"

Kyouichi was now lost in thought as he was trying to come up with a way how he could benefit from the knowledge and experiences of all the other outsiders and how his knowledge could benefit others. He didn't even pay attention to the rest of the people who were introducing themselves. As the last person in the group introduced herself, Keine-sensei told them that they could already sit in their desks.

* * *

"Now, dear transfer students, I'll be teaching you Gensokyo History, Youkai Typology and Basic Gensokyo Geography. You don't need to buy your textbooks; I've already put them in your desks along with some blank paper sheets to take down notes. You don't need to attend the Math and Japanese Language and Literature classes, but if you'd like to, you are free to join them. In winter, you'll be all doing the tests for your elementary education certificate. You don't need to worry, though; the tests aren't all that hard. However, I expect you to prepare thoroughly for every lesson and of course, to do your homework. You can consult anything you like with me after school. My office is right here on the ground floor… Alright then, let's start our Gensokyo History lesson."

Kyouichi reached under the desk and found three different textbooks and some blank papers, just as Keine-sensei said. He took the book titled Gensokyo History. It was a red, hardback book, which could have about 200 pages.

"Okay, open your books on page 56, we'll continue with the First Genso-Lunar War. But before we start, who can tell me what did we discuss last time?"

A few children raised their hands.

Keine-sensei looked at the students with raised hands and picked one of them to give the answer: "Hmm, how about Takashi-kun?"

"Last time we were discussing the sealing of Saigyou Ayakashi." answered the boy who was sitting right in front of Kyouichi.

"Correct." nodded Keine-sensei. "And who can tell me whose body was used to form the permanent seal on Saigyou Ayakashi?"

Again, a few of the regular students raised their hands, but so did Kyouichi, since he also knew the answer. Keine-sensei wanted to pick one of the 6th graders, but then she noticed Kyouichi and her face made a surprised expression.

"Eh? You know the answer?" she asked uncertainly.

"I believe it was the body of a noble girl named Yuyuko Saigyouji." answered Kyouichi, hoping that he pronounced the name correctly.

A moment of silence came about. Keine-sensei's smiling face turned serious as she stared at Kyouichi with a penetrating gaze.

"…Correct." she acknowledged. "What did you say your name was again?"

"Ishimaru Kyouichi."

Now everyone in the classroom stared at him like at some kind of alien. His unexpected correct answer attracted more attention than Keine-sensei's weird hat.

"May I ask how did you know about that?" asked Keine-sensei after she marked something in her register.

"I read about it in the Gensokyo Chronicle."

"Gensokyo Chronicle? That book is not yet for sale, as far as I know. That means you went to the archive…" deduced Keine-sensei.

"Yes, and Hieda-san even let me borrow the whole compilation."

"The whole compilation? What do you need the whole compilation for? We won't be discussing the history of Gensokyo in such detail."

"Yeah, I told Akyuu-san that I don't need the whole chronicle, just some information about Yukari Yakumo, but she said that it's ok. I don't really plan to read everything in those books."

"You're curious about Yukari-sama?"

"I don't think it should surprise you that much… As far as I've heard, she may be the only means for me and for all of us outsiders to return back home. That's why I'd like to know as much as possible about her."

"I see… Well in that case, you may learn something more about her today, because she was directly involved in the First Genso-Lunar War."

"Really? What, did she try to take over the Moon or something?" asked Kyouichi more out of jest than seriously.

"She did…" replied Keine-sensei seriously. "Open your book on page 56 and we shall finally start with the lesson."

The students did as they were told and Keine-sensei started talking more elaborately about one of the greatest events in Gensokyo's as well as Moon's history. This war was allegedly started by Yukari more than a millennium ago. According to the text in the book and Keine-sensei's explanation, she amassed an army of dangerous youkai under her command with the sole purpose of invading the Moon, which was and supposedly still is inhabited by a race of beings called Lunarians.

They are similar to humans in appearance, but are by far more advanced in both technology and magic than any individual, group or nation on Earth. Furthermore they are said to know the recipe for the so called Hourai Elixir, which grants immortality. It is also said that they keep hiding their presence from the Earthlings by living on the dark side of the Moon and by using cloaking magic. Yukari initiated her invasion by manipulating the boundary between the truth and lie on the surface of the Misty Lake, where the Moon was reflected.

She then opened a gap leading directly to the near side of the Moon. The army of youkai she commanded at that time would probably suffice to defeat any other army on Earth, however, even this army was no match for the Lunarians' advanced weaponry and magic. The whole army was routed within a couple of days, thus making Yukari's invasion a complete and utter failure. The text in the book states that one of the possible reasons for Yukari to lead an invasion was a mere personal greed for superior magic and technology, however, other sources claim that she purposefully lost the war in order to teach all other youkai a lesson not to lead any expansion wars. The latter theory seems more plausible, since it fits into the concept of concentrating the youkai in rather small areas in great density. One such area was Gensokyo. After the "failed" invasion, the youkai were starting to flock to Gensokyo and only attacked humans who dwelled near their territory or were passing through.

"This turn of events eventually led to the creation of the Great Boundary and Gensokyo as we know it today." Keine concluded the lesson.

"So she had this "failure" planned from the beginning?" asked Kyouichi to make sure he understood correctly.

"So it seems." replied Keine-sensei. "She might have had the idea of sealing the youkai from the rest of the world in her mind even before the first written records about Gensokyo came into existence."

"Didn't the youkai she commanded plan any revenge for her betrayal?" wondered Kyouichi.

"To tell you the truth, most of the youkai she commanded still believe that they simply lost against a more formidable opponent and they didn't even think of blaming Yukari for it. Of course, there was a small faction of those who found out about her intention and they didn't take it well, but at the same time, they feared that they might have ended up even worse if they took any hostile actions against her. After all, there were no casualties on neither sides, so the youkai from Earth had nothing to be upset about besides a couple of injuries and bruised ego. Even with all the advantages the Lunarians possess, it's not that easy to kill a youkai. Furthermore, it seems that Yukari-sama also took steps to ensure that there would be no casualties by applying her boundary altering abilities. It's even questionable whether this incident should be called a war."

"A war without casualties… now that's a bit odd, indeed." acknowledged Kyouichi and took down more notes on the paper.

"And it wasn't the only similar incident." Keine-sensei continued. "There was a Second Lunar War, again led by Yukari in 122. This time, however, it was a much smaller-scale incident. It seemed that she lost that one too, but it was the contrary, because she did achieve all her goals she had planned. We will discuss the Second Lunar War later in autumn. Right now, it will be enough if you know what happened in the first one."

Keine sensei looked at a clock hanging above the classroom door. "Alright class, it seems that this lesson is at its end. For your homework, please do exercises 1 and 2 on page 59. If you paid good attention today, you should have absolutely no problems with them. I'll be right back after the break."

The whole class stood up and bowed to Keine-sensei as she went to her office to prepare for the next lesson.

* * *

As Kyouichi sat down again and was about to race through the pages of another book, he felt two taps on his shoulder.

"Hey dude, that was quite impressive." said Daniel. "You already seem to know a fair deal about this place."

Kyouichi just shrugged. "Like I said, I only wanted to know as much as possible about Yukari Yakumo, so that I'd know how to deal with her if I ever meet her."

Midori joined the conversation. "Say, and who is this Yukari you keep talking about?"

"All I know is that she's a youkai. And as you heard a while ago, she's ancient and very powerful. There are numerous legends about her in the village. Most people don't even believe that she exists, simply because they had never seen her. However, several people that I've met seem to know her personally and I don't think they have a reason to lie. She supposedly cooperated with the creation of the Great Boundary and she can freely travel anywhere, regardless of this barrier. Furthermore, the Gensokyo chronicler, Hieda no Akyuu confirmed that she used to take things and people from the outside world into Gensokyo for some unknown reasons. However, she also said that Yukari has returned many outsiders back home."

Midori raised her eyebrow, "So you're saying that she teleported us here or something?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny that… But she may be our only chance, our only way to return."

Yuujin suddenly smacked the desk with his fist. "Then what are we waiting for?! Let's find her and get the hell outta here!"

"Do you really think…" responded Kyouichi with a stoically calm voice as he slowly turned his face to Yuujin, "…that I'd still be wasting my time here if I knew where to look for her? Trust me, you don't wish to return home any more than I do. At least we have some little chance, and I say that any chance is better than nothing."

"So we're just going to sit on our butts and wait in hope that some magical youkai lady will show up and ask us if we'd like to return home?!" asked Yuujin angrily.

"No, we're going to look for her alright. We'll be gathering information about her - articles, legends, poems, songs, local rumors, whatever… We may learn what places she uses to appear at or what people she likes to visit. Also, we need to make our problem official. The more people know about us and our situation, the greater the chance that Yukari will find out about us. Oh, and if you want to return to the outside world so badly, then you should go to the Hakurei Shrine and ask Reimu the shrine maiden to take you there. But you probably wouldn't know where to go from that place. It's somewhere deep in the mountains with no signs of civilization in sight."

"Oh, this is just great…" grumbled Yuujin. "And I don't know what makes you so sure that this youkai will even want to take us back home if she took us here."

"Are you listening to me at all?!" asked Kyouichi, this time with a raised voice. "I said that the chronicler confirmed that Yukari did return many outsiders back to their homes. Even those she spirited away to this place. Why? I have no idea. I myself have very ambiguous opinions about her and serious doubts whether I should really trust her… provided that I meet her one day. But right now, I don't think we have much of a choice."

The engine driver sighed. "Alright… You have a point, I suppose… But that plan sucks if you ask me."

"That's why I'm not asking you." replied Kyouichi coldly. "I'm going to look for Yukari Yakumo with or without your help and if you think you have a better plan, then let's hear it."

…

"Just as I thought... So, I presume none of you guys have anything against this plan, right?"

Before any of the outsiders could express their opinion, however, the classroom door opened again and Keine-sensei barged in for the second time to start the next lesson – the Youkai Typology.

* * *

Everyone was on their feet as Keine-sensei entered. After they all bowed to her and sat down again, the teacher began the lesson.

"Alright class, today's Youkai Typology lesson will be about some of the friendliest of youkai – the kappa. Open your books on page 44."

Sounds of rustling paper filled the classroom as the students were turning pages to find the 44th page in the book. When everyone finally found the article about the kappa, Keine-sensei started explaining.

"The kappa are a race of river dwelling youkai who formed their own society together with the tengu. In Gensokyo, their natural habitat is at the Genbu Marsh near the Youkai Mountain. Like many other youkai, they look like humans, but they have turtle shells on their back and a plate on their head. They are famous for their skill in various craft and for producing all sorts of useful tools. Their tools are technologically on about the same level as those from the outside world. They sometimes even copy the tools from the outside and combine them with their own technology. Although the use of most of their tools remains unknown, a few noteworthy examples of their engineering endeavors include photographing devices, clocks, voice and image transmitting devices, waterproof clothes and many more. Although they are usually friendly, they seldom show themselves to humans. Therefore, their behavior as well as a great deal of their technology is still shrouded in mystery. They trade mostly with the tengu, but sometimes they are willing to deal with humans too. The kappa aren't very well-versed in battle. When threatened, they usually dive in the water to hide. They are formidable swimmers and they can hold their breath for several hours. However, they don't live underwater, but on land, where they make their tools."

"Umm… Keine-sensei, may I ask something?" asked Midori with her raised hand.

"Certainly, Iwakami-san."

"Why did you say that kappa are some of the friendliest youkai, when they actually run away from humans?"

"They are rather shy, but make no mistake. They do like humans and are curious about them, but they just prefer to stay hidden. However, if they see a human who is in trouble, they won't hesitate to help them. The kappa are friendly in general, but they are more open to other youkai than to humans."

"Have you ever seen a kappa yourself, Keine-sensei?" asked Kyouichi.

"I personally know a few and I can only confirm that they are nice folks."

"And do any of them live in the village?"

"No, they all come from the Youkai Mountain and live there too. Most of you students will probably never see a kappa near the Human Village, but if you manage to earn their trust, then they'll be some of your best friends." replied the teacher. "I've also made arrangements with my kappa friends so that we could go on a field trip to the Youkai Mountain this year. I think they are just as curious to see us as we are curious to see them."

All kids in the class suddenly started whispering: "A field trip? This year? To the Youkai Mountain?"

"Please tell us more about this field trip, Keine-sensei~!" called the younger students.

Miss Kamishirasawa smiled and nodded. "Alright, alright… It was supposed to be a surprise, but now that the cat's out of the bag, I suppose I could tell you more… This autumn, we'll be going on an educational field trip around Gensokyo for 10 days. Among many other places, we will visit the new hot springs resort at the Youkai Mountain. You can really look forward to that, since we will be officially the first human visitors."

Kyouichi raised his hand again. "Wait, isn't the mountain a dangerous place for humans?"

"The kappa and the tengu are expecting us to visit. I'll be going with you so you don't need to worry. We won't be going deep into the mountain, only to the hot springs at its foot. The tengu wouldn't let us go any further anyway, since the mountain is sacred to them. Besides, there are many more hostile youkai than the tengu who inhabit the mountain, so it would be indeed dangerous to venture any further than we are allowed to. It is already a groundbreaking event that humans are now allowed to get near the mountain."

"So does that mean that the hot springs will be open for human visitors too?" wondered Kyouichi.

"That's right." confirmed Keine-sensei. "We are going to be the honored guests."

"But with the roads as dangerous as they are, I don't think they'll have many human visitors."

"The hot springs were built mainly for the youkai living near the mountain, but even humans are welcome there."

"Why would the youkai suddenly want to invite humans to the mountain?"

"To improve the good relationship between us and them, and to make some money. And like I said, it's not in the mountain but NEAR the mountain."

Kyouichi apparently wasn't very trusting. "That still sounds dangerous no matter how you put it. What if the youkai just want to lure the humans out of the village so they could eat them?"

Keine-sensei started to chuckle and gradually burst into hearty laughter. "Well, I don't know what you've been told about the youkai by the people in the village, but I can assure you that neither the kappa, nor the tengu eat humans. And since they don't want their paying guests to be eaten, they have made various countermeasures to make the hot springs as safe for humans as possible."

"If you say so…" muttered Kyouichi with doubt in his voice.

"The trip is not compulsory, so take your time to think and decide if you'd like to go or not. But I highly recommend it. As an outsider, you most likely won't ever wander around Gensokyo alone, so think of it as a chance to see places you normally couldn't visit on your own."

Kyouichi had mixed feelings about this field trip. On one hand he was tempted by curiosity to see the new places and youkai, but on the other hand, he was a bit scared since he didn't know what to expect… yet. He barely yet knew a thing about Gensokyo or the youkai, or his teacher. Perhaps time will tell whether he will decide to go on this trip or not, but at the moment, he wasn't certain about anything. He secretly hoped that he would somehow manage to find a way home before he would have to decide…

"Well, would you look at the time." muttered Keine-sensei as she checked the clock. "I guess that's it for this lesson. Never mind. For your homework, read the article about kappa in your books. Oh, and I believe that our new transfer students aren't yet familiar with the timetable."

She opened a drawer in her desk and took out a paper chart with this year's timetable for the 6th grade. Then she walked up to the blackboard with a piece of chalk in her hand and copied the timetable onto the board:

Monday: history, youkai typology, math, Japanese language and literature, geography

Tuesday: math, biology, youkai typology, Japanese, arts and crafts

Wednesday: geography, Japanese, history, P.E., theory of magic

Thursday: Japanese, youkai typology, theory of magic, biology

Friday: theory of magic, math, history, youkai typology, P.E.

Before anyone asked, she continued to explain. "Since your only three compulsory subjects are history, typology and geography, you only need to note down those subjects. I understand that it's going to be an inconsistent timetable full of gaps between the respective lessons, but since this school is short on staff, we cannot make any special changes to make it more convenient for you. I'm afraid you're going to have to bear with it."

"So this means that we now have a two lessons worth of break." thought Kyouichi to himself.

This reminded him of his inconsistent timetable on college when he just had to find a way to kill time as he waited for the next lecture. He could choose to attend every single subject, but for someone like him, that idea was about as attractive as manual labor in the desert. As he was standing up from his chair and turning back to the group of 5 outsiders, he could see that Daniel, the foreign guy had a raised hand. "Sensei, I'd like to ask…"

"Yes?"

"I'd like to attend the Japanese language classes… I want to improve my Japanese"

"No problem." replied Keine-sensei with a smile. "Like I said, you can attend any other lesson, but you'll be tested only from the 3 compulsory ones."

"Thank you."

"Now, I hope you'll find a way to help you pass the time until our geography lesson."

* * *

As the teacher left the classroom, and Kyouichi was about to go on another aimless stroll around the village, someone called his name.

"Hey, where are you going?" asked Midori Iwakami.

"Nowhere. I was just going to have a look around the school and then walk a bit around the village."

"Can we come with you?"

"Sure. At least I'll have someone to talk to. Are all of you coming with me?"

Yuujin shook his head. "Nah, I think I'll just go to Uzume and have some coffee."

It seemed that Hikaru-san wasn't in the mood for strolling around either. "Oh, you can go without me… I've seen the whole village already." he said while writing something into his diary.

"Alright then." shrugged Kyouichi as he turned to the remaining trio of outsiders. "Let's go for a little walk."

They left the classroom and proceeded back along the corridor towards the lobby. Kyouichi was observing the bulletin boards on the walls as he walked. Besides various children's drawings and important notices, he stopped for a while at a bulletin board with information about the school clubs.

"What? Are you interested in joining a club?" asked Midori.

"I'm just looking…" he replied blankly as his eyes raced over the information flyers pinned on the board.

There were many information flyers about all the school clubs such as musical club, art club, calligraphy club, cooking club, kendo club, karate club, mahjong club, literary club, astronomy club, theatre club and magic practice club.

"Never mind." muttered Kyouichi after a while of looking. "Let's move on."

As they were leaving the western wing and entering the lobby, he suddenly asked: "Where did you guys appear when you got spirited away?"

"Well, I'm not sure about others, but I think it was somewhere near that bamboo forest. I could just see the village, so I headed there immediately." explained Midori.

"I appeared on some rice field…" recalled Daniel. "Fortunately, it was also near this village."

"I don't really know where I appeared," said Sayuri, lost in thought, "but then I came to some hill, and from there I could already see the roofs of the houses… Oh, yes, I believe I got into the village through that road." she pointed straight forward – towards the southern road, leading eventually to the Bamboo Forest of the Lost.

"I think I saw you guys at the Uzume tavern two days ago…" remarked Kyouichi.

Sayuri nodded. "Oh, yes, we were there and we were trying to figure out what to do next. I met all the others in the village hall the day before. After we were told about this place and our situation, we all felt like we needed a drink. Honestly, I don't know what to do."

* * *

As the group slowly walked around the school building, they found themselves on a small playground, which was still a part of the school property. Since they had no particular goal, they sat on a nearby bench and continued their chatting.

Kyouichi spoke again after a moment: "I've heard that there may be a way for us to get back home... The chances are slim, but if we work together, then maybe…"

"You're still talking about that youkai, right?" Midori interrupted him.

"Well, yes. We'll need to know more about her, so that we could have a clue where to look for her."

Midori frowned and sighed. "Then I'm afraid I can't help you with that… The first time I've heard something about her was on today's history lesson, so I can't tell you anything that you don't already know."

"That's why we must join forces as the outsiders and share all our knowledge about this place so far…" suggested Kyouichi. "But we also need to make our search more… organized. So that we wouldn't look for some piece of information that someone already knows."

"I'm afraid the only time we can be sure to see each other is during the lessons or after school…" remarked Daniel.

"But there's barely enough time to discuss such matters during the breaks…" noted Sayuri.

Midori gave her a surprised look. "Are you kidding?! With our current timetable we'll be having like… 2 hour breaks on regular basis…"

"That's right." acknowledged Daniel. "But as you can see, some of the outsiders just prefer to mind their own business, like Yuujin and Hikaru… and maybe others too."

"There were more than 10 outsiders in our class… we should at least tell them that we're planning to find a way home…" thought Midori aloud.

Kyouichi was brainstorming all the possibilities how to share information with all the outsiders and a way to organize their search for Yukari Yakumo, when he got a sudden idea.

"I got it!" he exclaimed so suddenly that he made the other 3 outsiders sitting next to him flinch for a moment. "A school club!"

"How will joining a school club help in our search?" wondered Midori.

Kyouichi shook his head. "Not joining, but founding our own! Like a club for all the outsiders who want to return home. Everyone who wants to return home will join us and together we will share all the knowledge we gather and use it to achieve our ultimate goal."

"I see…" she muttered and smiled. "Not a bad idea…"

"We should go and talk to Keine-sensei about this." suggested Sayuri.

"And we should make some information flyers or posters about our club too…" added Daniel.

"Alright, we'll stop by Keine-sensei's office after school." agreed Kyouichi. "Hopefully, there is still a room to spare for our club room."

"Alright." smirked Midori while standing up. "Now that we got our plan figured out, how about we discuss the details over a cup of tea… or whatever drinks you guys prefer?"

"Sounds good." agreed Daniel while looking at his watch. "We still have more than one and a half hour left before our geography lesson. We might as well stop by some tavern or café."

"Any suggestions?" asked Kyouichi looking slowly, left to right at his 3 new friends.

Sayuri immediately responded: "Uzume is a very nice establishment, but I've also seen a teahouse near the marketplace where I'd like to go to sometime."

Kyouichi didn't need much time to decide. "Well I'm not sure how would Keine-sensei react if we came drunk to her lesson, so I'm voting for the teahouse."

The rest of the band simply nodded in agreement, and so, they followed Sayuri who led the way to the teahouse.


	10. Forging a Plan

It turned out that the teahouse was on the same street as the training grounds of the Ryuuken militia, just a couple of meters away from the center of the village. A sign hanging above the sliding door to the teahouse greeted the guests with words: "Welcome to White Sakura Teahouse." Although Kyouichi did cross this street a few times before, he never paid much attention to all the signs on the houses there. The White Sakura wasn't standing out much, so one could easily mistake it for just an ordinary house.

As the group of outsiders opened the sliding door and entered, they found themselves in a neatly furnished and decorated tea serving establishment. A couple of waitresses welcomed them and showed them the way to the nearest vacant tea salon. As the name of the teahouse suggested, the main motif of the interior's decoration were paintings of beautiful sakura trees with white petals. There were even bonsai miniatures arranged to look like the cherry trees in bloom and the floor in the main corridor was sprinkled with genuine white cherry blossoms. Kyouichi could smell all sorts of different and pleasant scents of different kinds of tea blending together. As he sat at the table along with other outsiders, the waitresses gave them a menu list and waited patiently as everyone placed their order. Kyouichi never had a sakura tea before, so he thought he could give it a try.

"Certainly." bowed the waitresses with a smile. "Please wait a while. Your tea will be ready in a moment."

As the waitresses left the tea salon, Midori immediately started interrogating Kyouichi for more details about the new club they were going to found.

"So, what's it gonna be like? Our club I mean. What will we do there? What will it be called? What…"

"I... ummm…." Kyouichi cut off Midori's last question, "I think it will be better if we discuss the details when we gather all the outsiders."

"Oh, come on! Won't you at least give us a hint?"

"Well, like I already said, the club will be uniting the outsiders who strive to return home. Together we will attempt to find a way how to return to where we were spirited away from. Or at least, gather information that will help us find that way."

"Didn't you mention something about looking for that youkai?"

"Look, I don't care HOW we are going to return, but so far, I only know about the youkai of boundaries as our only option. But if we DO find another way, person, thing, place or magic spell that could take us home, then by all means, I'm willing to try it. I'm not even afraid to risk my life for it."

"Sounds like you're quite determined to leave this place at all costs." remarked Sayuri.

"Well, aren't you?" asked a bit surprised Kyouichi. "I mean, who with the least bit of sanity would want to stay here willingly if they knew that they don't really have to?"

He paused himself for a moment to rethink what he just said. "Well, alright... Maybe that sounded a bit too harsh, considering that this place is truly magnificent and people are really nice here and all… But… I already have a home… I already have a family… and I already know many nice people where I come from. But now… Now I'm separated from them… and I miss them… dearly. No matter how wonderful this Gensokyo may be… I simply don't belong here."

Sayuri was a bit saddened by Kyouichi's words and took a deep breath before speaking again. "I know… And you're not the only one who feels this way. I wish you best of luck on finding a way home, but… you should be prepared… that you may not succeed."

"I know, Sayuri-san, I know. I'm ready to face failure and live in Gensokyo when it comes to it. In fact, I hardly believe in the possibility of our success myself. But… no one's ever won a fight without actually fighting, right?"

"That's right…" replied Sayuri with a quiet voice, almost in whisper as she nodded.

"And we ARE going to fight!" Midori cheered them up.

"Yes, we are." reassured Kyouichi with a firm voice and determined look in his eyes. "Starting today, by the foundation of our new school club."

And so, it was decided. Kyouichi, along with other outsiders were determined to form a new club at the Kamishirasawa School. As they were discussing what name will their new club have, the waitresses have brought them the tea.

"Here you are."

"Thank you."

"Mmm… smells nice…" muttered Kyouichi as he took a gentle whiff of the sakura tea in his cup.

"How about we name it The Dandelion Seeds, since we were all randomly scattered all over Gensokyo?" suggested Daniel.

"And what if we call it Outsiders' Asylum?" asked Sayuri.

"Or maybe it should be called Homeseeker Alliance…" said Midori.

"Or maybe…"

Kyouichi just sighed and took a sip of the delicious tea as his three companions were coming up with some really crazy names for their new club.

"This is going to be a long day…"

* * *

A day just like any other started off at the Hakurei Shrine, the small shrine on a hill overlooking the eastern part of Gensokyo. Reimu realized that sweeping the shrine grounds at this time was a pointless job. Since the cherry trees were in bloom, it was only a matter of time until more and more petals would fall to the ground and she would have to sweep all over again. Nevertheless, she kept on sweeping, since she had nothing else to do anyway. A long time has passed since there was any serious incident that she had to resolve, and so, the Hakurei shrine maiden got bored easily.

"A long period of peace usually means just a quiet before the storm." she thought.

Based on her previous experiences, it was only a matter of time before something big would stir up in Gensokyo, but she had no idea what. Her intuition has rarely ever failed her before, so she couldn't help but to think that she will have to stay sharp until that "something" happens. In fact, maybe she secretly hoped for something to finally happen to break the stereotypedness of her simple life. So far, it seemed to her that nothing unusual is going on in Gensokyo.

"Maybe I should just kick back and enjoy these peaceful days while I can…" she muttered to herself.

It certainly seemed better than having to investigate something or duel someone.

"I wouldn't want anything bad to happen during the hanami after all…"

As she was thoughtfully sweeping the same step on the stone staircase in front of the shrine yard for the third time, she was wondering what guests she will have during this spring's flower viewing. She had even forgotten about the stranger who came to visit the shrine two days ago, but she was reminded soon enough…

A strange silent fluttering sound came from somewhere behind her, but as she turned to look, she couldn't find its source. She stared into the nearby thicket of trees, but whatever was making that sound was no longer there. Reimu shrugged and continued with the sweeping, thinking that the long boring days were starting to get to her. Then she heard it again - a sound like a rapid flapping of bird's wings, but it certainly wasn't a bird. Her mind wasn't playing tricks on her, but she couldn't tell where was that sound coming from.

"I'm not in a mood for pranks, so come out and show yourself or get out of here!" she shouted into the air.

Instead of a response, however, she only heard as the fluttering sound was gradually fading away and was followed by a short hollow knock, as if something had hit a wooden object. Reimu heard the knock clearly enough to tell that it came from the shrine yard. Out of all the wooden objects located at the shrine yard, only one of them had a high enough value to the Hakurei shrine maiden to make her shudder in fear at the thought that something bad might happen to it.

"My donation box!"

The box itself was a simple construction without any significant decorations. It was old and weathered and the "donations" sign painted on its front side was barely visible, but still, the box as a tangible asset of the shrine had greater value than all the donations it ever had inside together. That is not to say that it was that valuable, but that it barely had any donations. However, to Reimu, it was one of the most precious things she had. It was no wonder that she darted up the stone stairs like an athlete ready to beat the world record in a 100 meter sprint as soon as she heard that something might have hit the donation box.

As she ran up the final stair, she could see her donation box sitting there as usual in front of the shrine. A second later, she noticed that there was something weird standing on top of it.

She dashed another couple of meters towards the shrine to take a closer look, but at the same time keeping a safe distance. Something small and green with wings was standing on the box and it looked like it was trying to take something out of the box or put something in. Reimu instinctively reached up her sleeve and pulled out one of her Spell Cards.

"Hey! Who are you?! What are you doing with my donation box?!" she shouted at the intruder.

The small creature turned slowly to the shrine maiden and Reimu could now clearly see that it was a fairy. She had dark green one-piece dress matching the color of her short straight hair. On her back she had a pair of dragonfly-like wings. She was looking kind of surprised and hopeless at the same time.

"Can't you hear me?! Get away from that box!" yelled Reimu, threateningly raising her right arm with a Spell Card in her hand.

The fairy didn't move a muscle and kept staring at Reimu with her dark green eyes and an expression of a child who got into trouble and doesn't know what to do.

Reimu lost her patience, "Fine, have it your way! Spirit Sign "Fantasy Se…." huh?"

The shrine maiden stopped in the last second before she activated the spell of the card when she noticed that the fairy was holding something like a parcel.

"What's that?" she asked the fairy, but she either didn't understand human language or was too scared to answer.

Reimu put the spell card back into her sleeve and walked up towards the fairy standing atop the donation box. To Reimu's surprise, the fairy didn't even try to get away as she approached her. The shrine maiden was curiously looking at the parcel in the fairy's tiny hands and could see something written on it.

"Is that… for me?" she asked gently, pointing at the parcel and then at herself.

The little fairy looked at the parcel and after a while at Reimu, then again at the parcel and again at Reimu with an uncertain look. Then she suddenly jumped up as if she had realized something. She cheerfully flew around Reimu three times and then she stretched out her hands with the parcel and gave it to her with a happy smile.

"T-thank you." muttered Reimu as she took the parcel.

She was really curious who could it be from and she noticed that something was written on the wrapper.

"From Elder Fukukane Toshimi, Village Hall, Human Village to Hakurei Reimu, Hakurei Shrine."

On the bottom corner of the parcel there was a small logo with a tiny black silhouette of a fairy with a sign: "First Fairy Post Office".

As she unpacked the parcel, she could see that there were several separate documents accompanied by a letter from the village elder.

"Hmm… I didn't even know that they use fairies to deliver messages these days…" said Reimu looking at the fairy who was still happily flying in circles around her, celebrating the success of her first delivery flight.

She put the documents on a separate pile and started reading the short formal letter from the village elder.

"Dear Miss Hakurei, the village council humbly asks for your assistance. As of 28th of Satsuki 125, there were over 15 citizenship requests from individuals who claim to have arrived from outside of Gensokyo. At this alarming rate, the village council does not have the means to support them all accordingly. Apparently, these individuals all come from the city of Edo, now known as Tokyo. Unfortunately, there are no available records at our disposal that indicate the exact location of Tokyo in relation to Gensokyo before it was sealed. We are aware of the fact that you are able to access the outside world through the shrine, but given the current situation, it would be highly irresponsible to send the outsiders back via the shrine due to its remote and isolated location from any human settlements. While we do not believe that there is any other way for humans to cross the Great Boundary from the inside, we do believe that something now enables them to cross from outside without difficulty. This puts all the humans in the outside world in danger and the Human Village under economic pressure. We therefore ask for your help in investigating the source of the sudden wave of outside immigrants and putting a stop to it if possible. Of course, you will be compensated for your services. We're sending you the personal files of the most recent immigrants. Should you encounter any of them, please do not oblige them when they ask you to send them back outside. We will try our best to help these outsiders to the best of our abilities and resources.

Yours truly, Toshimi Fukukane."

As Reimu finished reading the letter she frowned a little and thoughtfully bit her lower lip. After a moment's thought, she turned her eyes to the delivery fairy.

"Wait here, okay? I'll be back in a minute."

She put the letter on top of the donation box and entered the shrine. True to her word, she came out after a little while with a folded sheet of paper with a brief reply to the letter from the village council. The fairy stopped flying erratically and was now patiently standing on the donation box. Reimu gave her the letter and told her to take it to the village hall, but the fairy stood still with begging eyes gazing at the shrine maiden.

"Oh, right… Wait a second." said Reimu as she reached inside her pocket. A second later, she pulled out a 10 yen coin and offered it to the postal fairy. The fairy happily took the coin and put it into a tiny leather satchel tied to her left wrist. After that she took off with the letter and soared into the sky, disappearing from Reimu's sight.

"Hmm, just when I thought that I'd have a peaceful spring this year…" she thought aloud. "Maybe I should go to the village today after all."

The day was still only in its first half and Reimu decided that it would be good to finish what she started. She grabbed her broom and resumed sweeping the stone shrine stairs. As she was getting done with the last stair, a familiar voice called from the distance.

"Heey, Reimu! I'm back."

"Marisa? You've come a bit early today."

The witch slowly descended to the ground on her flying broom with a confident smile on her face.

"Well, I just came to tell you that Remilia accepted the invitation and will come for the hanami, but she'd like to know when will it be exactly. I said that I don't know yet, but I'll let her know in due time, ze."

"So she's coming after all, huh?" murmured Reimu under her nose. "Have you invited anyone else?"

"Yes, Alice will come too, as usual. I've also tried to convince Nitori, but she said that she's too busy with her latest invention or something."

"What about Patchouli?"

"Nope," Marisa shook her head, "she ain't coming. I think she's still mad for the last time when I borrowed some more books… without returning those I borrowed earlier…"

Reimu let out a sigh. "You haven't changed at all, have you?"

"Heh, some things just don't change. You too haven't changed at all ever since I got to know you. Anyway, when will the hanami start? I'm curious too, you know. Who have you invited?"

"Well, ummm…" stuttered Reimu for a moment.

"Let me guess... You haven't yet invited anyone, am I right?" asked the witch. "…That was more like a rhetorical question. Of, course you haven't."

"I was actually going to…" Reimu tried to defend herself, but her excuse faded into silence as Marisa cut off her sentence.

"You've been here the whole time sitting on your butt. That's so like you. I don't know what the hell are you waiting for! The cherry blossoms won't stay on those trees forever. The spring is almost over. We better make that hanami soon or we might miss our chance for this year. You are the main host, so it should be your job to invite guests, not mine."

"Alright, alright! Jeez… You don't have to be so worked up about it. I'll go and make a run around Gensokyo and try to invite some folks as well, but having too many people at a hanami usually kills the mood. Not to mention too many youkai…"

"Now that I think of it… you did invite that outsider who came by a few days ago, right?"

"Oh yeah, I did. Ha, you see? I did invite somebody after all."

"That's really great, but how is he going to get here if there won't be any Ryuuken patrols?"

"Don't you worry, I'll figure something out…" Reimu reassured her best friend. "I have something to tell him anyway so I plan to go to the village. We can also discuss the hanami while we're at it."

"Something to tell him?" asked Marisa with a questioning look. "What? You want to confess your feelings for him or what?"

"Don't be silly. No, I actually got a letter from the village council today."

"And…?"

"The elder says that there were more than 15 outsiders requesting citizenship at the hall over the last three days. It seems that something may be wrong with the barrier… But the strange thing is that I didn't sense any changes in the barrier's strength. In fact, I think that it's getting stronger as its new 60 year cycle begins. If the barrier was breached from the outside, I would definitely feel some sort of change, but I don't. Which means that this sudden increase in outsiders is caused by…"

"Our good old Yukari." Marisa finished Reimu's sentence.

"Exactly." nodded Reimu. "The council thinks that something made a hole in the barrier and now outsiders are flowing in, but apparently they don't even believe that the gap youkai still exists. I believe that all those 15 or more outsiders were spirited away to Gensokyo at the same time."

"So what does the elder want from you then?"

"To find and fix the problem. But there is no hole to mend. I might as well go to the village hall now and claim my reward and simply tell them that I took care of it."

"Wait. What about all those outsiders?" asked Marisa. "Isn't the council trying to help them get back home?"

"Not at all." Reimu shook her head. "They say that it's too irresponsible to send them back via the shrine."

"So what are you planning to do?"

"The best thing would be to find Yukari and tell her to return those outsiders home and leave those who wish to stay here. That way everything would be resolved peacefully and all parties would be satisfied. But the problem is… how to find her? Not to mention to convince her…"

"She seemed to like you, so I'm sure she'd listen to you… That leaves us only with the problem of finding her. That shouldn't be too hard."

"Yeah, I used to think so too…" Reimu reminisced about times not too distant in the past, when she used to spend many a night enjoying the company of Yukari. "She almost always showed up when there was a party or a festival or something. She even used to visit me on random occasions, but now… It's been over 6 months since I've last seen her."

"Maybe she'll show up at the hanami." wondered Marisa. "Maybe if we invite a few of her friends, she'll come too."

"Hmm, that would be great, but with her, we can never be sure of anything."

"No, but it's a good start. Our hanami needs more guests anyway."

As Reimu and Marisa were discussing the details of the hanami, the morning slowly shifted to noon without them noticing.

* * *

In the same way did time advance for the group of four outsiders in the White Sakura Teahouse, located near the center of the Human Village. Before they knew it, their nearly two hour long break was nearing its end and they would soon have to return back to Kamishirasawa School for another lesson.

Daniel, the young foreigner with short blond hair had a watch on his wrist, so he warned the others that the geography lesson will begin soon. They paid for their tea and left the teahouse.

"Man, we haven't even decided on the club's name…" said Daniel as he hastened to the school with the other three outsiders.

"I still think that Homeseeker Alliance would be a good name." muttered Midori.

Kyouichi chuckled. "Yeah, right. We might as well call ourselves the SOS Brigade. That would be appropriate too…"

"Don't be silly." said Midori. "Everyone knows that the SOS Brigade already exists."

"Hehe, you're right." admitted Kyouichi. "Well, anyway… the name is not all that important. It's the purpose that's important."

"Wait! Waiiit!" shouted Sayuri, who was having difficulties keeping up with the rest of the group. "You're going too fast. I… can't... keep up."

"Hurry, up Sayuri-san!" Midori urged her. "We don't want to get on Keine-sensei's bad side right on the first day."

"I know…" sighed Sayuri, trying to maintain balance while walking down the rough beaten path in a very inappropriate footwear. "It's those damn high-heel shoes… I can't walk very fast with them."

* * *

The group of four outsiders made it to school just in time. They still had a couple of minutes to prepare before the next lesson started. As they entered the classroom and took their seats, Kyouichi could faintly hear Yuujin's hushed remark.

"Oh, look, the smart-ass kid is back…"

Kyouichi just laughed quietly and turned to the engine driver. "As a matter of fact, Ueda-san, I have some news for you too… I don't know if it's good news, but it is news. And I think Nagahashi-san should hear it too." he turned to the balding paranormal researcher.

Both Yuujin and Hikaru were now paying full attention to what this young outsider had to say.

"What is it that we should know about, Ishimaru-san?" asked Hikaru.

"We're planning to form a new school club for all outsiders for the purpose of gathering relevant information which could help us find a way back to Tokyo."

"Is that so?" asked Yuujin. "And what do you want us to do?"

"For now, it's enough if you tell us whether you want to join it or not." replied Kyouichi.

"Well… alright, I guess." shrugged the trainman.

Kyouichi smiled lightly. "I knew you'd be with us, Ueda-san. What about you, professor?"

Hikaru nodded. "Of course I'll help you too. I want to learn about Gensokyo as much as I can after all."

"Alright, now we at least have some members. We'll see if we can get support from the other outsiders as well, but before that, we need to ask Keine-sensei about this…"

As soon as Kyouichi finished his last sentence, the half-youkai teacher entered the classroom. The usual chatter between the students immediately stopped as they stood up to greet the teacher.

* * *

The geography lesson that started shortly after Keine-sensei's arrival wasn't like Kyouichi had expected it to be. Instead of dealing with each specific area in detail, the lesson was dealing with Gensokyo as whole. What surprised Kyouichi the most was probably the fact that there was no official map of Gensokyo anywhere. Not even in the textbooks. Keine-sensei only made a rough sketch of a circular area on the blackboard and marked all the key locations. The map was no masterpiece, but at least it gave Kyouichi a bit closer idea of Gensokyo's layout. Again, he couldn't fight the urge to raise his hand.

"Yes, Ishimaru-san?" asked Keine-sensei.

"It may be a stupid question, but…" started Kyouichi uncertainly, "…hasn't anyone made a map of Gensokyo yet?"

"Nice observation, Ishimaru-san." nodded the teacher. "It's true. There is no such thing as an official map of Gensokyo… yet."

"Why not?"

"There were several attempts to thoroughly map Gensokyo, but unfortunately, it was in times before the Ryuuken were formed. I don't need to tell you how those unprotected expeditions ended… The second problem were the areas near the Great Boundary. Apparently, there's a spell at work there that throws off anyone's sense of navigation once they get too close to the barrier. And finally, Gensokyo isn't all that huge, so most people are satisfied with only basic idea of its roads and locations. However, I personally believe it would be better if people learned from exact maps, rather than rough sketches. The village council obviously thinks something else, but I'm not here to judge them. Anyway… it seems that we've digressed again. So, who can tell me which of the areas in northern Gensokyo have the largest youkai population?"

This time, only the regular students of the 6th grade had their hands raised and were ready to answer. Kyouichi quietly took notes and waited until the end of the lesson. His mind was more occupied with the near future, rather than the immediate present. Finally, his waiting came to an end along with the geography class and he didn't wait to ask Keine-sensei about the school club he was planning to found.

* * *

"You want to found a new club?" asked the teacher curiously.

"Yes, we want to find a way to get home to Tokyo, so me and my new friends…" Kyouichi looked over his shoulder, but there was nobody standing there with him.

"Hey! You all said that you'd help and now you're just sitting there as if it was none of your concern?!" he shouted at the other five outsiders. "Come over here, all of you, and help me negotiate!"

Soon, the teacher's desk was surrounded by outsiders, not just those who were familiar to Kyouichi, but also by some who were simply curious. Backed up by others, Kyouichi turned back to Keine-sensei with a bit more confidence and continued explaining.

"All the members of our club will gather different pieces of information, which will be recorded, processed and presented to other members. Ultimately, we hope to find something that would help us return to where we disappeared from. So far, our only bet is to look for Yukari Yakumo, but who knows...? Maybe there is some other way…"

"That's very… interesting." said Keine-sensei after a longer pause. "I can imagine how it must feel like to be suddenly… misplaced to an unknown world. If I knew of any way to take you back, believe me, I'd tell you. But looking for the youkai of boundaries… may not be such a bad idea… Most people in the village would probably tell you that your goal is a wild-goose chase, simply because they believe that she disappeared forever after the sealing of Gensokyo.

I, however, had the… umm… pleasure of meeting her, and I assure you as I stand here that she's still somewhere out there."

"Why did you say "pleasure" with such an ironic tone?" wondered Kyouichi.

"Well, we had a little run-in a couple of years ago, but it was a sort of misunderstanding…"

"Misunderstanding?"

"Yes, actually, it was one of the two incidents that occurred in 119. The first one was with the long-lasting winter and the second one, the one that we're talking about, happened in summer and it became known as the Imperishable Night Incident. It was during that incident that I first met the gap youkai in person."

"So what kind of misunderstanding was there?"

"During this incident, the Lunarians at Eientei have hidden the Moon and replaced it with a fake one. It caused quite a commotion, as every youkai in Gensokyo could feel that something was not right. I myself sensed something bad was going on and so, as a precaution I manipulated the history to make it look like there never was any Human Village built in Gensokyo. All for the safety of its inhabitants. When my spell was complete, I saw a couple of suspicious individuals en-route to the village. As the guardian of this village, I was determined to stop anyone trying to attack its human residents. I tried to fend the intruders off with my spells, but the two of them were simply too much for me to handle. The strange thing was, that one of them claimed to see through my spell, but apparently it wasn't the village they were after, but they were looking for the culprit who had hidden the real Moon. It later turned out that those two were actually Reimu Hakurei and Yukari Yakumo. They somehow stopped the night and were determined to keep it that way until the incident with the fake Moon was resolved. They managed to do so on that very night, so the humans didn't notice anything unusual. However, due to certain… turn of events, I faced them in battle once more, but… I'd prefer to keep that part to myself… at least for now."

"So… Does that mean that you're not on very good terms with either of them?" asked Kyouichi.

Keine-sensei lightly shook her head. "No, I wouldn't say that… I know that Hakurei-san and I have very similar roles – both of us are here to protect the humans. It was an interesting experience dueling her and I dare to say that it was good that I lost that time. As for Yukari Yakumo… gods only now what her true intents and purposes are. She has power beyond imagining and her whimsical nature makes her very unpredictable, but I don't really think that she's evil. If that was the case, then there wouldn't be much left of Gensokyo or the outside world, for that matter. Now this may sound really farfetched, but I think that if she'd really want it, she could have single-handedly conquered the Moon and wipe out the entire Lunarian civilization a hundred times over with as little as a snap of her fingers. Apparently, that was not her plan…"

"O-kay…that sounds a bit scary…" said Kyouichi with an amused look. "But back to the point… Does that mean we have your approval for our new club?"

"It's a very interesting project indeed. You'll be technically doing something like a field research not only of Gensokyo's history, but also folklore and legends. I can already tell you that you'll have my full support, but before you can all celebrate, I need to check if there are any vacant classrooms where you can devote your time to your research and other club activities. Meet me at my office after the lunch break."

"Will do, Keine-sensei." promised Kyouichi "And thank you for your support."

The silver-haired teacher smiled warmly. "No problem… Now, you all must be hungry by now. Why don't you have lunch? I know the food from the school cafeteria isn't exactly home cooking, but at least it will fill up your stomach."

* * *

All the outsiders bowed to their teacher and slowly began to scatter all over the school grounds. Some of them were headed for the cafeteria, some were going straight home and others strolled around and waited until they hear the definite verdict about the new club. Kyouichi was now hungry, but as he was looking for the cafeteria, he recalled that he was supposed to meet up with Chitose Saitou in the school yard. He found the back entrance of the school, which led directly to the school yard. Now that he took a better look around, he realized that it was the exact place where he was sitting on a bench with Daniel, Midori and Sayuri, just before they went to White Sakura. This time, the school yard was full of students of all grades as they were eating their lunches, chatting or playing some games before their afternoon lessons began. He was carefully scanning the faces of all the young students in hope of finding Chitose or Tadao in that crowd, but he couldn't find them there.

"Onii-chaaan~!" called a girl's voice from somewhere.

Kyouichi started turning his head left and right in order to find the person who called at him. Sitting on one of the benches near the playground was Chitose. She waved at Kyouichi when he noticed her. He slowly walked up to the bench where she was sitting with some other girls who were probably her classmates. They immediately started whispering something to each other as he approached them.

"Can you please stop calling me like that?" said Kyouichi to Chitose.

"Aww, but why?"

"Because I'll miss you all the more when I find a way to return home." he replied with a smile.

"Are you really serious about that? You think you can find a way out of Gensokyo?"

"I wouldn't be the first one… at least according to Akyuu-san."

"But I've never heard of anyone who got out of Gensokyo on their own…" objected Chitose.

"That's probably because no one ever did get out of here on their own. We'll be looking for the youkai of boundaries. Only she can probably take us directly back to Tokyo…"

"Wait, wait, wait... What do you mean by "we"?" she asked with a confused look.

"Oh, right. I forgot to mention… There were more than 10 outsiders who were spirited away from Tokyo to Gensokyo… or at least, more than 10 of them made it to the village. All these outsiders are now attending the school along with me. We've even founded our own club in order to organize our search for Yukari."

"Dad says that she disappeared when she helped the humans with making the barrier, but Keine-sensei told us that she still lives somewhere in Gensokyo. I guess that she knows better than dad…"

"I have more than a good enough reason to believe her." confirmed Kyouichi. "But that still doesn't mean that looking for her is going to be easy."

Chitose shrugged. "Who knows? But I think you have a better chance of finding her as a team than if you were looking for her by yourself."

"Yes. That's exactly the reason why we've founded that club."

"Actually… I'm in a club too." said Chitose and both girls sitting beside her nodded twice to confirm her statement.

Kyouichi slightly tilted his head to the side and measured up the two of Chitose's friends with a curious look. One of them was a shy-looking red-haired girl with glasses. The other one was a tall and slim girl with her shoulder-length black hair styled in a hime-cut.

"Are these your friends?" he asked.

Chitose smiled brightly. "Yes. This is Haruka." she pointed at the red-haired girl with her hand. The girl shyly smiled and nodded.

"And this is Rie-senpai." Chitose introduced her second friend.

The black-haired girl gently bowed and smiled. "Nice to meet you."

"My name is Ishimaru Kyo…"

"They already know about you, Kyouichi-kun." Chitose interrupted him.

"R-really?" stuttered Kyouichi in slight embarrassment, nervously scratching the back of his head. "What did you tell them?" he asked her.

"Oh, not much…" she replied while gently pressing her index fingers against each other. "I only told them that you're from the outside world and that you live in our house now."

"Oh…" he uttered after a moment, realizing that he really didn't tell Chitose about himself anything more than his name and origin. It's not that Kyouichi had any big dark secret that nobody was supposed to find out; he was simply just a bit sensitive about his privacy. He wasn't the kind of person who laid out all his cards from the start. Some people might call him a bit secretive, overly careful, or even slightly paranoid, but this kind of defensive strategy has proven itself to be useful more than once in his life.

"So… what club are you girls in?" he asked to divert the course of this conversation elsewhere.

Chitose straightened herself up with pride. "We're in the Magic Practice Club."

"I should've guessed…" stated the outsider. "The other day you asked your mom if you could become a youkai hunter… Although I have to admit, I didn't think you were serious."

"Hmm… Well, I'm not sure if I'm that serious about it, but the club is lots of fun. We practice every day, even when there's no school. We and some other members often have friendly duels to train both our concentration and our dodging skills, but none of us had an actual duel against a youkai before."

"You have duels inside the school?!" asked surprised Kyouichi.

"Of course not!" denied young Chitose. "We only study theory at school and practice outside. You can come and take a look sometimes."

"Now I'm really curious…" he confessed. "When do you have your practice sessions?"

"Every day after school." she replied shortly. "Will you come take a look then?"

As Kyouichi was about to say that he'll come and take a look, he immediately recalled that he had a part-time job on his schedule, and therefore, didn't have any free time after school.

Chitose was a bit disappointed by his negative reply, but suggested an idea: "We could hold an evening practice every once in a while too… Right, Rie-senpai?"

Rie thoughtfully rolled her eyes, considering Chitose's idea. "Hmm… You know, we actually not only could, but probably should… If we ever get attacked by a youkai, it's probably not going to be in broad daylight. We could tell the other members about it and have an evening practice at least once a week, but not today…"

"Alright then, Chitose-chan, let me know when your club will hold the evening training." said Kyouichi, already looking forward to seeing her and her friends practicing their magic.

Chitose nodded with a smile. "Don't worry, Kyou-kun, I'll tell you as soon as you're back from your first shift."

* * *

A sudden sound of a bell's ringing reminded everyone at the school that the lunchtime break was over and the students who still had any afternoon lessons in their timetable were expected to return to their classrooms. Kyouichi accompanied Chitose, Haruka and Rie up to the lobby where they parted their ways. He was now trying to find Keine-sensei's office which was supposedly somewhere on the ground floor. It didn't take him long to do so, as the mentioned office was located right at the beginning of the western wing. A small metal plaque attached to the wide wooden door with an engraved sign – Principal's Office, K. Kamishirasawa, indicated that Kyouichi was knocking on the right door

"Yes, please, come in!" a familiar female voice sounded from behind the door.

Kyouichi opened the door which made a loud creak and entered the room. Inside waited gathered yet-to-be members of the yet-to-be-approved club who greeted Kyouichi and made hand gestures showing him to come closer. Keine-sensei was there too, sitting behind her director's desk, awaiting the initiator of the idea behind the new club.

"We've been waiting for you, Kyouichi-san." she said with her friendly voice, her hands holding the admission form for the club.

"Sorry to keep you waiting…" apologized Kyouichi, lowering his head a little.

The teacher and principal in one person continued: "It appears that the only room that is not used during your timetable gaps is the library. There you should have enough space for your studying sessions and presentations. The literary club also uses the library, but their activities are reserved for the afternoon."

"So, does that mean…?" Kyouichi left his question unfinished.

"That means all that's left to do is to sign this document and your new club will be officially founded." Keine-sensei answered, now passing the document and a quill to Kyouichi and all other members to sign.

As he looked at the document, he noticed that the club still had no name. However, the information about its activities was already filled in by Keine-sensei. He took the quill in his hand, scribbled his autograph into the Members column and turned to his fellow members with a questioning expression.

"Say, guys, you didn't happen to come up with or agree upon a name for this club by any chance, have you…?"

The shrugging and dismissive headshaking of the other outsiders was a clear sign that they obviously haven't. Kyouichi just made a light snort and waved his hand in a gesture showing that he doesn't care about what the club's name will be. Taking a step aside, so he could let others come over to the desk and sign the paper, he quietly thought to himself: "I'll just let others decide… Hopefully someone from these people will take the initiative to be the leader."

"Then let me think of the name for your club." came an unexpected offer from Keine-sensei.

Everyone in the room exchanged their somewhat indifferent looks with each other and nodded in agreement. As the last person in line jotted down his signature on the club registration form, Keine-sensei stretched out her milky-white hand to take it and check if everyone signed up for membership. After a brief moment of counting the number of signatures and comparing them to the number of people standing in her office, she once again took the quill in her hand, dipped its tip into the ink and put her hand in a ready position to write the club's name. She hesitated for a second, but after a while she nodded as if to her own inner voice telling her something. The people standing the nearest to her desk leaned a bit closer to see what she was writing. Kyouichi was lucky enough to be one of those standing close enough and saw the name before it was announced.

"The Transfer Students' Club?" he asked in his mind, "Hey, not bad, Keine-sensei… Simple, yet appropriate. And not too fancy or funny-sounding either…"

"Okay, everyone," sounded Keine-sensei's voice, "you are hereby declared, associated and acknowledged members of the Transfer Students' Club."

A short moment of silence that came about after the announcement of the name was instantly followed by someone in the back calling: "Banzai~!"

"Banzaaai~!" echoed a loud cheer of all other "transfer students" in the room as they raised their hands three times into the air to celebrate the official start of their new club and their mutual cooperation with a single goal in mind – to return home safely.

"Long live the Transfer Students' Club!" shouted the tomboyish Midori enthusiastically. Kyouichi who was standing right next to her had to cover his left ear to prevent temporary deafness.

"Yeah~!" replied the small crowd of outsiders with the exception of a few individuals; Kyouichi being one of them.

"I certainly hope in the opposite…" he mumbled just loudly enough so Midori would hear.

"Why so…? You… you…. traitor!" she smiled lightly to show that she meant no offense, but couldn't quite understand why Kyouichi doesn't wish for the club's long existence.

"Because we all wish to be home as soon as possible, don't we?" he answered. "If we succeed, it will automatically mean the end of this club."

"Well, it does make sense if you put it that way."

Keine-sensei was quietly looking at the celebrating bunch of students and then she stood up to regain their attention.

"Now that you're an official club, you can already hold your first meeting today. Provided you don't already have the time reserved for other activities. Otherwise, you can gather in the library tomorrow."

Kyouichi didn't have much time left before he should start his first part-time shift at the bookstore, so he told the others that he won't be joining them today, should they decide to hold the meeting right now.

"You think you're the only one?" asked Yuujin. "We all have our jobs. In this aspect, Gensokyo isn't any different from the rest of the world. Those without work soon find themselves on the fringe of society."

"Just curious, but what jobs do you guys have?" wondered Kyouichi. "When I came to the village hall to apply for work, there was but one job offer left."

"I'm stuck with the trading caravan with other villages… The wage was pretty solid, so I took it." replied the trainman.

Kyouichi was quite impressed by that. "Whoa! Really? So you're going to travel a lot and get to know other villages…"

"Yeah. We'll be doing regular shipments of goods… It's kind of similar to what I used to do."

"So, right up your alley…"

"Right. And at 2000 yen per trip and return, I hardly think I could have found any better part-time job."

"But you realize that it's paid so well because it's a highly risky job, right?" Kyouichi asked.

"Well, my first trip is going to be today so I can't yet say, but we'll be accompanied by an armed patrol so we should be safe."

"Will you be also lodging in the other villages?"

"No, we'll just deliver the goods from this village and return with traded goods from the other villages on the same day before the night falls, so my job doesn't clash with the school timetable."

"I see… And what about you, guys? Where do you work?" Kyouichi asked the other outsiders.

"I've taken the offer for the waitress at Uzume." answered Midori.

"I'll be helping on the rice fields…" said Daniel and sighed as he knew that it was going to be quite exhausting.

"I'll be selling vegetables at the marketplace." said Sayuri.

"And I'm going to help sort mail at the post office." replied Hikaru. "But there wasn't any offer about working at the bookstore when I came to the village hall."

"Then it must've been a recent offer." deduced Kyouichi.

"Well, you can be certain that I'd rather be working with literature than with mail, but at least I'm not unemployed…"

"Yeah… and if I don't want to end up unemployed, I better hurry to that bookstore." noted Kyouichi, looking at the time on an old clock hanging over the doorway. "See you guys tomorrow."

"Yeah, see ya…"

He bowed to everyone and once more to Keine-sensei and with a loud creak as he opened the office's door, he left. Only about half of an hour remained until his first shift at the bookstore started, but Kyouichi still hasn't eaten anything since morning. He hurried to the Saitou residence, hoping that Minako had cooked something for lunch. Knocking on the door and immediately entering the house, he washed his hands and went straight into the kitchen.

* * *

"Oh, Kyouichi-san, I was wondering when you'd come." said Minako over her shoulder, serving something into a bowl, "You need to hurry or you'll be late for work."

"Wait, don't you have work today, Minako-san?"

"Oh, but I do." she acknowledged. "Right now I'm on lunch break, but you need to be at the bookstore in less than 20 minutes."

"Yeah, I know, I know…" he uttered. "What's for lunch?"

"I only made some miso soup… But it's better than going to work with an empty stomach."

She put a large bowl of soup on the table and Kyouichi didn't waste any precious seconds.

"Itadakimasu~!"

He slurped up the soup quickly, even though it was still quite hot.

"Thanks, Minako-san, it was delicious as always…" he bowed as he stood up. "I really have to go now."

"Do your best~!" she wished him good luck and waved her hand as he left the house and marched in a fast pace to the Starlight Glyph bookstore.


	11. Food for Thought

As he walked, he reached inside the inner breast pocket on his kimono and checked if he took the signed job contract that the elder gave him.

"Alright, I have it…" he muttered to himself. "Now just calm down, introduce yourself politely and listen to whatever the boss says and you should do just fine…"

He stopped just a meter away from the bookstore and nervously stared at the door for about ten seconds. He didn't know himself what he was so stressed up about, but it was always like that every time he started a new part-time job.

"Okay… Easy money, here I come."

He opened the door and found himself inside a bookstore, larger than it looked from the outside. The shelves in the shop were stacked up with enough books to rival an average library. Behind the counter, he could see the shop's owner – a short, middle-aged man with his long dark hair starting to turn grey. His face was slightly marked with wrinkles and he was a bit plump in figure. He was wearing a white kimono top with yellow bamboo leaf patterns and a dark-brown hakama similar to Kyouichi's. At the moment, he was sitting in a chair and diligently reading one of the books.

"Umm, excuse me…" sounded Kyouichi shyly to get the man's attention.

"Oh, good afternoon~!" greeted the man in a surprisingly cheerful tone. "You've come to buy a book? Just say the title or the author and if it's in this shop, I'll find it right away…"

"Actually, I'm…"

"Oh, I get it, I get it…" continued the man without letting Kyouichi finish the sentence. He talked fast and accompanied it with wild, frantic gesticulation. "You haven't decided yet. That's why I'm here to help you! Just tell me what genre you're looking for. Is it adventure, drama, poetry, thriller, or maybe… some romance? Hm? Or perhaps you're a more practical type of person, right? For someone like you, the Starlight Glyph offers a wide selection of scientific books and journals dealing with history, mathematics, physics, astronomy, occultism, alchemy and many, many more. And if you're a do-it-yourself kind of person, no problem. We boast the best selection of various how-to related pieces of literature in the entire village! Should you ever decide to build your own house, or craft your own armor or brew your own beer, these tomes of wisdom will help you pick up the skills you need. We even have a discount on cookbooks…"

"No, I haven't come to buy anything." said Kyouichi. "I'm here to…"

"Oh, you've just come to browse… Well then, take your time."

"Nooo! Will you PLEASE let me finish?!" he shouted. "I'm here for the part-time job… My name's Ishimaru and I'll be helping you in this shop from now on."

"Huh? So you're my new assistant then?"

"So it seems." nodded Kyouichi and passed him the contract he got from elder Fukukane. "Look, this is the contract…"

The shopkeeper carefully read the contract and then measured Kyouichi up with his eyes.

"I see… Sorry about that sales hype rant of mine. I thought you were a regular customer." he explained. "I didn't expect that someone would take that job offer so soon."

"But here I am…" said Kyouichi while shrugging.

"Well then, allow me to introduce myself. I am Daisuke Shimizu, the owner of this shop. I've been writing, transcribing, translating, selling and sometimes even illustrating books ever since year 96."

"Impressive. What sort of books do you write?" asked Kyouichi.

"Stories mostly. And poetry. But I transcribe and translate just about anything else…"

"And what do you expect me to do as your new part-time employee?"

"Ah, straight to the point…" said the shopkeeper while opening a drawer under his counter. "You'll be basically doing what my usual assistant did - helping with transcriptions, helping with sales and keeping the place clean. It's as simple as that."

"Here." he gave him a piece of paper that looked like a layout of the bookstore with each section divided and marked by a different number. "This will be useful to you at least until you memorize which section contains which books. Shouldn't take you longer than a week, you'll see. It's not that complicated."

Kyouichi briefly glanced at the chart and then asked another question: "What happened to your usual assistant?"

Daisuke's expression suddenly turned to slightly angered and concerned and so did his tone.

"That young one is a fool, let me tell you. He's not a bad assistant; he just… keeps getting into trouble."

"Such as…?"

"Well, the other day one customer came looking for a grimoire that dealt with elemental magic, but since I'm no specialist in magic, I told him that we'd have to preorder the requested book transcription from the Scarlet Devil Mansion. I've trusted the preorder task to my assistant. He was supposed to send a request using the Fairy Post Office, but that idiot thought it would be much faster and cheaper if he went there himself. I told him not to do anything stupid. I didn't really take what he said seriously… He must have thought that he's some hotshot youkai hunter and that nothing can happen to him. The poor kid didn't even make it halfway to the mansion when he saw a youkai and provoked her into battle. He's damn lucky that he made it out only with a broken arm."

"What's that Scarlet Mansion… thing?" wondered Kyouichi.

"You don't know? The Scarlet Devil Mansion is a dangerous place for humans by itself and the road there is none the safer." explained Daisuke, still with his typical gesticulation. "It lies on an island in the middle of the Misty Lake and is a home to vampires."

"Vampires?" asked Kyouichi unbelievingly. "You're dealing with vampires?!"

"Not directly… You see, the mansion's very own library has the largest collection of books in all of Gensokyo. They have many magic-oriented books and grimoires at their disposal, and like us, they also make copies to sell. Sure the vampires are dangerous, but sometimes they can be reasoned with. However, only the bravest and most capable of humans dare to go there personally. My idiot of an assistant aspires to join the Ryuuken, but his self confidence greatly outmatches his skill. Perhaps it was good that he didn't make it to the mansion, because I'm afraid that he'd provoke the vampires into killing him."

"So when this assistant of yours recovers from his injury, you won't need me anymore, right?"

Daisuke paused himself and seriously thought about it. "I… I don' know… After what he did I've seriously considered firing him, but… I just don't know… On one hand he's a great help in the shop, but at the same time, he risks his life on almost daily basis. Maybe now he finally learned some lesson in humility, but as I know him, he's probably already planning revenge against the youkai who broke his arm."

"Well, we'll see after a month or so…" said Kyouichi in hope that Daisuke's assistant recovers until then.

"Yeah… Okay, then, let me give you some work to begin with." said the shopkeeper and gestured to Kyouichi to follow him. He went through a door behind the counter to a smaller room with some large unknown device. It looked like some sort of printer, but Kyouichi had never seen anything like it before. It was all made of metal and it even had wheels so it could be transported. On one side of this device there were switches, buttons and levers that controlled all its functions. It even had a brand name printed above the control panel – Nitori.

"Is that what I think it is?" asked Kyouichi after a while of admiring the strange device.

"What? You're familiar with the kappa technology?"

"So this was made by the kappa, eh?"

"Of course it was made by the kappa." responded Daisuke bluntly. "You keep asking really silly questions."

"It does resemble a printing machine…" muttered Kyouichi thoughtfully, still looking at the intriguing contraption.

"And where in Gensokyo have you seen a printing machine before, young one?"

"Well I don't know about Gensokyo, but back in the outside world, I saw a couple of printers…"

Daisuke's eyes widened with surprise. "Wait… You're an outsider?"

"Well, yeah… Didn't you know?"

"I was wondering when you asked what the Scarlet Devil Mansion is… No, I didn't know that you're from the outside. When someone takes the job offer, the elder just sends a notice with the name of the new employee, but no other details."

"I see. Still, you'll need to explain to me how this printer works."

"Oh, that's quite simple. Look, this here button…" Daisuke led a long monologue, instructing Kyouichi into the basic functions of the kappa printing machine. Despite him saying it was simple, for Kyouichi it was quite confusing. When the shopkeeper finally explained everything, he tasked Kyouichi to make copies of the book that he had already put into a large slot on the printer's front side. Kyouichi mistrustfully looked at the machine's controls for a while and shrugged.

"Here goes…" he pushed the red button which immediately turned green and the machine started making a silenced humming sound. Kyouichi could only wonder what source powered the machine, since the people in Gensokyo haven't even heard of electricity. Apparently, this interesting example of kappa technology was driven by its own inner source; probably a battery or some other form of generator. Once the printer was activated, he loaded it with blank sheets of paper and pulled one of the levers. The machine responded with some weird mechanic clunking sounds and louder humming. After a short while a first copied page of the book came out from another slot and after each 10 seconds another one.

* * *

"Cool!" uttered Kyouichi with a smile and admiration. "This thing works all by itself. All I have to do is to keep it supplied with paper and ink. I wonder how it scans those books, before it copies them."

"Just don't get shocked when it breaks down again, young one." said Daisuke as he looked at the machine with even greater distrust than Kyouichi before he turned it on. "It's already an old hunk and I had to have it fixed almost more times than the number of books I've managed to copy with it."

"It seems to be working fine so far..."

"Let's just pray it keeps it up… I'm already fed up with its constant malfunctioning." complained Daisuke and showed Kyouichi to follow him again.

"While the book's being copied, I'll give you another task."

He took a large and heavy looking box from under the counter.

"Here you go…" he suddenly put the box full of books into Kyouichi's hands. "These are the completed transcriptions and copies. Sort these up and put them in the respective sections according to that little chart I gave you."

"Umpf… Whatever you say, Shimizu-san." panted Kyouichi as the heavy box almost slipped out of his grip.

"And try not to damage them, while you're at it." added the boss as he saw Kyouichi almost drop the box.

During his normal life, Kyouichi had experienced many different part-time jobs and the physically exhausting ones were no exception. However, when he figured that he could earn the same wage even with much easier jobs, he stopped taking the hard ones for good. He preferred his life easy and rather than toiling somewhere on the construction site or helping unloading trucks, he chose to do jobs like washing up in a restaurant or mopping the floor in a supermarket or his most recent – sticking the warranty certificates on the boxes of various electronic goods in a warehouse. Taking the easier jobs sure is convenient, but as a result, Kyouichi gradually fell out of shape. He never got fat or anything, but his strength which he was once proud of diminished greatly and his former good stamina was now quite pitiful.

As he was recalling the dim flashbacks from the time he was in top condition, he put the heavy box filled with new books on the counter and opened it. He then took the first book on top and looked at its title – The Evening Rain. It was a short romance novel written by Daisuke Shimizu himself.

"Ok, let's see…" muttered Kyouichi as he looked at the sections chart, trying to figure where to put it. "Section B – 5… fiction/romance…"

He took the book and looked for the respective section. It wasn't a problem to find, since there were signs with the sections' names written on the side of each shelf. Once he found the right section and the right shelf, he quickly raced through the names of other titles so he could put the book among others while maintaining the alphabetical order.

"Alright, I guess I'll put you here then…" whispered Kyouichi while making some room for the book between some other two romance novels.

"That wasn't so hard… Hopefully the other books will be as easily sortable as this one."

He returned to the counter and took another book out of the box. This one was titled – Basics of Herbal Medicine by Eirin Yagokoro.

"This one looks like it belongs to the "Journals and How to" section... Ok, let's take a couple of more books."

Kyouichi took some more books at once, so that he wouldn't have to return to the counter every time. Among the other titles there were: Fusing the Elements, Familiar Summoning and The Power of Gems – all written by the same author, Patchouli Knowledge. Then there were a few copies of the early edition of the Gensokyo Chronicle, and finally, a few printouts of the book he saw in the shop's window – The Legacy of Ryuuken by Makoto Yoshida.

* * *

It took him about 15 minutes to find a place in the shelves for all the books in the box, but it wasn't very hard. As he was working, he noticed that a few customers entered the shop and Daisuke immediately welcomed them with his exaggerated cheerful attitude. They said they just wanted to browse, so he left them alone for a while.

Kyouichi then came to report that he was finished with his task and asked the shopkeeper what he should do next.

"I see you're getting the hang of it, young one." said Daisuke in a hushed voice and praisingly tapped Kyouichi on the shoulder. "Go and check how the printer is doing and then come back to me."

"Will do…"

Kyouichi entered the printing room behind the counter and contently nodded as he saw the machine still working without any complications. It was supplied with enough paper and the ink tank gauge showed that there's no need for refill yet.

"The printer's still working fine… so far. What should I do now?"

"Take this duster and clean all the shelves. That should keep you busy for some time."

Daisuke gave him a piece of cloth and told him to clean the shelves properly.

"Well, I guess it's still better than working on a rice field. I certainly wouldn't want to be in Daniel's shoes right now." thought Kyouichi and proceeded to do the thorough cleaning of all the bookshelves in the shop. It was a simple, but very lengthy task. Kyouichi hummed melodies of some of his favorite songs to entertain his mind a bit during the monotonous wiping. As hours slowly passed by, Kyouichi began to feel the first signs of fatigue in his right wrist, shoulders and back. When he was finally done, he saw Daisuke peek out of the printing room and waving at him.

"Congratulations young one! You've just managed to make your first copy and what's more, the printer still works!"

"That's good to hear, Shimizu-san!" responded Kyouichi from the other side of the shop, slowly walking towards the counter.

"Alright then, I've got one last task for you and we can call it a day."

"Really? But its still 3 hours until closing time…" objected Kyouichi, because he wasn't sure if his payment wouldn't be reduced if he ended his shift earlier.

"Don't worry, I used to let my regular assistant go home a bit earlier without deducting from his pay." Daisuke comforted. "You did well for your first day so far. Now I just want you to mop the floor and your today's shift will be over."

Kyouichi exhaled lightly. "So, swab the ship's decks, eh? Aye-aye, Cap'n!" he jestingly blurted out in English with a pirate accent and even saluted before he started with the cleaning.

Daisuke, whose job consisted of translating the books had no difficulties with understanding that. He let out a silent chuckle and returned to what he was doing – binding the copied pages into a hardback cover. Kyouichi was now happy that he managed to get a job that wasn't too difficult and he was permitted to go home a bit earlier than normal. The pay wasn't bad either, but it wasn't going to buy him a new house any time soon. Furthermore, he wasn't even certain if they'll need him at the bookstore once Daisuke's assistant recovers from his fracture.

"Come on… you've always managed to find some job before." he cheered himself up while recalling the situations from the previous years. "Even if they won't need me here anymore, I'm sure to find some other job if I ask around."

Indeed, one of Kyouichi's favorite creeds was: "Where there's will, there's a way." And he strongly believed that it will also apply for his will to return home to Tokyo. However, it was still too early to back up those beliefs with some results. Only time will tell if his dream to return will become true or dissolve as the morning mist over a river. With his mind again focused somewhere else than the present reality, he didn't even notice that he already managed to clean the shop's floor completely.

* * *

"Alright, Ishimaru, that was a good start of your new part-time job." Daisuke praised him. "Keep it up and we'll be getting along really well. Oh, and don't tell anyone that I'm paying you full wage even when I'm letting you go home earlier, okay?"

"Understood."

"Good. Well then… I guess I'll see you tomorrow again. Have a nice day."

"You too, Shimizu-san." replied Kyouichi and bowed to his employer. "Goodbye."

As Kyouichi left the Starlight Glyph and slowly walked down the path back to the marketplace, a growling of his stomach reminded him that he only had soup for his lunch and was now quite hungry. The sun was getting lower and Kyouichi didn't have any other goal now than the Saitou residence.


	12. An Unexpected Visit

"I'm home." he announced as he opened the sliding door of the house.

"Oh, Kyouichi-kun." Mizuto welcomed him. "Come in. You must be hungry, am I right?"

"Like a wolf…" admitted Kyouichi and clutched his growling stomach.

He sat at the table in the kitchen opposite to Tadao-kun, who greeted him and kept waiting until his father prepares the food.

"Minako's still at work so I'm making the dinner today." he explained. "You like grilled fish?"

"Mizuto-san, even if you offered me uncooked rice, I'd eat it voraciously. But yes, I do like grilled fish."

"That's good." smiled the fisherman and returned to the stove where he was grilling his today's catch. "Oh, by the way, we have a rare visitor today who came looking for you, but you were out at work."

"A rare visitor? Looking for me?" Kyouichi seriously wondered who that might be.

"Yes, Tadao-kun, could you please call the guest to the kitchen?" asked Mizuto.

"Yes, wait a second." his son replied and slowly left the kitchen.

After a while Kyouichi could hear his footsteps again, but this time accompanied by footsteps of another person.

"Good evening." sounded a young girl's voice, which Kyouichi was already familiar with. A glimpse of red and white, Kyouichi immediately recognized the person standing in the doorway.

"Reimu-san?!" he asked with a surprised face.

"Yes, it's me." nodded the shrine maiden gently and smiled. "I came for a visit since I've got something to tell you, but you were busy so I waited here…"

"Sorry…" apologized Kyouichi. "I did manage to get some work after all. I hope you didn't wait too long "

"Oh, that's fine… I was playing with Chitose as I waited, so I wasn't bored."

"Chitose is your big fan, Reimu-san." said Mizuto as he flipped the fish to grill on both sides properly. "She always talks about how she'd like to become a youkai hunter… But I'm worried about her… she's still too young to understand how dangerous it can be."

"Well, I don't think that age matters here that much." objected Reimu. "I was only 8 when I resolved my first youkai incident and that was before the Spell Card Rules and before I learned how to fly…"

"But you were trained for this kind of work ever since you were little and you have significant natural talent…" continued Mizuto.

"To tell you the truth, I had more luck than brains back then… Ever since I became an orphan and was forced to look after myself, I started to believe that I can handle youkai just as well as my parents used to. It's true that I never used to train much and I relied on my sheer talent, but the fact that I'm still alive is not a proof of my abilities alone, but also a great big deal of luck." admitted Reimu as she recalled her childhood days. "I realized that I can't go on recklessly risking my life as well as the existence of the barrier, so I came up with the Spell Card System to ensure no further bloodshed between the humans and youkai. It was only after several years that I figured why I managed to stay alive before I introduced the rules. The youkai were holding back, because they believed that with the death of the last descendant of the Hakurei clan, the Great Boundary could fall and their powers would be weakened severely. Not so long ago, there was a situation where youkai didn't even have the will to cause any incidents. With the rules, however, humans no longer need to fear the youkai as they used to. Now it's much more fun to fight against them. If your daughter wants to help protect the humans in the future, why not give her a chance?"

"Yes, dad, why not give me a chance?" sounded Chitose who just entered the kitchen with her younger brother. "The youkai can't kill people with these rules in effect, right Reimu-sama?"

"I'm afraid that's not entirely true." replied the shrine maiden. "The youkai still hunt humans for food, namely those who can't defend themselves very well: outsiders, hermits, and those who don't have Spell Cards of their own."

"And you don't have Spell Cards yet, Chitose, so don't even think about challenging a youkai on your own." added Mizuto, who was naturally worried about his daughter.

"Don't worry, I'm not stupid enough to go up against a youkai yet…" Chitose reassured him. "I'm still just a beginner in using magic."

"Say, Reimu-san, and where can one get them Spell Cards?" asked Kyouichi who was still a bit clueless. "Do they sell them somewhere, or do you have to make them somehow?"

"When someone becomes sufficiently adept in some form of magic or other power, they choose an offensive direct-damage spell and calibrate its effect to non-lethal." explained Reimu. "Once the fine-tuning of the spell is done, it is then cast and materialized into a card for later use. Another rule says that the Spell Cards should always have at least a minimal flaw in their projectile pattern, always giving the opponent some chance to avoid them. And a time limit, of course. Sometimes the duels turn out to be a contest of beautiful patterns, rather than actual battle."

While Reimu kept explaining, Mizuto was getting finished with preparing the dinner.

"Alright, I think they're grilled just fine…" he announced after he checked the color of the grilled fish and started serving them. "There's enough for everyone, so eat as much as you like."

"Itadakimasu~!"

* * *

While everyone was feasting on the ample amount of grilled fish meat with rice balls, Kyouichi asked Reimu why she came to visit the Saitous.

After a while of chewing her food and swallowing it she replied: "Oh yeah, I wanted to tell you about this…" she pulled out a folded letter from her sleeve and gave it to Kyouichi. It was the one she got from the village elder regarding the outsiders. He took the letter and read it silently. Reimu watched as his eyes traced the text and impatiently waited to hear his opinion.

When he finished reading the last line, he lightly smiled and snorted.

"Well that's a newsflash… I already met most of these outsiders. And it seems the council doesn't quite understand the situation."

"So you already knew about the others?" asked Reimu.

"Sure, we go to the same class now… We've even formed a club to join our forces in looking for a way home, whereas, the village council doesn't seem to give a damn…"

"That's because they think there's no possible way for you to return."

"And what do you think about this sudden boom of outside immigrants? Do you know why we all ended up here?"

"The barrier's fine, I can feel it." responded Reimu. "This was most likely just another one-time mass spiriting away caused by Yukari. If that's so, then I'm not sure if she'll be willing to take you back home."

"We'll just have to try and see, but first we need to find her…" said Kyouichi, still thoughtfully reading the letter over and over again. "Hmm… But this part here is interesting: "…there are no available records at our disposal that indicate the exact location of Tokyo in relation to Gensokyo before it was sealed"." he read aloud, trying to imitate elder Fukukane's voice.

"Yeah, that's why I'm not supposed to take you back through the shrine…" nodded the miko.

"Indeed, but if by any chance we were to find something in Gensokyo that would denote its location in Japan, it would mean that we wouldn't need to look for Yukari. You would just take us to the outside world via the shrine and from there we would go to the nearest town and ask for a way to Tokyo." he speculated.

"But I already told you, I don't know of any human settlements near the shrine in the outside world…" Reimu objected.

"I know… I'm merely suggesting that we may have more than one option." muttered Kyouichi, finally folding up the letter and giving it back to Reimu. "However, I don't know which one of these two paths is going to be easier."

"I think it won't be so hard to find Yukari." sounded Reimu after drinking some tea. "We're going to have a hanami soon and I know that she just loves parties and feasts. And even if she won't show up, some of her friends will, so we can ask them to help us look for her…"

Kyouichi doubtingly raised his eyebrow. "Isn't it a little late for a flower viewing?"

"The spring is still here and the sakura trees are still in bloom." said Reimu with a daydreamy look on her face. "There's still time for a hanami, although not much."

"So when is this hanami going to be?" asked Kyouichi. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to come, because as you can see, I'm already working part-time."

"And when do you have time then?"

"Hmm…" Kyouichi paused himself to think. "I think I'm free on weekends, or if the hanami's going to start in the evening, then I'm basically finished with work every weekday at a time like this."

"Then how about next Friday?" suggested Reimu.

"Friday evening? Well, okay, but… how will I get to your shrine? I don't think the Ryuuken will be willing to escort me this time."

"I'll do it." she immediately responded.

"You… will?" asked Kyouichi, only partly believing her words.

"Yes." she replied with a soft smile. "I'll be waiting here next Friday, if Saitou-san has nothing against it."

"Of course not, Reimu-san, on the contrary, we're honored to have you visit." said Mizuto, who was pretty much like his daughter a bit overexcited about Reimu's visit.

"Can I come too, Reimu-sama?" asked Chitose, with her eyes sparkling with anticipation.

"No, Chitose, you can't." resolutely responded her father. "Even with Reimu-san, it's still risky to go out of the village. Besides, there's probably going to be a lot of drinking and you're too young for that."

"Aww, geez… " mumbled young Chitose, lowering her head in disappointment. "And Kyouichi-kun doesn't even know how to cast the easiest spells and he can go? Not fair~!"

Mizuto gave his daughter a strict glance. "First of all, he's an adult and can decide on his own. If he's not afraid to risk his life for the sake of returning home, then I cannot forbid him to do so. I can only give him a friend's advice. You are my daughter and I hold full responsibility for your well being…"

"You worry too much, dad." said Chitose with an agitated tone, a typical response of a teenage child who wants to get a taste of independence from her parents.

"When you'll have your own children, you too will understand." said Mizuto and ended their conversation.

Reimu was actually hoping to have some more new faces at the hanami, but she couldn't really make objections to a parent who is worried about the safety of his children.

"By the way, Reimu, can I bring someone along there?" asked Kyouichi a bit uncertainly, breaking the silence in the room.

"Actually, we're currently short on guests so sure, why not?" the shrine maiden agreed. "Who would you like to invite?"

"Well, maybe a few of those outsiders who are now my classmates… And perhaps even… Do you know the village… I mean the Gensokyo chronicler? Well, maybe her too…"

"Oh, you mean Akyuu-chan? But of course!" exclaimed Reimu. "I've almost forgotten about her… I've been to her place with Marisa only once, but she's nice. Of course she can come."

"Well then, I'll go and ask her tomorrow… I'm already looking forward to the hanami."

Reimu was also looking forward to the upcoming flower viewing event, but on the other hand, she felt a bit annoyed at the thought of all the preparations she still had to make and the cleaning she would have to do afterwards. Although the shrine maiden usually liked having parties at her shrine from time to time, she wasn't very fond of her usual guests' antics after they just had a bit too much sake.

"Well then," she said as she was standing up, "I still need to go and do some shopping… And then invite a few more guests." with a sigh, she bowed to everyone and was about to take her leave. Kyouichi, Mizuto and both of his children followed her to the doorstep of their house.

"Take care of yourself, Reimu-san! We're looking forward to your next visit." called Mizuto as the shrine maiden was slowly walking backwards towards the marketplace, still facing the Saitou house and waving back.

As soon as Reimu disappeared behind the corner of the street, Mizuto closed the main door and returned to the kitchen to finish off the leftovers of today's dinner on his plate. Kyouichi turned to Chitose who was still a little gloomy about the fact that she couldn't go to the hanami.

* * *

"Hey, Chitose-chan, don't feel so blue," he tried to cheer her up a bit, "just wait a couple of years and you won't need anyone's permission…"

The girl sighed, looking at the floor. "If only I had my own Spell Cards, I could go almost anywhere I'd like to, but I still need to train hard…"

"Oh, that's right, do you already know when you are going to have an evening practice with that club of yours?" asked Kyouichi, trying to cleverly change the topic and bring Chitose to happier thoughts. "I'd like to see that…"

It seemed to work, because her mood quickly changed to better. "Oh, yes, Rie-senpai arranged the evening sessions for Tuesdays, so you can come and take a look at us tomorrow already. We practice on a meadow near the farms and the new Buddhist temple. We start as soon as the sun sets."

"That's great." he smiled and gently tapped her on her shoulder. "I'll be there to cheer for you."

With that said, Chitose returned to her room and Kyouichi decided to take a quick bath. After that he walked into the guest room and again took the first volume of the Gensokyo Chronicle to look for more info about the elusive youkai of boundaries. He found the passage about the youkai cherry tree which he had already read and from there he raced through the following pages to find other entries mentioning her name. However, he could find nothing more in this book. Not giving up, he took the second volume and diligently kept on searching. The search still wasn't very fruitful, as the only bits of information he could find was regarding Yukari occasionally visiting the chronicler and her later incarnations and informing her of other events.

Gradually getting more tired, he yawned and sighed. "Man… this didn't bring me any further."

A little bit of frustration only fueled his motivation. When it was already too dark to read, he took several of the books with him and went to the kitchen. There he lit a few candles to make some light and was ready to pull an all-nighter if it meant getting another step closer to knowing something more about Yukari. But frankly, Kyouichi didn't actually care about the boundary youkai. He simply viewed her only as a potential ticket back to Tokyo.

After a few hours of thorough searching, he finally came across something interesting in the fifth volume of the massive compilation. He almost wanted to shout out "Eureka!", but since he didn't want to wake up the whole Saitou family who were already sleeping peacefully, he stayed only at clenching his fist and swinging his right arm to gesture his success.

"Thank you, God of Patience, thank you." he whispered to a deity he just made up while looking at the ceiling. "Now let's see what we have here…"

He adjusted his glasses and started reading an article titled: The Youkai Expansion Project.

The date signified that the article was dealing with an event from over 500 years ago. According to the text, the project referred to Yukari's plan to restore the power to the youkai of Gensokyo, who fell under the pressure of human expansion. Until then, Gensokyo was merely an isolated mountain area inhabited mostly by youkai. However, with the technological progress made by humans over time, faith and superstition gradually gave way to science. As gradually less and less people still believed in the existence of youkai, their powers began to weaken, even in Gensokyo, where their concentration was the largest in Japan. Yukari planned to restore their power by creating a boundary between illusion and reality around Gensokyo, thus creating a new world. The barrier was not physical, so traveling into and out of Gensokyo was still possible. It only served as a sort of sanctuary where the youkai could thrive without having to worry about losing their powers. This resulted in massive youkai immigrations into Gensokyo from all over Japan and even beyond. Eventually, the world outside of Gensokyo was generally regarded as a world without youkai, while Gensokyo was now seen as their demesne. An addition to the text made by Akyuu explained that the effects of this boundary remain even in the present and that this boundary is now one with the Great Hakurei Border created several hundred years later.

"Hmm… So there was another barrier before the Year Zero, huh?" thought Kyouichi after reading. "It would also seem that the youkai in Gensokyo don't need the humans to sustain their powers like Reimu told me. But why is it called a Youkai Expansion Project, when the result is a complete opposite of expansion?"

The answer to that question was not important, for he learned something new today. It was already past midnight and Kyouichi's eyelids were getting heavy. He blew out the candles and took the books. In complete darkness, he traced the wall of the corridor with his hand as he was carefully walking to the guest room. He put the books he had already checked on a separate pile and then he undressed himself. Laying down on the futon, he yawned with his mouth gaping wide and fell asleep in a matter of minutes.


	13. The Transfer Students' Club

He had a dream. It was a dream about the outside world… It was just a few inconsistent flashbacks from his childhood, combined with the setting of more recent times and it ended with the recollection of his spiriting away to Gensokyo. When he woke up, he found himself being curled up and covering his head, just as he was in the subway on that fateful day of May the 28th, year 2010. It was only four days ago, so it could be expected that this event would replay itself in Kyouichi's dreams a couple of times with some minor variations. When he fully came to his senses, he exhaled with relief that it was just a dream. However, the fact that he was now stuck for the fifth day in an illusionary world called Gensokyo was as real as life itself.

It was still early – not more than half past seven. Even though the timetable for the "transfer students" began after ten on Tuesdays, Kyouichi had the responsibility to come to the club's first meeting. In other words, he needed to go to school at 8, like usual. After the morning hygiene and eating breakfast made by Minako, he left the house. The Saitou siblings kept him company on his way to school today as well.

As they entered the school, the three of them split up in the hallway, each heading to their classroom and Kyouichi to the library. He walked up two flights of stairs to the second floor of the school and looked for the school library. It took him less then a minute to find it. It was a room at the very end of the eastern wing on the 2nd floor. Not sure if there was anyone there yet, he knocked on the door and then opened it.

* * *

The fact that the door was unlocked suggested that someone was already inside, but Kyouichi couldn't see anyone.

"Hello?" he called as he entered.

"Huh? Who's there?" sounded Midori's voice from behind a large bookshelf. Her head peeked from behind it.

"Oh, Kyouichi-san, good morning." she greeted.

"Yeah, good…*yawn*…morning." he responded with a sleepy voice. "Are you alone here?"

"So far I am, but it shouldn't take long until others come as well."

As if waiting only for those words, someone else knocked on the door and entered the small library.

"Good morning."

Kyouichi turned around to see who greeted. It was Hikaru Nagahashi, the eldest member of the Transfer Students' Club. Like Midori, he still remained faithful to his clothes from the outside world. He bowed to the other two members in the library and took a seat at one of the reading desks. Kyouichi, who was still a little sleepy also sat down at one of the desks and rested his head on his hands. Midori was browsing through the books in the shelves more out of boredom than of anything else. Hikaru took out his notepad and started writing something.

After 10 minutes of idle waiting, people from the club finally started to gather one by one in the school library.

Kyouichi didn't even know the names of most of these people yet, but it was obvious that they all had the same desire to be back at home in the outside world.

"Hey, no snoozing." said Midori while lightly shaking Kyouichi's shoulder. "It seems that everyone's here. I think we can start our meeting."

"Great." muttered Kyouichi with his head still resting on the desk. "Go ahead and start…"

"Me?! But founding this club was your idea, so you should do the introductory speech." suggested Midori.

Kyouichi straightened up, his back making a silent cracking sound. He looked at her with a serious face and sighed.

"But we haven't even decided who's going to be the club president."

"What do you mean? You're the founder, so you'll be the president."

"Whoa, whoa… Just a minute!" protested Kyouichi. "I think that the role of the president should be taken by someone more competent."

"I think it will be best if we all introduced ourselves first and then we could vote for the best candidate for the club's president." suggested Hikaru.

"Great idea, Nagahashi-san." Midori praised him. "Everybody, gather around! We're each going to introduce ourselves like on our first lesson with Keine-sensei and we're each going to tell a reason why we joined the club..."

"Isn't it obvious?" Kyouichi interrupted her. "Because we all want to get back home."

"Hmm… I guess so…" she muttered to herself and then again turned her face to other members. "Well then, each of us will tell some idea that could help us return."

Hikaru turned to a new page in his notepad, ready to write down each of the members' names and their ideas.

"Okay, who wants to start?" asked Midori loudly, but no volunteers were raising their hands. "Nobody? Fine, then I guess I'll start…"

She cleared her throat and began her brief introduction along with sharing any knowledge she had acquired about Gensokyo and the Great Boundary over those few days.

* * *

"…and therefore, I believe it would be best if we held on to our original plan – to search for the youkai of boundaries, Yukari Yakumo." Midori finished her monologue.

The other members clapped their hands for her in a light applause.

Next was Hikaru. He apparently gathered more knowledge about Gensokyo than Midori, but it was nothing new to Kyouichi. He was also hesitant to decide on any ideas about how the outsiders should attempt to return to Tokyo. He explained that he still knew too little to tell what would be the best way of trying to return, and therefore, he suggested further studying of Gensokyo in general.

* * *

In very similar manner, all the club members made their short introductions, and told what they know about Gensokyo, unless it was something already said by other members. Their ideas for looking for a way home were various: some of them being funny, stupid, pointless and even dangerous. Not that looking for some mysterious boundary altering youkai was the most reasonable of plans, but it certainly sounded better than digging a tunnel under the Great Boundary or trying to build an airplane and fly over it. Some people didn't even have any ideas. They just wanted to get home like everyone else.

Finally, it was Kyouichi's turn to say something. He stood up in his desk, took a deep breath and literally began a lecture about Gensokyo, going into details about what he heard and read about it. He also mentioned his short trip to the outside world with Reimu and Marisa through the Hakurei Shrine, which lies somewhere in the middle of mountains, far away from any towns or villages. He also brought up two ideas: one to search for Yukari and the other to find out Gensokyo's location in Japan, so they could exit through the shrine and walk on their own to the nearest settlement and return to Tokyo from there. He also pointed out all the flaws of other members' ideas and kindly asked them not to attempt such ridiculous actions.

* * *

"…and finally, not that it wouldn't interest me if we could overcome the navigation disrupting effect of the Great Boundary, Yamada-san," spoke Kyouichi to one of the members, "but seriously… Trying to dig under it? I mean… what's the point? We could all just cross the barrier now if we wanted to. Reimu the shrine maiden can do it. The real problem is that this Gensokyo is not even near Tokyo, so even if this curious plan of yours worked and we would manage to dig a tunnel to the outside, we would still be lost in the middle of… God knows where."

The other members started to chatter and whisper something to each other and Yamada-san, a young Japanese male otaku sulked in his chair.

Kyouichi was winding up his speech: "I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's either Yukari or a map of Gensokyo's surroundings. My only hint regarding the location of Gensokyo would be that it's somewhere near the Yatsugatake mountain range. We should be working towards at least one of these two goals…"

As he sat down, nobody even applauded, as they did for everyone. Instead, they were indulged in exchanging their opinions on what they just heard.

As the introductions came to an end, it was now time to decide on picking the most competent person, who would be able to organize the work of the other members to look for relevant but different pieces of information that would help them fulfill their goal.

* * *

"Alright~!" Midori was again standing and getting the other people's attention with her slightly hyperactive attitude "Now each one of you will write one name on a piece of paper to give your vote to the person you believe would be the best in the position of the club's president and put them in this vase. The members placing 2nd and 3rd in this poll will be entrusted with the roles of the vice-president and the club's chief secretary." She took a small empty clay vase that was standing on the windowsill of one of the library's five windows.

Some people immediately jotted down some names, others needed some more time to think, but eventually they all managed to throw in their vote into the vase. Kyouichi without thinking wrote "Hikaru Nagahashi" on his little scrap of paper and put it into the vase along with others.

"I hereby declare this poll as closed." announced Midori as the last person threw in their vote. "Now we shall commence with the counting of votes…"

She took the vase, flipped it upside-down and spilled all the crumpled up pieces of paper on one of the desks. Then with the assistance of two other randomly picked members she counted the papers and sorted them according to names. There weren't too many members in the club, so the counting was over in a minute.

* * *

"And we have the results~!" she announced again while waving her hands in the air. "Placing as 3rd with 4 votes is… Nagahashi Hikaru-san! Congratulations!"

Hikaru didn't look very surprised as he stood up to bow to the others. "Thank you for your votes." He even smiled a bit, showing that he had no objections to working as the chief secretary of this club.

Midori continued with announcing the results. "Placing 2nd in the poll with 5 votes is... why, thank you very much! It's me! Yay~!"

"Congratulations, Midori!" called Kyouichi as he applauded for her. Midori was apparently more surprised than Hikaru that she managed to take the 2nd place. She even blushed a little which made her look quite cute. When she realized that she spaced out for a while, she apologized and announced the name of the club's president.

"And finally, our club's president, with a total of 8 votes is… Ishimaru Kyouichi! Congratulations~!"

Everyone applauded to the new president and Midori and Hikaru even shook their hands with him. Kyouichi bowed to all the club's members and made a wide smile more out of courtesy than out of genuine joy.

"So… I get to be the brigade chief, huh?" he muttered to himself.

"Okay, okay!" sounded Midori again, flailing her arms in the air to get some more attention. "Our president will now start the introductory speech and tell us what he will expect from us and our work as a club."

Kyouichi lowered his head and sighed heavily, trying to focus his mind on what he would tell these people. After a few seconds, he nodded in agreement and stepped forward to the middle of the room so that everyone could see him.

"Dear ladies and gentlemen, my fellow outsiders, my new friends," he preambled, "…I welcome you all heartily in this new club… Phew… I don't even know how to start…"

He paused himself to take a couple of deep breaths and continued: "First and foremost, I'd like to thank you all for putting so much trust in me… Although frankly, I hoped that this responsibility which I'm now going to bear would fall onto someone else… Someone more capable of management and someone with certainly better leadership skills than myself… But since I've already been so officially elected, I'm not going to back away from the responsibility that this role brings. I have to admit that I've never had any experience in managing people and assigning them to some tasks, but I'm going to try and do my best in order to coordinate this club as effectively as possible. I can only hope that you all knew what you were doing when you wrote down "Ishimaru Kyouichi" on those little paper strips before you put them in that vase… I can very well understand your desire to return to your homes and families, and therefore, I ask you to be strong… strong and patient, because neither I, nor anyone else whom I've met in Gensokyo so far can guarantee that we'll succeed in our quest. We can only deserve this success. I expect each of you to put your best effort into helping us all find a solution to our problem. I will only be here to help us coordinate our search."

"And what if we won't be able to find anything? What will you do then?" asked Yuujin Ueda, the engine driver of one of the lines of the Tokyo subway.

Kyouichi knew that this guy never really trusted him and his idea of searching for Yukari, but he couldn't really blame him… Although Yuujin could be a little irritable, he was nonetheless a member of the club and due to his current job as a part of the trading caravan, Kyouichi viewed him as an invaluable asset of his team.

"Then, Ueda-san, I promise I'll let you whine and complain and blame me all you want, for I'm afraid that I have no other alternative."

"Do you have any assignments for us, president?" asked Midori, like a polite little schoolgirl with a raised hand.

"Actually, I think I do…" Kyouichi replied as he started to thoughtfully walk around in small circles – one of his habits when he was thinking hard about something. He suddenly stopped and repeated himself: "I think I do…"

"So what do you want us to look for, president?" asked Midori again.

"First, let me get one thing straight… Don't call me "president", ok? We're all friends here, so please just stick with "Kyouichi" or simply "Kyou". Now for your first assignment… Well, it's not actually an assignment as it is an invitation."

"An invitation?" muttered Midori with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes. Since I already have all of you guys gathered here, I'd like to invite you on behalf of Reimu Hakurei to a hanami which will take place this Friday in the evening at the Hakurei Shrine…"

Everyone started whispering: "What? A hanami? Where? At the shrine? Is he serious?"

Kyouichi tapped on the desk with his hand like a judge trying to silence the people at the court. "As I've already explained, Reimu Hakurei is the local shrine maiden and a key figure in Gensokyo due to her role as the barrier keeper and something like a youkai police. She's going to host a hanami this week and I've been invited there as well. Not only that, but I've also been permitted to bring a couple of my own friends along with me… So I'm asking you: who would like to come with me?"

Yuujin immediately objected. "This is what you call searching for a way home?! Going to some stupid flower viewing?! I'm beginning to seriously regret giving my vote to you…"

"Whoa, take it easy, Ueda-san. I wouldn't bring it up if it was completely irrelevant…" Kyouichi defended himself. "This hanami is going to host some youkai too, as I presume, and some of these youkai may have some relation to Yukari. That's why I'd like to go there and ask around a bit… and I'm inviting you as well."

The club members again started to whisper something as they exchanged their surprised looks.

"There is… well, actually… there SHOULD be no danger from these youkai, assuming that they are on friendly terms with the shrine maiden, but if you aren't trusting enough, then you better not go… If anyone feels like coming with me, just let me know."

Nobody out of all the 17 other members raised their hands. As Kyouichi looked at them left and right, hoping that at least someone would like to take this unique opportunity to find out something new and to meet new people and youkai, Hikaru shook his head.

"It's not that we wouldn't like to come, but… we all have jobs already and I'm afraid that I won't be able to go…"

"Yes, and besides," said Sayuri, "the Ryuuken won't even let us out of the village."

"As for that, Reimu herself offers us escort to the shrine." Kyouichi explained.

"But I'm afraid I'll be busy as well." objected Sayuri while shaking her head.

"Me too… Yeah, likewise… I'm not going, sorry…" replied all the other people with regret.

"Never mind." muttered Kyouichi silently. "Let me then give you some tasks at least… Midori, Hikaru, Sayuri, and you too, Dan, I want you to ask some village folks about any rumors, legends and stuff they've heard about Yukari. Ueda-san, you have a special assignment. Since you're traveling with the traders to the other remote villages of Gensokyo, I want you to do the same and ask around about Yukari there. You may also want to dig around the other villages' archives a bit and see if you can find a map of Gensokyo and its surrounding areas. I know I might be asking a bit too much of you, but you can ask the other traders to help you gather some pieces of information. Everyone else, try to get your hands on any interesting books about the Great Boundary and take notes of the important information, because you'll be each presenting your new findings to all of us. And Hikaru-san, one more thing: You'll be in charge of compiling whatever useful information we may find to the club's research log. You may also pick two assistants for this task."

Hikaru nodded with a smile and showed several pages of his notepad already filled up with his handwriting to show that he already noted down everything that was already discussed today.

Kyouichi showed a thumbs up gesture. "Great work, Hikaru-san…" he praised him, "Everyone, take example of this man. But don't worry if you won't be able to find anything. I'm not going to scold you. I think our will to return home is strong enough to keep us motivated. Well then… enough of my ramble. Our first club's meeting is concluded. We'll be holding meetings once a week. You may all go about your own business now."

Kyouichi then walked back to the desk where he was sitting before the meeting and slumped down onto the chair. Midori walked up to him and leaned over his desk.

"I told you you're going to be the president, didn't I?" she provoked him a bit, a wry smile settling on her face.

"I guess I should have seen this coming…" admitted Kyouichi with a sigh. "But I really DO want to return home, so I'm going to be serious about this club."

"Me too." Midori backed him up.

"I never doubted that, Midori. I'm glad to have you in our team."

She giggled a bit. "Stop… You're making me blush… Anyway, now that the meeting's over, we still have some time before the typology starts. Would you like to take a little walk?"

Kyouichi suddenly realized something: "Typology! Homework! I completely forgot!"

He quickly took out the textbook of the Youkai Typology from his handbag in a state close to panic and checked the notes he took on yesterday's lesson.

"What did we even have for homework...? Let's see… Oh, just read the article about the kappa? Whew, I was worried I'd have to write something."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk…" Midori shook her head disapprovingly. "How irresponsible of you, club president…"

Kyouichi shrugged and smiled. "If you knew me a bit more, you'd be more surprised if I ever DID my homework…"

"You don't want to get into trouble with Keine-sensei, do you? I've overheard some of the younger kids talking that she sometimes resorts to corporal punishment."

"Really?" asked surprised Kyouichi as he was racing quickly through the text about the kappa. "She certainly doesn't look like the type… But I guess that sometimes a little educational slap can't be avoided in a village school."

"I've heard she uses a rather unconventional method for that, though…"

"…Alright. I'm done reading." announced Kyouichi after a minute while slamming the book shut. "So… you wanted to take a walk?"

* * *

It was still an hour too early for the transfer students to be at the school, so it was perfectly fine to take a little walk before the first lesson. This time Kyouichi was accompanied only by Midori. They were walking around the school grounds for a while as they were getting to know each other a bit more.

"…Eh~? So that Saitou family took you in?" asked Midori curiously. "Lucky you… Me, Sayuri and Dan-san are living at the Ryuuken barracks. We have food and a bed to sleep in, but in exchange, we have to be on regular cleaning duty."

"Why won't you look for a family that would take you in?" Kyouichi offered her a solution.

"I've tried, but so far no luck…" replied Midori, looking somewhere away. "With so many people spirited away, most of the families I've asked already took some outsider into their custody. Like I said… I've just been a little low on luck in the recent days."

Kyouichi thoughtfully hummed. "I may know about at least one person who might be willing to take you in… after I do a little talking with him."

"Really? I'd be really grateful to live in some normal house. I wouldn't even mind helping the family with household chores… I just can't stand some of the Ryuuken. Some of them are nothing but a bunch of arrogant, bossy and even perverted bastards."

"I'll see what I can do…" said Kyouichi without any false promises. "But I think we better get going... our lesson's about to start soon."

As they walked back into the school, they could hear the bell ringing in the school's small clock tower announcing the end of recess and the beginning of the next class. They entered the classroom just in time, but they still received a few curious looks from the other students as they immediately assumed that a new pairing was sprouting up. Ignoring their provocative remarks, Kyouichi took a seat at his desk and pulled the Youkai Typology book out of his handbag only seconds before Keine-sensei entered the room.

* * *

"Hello, students." she greeted her class. "It's time for another lesson about the different kinds of youkai who inhabit our little Gensokyo. Last time we were talking about the kappa, if I remember correctly, and I also gave you an easy homework to read the whole text, which we didn't get to do yesterday, as we ran out of time. So, to check if you really read that text, I'll ask you a few questions. Who can tell me what's the favorite food of the kappa?"

Many students in the classroom raised their hands. Even those who were labeled as "transfer students".

"Hmm… How about… Hayashi Sayuri-san?"

"The kappa love to eat cucumbers." responded Sayuri without thinking.

"That's right, Sayuri-san." nodded the teacher. "Next: Who knows the name of at least one kappa engineer and manufacturer?"

Again some hands were stretching upwards.

"Tell us, Daniel-san?"

"Hmm… Kawashiro?" he answered uncertainly.

"Yes, Nitori Kawashiro is indeed one example of the creative kappan minds…" confirmed Keine-sensei. "Okay, one last question: What are the kappa famous for besides making tools?"

This time only few hands were raised, but Keine-sensei wanted to pick someone who didn't raise their hand.

"Kotomi-chan, how about you?" she asked one of the regular 6th graders.

The girl nervously scratched her head and after a while she muttered: "Umm… they are… famous merchants?"

"Why of course, they are." agreed Keine-sensei. "However, as I already told you, they're still a little shy from humans. They exchange mostly with tengu… Alright, it seems that you've all read the text. And speaking of the tengu, in this lesson we are going to learn something about this interesting race of youkai who inhabit the tallest mountain in Gensokyo. Open your books on page 47 and we can begin."

In a rather short lecture, Keine-sensei explained that there are several sub-races of the tengu in Gensokyo; the management type – daitengu, the information gathering type - the crow tengu, the office work type – the hanataka tengu, the mountain's defense force – the white wolf tengu and some more. Unlike what Kyouichi had expected them to look like, Keine-sensei said that like all the youkai in Gensokyo, they look like humans, but bear certain features of one of their sub-races. One of their common features is that they wear tokin on their heads and often carry hauchiwa fans made of aralia leaves or from feathers. These fans are dangerous weapons and have the power to create very strong winds.

The tengu are an example of the so called "deified youkai", who are sometimes worshipped at Shinto shrines as other kami. They inhabit the upper parts of the Youkai Mountain, which they regard as sacred and will forcefully drive away any intruders. The tengu are socially more stratified than their kappa neighbors. Their current ruler is Lord Tenma. The tengu are well known for their love for gossip and many of them write different kinds of newspapers. The most popular examples of these are the Bunbunmaru Newspaper or the Kakashi Spirit News among many others.

The tengu are also generally known as heavy drinkers, rivaled perhaps only by the oni. They also have technology of their own, but most of the time they rely on the products made by the kappa. They are far more intelligent than humans. They are apparently more outgoing towards humans than the kappa and are usually very friendly. There is no need for humans to fear them as the tengu aren't anthropophagous kind of youkai. However, one should always keep in mind that trespassing into their sacred territory will be met with dire consequences. Their physical and magical abilities command respect among any other youkai in Gensokyo. They can fly at extremely high speeds that very few youkai can match. And unlike any other race of youkai, they are very cooperative with each other.

Keine-sensei's lecture was concluded with her reminding the students about the autumn field trip around Gensokyo.

"…so if any of you have already decided to go, please sign yourself up on the list hanging on the corridor's information bulletin board… Well, I guess that's it for today's typology. For homework, do exercises 2, 3 and 4 on page 50. Also, try to bring an issue of any tengu newspaper for your next lesson. See you next time, students."

* * *

The students stood up as Keine-sensei was leaving and sat back down as soon as the door behind her closed. Kyouichi and other outsiders were already packing up, because today they had only one compulsory lesson. As he was waiting in the line of outsiders who were leaving the classroom, he tapped Midori's shoulder.

"Yes? What is it?" she asked.

"I'm going to try and persuade one of my... umm... friends… to see if he wouldn't let you live in his house." Kyouichi informed her. "I'll let you know as soon as we meet next time, meaning tomorrow."

"Thanks. If you'll arrange that, then I don't know how I'm going to repay you…"

Kyouichi gave her a devilish grin. "I'll think of something…"

"What's with that look?" asked Midori with a little frightened voice.

"Oh, nothing really." Kyouichi calmed her down, returning to normal expression. "For now, all that I ask in return is you being serious about your work for the club. And if I'll need any special favor from you, I'll remind you… Deal?"

"Okay." she giggled as she grabbed his stretched out palm and shook his hand. "Deal."

* * *

The outsiders parted their ways as they left the school grounds and were each headed for their own destination. Kyouichi thought that he'd at least help Mizuto make lunch today. He marched up the street turning north and reached the Saitou residence. Just as he had thought, Mizuto was home today as well.

"Oi, Kyouichi-kun! You're back a bit earlier, eh?"

"Such is our timetable…" explained Kyouichi tersely.

"I've got something for you." said Mizuto, expecting Kyouichi to guess what it was.

"What? You've made lunch already?"

"Well, err… no…" he embarrassedly replied while scratching his head. "What I meant to say was that the village council has sent you your very own ID card… Catch!"

Mizuto passed him a small envelope, but Kyouichi failed to catch it and had to bend down to pick it up from the floor.

"My... You should train your reflexes a bit more…" Mizuto teased him.

"Yeah, whatever…" Kyouichi muttered under his nose as he picked up the envelope and dusted it off with the back of his hand.

Just as Mizuto said, it was from the village council and it was addressed directly to Kyouichi. Curious and slightly excited about the envelope's content, he ripped it open. Out of it fell a small hard paper card with Kyouichi's basic personal information. The only thing that was missing was, of course, the photograph. It was even explained in the brief letter that was also added in the envelope. His duty was to have his picture taken at the Ryuuken headquarters and have that photo attached to the card. Once this is done, he'll get a seal of approval from the Ryuuken and will officially become one of the denizens of Human Village.

"Simple enough…" thought Kyouichi as he finished reading.

"So, I'm guessing that you'll be going off to the Ryuuken headquarters right now." said Mizuto.

"Yeah, I think…"

"It'll still take me some time to prepare lunch so you might as well go there now."

"Heh, and there I was thinking that I'd finally help you with something…" said Kyouichi while putting the card and the letter into his breast pocket.

"Hm? Are you any good at cooking, Kyouichi-kun?" asked Mizuto with a teasing tone, since he wasn't too sure about his manual skills.

"So-so, I guess…" he replied while shrugging. "At least I can slice the ingredients without adding my fingers into the dish. As for my actual cooking… Well, let's just say I wouldn't starve to death if I lived on my own and had a supply of cooking ingredients…"

"Well, that's the most important thing…" nodded Mizuto approvingly. "It doesn't have to be super-delicious as long as it serves its main purpose – to feed a person, am I right?"

"Right." nodded Kyouichi. "Alright then, let's not waste any time. I'll be back soon. See you later, Mizuto-san!"

"Yeah, later, Kyouichi-kun!"


	14. Officially Admitted

Closing the sliding door behind him and putting on his sandals, Kyouichi walked towards the marketplace. The place was quite lively with all the merchants selling their goods to the villagers who were haggling for a better price. Oddly enough, Kyouichi no longer felt that strange to be walking there among them.

Perhaps he was beginning to get used to the village or maybe it was because the other villagers didn't give him curious looks and didn't point their fingers at him whenever he was passing by. His new attire helped him blend in with the rest of the natives, but he was still a stranger there.

Although amazed by its supernatural nature and beauty, Kyouichi didn't want to get too attached to Gensokyo or any of its inhabitants. However, getting used to live here was inevitable, for even if he would once get to leave this place, he would have to stay here for an indefinite period of time before that chance arises.

He turned to the street with the Ryuuken barracks. His eyes immediately noticed the White Sakura teahouse where he told his three other friends about his plan to form a club. It seemed that it was opened today as well, but he had no real intention of going there. Instead, he kept on walking forward until he was standing before the tall stone wall, forming a large rectangular area around the entire Ryuuken compound. This wall was the only sign of any fortification this village had. At the entrance there was, as usual, a pair of guards standing in attention.

Kyouichi approached the gate slowly, avoiding eye contact with the guards. Since they didn't stop him, he figured that it was okay for the villagers to enter and leave their headquarters at will. As he passed between them, he found himself in a large stone courtyard where even now, dozens of these black-white and gold-clad warriors were in the middle of training. They were divided into groups according to the weapons they were using. The spearmen were practicing with long bamboo sticks and the swordsmen had wooden training versions of swords. It seemed that both groups were in the middle of performing some sort of kata, as their instructors yelled out numbers from 1 to 10 and then all over again for each new movement their trainees should perform.

Again, he was reminded of his good old days, before he moved from his old home in Sapporo, Hokkaido to his new one in Tokyo. It was during this period of his life, when his friends talked him into doing karate with them.

As he nostalgically looked at the practicing warriors, he realized that he came there looking for something like an office to get his ID finally validated. After a while of looking at the signs on all the other buildings, he found the right building and headed on towards it. Besides the office building there were the barracks, the dojo, a small temple dedicated to the god of war, an archery range, an armory and surrounded by another wall and well guarded by more of the Ryuuken warriors – a prison.

* * *

"It's quite developed… this little village…" thought Kyouichi after looking around the main courtyard of the Ryuuken headquarters.

As he entered the main office and court building, he asked one of the guards for directions.

"To get your picture taken, go along that corridor and then turn left." the guard guided him. "It's the first door on that corridor, you can't miss it."

"Thank you." Kyouichi bowed and followed the man's directions.

He didn't see much of the ordinary villagers in the halls of this building, which was good, because he knew that there wouldn't be any long lines in front of the offices. In fact, there was no line at all in front of the civil department's identification card registration office.

"Sorry to intrude…" said Kyouichi after knocking on the door and letting himself in.

The clerk sitting at a conference table, similar to the one he saw at the village hall greeted him by bowing slightly.

"Good day to you, young sir. What can I help you with?" she asked.

Kyouichi took out the ID card and the letter he got from the council and put it before her on the table.

The middle-aged lady raced through the brief letter and nodded understandingly.

"I see… You're another one of them folks from the outside. Come, come… let's make you a nice photo for that card."

She invited him further into the office, behind the table into a darkened room. There was an old camera placed on a tripod stand with its finder aimed at a single chair standing in front of it. Kyouichi took a seat in that chair without having to have the office lady tell him so and brushed off some of his long hair from his face. The lady took a place behind the ancient camera, hiding her head in a black veil as she adjusted the lens for a clear shot.

"Okay, young sir, say whenever you're ready…" she mumbled from behind the camera.

Kyouichi faked a gentle smile, trying to look natural and gave a signal to the lady to take the picture. A blinding flash briefly illuminated the entire dark room, immediately reminding Kyouichi of his visit to the new Buddhist temple near the farms where he and other visitors received a mass blessing from Hijiri-san. That time he was also blinded by bright light, although that one was of magical origin.

"Alright, I think it will be a good one…" said the office lady as she was taking out the film from the camera. "While the film gets developed, let's add you into our filing system."

Kyouichi followed her back into the office and there, following a similar procedure as in the village hall, he filled in another form with his personal information. The lady then took an official seal, dipped it in an ink-soaked cotton pillow and printed the office's symbol onto Kyouichi's ID card.

"Please wait a couple of more minutes outside while the photo gets developed. I'll call you in to pick up your valid ID card once it's ready."

"Yes." nodded Kyouichi and left the office while bowing down to the lady.

* * *

He took a seat on one of the benches in the corridor and patiently waited for about 30 minutes, all the while humming some melodies and thinking about his plans for the rest of this day.

Finally the office clerk called him in, giving him the valid ID card, complete with his photograph attached to it. Of course, it was black and white, but it was clear enough to anyone that it was Kyouichi's face. The card itself was now coated with a thin transparent protective layer similar to laminate.

"Thank you very much, madam." thanked Kyouichi after a while of observing the card.

"You're welcome, young sir… Please have a nice life here in Gensokyo."

"Uhhh... yeah… sure." responded Kyouichi with clear rejection in his tone.

He didn't mean to be rude, but apparently he still couldn't get over the fact that he might indeed spend his entire life here. He once again bowed to the lady and took his leave of the office and court building and the Ryuuken headquarters.

* * *

The lunchtime was getting near, so Kyouichi went straight back home to the Saitou house, hoping that Mizuto would let him help with preparing the lunch at least a little.

"I'm back, Mizuto-san." he called as he entered the house.

A voice sounded from the first door to his right: "Well, Kyouichi-kun, how did it go? Did you get your ID validated?"

"Pretty much…"

"Say, you wouldn't mind lending me a hand here, would you?" asked the fisherman while cutting up some meat.

"Sure. What should I do?"

"Boil some rice… enough for 5 people. Then you can chop a couple of onions, carrots, and all these mushrooms here…"

Having their cooking tasks divided, Kyouichi and Mizuto were done with cooking in no time.

* * *

"Mmm… not bad, not bad at all…" mumbled Mizuto as he degusted the curry he prepared with a little help from Kyouichi as well.

"What's that nice smell coming from the kitchen?" sounded the pleasant and cheerful female voice belonging to Minako.

"Oh, Minako-san's here…" said Kyouichi as he turned around to greet her. "Welcome home…"

"Good afternoon, everyone." Minako greeted them. "I can't believe you've made lunch without me."

"What do you take us for?" her husband defended himself. "We men can cook just as well as women can."

"Oh, good. Then you can make all the meals from now on, right, Mizu-chan?" jokingly asked his wife while giving him a gentle kiss on the cheek.

While Kyouichi was snickering at the table, Mizuto was futilely trying to come up with some excuse so that he wouldn't have take on the role of the only cook in the house.

"But I love your cooking, Minako!"

"Really? Now… when was the last time I heard that from you?" Minako further teased her husband. "Hmm… sometime… .before our wedding, I think…"

"But you always cook delicious meals…" Mizuto tried to flatter her. "You know, it's just what they say about love… You shouldn't say "I love you" to the person you love too often, because always having to remind your love to someone means that the love is not true."

"But I wouldn't mind if you reminded me at least once in a while…" replied Minako, still smiling and patting Mizuto's head.

"Well then…" shrugged the fisherman as he leaned closer to his wife's ear and whispered: "I love you, Minako…"

He then embraced her and without any restrictions from having a stranger right in their kitchen, he kissed her right on her lips.

Seeing two people who love each other gave Kyouichi a very nice and warm feeling inside and he couldn't help but to smile while looking at them and thinking: "Awww… How sweet…"

"Now, let's have a taste of what you cooked up, shall we?" said Minako once she was released from her husband's embrace. "Mmm… not bad at all… "

"I should think so!" said Mizuto who was already serving the curry onto plates. "We both did our best, right, Kyouichi-kun?"

"Well, I guess so…" muttered the outsider.

"Oh, so that's your secret, huh?" Minako jokingly jabbed at Mizuto again. "You're letting our guests do the work for you, eh?"

"Nonsense! And besides, he's not just a guest anymore, but almost like an adopted member of our family. And any member of the family should contribute to the household by some work… Show her your ID, Kyouichi."

"Eh? So you already have a valid card, Kyouichi-kun?" asked Minako and curiously looked at the young man, whom she and her husband decided to take under their roof.

"Oh, sure…" said Kyouichi as he searched his pocket and pulled out his ID card, passing it to the Saitous.

"So it's official now, isn't it?" commented Mizuto as he was observing the small card.

"So it seems…" nodded his wife, holding the ID with her fingertips. "You look good in that picture."

"Thank you, Minako-san."

"So, shouldn't we celebrate this somehow?" asked Mizuto as he was returning Kyouichi's ID to its owner.

"Actually, I was planning to see Naota-san, since I've promised him to have a welcome party as soon as all my admission business was over." said Kyouichi, while putting his ID in the safety of his breast pocket.

"Really, then why not go together?" suggested the head of the Saitou family. "It's been a while since I've talked to that old coot, hehe…"

"Of course, you're welcome!" agreed Kyouichi. "If it weren't for you, I'd be a homeless bum, or worse yet, youkai food… Well, now I'm just a normal bum."

Mizuto chuckled heartily as he smacked Kyouichi's back with moderate force. "If it's housework you want, then I'll be sure to give you some… But not today, because today, we drink till dawn!" he shouted while standing up and raising his arm into the air.

Minako disapprovingly stared at him and shook her head. "Hey, Mizuto, calm down! You can't get Kyouichi drunk. He's got school in the morning…"

"I… uh… didn't mean that literally, my dear." replied Mizuto with a serious face, but neither Minako nor Kyouichi were sure if he wasn't just faking it.

"Okay, Mizuto-san," said Kyouichi after a moment, "I'll see you at the party… wherever that is going to be… But it's going to be late, since I've also promised Chitose to look at her magic practice."

"Alright, young one… But don't complain if there won't be any more sake left when you come, hehehe…"

Minako gave him another warning glare.

"I was only joking, honey." Mizuto reassured her. "Alright, let's eat before it gets cold…"

"Jeez… Sometimes I'm not so sure about your "jokes"…"

"Itadakimasu~!" called the Saitous and Kyouichi as they were ready to feast on the meal.

The children were not there since they had consistent timetable and most likely had their lunches at the school cafeteria. Whatever was left of this curry would be their dinner.

As everyone finished their portion and Minako picked up the plates to wash them, she turned to Mizuto again.

* * *

"That sure was an unusual visit yesterday, wasn't it? It's a pity that she left before I got home. It's been a while since I've seen the girl to be honest."

"Well then you're in luck, because she said that she'll come here again this Friday." Mizuto informed her as he grabbed a newspaper from one of the shelves near the door.

"Whaat?!" exclaimed surprised Minako. "You didn't tell me about that!"

"I thought Chitose already told you…" Mizuto excused himself.

"She didn't…" muttered Minako as she stared to panic a bit. "Oh my… we need to put this place into some order and buy some snacks… And maybe I should bake some cookies or something… But will I even be back from work before she leaves again?"

"Now who should calm down?" Mizuto poked fun at his wife for a change. "Just relax. We still got 3 days. And besides, I think we can talk Reimu-san into staying at least until you get home, so there's no need to worry."

"Hmm… okay, but make sure to keep your promise." said Minako over her shoulder as she was washing another dirty plate. "Huh? You're going already, Kyouichi-kun?" she asked as she noticed him standing up from the table with the corner of her eye.

"Yeah. I'm going to try and invite Akyuu-san to the hanami on Reimu's behalf." replied the young man.

"Okay… Good luck. And don't forget that your shift starts in less than an hour." Minako warned him as he was leaving the kitchen.

Kyouichi lifted his head and noticed a small, old clock hanging above the kitchen's door and assuming that it was working properly, he saw that he still had some 50 minutes before his part-time work shift starts.

* * *

Bowing to the Saitous and saying that he's leaving, he slowly strolled down the familiar street with the familiar houses and a large fireside with four wooden logs placed around it until he reached the marketplace, from where he took a turn to the west and into another street where both the Hieda house and the Starlight Glyph bookstore were located. A few people on the street were spending the afternoon by shopping and exchanging gossip. Some kids were trying to persuade their mother to buy them some sweets from the candy shop, an elderly couple was looking through the window of the bookstore, a young lady in red plaid dress and short green hair (probably a youkai) was leaving the flower shop with a bunch of different flowers in her hand and a folded white parasol in the other one… It was just another peaceful afternoon in this peaceful little village. Kyouichi stopped just a few steps away from the Hieda residence, took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Sorry to intrude~!" he called into the hallway as he walked in.

Some unfamiliar male voice called back: "Just a minute! I'll be right there!"

Trying not to be too rude, Kyouichi waited there in the hallway for this unknown person to come and let him in or otherwise.

"Good afternoon, young sir." greeted a tall man in a completely plain white kimono. His head was shaven bald and his hazel eyes were looking directly into Kyouichi's. "Welcome to the house of Hieda. Please come in…" he invited him further.

"Have you come to seek the knowledge of the chronicle or is this an informal visit?" asked the mysterious man.

"Maybe a little bit of both…" said Kyouichi as he followed the man into the living room where he noticed the smell of burning incense and several lit candles placed at the Hieda family altar. Kyouichi figured that he probably disturbed the man from his prayer or meditation.

"Is there any particular event you'd like to know about? Or some person perhaps…?"

"Actually, I came to see Akyuu-san." answered Kyouichi truthfully.

"So you're already familiar with my daughter? I'm sorry, but I don't recall seeing you before, young sir…" said the man in white, not letting his eyes from his visitor.

"Yes. I've already been here once… You see, I'm from the outside world and I came here to look for some information…" Kyouichi started explaining how he got to know the Gensokyo chronicler and it took him quite a few minutes to do so.

* * *

"Well, Ishimaru-san, that was quite a tale… I do remember several outsiders visiting the archive with the very same intention as you are now…" spoke Akyuu's father after hearing out Kyouichi's story in a nutshell. "Unfortunately, as far as I know they all still live here in the village. At least all those who weren't yet eaten by youkai or died naturally… But I don't mean to discourage you. On the contrary, I want you to learn from their mistakes and take off from where they finished. I believe that you're stepping in the right direction in your search, but you must be aware of the many perils that will await you on that path…"

"You know something that could help me?" asked Kyouichi. "Please, tell me."

"I believe my daughter will be able to tell you about the failed escape plans of the outsiders much better than I. After all, she remembers everything... I'll go and call her, so please wait a second…"

The man walked off to somewhere, returning after a while with his little daughter at his side. Akyuu seemed pleasantly surprised by this rather unexpected visit from her recent acquaintance as she welcomed him with her cute smile.

"Nice to see you again, Kyouichi-san."

"Same here, Akyuu-san." replied the outsider and reciprocated Akyuu's smile.

"I hope dad didn't interrogate you too much like all the newcomers…" said the chronicler, looking straight into her father's face.

"Well, not really." replied Kyouichi negatively. "I sort of told him everything that happened to me by myself…"

"Okay, then…" smiled the child of Miare, "come with me so we could talk in privacy."

Kyouichi followed her right after he bowed to her father. "It's been a pleasure to meet you, Hieda-san."

"The name's Reiji by the way…" said Akyuu's dad as a late introduction. "Hieda no Reiji."

His daughter gave him a blaming look. "Gee, dad… Asking people questions without even introducing yourself?"

"I'm sorry… I just went with the flow of the conversation." her father apologized.

Akyuu sighed while shaking her head and led the way into the vacant guest room, as expected, crammed up with tons of books. "Please wait here a moment. I'll tell my mother to make some tea."

Kyouichi didn't even get to look around the room properly before the young chronicler returned.

* * *

"Well then, Kyouichi-san, please make yourself at home. You've come to talk about something, have you not?"

"Uhh… yeah…" muttered Kyouichi while sitting down. "I don't have much time, so I won't stay for too long…"

"So, what can I help you with in this short time?" asked Akyuu.

"Well, Reimu-san's going to host a hanami at the shrine and she's looking for some more guests… She said that I can bring a few people along and I thought that maybe you'd like to go there too…"

Akyuu's eyes lightly sparkled with joy as she was surprisedly looking at her guest. "You're inviting me to a hanami?"

"I am, although I'm not the host…" responded Kyouichi.

"And is Reimu-san ok with this? She never invited me before…"

"To tell you the truth, she said that she almost forgot about you… But she'd like to make it up by inviting you this time."

"Oh, my…" Akyuu paused for a moment, trying to process the pleasantly surprising news. "I… I don't know what to say… Thank you… and Reimu-san, of course… I'll gladly come, but… When is this hanami going to start?"

"I don't know the precise hour, but it takes place this Friday. Sometime in the evening…" answered Kyouichi while explaining that Reimu herself will be waiting at the Saitou residence to personally escort them both to the shrine.

While the little chronicler bowed and thanked once more, the door to the guest room suddenly opened and an unknown young looking woman entered with a porcelain tea set on a silver platter.

"Good afternoon to you." she greeted. "Here's the tea, Akyuu-chan…"

She had black shoulder-length and slightly wavy hair and was clad in a light-purple short sleeved kimono with a red obi tied around the waist. Judging by the informal endearing suffix that she addressed Akyuu with, Kyouichi thought of her as the chronicler's mother.

"Thank you, mom." said Akyuu while bowing and smiling and confirming Kyouichi's deduction.

"Won't our guest stay with us for lunch?" asked the mother.

"No, thank you…" Kyouichi kindly refused. "I've already eaten and besides, my work starts soon, so I'll be leaving in a couple of minutes."

"That's a shame…" sounded the woman with disappointment as she poured the tea into two cups. "Alright, I won't be delaying you two with your conversation. See you next time…"

"Yes, goodbye, Hieda-san." bowed Kyouichi to the leaving mother of Akyuu.

"So, Kyouichi-san," the chronicler resumed the conversation, "should I be waiting at the Saitou residence on Friday then?"

"Sure. Why not?" agreed the young man. "I'll let the Saitous know that there will be two guests."

"Okay then… Thank you again."

"No problem."

"Well, why don't we enjoy those last few minutes with this tea that my mom brought?"

Kyouichi nodded as he and Akyuu took the cups in their hands and sipped the hot but delicious green tea with honey. The outsider then spoke again after a while: "It just occurred to me, Akyuu-san, but… when you reincarnated nine times…"

"Eight." Akyuu corrected him.

"Huh? Oh… right, eight times… Well, does that mean that you had different parents each time?" asked Kyouichi, even though he expected Akyuu's answer to be positive.

The little chronicler nodded, again with her childlike smile. "That's right, Kyouichi-san. A little weird, isn't it?"

"How's it like? Being born into a new family every time? Did you like all your parents?" wondered Kyouichi whose curiosity grew proportionally with the amount of information he absorbed.

"To put it simply, I got used to it. Even though I consider my first parents as the real ones, I do love all my other parents as well…"

"I admire you, Akyuu-san…" admitted Kyouichi and drank the last drops of the tea in his cup. "To be able to bear the burden of all the memories from your previous lives and being aware that you're probably going to repeat it yet a couple of more times… And all the while knowing that your life gets shorter… I really doubt I'd be strong enough to live like this and even manage to keep on writing a chronicle… I wish I could have such a strong spirit."

"Thank you for your kind words, Kyouichi-san, but I don't think there's really much to admire me for." said Akyuu, shaking her little head in denial. "I can give you a little advice, however. It's all about the standpoint… The outlook on life and the world… If you can think of every aspect, every event, every little detail in your life and realize that there's a reason for everything, you can easily understand and learn to accept both the "good" and "bad" things equally, without putting too much strain on your soul. And faith… faith is a necessity. It doesn't matter what you believe in. Be it a god, or some personal idol, or some supernatural force or simply your own self… Faith is the key that can work wonders with your inner self… It may not help you directly in a certain situation, but it offers answers… Answers to the questions every one of us keeps asking before we fall asleep… Like: Who am I? What am I doing here? What is my purpose? Is there life after death? Is it really possible to achieve eternal happiness? Faith helps people realize... it opens their eyes to see the world in a whole new color. It is like a shield… like an armor for your soul and mind to help you endure the emotional blows that every one of us encounters in our lives sooner or later. Of course, I believe even those who claim that they don't believe in anything will be able to find happiness in the afterlife, but hardly any in their present life… Those who don't believe and those with a narrow point of view tend to give up easily, being depressed and committing suicides… Really, it's true. So what about you, Kyouichi-san, do you believe in something?"

Without much time to think, he responded: "Yes, I do…"

"Then you already have what it takes to find happiness in your present life. Most people don't realize it, but they all have the key to happiness with them all along."

"Really?"

"Indeed." acknowledged the ninth child of Miare. "I'll tell you a little story so that you'd better understand what I mean…" she finished her cup of tea and cleared her throat. "Once upon a time, there was this old beggar who had no home. Every day he was sitting near a road on an old rotting wooden box and begging for a few coins or a little bit of food from the passerby. One day as he was again sitting in the scorching summer sun near the road, a stranger was passing by and the old beggar stopped him. "Would you please spare a few coins for this humble old man?" he asked. The stranger stopped and told him: "I'm sorry, but I don't have any money." The old beggar sighed: "That's a pity." and sat down again on the aged wooden box. The stranger suddenly asked: "What do you have inside that box?" "Nothing." The beggar replied, "It's just an old box… It's been laying here for as long as I can remember." "Have you ever looked inside?" asked the stranger. "No. Why should I?" wondered the beggar. "Maybe there's something that you could sell…" said the stranger as he was again walking away from the beggar, on his way to his unknown destination. "Yeah, right…" grumbled the old man as he spat on the ground. As he was sitting there for several hours, the stranger's words kept echoing inside his head, making his mind restless. Finally, he just couldn't take it anymore, and to get rid of this feeling, he decided to take a look inside that old rotting box to make sure that there was nothing there. As he opened the decayed lid of the box, however, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped, for inside of that box was filled to the top with gold bars. He wanted to thank the stranger for telling him to look inside, but the man was long since gone. The old man lived off the rest of his life as the richest man in the village where he had settled… End of story."

"That was a very interesting story indeed." stated Kyouichi after Akyuu finished.

"Yes. It simply says that we all already have the greatest treasure we can find right within ourselves." Akyuu summed up. "All that we need is to become aware of it. Or a help of a stranger who will tell us to take a look inside..."

"I see… Thank you for this story, Akyuu-san… I think I'm beginning to see how you managed to keep your cheerfulness throughout all those lives that you've lived…" said Kyouichi while nodding understandingly. "But… I think I should really get going now if I don't want to be late for work."

The chronicler giggled. "Right… I didn't mean to delay you."

She stood up and accompanied Kyouichi all the way to the doorstep of her house.

"Well then, I guess we'll see each other again this week." said Akyuu.

"Yeah…" acknowledged Kyouichi. "I'm looking forward to that too… Goodbye for now."

"Bye~!"

* * *

Leaving the Hieda residence, the young outsider didn't have a long way to walk to get to his workplace since it was just across the street. This time he didn't feel nearly any stress as he walked into the bookstore named Starlight Glyph to begin his second shift as the storekeeper's assistant. Daisuke Shimizu, his employer, was standing at the counter, talking to some customers who apparently just bought some book. As he waved at them while they were leaving the shop, he noticed Kyouichi standing there and gestured for him to come closer.

"Good day, Ishimaru-san, you came right on time~!" he called with his hyped up tone. "Let me give you some tasks right away."

He led him again to the printing room behind the counter and put a whole pile of books for him to make copies of.

"Albright, Ishimaru-san, we've received a larger order from one of the other villages and I need you to make copies out of all these books here before the closing hour. Also… while the printer will be making copies, I've put a pile of manuscripts that we bought from Eientei on the table over there and want you to manually transcribe them into something more… legible. Yagokoro-sama may be a genius, but she sure could use a few calligraphy lessons… At least by the time she was writing these… They're very old as you can see, so be careful while manipulating with them, okay?"

"Yes, boss." nodded Kyouichi. "Anything else?"

"That is all." replied the storekeeper. "You can do the usual cleaning afterwards. But it's enough work to keep you busy for the better part of the shift."

"Alright then, I better get started…" said Kyouichi as he loaded the kappan printing machine with the first book of the pile, blank paper sheets and more printing ink.

"I'll be right here at the counter tending to the customers." Daisuke informed him while pointing backwards with his thumb. "If you'll have any questions or problems, just call me."

"Airtight, Shimizu-san, I'll let you know if I need anything."

"Oh, and one more thing…" said the shopkeeper as he was about to leave the printing room. "Be sure to check on that old printer every once in a while. It's a small miracle that it's still functioning properly, but with the amount of books I need to get printed today, I'm afraid it might be a bit too much for it to handle. If it starts making any strange noises, or if it starts smearing ink over the pages uncontrollably, turn it off and let it cool down for a while. If the problems persist, then I'm afraid we would have to get it fixed again and my promised shipment will be delayed… meaning, my reputation would suffer." explained Daisuke as he again started to gesticulate excitedly. "Okay… I guess I should let you work now…"

As Daisuke left Kyouichi alone in the printing room, the outsider took one deep breath, cracked his knuckles and started working on his tasks. He put the first of the books into the duplication slot. Pulling a couple of levers, turning a dial to set the machine's performance and pushing the start button on this wondrous, but aged piece of kappan technology, he began making copies. After watching the printing process as several text-covered pages successfully made their way out of this clunking and humming machine's interior, Kyouichi assumed that it was working smoothly. He then took a seat on a simple wooden chair at a simple wooden desk where a small pile of yellowed manuscripts with faded and barely legible text was waiting to be transcribed to preserve the ancient wisdom of their author. Carefully taking the first parchment into the gentle grip of his fingertips, Kyouichi began to diligently decipher the hurried and sloppy handwriting.

"Extracting… the essence… of healing herbs… to produce… universal… cold and flu… remedies…" whispered Kyouichi as he checked and stopped after every couple of words of the manuscript as he copied those words on another paper in his own handwriting, trying to write the kanji characters as legible as possible.

"…by Eirin…Yagokoro…" he finished transcribing the title and the author's name.

He recalled that he had sorted some books yesterday which were written by the same author… Or at the very least, by a person with the same name. Whoever this Eirin was, she certainly had considerable knowledge in the field of medicine, chemistry, human anatomy and herbology, as Kyouichi was gradually figuring out while reading and transcribing her texts filled with tongue-twisting scientific terms and mind-boggling amount of information about things he couldn't even begin to understand.

After successfully copying the third parchment, the young outsider let out a sigh. "Damn… It's a good thing I didn't get to study medicine… This stuff makes my brain hurt."

As he was shaking off the stiffness from his right wrist, he turned to check the progress of the printing machine. Everything seemed to be going well so far and the pages that were gradually piling up in the printout tray were printed well and without any ink smears. Kyouichi was a little surprised by the machine's performance, because it had already managed to print over 80 pages, while he could only transcribe 3 parchments. He reluctantly returned to the uncomfortable chair and resumed his work of parchment transcription. It clearly wasn't as easy a job as he had thought it would be, but come to think of it, none of the part time jobs he had tried were exactly easy. After some more minutes spent writing, Kyouichi noticed the printing machine stopped making the clunking sounds and was only silently humming.

"Huh? Is this thing done with work already?" he stood up from the desk, walking towards it.

It certainly seemed that way, so Kyouichi turned the machine off to cool down, as recommended by his boss and at the pull of a lever, the mechanism ejected the original book out of the duplication slot like a VCR ejects a cassette.

"So, how's it going, Ishimaru-san?" Daisuke's voice came from the doorway as his small stature leaned in to peek into the printing room.

"I've got the first book copied a-okay, but I'm not doing so hot with the manuscripts…" admitted the assistant with a humble tone, being aware of his lack of speed in transcribing.

"That's okay…" the shopkeeper comforted him. "Take your time with the parchments… I know all too well how hard and time-consuming a task it can be to make a good transcription. Especially when it's a handwriting written by someone like Eirin-sensei… The book copies are our top priority for today. Anything else can wait, ok? You'll yet have plenty of time to work on the manuscripts. Just please, let that machine rest every now and then…"

"Alright, alright… I know…" replied the outsider, already getting tired of Daisuke's constant warnings about the machine's unstable functionality.

There were still 8 titles left to be copied before the store closes, so Kyouichi waited but a couple of more minutes before putting in the second tome and starting the printer up again.

Doing a couple of simple stretching exercises with his arms, back and neck, he again assumed his place behind the desk and continued working on the manuscripts from Eientei. As he was filling more and more sheets of paper with the barely comprehendible entries on how to concoct healing ointments, sleeping powder, hallucinogenic incense, anesthetic pills and even aphrodisiacal potions, he could hear Daisuke's voice enthusiastically explaining to some customers why is the Starlight Glyph the best bookstore in all of Gensokyo. Again, he instinctively checked on the printer and made himself sure it was working as it should be…

* * *

Four and a half hours have passed until the final page of the final book of the pile came out of the belly of the printer.

"…And done." announced Kyouichi to his boss that the copies were ready to be bound, packed and sent on their way.

"Ah, excellent work!" he praised both his assistant and the kappan printing machine. "And the printer's still working. Amazing… You're like a good luck charm, Ishimaru-san, you know that?"

"That's ridiculous…" denied Kyouichi, chuckling to Daisuke's remark.

"No, trust me… If you told me that I'd be able to make 9 full copies of books with that old hunk of metal today, I'd probably laugh you off, thinking that you're a fool. But just look at that! It still works."

"So you were not even hoping that you'd be able to deliver that order today?"

"Frankly, I was almost reconciled with it." admitted the storekeeper. "It's just about time I started considering ordering a new printer from the kappa."

"So, should I keep on transcribing or do you want me to clean up the store?" asked Kyouichi.

"Just run across the floor with a wet rag. You don't need to wipe the dust from the shelves every day… And I guess I can let you go after that. What do you say?"

Kyouichi was more than happy to agree to that offer, since he still had a few things planned for today. The sooner he was done here, the sooner he could go and take a rest while watching Chitose practicing magic and later drinking with Naota, Mizuto and perhaps some other people. He wiped the floor of the bookstore as he was told, and after 10 minutes, he was already bowing to Daisuke and taking his leave with the content feeling of a job well done.


	15. First Sight of a Danmaku Duel

The sun was nearing the distant hills in the west, giving Kyouichi a rough idea about the time left to sunset. He estimated that time to be something over one hour.

"Still a bit too early to go to the meadows near the farms and wait for the magic practitioners to gather." He thought as he gazed at the setting sun while holding up his hand against his forehead to shield his eyes from the bright light.

He decided it would be better to kill some time while waiting for the Magic Practice Club members by browsing the through the windows of shops and maybe buying some snacks to sweeten the moment. After a longer while of slow-paced walk and window-shopping through the Western Street (since the streets in the village had no names, Kyouichi decided to give them some names to tell them apart), he again ended up in the central circular area of the village's marketplace. A pleasant smell of freshly baked taiyaki drove him towards one of the stands where a short line of customers waited to buy the delicious treat.

"Mmm, taiyaki… It's been ages since I've last had one of those." sighed Kyouichi with nostalgia as he inhaled the sweet aroma spreading from the baking mold. As the turn to buy finally came to him, he placed his order: "One with the sweet-bean paste, please."

"Yes, that will be 150 yen, please!" called the taiyaki baker as he took one of the freshly baked pieces of the carp-shaped sweet snack and put it into a paper bag.

After paying the price, Kyouichi contently clutched onto the taiyaki in the bag and with his leisure pace, he headed on towards the village school. As he walked, he impatiently unwrapped the snack and took a deep whiff of its fresh scent before taking a first bite.

* * *

"Uguuu~!" uttered Kyouichi after tasting the taiyaki, earning a few curious looks from the passing-by villagers. As he was enjoying the snack, he eventually reached the front entrance to the Kamishirasawa School. There he sat down on the stairs and waited for Chitose to come out with the rest of the club members. As he was savoring the taste of taiyaki and staring at the distant bamboo forest at the end of the south-eastern road, he heard the bell ringing and soon after, muffled sounds of students running down the halls of the school as their evening club activities were over (or in some cases, only beginning).

He quickly stood up from the stairs and took a step aside, so he wouldn't get caught up in their stampede. Several seconds later, the entrance's door burst open and a frenzied horde of young students poured out of the building like rats trying to escape from a sinking ship. Kyouichi was desperately trying to catch sight of Chitose in that flowing crowd, but it was like looking for a needle in a hay sack. Fortunately for him, he was much taller than any of those kids and it was Chitose Saitou who took notice of him right as she walked out of the school.

"Oi~! Onii-cha… I mean, Kyouichi-kuuun~!" she called out to him and slowly worked her way through the crowd towards him.

"Ah, Chitose, there you are." said the outsider once he noticed her emerge out of the crowd.

"Thank you for waiting for me." she said while smiling. "Please wait here just a moment while I call the other club members…"

Kyouichi nodded and watched as the little Chitose walked back towards the school and disappeared in the crowd of students who were still leaving the school.

"Man... How many of them are there?!" he wondered about the number of the students devoting their time to various clubs at this school. He would guess that to be at least two hundred. That was quite a lot, considering the small population of the Human Village. His attention was again reverted to Chitose who was again walking out of the crowd, this time with a small band of other students including her two friends, Haruka and Rie. There were around 20 members of the Magic Practice Club and now they were all staring at Kyouichi and wondering what was this strange guy doing there.

"Well then, let's go to our training grounds!" commanded Rie, who was obviously the club's president.

The group began marching westwards, apparently heading for the "Western Street" and the road leading to the farms and the temple. As Kyouichi and Chitose exchanged their news of the day, they were already nearing the mentioned Buddhist temple converted from the flying Palanquin Ship. The sun was already hidden behind the horizon and the color of the sky gradually faded to dark-blue. Just about 50 meters before they'd reach the unique-looking building, the group turned 90 degrees to the left (that is to the south) and marched on for something over 5 minutes until they stopped on a vast meadow, located approximately two kilometers north of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. The forest was now only visible as a giant black wall stretching wide from the south-east and continuing all the way to the west until blending with the rest of the landscape.

* * *

"Alright, here we are." announced Chitose, letting Kyouichi know that he could stop.

The rest of the group began forming a large circle in which they'd hold their practice duels. Kyouichi sat down on the ground and curiously watched what would happen next. Before the actual duels started, Rie walked up into the middle of the circle and informed the club members about the evening practice sessions.

"These meetings will be no different from our regular practice in form. The only difference is the lack of natural light." she explained. "In the real life situations, the youkai usually attack their victims during the night and so, to prepare ourselves for such situations, we'll be practicing in the evening at least once a week."

After her short foreword she began explaining the difference between nighttime and daytime tactics of danmaku duels.

"I guess I don't need to explain the principals of dueling during the daytime, since you're already well accustomed to that. During the night, all the danmaku becomes much more clearly visible, so presumably, it's also easier to avoid getting hit. That of course doesn't mean that nighttime duels are easier."

Rie suddenly conjured up a bright shining sphere in her hand, very similar to those which the fairies used against Kyouichi on his first day in Gensokyo. This sphere was much larger, though. Rie stretched out her hand to the sky and launched the glowing orb up into the air. After ascending to the height of approximately 30 meters, the orb exploded in a bright flash of greenish light, making a loud booming noise as it burst into dozens of smaller green orbs, unguidedly flying from the center of the explosion like some sort of magic fireworks.

"As you can see," continued Rie explaining as she pointed at the sky, "all the projectiles are shining brightly in the dark, which might make it easier to dodge them. However, they are blinding us at the same time, so we should also try to avoid looking directly at them. It will also be rather difficult keeping track of your opponent's position while you're focused on dodging all that display of pretty lights."

Kyouichi however, stared directly at the beauty of the demonstrational example of Rie's danmaku and watched as the small green orbs were gradually slowing down before they harmlessly faded into nothing.

"That can be both our advantage and disadvantage." sounded Rie again after briefly pausing herself. "In real life situations, most of the time our main goal will not be to win a duel against a youkai, but simply surviving the encounter. I realize that most of us here are complete amateurs who cannot even begin to compare with the Ryuuken or the skilled youkai hunters, but we can all avoid being eaten even with the little magic abilities we have. If we can just conjure up a danmaku pattern in conjunction with good timing, we won't even need to hit our attacker. The danmaku will temporarily blind them and confuse them, buying us precious seconds to escape and hide. Okay, enough about the theory, let's all try shooting some danmaku into the air to see how it looks during the night…"

What followed was a massive barrage of multi-colored bright lights soaring up to the sky and a mixture of many different light effects accompanied by loud explosions, high-pitched whistling and crackling. It was as if a group of 20 young teenage students were celebrating New Year by the end of spring. Not long after all the danmaku dissipated and faded into silence, a bunch of half-alarmed and half-surprised Ryuuken guards came rushing towards the meadow where the Magic Practice Club gathered to hold their first evening training.

"What the hell is going on here?!" shouted one of the men. "What are you kids doing here in this late hour?!"

Rie calmly walked up towards the guards and pulled out some sort of paper from her backpack.

"We're the Magic Practice Club from the Kamishirasawa Affiliated School." she explained.

"This is the permission to hold the evening practice sessions at this specified location signed by Kamishirasawa-sensei herself." she said as she offered the document to one of the warriors to confirm.

"Oh, so you're the youngsters who usually gather here to practice, huh?" asked the guard as he briefly checked the permission. "We thought that there was some youkai attack, so we rushed here to see…"

"No, no…" Rie shook her head smiling. "It was just us practicing… Nothing you should worry about."

"Very well then, Fukukane-san…" nodded the warrior approvingly. "Just be careful. The youkai are the most active after sundown."

"What?! Fukukane-san?" Kyouichi curiously whispered the question to Chitose's ear. "Is she the village elder's…?"

"Yes. Rie-senpai is elder Fukukane's granddaughter." Chitose whispered the answer. "She's quite capable in magic. But not as cool as Reimu-sama…" she said with a daydreamy look.

The Ryuuken were already marching back to wherever they came from, and Rie Fukukane returned again to the middle of the circle formed by the club members to resume the training.

"Alright… I think we now all understand how beautiful and bright danmaku is at night. Now, let's try some practice dueling! Saitou-san…" she turned suddenly to Chitose.

"Yes, Rie-senpai?" asked her surprised friend.

"Let's have a friendly match, shall we?"

"Uh… yes, senpai…" nodded Chitose as she nervously walked into the circle to face her friend.

Kyouichi then witnessed as Rie slowly began to ascend into the air and stopped at 10 meter height, hovering in mid air above the other members. While Kyouichi was in sheer bewilderment, the others were casually observing the sight as if there was nothing unusual about it. The fact that Chitose also began rising to Rie's level soon afterwards didn't help Kyouichi to hide his amazement either.

"Holy sh…! Even Chitose can fly?!"

A brief moment of silence came about as both girls levitating in mid-air stared at each other. Only the quiet sound of flowing breeze, swaying their hair and clothes could be heard, before Rie suddenly cut the silence.

"Let's go! Hya!" she quickly flew several meters backwards while stretching both of her hands forward, eyes locked on her opponent.

At the same time, light particles of bright-green color began rapidly gathering in front of her palms, becoming two large brightly shining energy spheres. A second later, a salvo of smaller light-green spheres shot forward out of the large ones, forming a spiral-shaped stream of fast-moving projectiles headed Chitose's way.

Unlike the spectating Kyouichi, Chitose was not dazzled by the impressive display of Rie's magic and without much effort, she elegantly dodged out of the attack, avoiding all the green projectiles coming at her. Kyouichi caught himself clenching both of his fists from the thrill as he took a couple of steps backwards out of caution. Chitose's response to Rie's attack was swift, as she stretched her arms above her head, making numerous small bright-blue sources of light appear randomly within 5 meters of her proximity. She kept her arms up as the lights' intensity gradually increased, making their color turn to white.

At this point it was dangerous for eyes to look at them directly, so Kyouichi and the other spectating club members shielded their eyes with their hands. Suddenly, Chitose flung both of her arms downward, as if trying to throw some invisible object. The moment she did so, the dazzling white lights shot out blue beam-like projectiles, first accelerating at incredible speed, then suddenly slowing down and letting their tail catch up with the front, thus again shortening the projectiles until their shape was again that of small palm-sized bright spheres.

Rie at first looked a bit surprised by the strange movement of the shots, but she managed to stay out of their way, simply by slightly tilting her position to the left, enough to avoid one of the beams that just grazed past her. Not giving her opponent any time to counter, Chitose already conjured up a large blue orb in front of her outstretched arms and without waiting, she sent it on its way toward Rie. The large orb was rather slow in movement, but as it was nearing its target, it grew in size, like a giant blue glowing bubble. When it was just a couple of meters away from Rie, it was already 3 times as large as her.

Rie didn't panic as she accelerated forward, as if trying to directly dive into the bubble. To Kyouichi's and also to Chitose's surprise, she did almost exactly that. She threw herself right into the orb. However, not into the middle, but rather only into its outermost layer and safely emerged from the other side. A second later, the giant blue bubble made a loud pop, bursting into a hundred small unguided bright-blue fragments, which disappeared a split second afterwards. Rie didn't even have to look back and avoid them. Instead, she was already holding her arms stretched sideways, with bright pulsing sources of green light in each palm.

"Not bad, Chitose-san!" she shouted so that her sparring partner could hear her words. "But you still have yet much to learn about danmaku!"

The raven-haired girl then pointed both of her arms forward, making both green lights fly toward Chitose and colliding together, thus forming one large arrow-shaped missile of high energy and velocity. It also seemed like this shot was homing in on Chitose, who in response instinctively pointed her index finger at the incoming magic missile and shot out a single beam-shot, just like those she made in her previous attack and hit Rie's projectile halfway to its target. A blinding flash illuminated the entire meadow like a sun and a loud bang made many of the spectators and the two dueling girls cover their ears. Hundreds of blue, green, yellow and orange magic fragments scattered from the epicenter of the blast in a steady stream, like a miniature demonstration of the big bang.

"This is funky…" murmured Kyouichi to himself as he gazed upon the intriguing light effects. That was, however, only until the moment when several of these blazing magic fragments hit the ground with considerable force, dangerously close to his feet.

"Holy crap!" he exclaimed in shock as he immediately turned away from the scene of battle and darted away from the danger. The other club members stared to panic as well as the circle which they had formed around the dueling girls scattered to all directions. After a moment when everything and everyone calmed down, Kyouichi could see the dark silhouettes of the dueling girls, still hovering high above the ground, but no longer attacking each other. He slowly walked up back to the "arena" and watched as all the other club members also began returning and reforming the large circle. The girls slowly descended back to the ground and Kyouichi saw as one of them was holding her arm over her the other one, as if she was wounded. As he came closer, he saw that the girl in question was Chitose and as soon as her feet touched the ground, Rie ran towards her in panic.

"Chitose-san, Chitose-san! Are you alright?!" she shouted.

"Don't worry about me, Rie-senpai…" Chitose calmed her down, "It just stings a little." she said as she removed her right hand from her left forearm, revealing a burnt hole through the sleeve of her school uniform.

"I… I'm so sorry!" apologized the club's leader as she immediately pulled up Chitose's sleeve to take a look at her wound.

Rie herself was unharmed. Kyouichi could only wonder what miracle was at work that she managed to avoid being hit when she was so close to the magic blast.

"Like I said, don't worry. It wasn't your fault, Rie-senpai. It's only a little burn." Chitose reassured her friend as she stretched out her left arm to show her that the wound wasn't serious at all.

"Thank goodness…" Rie exhaled in relief. "Fortunately, we only use the weakest form of danmaku possible. Otherwise it could have ended up much worse."

Kyouichi, who was also worried about Chitose, quickly rushed into the middle of the circle to make sure that she was alright.

"What do you mean, the weakest form of danmaku possible?!" he angrily shouted at Rie. "Your attacks didn't look weak at all! You could have seriously hurt her! And that explosion just now… it was enough to send all your fellow club members running! Don't you have any responsibility?! If you weren't a girl I'd just…" his short outburst of anger was calmed down by Chitose, who grabbed him by his hand and cut off his last sentence.

"That's enough." she said with a serious and slightly intimidating tone, but her grip on Kyouichi's hand was gentle and soothing, as if nicely asking him not to spill his anger on her best friend. "Rie-senpai is the last person on Earth who would want to hurt me, so please… just… Don't yell at her!" she begged, her voice trembling as she began sobbing and tears began forming in the corners of her eyes.

She then walked up to Rie, who was standing there in awe with an expression of fear and guilt. Chitose gently wrapped her arms around her best friend and rested her head on her shoulder. Her muffled sobs were the only sounds that were breaking the dead silence on the meadow as everyone was just standing there speechless and watching this awkward situation.

"F… forgive me…" muttered Kyouichi silently, as he bowed to Rie and Chitose as well. "Please, forgive me. I was just…" he couldn't even think of the right words to finish his sentence. He felt sorry for both of them, but he just didn't know how to react. On one hand he felt that he did the right thing to scold Rie for using needlessly powerful magic, but on the other hand, he knew that he did wrong when he yelled at her like that. He also came to realize that Chitose's attacks didn't seem weak either.

"It's alright…" sounded Rie after a short while as she stroked Chitose's head. "I'm also sorry for making you worry… Come on, Chitose, there's no need for crying."

"Yes…" sobbed Chitose as she let go of her friend and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"It might have looked like we were using strong danmaku, but we decreased its damage to minimum." explained Rie. "All the flashy effects are only for show."

"So that's how it is…?" whispered Kyouichi as he embarrassedly scratched the back of his head.

"That's right." nodded Rie. "Even fairies have danmaku that is more dangerous than this."

Kyouichi remembered very well how it felt to be hit by the fairies' danmaku as they attacked him on his first day in Gensokyo. Ever since, he developed respect if not a minor phobia towards those creatures.

"Then I'm once again sorry, Rie-san, for bursting out on you like that…" he apologized once more. "I misunderstood the situation."

"It's alright... No apologies needed."

"Umm… Chitose-chan?" he turned to the other girl and observed her left forearm. "Are you really ok?"

"Y-yes. " she stuttered a little. "It's nothing, really."

"I'm glad to hear that." said Kyouichi, taking Chitose into a brief and gentle embrace. "But when I saw that last explosion… That was quite a light show. It really scared me."

"Compared to some other danmaku we've seen during our daytime training, that one was rather mild." said Rie. "If you practice danmaku duels or even any form of martial art, it's inevitable that you'll get hurt a bit every now and then. That is a part of the training… To prepare us for the real deal, when we'll face real danger and take real hits."

"I have to admit, you're right." replied Kyouichi while nodding knowingly. "No pain, no gain."

"Yes, that's how it is…" agreed Rie. "I've already lost count of how many times I got hurt during training. I even had to spend a couple of days in the hospital. But I haven't given up training, and now I have the honor of being the president of this club."

"Well then, I guess I better let you resume the training."

"Thank you." smiled Rie as she took Chitose by the hand and walked her to the edge of the edge of the circle.

* * *

Kyouichi accompanied them and took his place beside Chitose and they both kept spectating the following practice duels. By the end of the training, Rie had called forth yet 4 other pairs of randomly picked practitioners and let them duel it out in very similar fashion as she dueled Chitose. Kyouichi yet saw 4 impressive matches packed with fast-paced, dazzling and colorful danmaku action. He was reminded of Reimu's words when she told him that almost everyone can fly. Truly, every single dueling pair had their practice match whilst flying and some of the duelists even demonstrated quite spectacular maneuvering skills. Some of them got hit, some of them managed to to stay out of harm's way, but all of them seemed like they were enjoying their training.

After an hour, Rie called it a day and announced the end of today's evening practice session. Everyone was walking back to the village, cutting their route short over the grassy field. By the time they reached the center of the village, they began splitting up into smaller groups, each with their own destination. It was there when Chitose and Kyouichi bid Rie goodbye and headed home. As Kyouichi was slowly walking up the Northern Street, he suddenly felt a warm sensation on his left hand as it was again gently grabbed by Chitose.

"Kyouichi-kun…?" she asked shyly.

"What is it, Chitose-chan?"

"…Thank you for being worried about me…" she murmured as she clung closer to the outsider.

Kyouichi looked down on her and smiled softly. "Please don't make a habit out of making me worry about you."

The girl giggled. "I'll try."

As they were both passing by the fireside, which was now surrounded by over a dozen villagers, Kyouichi quickly scanned them to check if old Naota was among them. However, he could not see the retired carpenter there, which he found rather unusual.

"Umm… Chitose-chan," he spoke again to the firstborn child of the Saitou family, "you can go on ahead without me. I just remembered something that I need to take care of."

"Okay, see you at home, onii… err… Kyouichi." she corrected herself before she addressed him the way he told her not to.

She then ran up the rest of the way to her home. Kyouichi turned on his heel and headed back down to the opposite side of the Northern Street, adjacent to the marketplace where Naota's western-style house was located.


	16. The Welcome Party

He could see even from distance that a dim light was flickering behind its windows, indicating that someone was there. He stepped close to the door and knocked a few times. He then habitually turned the door handle to open the door for himself, but as he pulled, the door remained firmly in its position. It was locked. Kyouichi again knocked on the door, this time with more force, so that the old man could hear it.

"Hellooo~! Naota-san, are you there~?!" he shouted through the door after some more loud knocking.

He then pressed his ear against the door to listen. A moment later, he could already hear the familiarly gruff voice of Naota Tanisake and his footsteps getting ever louder as he approached the door.

"Keep your fundoshi on! I'm coming already…" sounded his muffled voice from the other side of the massive oak door. "Man… Whom the devils bring here this time?"

Kyouichi couldn't help but to snicker at Naota's grumpiness. A sound of the door being unlocked was heard and right after that, the door opened.

"Oh…!" exclaimed the bald old man in working overalls standing in the doorway. "It's you."

"Hey, good evening there, Naota-san!" Kyouichi greeted him rather cheerfully. "I didn't see you at the campfire, so I figured I'd find you here."

"I was just about to go there, actually. You want something from me, kid?"

"Why, of course I do." acknowledged the young outsider. "Why else would I bother visiting an old irritable geezer at this late hour?" he jokingly remarked.

Naota let out a snorting chuckle. "So what can this old geezer help you with then?"

"Remember when you said that we should throw a welcome party once all my admission business was done?" Kyouichi began explaining.

"Don't tell me that…"

"Yes, I'm telling you exactly THAT." he cut off Naota's sentence immediately. He then pulled out his ID card and flashed it to the old man. "Ta-daaah~!"

The retired carpenter took a closer look at the card with his mouth ajar. "Well, kid, hehehe, of course I remember our little agreement. And today seems like a great day for a party. Wait here, ok? I'll be right back."

* * *

Kyouichi crossed his arms as he waited for Naota who walked back into his house. A couple of minutes later, he came out with a leather bag in his right hand. The clinking sounds that it made as Naota was carrying it, spoke of its content.

"Here, you carry this for me, kid." said the old man, passing the heavy bag to Kyouichi.

The curious youth took a peek inside to see five full bottles of sake.

"O-hoho~! I'm so going to skip school tomorrow…" he stated at the sight of all that alcohol.

"It's not just for the two of us, you know…" growled back old Naota as he again showed up in the doorway with yet another, albeit smaller bag. "I'm also bringing some cups, so that we wouldn't have to drink from the bottles like some wild savages." he explained the content of the second bag.

"I know, I know…" nodded Kyouichi, "I don't know if Mizuto told you, but he's coming too."

"Mizuto? Really?" asked Naota with a surprised tone. "I haven't seen him since last week… I'd sure like him to come and have a drink or two with us. That young wife of his is probably keeping him on a tight leash, hehe."

The old carpenter locked the door of his house and gestured to Kyouichi with his head to follow him.

"So he didn't tell you? That's weird. He seemed to be looking forward to the party…" said Kyouichi as he followed Naota to the fireside, lugging the heavy bag. "Maybe I should go and pick him up."

"Looks like you won't have to, kid." replied Naota, pointing at the band of people gathered around the fireside. "It seems, he's already started without us."

"That traitor!" jokingly muttered Kyouichi as he drew closer to the fireside along with Naota.

* * *

Mizuto was already sitting on one of the logs and excitedly talking to some strangers who were probably his friends. Then as he finished his sentence, the whole group was engulfed in jolly laughter and they all raised their drinking cups up and drank their content to the bottom. As Mizuto saw two familiar people approaching, he waved at them from the distance and shouted loudly over the entire street: "Heeey~! There they are! Over here, Naota and Kyouichi! We have roast meat and there's enough sake to flood the village!"

"Oh my God…" chuckled amused Kyouichi. "And we're bringing even more!"

"Better safe than sorry." noted Naota calmly. "It's always good to have some extra reserve."

Mizuto already reserved a place for two more people on one of the wooden logs, where Kyouichi and Naota took their seat.

"This one here," Mizuto pointed at Kyouichi, "is now our new member of the family. He's come to Gensokyo from the outside world four days ago, all beaten up and exhausted."

"It's not like I've actually come here, as much as I've simply appeared here." Kyouichi corrected him.

Mizuto, however, continued without paying attention to Kyouichi's words. He was apparently already half-drunk.

"We decided to take this poor, lost young man in and provide him with our humble shelter and food. Today, however, he's officially become registered as a proper denizen of the Human Village. Everyone, let's raise our cups and have a drink to our new friend, Ishimaru Kyouichi!"

Kyouichi didn't even notice when did someone put a drinking cup into his hand and before he could react, Mizuto was already filling it with sake and prompting him to drink with everyone.

"Cheers~!" sounded all the gathered people in unison as they raised their cups.

"Cheers? No, no, no, no, no…" Naota shook his head in disapproval. "You ought to say "bottoms up"!"

"Isn't that the same?" asked Kyouichi with an amused expression.

"You bet it's not." said the old man. "When you say "cheers", it means people can drink, but not necessarily the whole cup or glass. Now "bottoms up" clearly states what the drinkers should do."

"Oh…"

"Well then, why are we still wasting time?" spoke Naota again. "Bottoms up, people! All of you!"

"Yeah~!" called out everyone as they emptied their drinking cups in one go.

Kyouichi didn't even get to properly enjoy the taste of the sake when he noticed he had his cup already refilled.

"What the…? When did you…?" he stuttered confusedly. "This cup must be magical." he jested.

"And a round two!" called out Naota raising his cup into the air, provoking everyone else to do the same thing. "And to the bottom!"

Kyouichi had no objections or problems drinking another cup of sake. He could already feel the warm sensation spreading from his stomach all over his body. Mizuto didn't waste a second refilling Kyouichi's cup again. As if having an empty cup would attract some really dangerous youkai to the village.

"Um…Naota-san?" he suddenly asked the old outsider.

"What is it, kid? Need a refill?"

"I just wanted to ask you something while you're still… relatively sober."

"I'm listening." replied Naota.

"As you may know, I'm not the only outsider who got spirited away to Gensokyo four days ago. And in case you didn't know, well now you do…" preambled Kyouichi.

"Yeah, I've already heard." nodded Naota. "They say that over 15 outsiders were spirited away on that day."

"To be exact, over 15 outsiders made it to the village safely and/or requested citizenship at the village hall." Kyouichi corrected the statement. "There's probably even more of them here or in the other villages. I'm afraid that a good number of the outsiders that were spirited away didn't make it, so I can count myself among the lucky ones. But I digress… Those who did make it to the village are now by the order of the village council attending the Kamishirasawa Affiliated School, so I got the chance of getting to know all of them. I've become aware of the special policy of the village council to support the families who decide to take outsiders into their custody and many of those people who made it here found their new homes in some nice families that way. Some, however, were not so lucky and they were given provisionary accommodation in the barracks of the Ryuuken militia. I probably don't have to tell you that their living conditions there are far from ideal, or at least that's what one of my friends told me… I've promised to that one friend of mine that I'd at least ask you, Naota-san, if you could consider taking her into your custody, because she said that some of the Ryuuken can be very abusive in their superior position and I don't want her to suffer from it. So what do you say, Naota-san? Would you care to take a young 16 year old lady in?"

"Whoa, kid…!" exclaimed Naota in amazement. "That was quite a monologue… But.. I… I really don't know… if she'd even want to live under my roof. I'm not the most ideal person either, I know that."

"She said she'd be perfectly fine just about anywhere else but the Ryuuken barracks." said Kyouichi. "She said she'd even do the housework for the family that would take her in."

"Well, if she won't mind a… how did you call me back then…? An old gruff, irritable geezer to be her caretaker, then she's more than welcome to move in. But I'm afraid I can take in only one person, meaning your other friends will just have to stay in the barracks…"

"Thank you very much Naota-san." nodded Kyouichi thankfully. "I'm sure she'll appreciate the offer… And I didn't call you gruff back then, only an old irritable geezer." he added jokingly.

Naota chuckled loudly. "Well aren't you a comedian! Tell that friend of yours that she can move in whenever she's ready… Man… I ought to cut down on drinking now that I'll have some responsibility…"

Kyouichi bowed once again. He knew that underneath the shell of grumpiness, Naota was a good person on the inside. Though he viewed all youkai with the same level of prejudicial hatred, fear and disgust, he was kind enough to humans who had something in common with him. In this case, being an outsider in Gensokyo. Midori should have no problems living in his house. Probably… Hopefully Dan and Sayuri will be more able to cope with the tough conditions of the Ryuuken barracks before they can find a better place to stay… or return to their real homes in the outside world.

"Well it seems that we have another good reason to celebrate today." remarked Naota as he was refilling his cup. "Say, what is this friend of yours called, kid?"

"Midori Iwakami." replied Kyouichi.

"Well then, to Midori Iwakami's new… and hopefully better home!" called the old carpenter with his cup raised up.

"Yeah~!" shouted all the party attendants as they threw another dose of sake down their throats.

* * *

The party went cheerfully on, lasting almost until dawn. Kyouichi and the others enjoyed the happy atmosphere, the warmth of the fire, the taste of roast meat and more than ample amount of sake. That all changed after Naota and Mizuto exchanged a couple of stories and then they stared interrogating Kyouichi about what he thinks of the life in Gensokyo.

"Sooo, have 'ye got used to living here?" asked the drunk old carpenter, his speech becoming less and less comprehendible.

"Hardly!" disconfirmed Kyouichi while taking another bite of the roast meat, his mood taking a sudden downward slope. "I may have a place to stay, some work to do and a school to attend, but I'm already starting to miss the conveniences of modern technology. There are no computers, no internet, no TV's, heck, not even radios… I'll yet have a hard time adjusting to this lifestyle. Not to mention that my family is probably already searching high and low for me. I feel bad for them, since they don't even know if I'm alive. They must be going through some serious heart-wrenching moments and the thought of that makes me feel miserable…"

"Oh… s-sorry…" apologized Naota. "I shouldn't have reminded you…"

"That's okay, Naota-san." Kyouichi comforted him. "You haven't reminded me… I've never forgotten… It's a hundred years too early for me to forget about them… Well… actually only my mom, because I never got along well with my father… I'm not all that eager to see that man again, but there are still a few people out there whom I miss and I'm sure they miss me as well."

Naota pityingly patted Kyouichi on his shoulder. "Listen, kid, it's good to remember your family… No, you HAVE TO remember your family and friends, but you also mustn't allow your sadness to get the better of you."

Kyouichi didn't say a word and instead, had another cup of sake.

"I know it hurts," continued Naota, "but there is nothing you can do about it."

"Oh yes, there is." Kyouichi opposed him immediately. "I've stared working on it since the day one."

"If you're talking about looking for your youkai of boundaries, I suggest you should give that idea a rest. You'll only end up getting yourself into trouble. And I don't mean just a couple of cuts and bruises."

Kyouichi didn't have the slightest intention to heed Naota's warning. "You're not going to talk me out of this, Naota! I won't stop looking for a way out until I'm certain that I've tried everything within my abilities to do so."

Taking another deep breath, he continued: "I already have the support of many people, who are working towards the same goal. Unless we fail to find Yukari after searching every nook and cranny of Gensokyo, or if we find her and she says: "Screw you, human fool! You'll rot in Gensokyo forever, muwahahahahaaaa!", then and only then will I be at peace, knowing that I did my best, but failed."

"Do you even have any idea how damn near-impossible is that going to be?" asked the old man with concern.

"Not if we spread the news about ourselves and get more people and even some youkai to help us."

"Then maybe I should help you too…" spoke Mizuto after a longer while of watching those two exchanging their opinions. "I'll tell your story to the other fishermen at the colony and ask around if any of them knows anything that could help you."

"I would very much appreciate that, thank you." said Kyouichi, approving of Mizuto's assistance.

"I don't have any contacts outside the village," spoke Naota again, thoughtfully scratching his balding head, "but I could ask Yukiyama if he hasn't heard anything interesting about Yakumo…"

"So you do approve of my idea after all?" wondered Kyouichi after hearing Naota's surprising change of view.

The retired carpenter exhaled loudly and shook his head. "Don't get me wrong, kid. I don't mean to deprive you of your will to try and find a way out of here. I'm simply trying to warn you from the danger that you're sure to encounter if you plan to travel around these lands. I can't say I approve of you looking for that youkai, but that's your own decision…"

"I know there's danger and I'm not that big a moron to roam around Gensokyo alone." Kyouichi reassured him. "And if you're so much against Yukari, then I should also tell you that it's not just her we're looking for."

The aged man gave him a curious glance. "And that would be…?"

"Information about Gensokyo's location in Japan." replied Kyouichi after he again refilled his cup with more sake. "All we need is to get a fix on the nearest human settlement to the Hakurei Shrine in the outside world and we're as good as home. But since none of us want to end up getting lost in the mountains, we need to know exactly where to go…"

"Ah, I see." murmured Naota understandingly. "That way you won't even have to search for the gap youkai."

"Exactly." confirmed Kyouichi, nodding once in response. "Although I still think that I shouldn't neglect the first option…"

"Fine… Suit yourself." growled Naota indifferently, his hand brushing off any remaining concern he had for the young outsider's safety. "It's your life that you're risking…" he added and subsequently took a near-empty sake bottle and drank the remaining sake right out of it, without bothering to pour it into his cup.

"I've heard that she's not one of those human-eating types…" remarked Kyouichi after a Naota finished off the bottle and put it on the ground next to the other empty ones.

"Even so, I wouldn't trust her even if a hundred people would try to convince me to negotiate with her…"

Turning slowly to Mizuto, Kyouichi presented him a rather personal question: "Say, Mizuto-san, what's up with Naota's negative attitude towards all youkai?"

As the fisherman's lips parted, ready to give an answer, the old man immediately silenced him with a menacing gaze. "Some things, I'd rather keep to myself… But I assure you that it's not just me. You'd be surprised how many people hate the youkai here… and for a good reason they do. The humans and youkai have always been in a constantly shifting predator/prey relation and no amount of time has changed that fact. I say that all those who act all friendly are only cunningly waiting for their opportunity…"

"That's enough, Naota." Mizuto ended his monologue. "I understand your feelings, but you shouldn't force your presumptuous opinions to others. It's a clear fact that not all youkai are enemies to humans and yet you seem to be ignoring it stubbornly."

"And you're wondering why?! After what they've done?!"

"You can't blame every single youkai for what happened back then." continued Mizuto, referring to some unknown event, leaving Kyouichi to make wild guesses. "Some of my best friends are youkai and I would trust them with my life."

"Bah, whatever…" grumbled the ex-carpenter as he stood up from the wooden log. "I'm going home. I've had enough sake for today…"

Having said that, he turned away and slowly walked away from the fireside, his steps unsteady and stumbling from the amount of consumed alcohol.

* * *

Kyouichi's cheerful mood from just a couple of minutes ago was now replaced by a mixture of different and confusing feelings. Only he and Mizuto were now sitting at the smoldering fire.

"Some party this turned out to be…" remarked the young outsider.

Mizuto sighed as he buried his forehead in his palm, looking tired. "That Naota… He worries me sometimes…"

"Come on, can't you tell me why he hates all youkai?" inquired the youngster.

"I'm sure if the time comes, he'll tell you himself. If he wants to keep it to himself, then we should respect that."

"I guess so." whispered Kyouichi, more to himself than to Mizuto, his mouth then gaping wide open in a big yawn.

"We should go home too." suggested the fisherman. "You've got school in the morning, remember?"

"Oh my god…" groaned Kyouichi in displeasure. "Tomorrow morning's gonna suck…"

"Come now, let me help you…" Mizuto offered to support him as he saw that he could barely stand on his own.

"Thanksss… Mizuto-san." uttered Kyouichi as he made an audible hiccup. "Oh maaan… it's starting to kick in…"

"You drank almost more than the old man himself. And that is something to say, since he drinks almost like an oni." chuckled the fisherman slowly guiding Kyouichi's steps to the Saitou residence.

Kyouichi, however, no longer paid attention to any of Mizuto's words as his vision started to blur and overwhelming feeling of sleepiness was taking over his entire body.

"Almost there…"

"Nice and easy…"

"There we go…"

A warm sensation of a comfortable futon was the last thing that Kyouichi remembered before passing out into a dreamless black sleep.


	17. Hanami

Although it wasn't even a week since his spiriting away, the following days were starting to become a routine for Kyouichi. Waking up, going to school, then going to work and then spending the rest of the day with some random leisure activity, mostly reading the chronicle for more references to the border youkai.

His wounds were by now fully healed up and he didn't even know he ever had them.

Midori Iwakami was indeed very thankful to hear that she could move in to Naota's house, giving Kyouichi a big hug and over a dozen thankful bows. To his surprise, she got accustomed to her new home very quickly. Daniel and Sayuri were still accommodated in the Ryuuken barracks, but never actually complained about it. The school which they all attended reminded him very much of his days at the grade school back in Sapporo. Once praised for good work, other times scolded for slacking off. He even learned first-hand what Midori meant when she spoke of Keine-sensei's unconventional corporal punishment. As she was checking if the students had done their homework and figured that Kyouichi had forgotten about it, she surprised him without a warning with a semi-painful headbutt. However, he managed to learn another couple of interesting facts about Gensokyo, namely the history of the Human Village, a little more about the tengu community in conjunction with some more information about their newspapers.

As for his part-time job at the bookstore, it went on without any greater difficulties. Once he was done with Yagokoro-san's old manuscripts, the bulk of his job was now focused on mechanically copying the Gensokyo Chronicle. Surprisingly, the old kappan printing machine was still working as it should, which sparked the shopkeeper's curiosity. He suspected that it works so well because of Kyouichi's familiarity with the technology of the outside world and its similarity to its kappan counterpart. Kyouichi, however, told Daisuke that he only operated the machine according to his instructions. There were a few occasions when Daisuke had to take care of some business and left Kyouichi to tend to the shop alone. It was okay, because the shop didn't have all that many customers. Twenty people a day was an average number of customers and that wasn't a problem even for Kyouichi to handle. He even managed to sell a couple of books during Daisuke's absence. Most of the time, however, he could just idly sit at the counter and look outside the window as he awaited his employer's return. Watching people passing through the street, the children playing games, and the other shopkeepers taking a breather outside of their shops has become a sort of pastime. He even memorized a couple of folks who regularly passed through this street. One of the more memorable ones was a mysterious young lady with her emerald-green hair, wearing always the same red plaid skirt and a matching waistcoat on top of a plain white shirt and a small yellow neckerchief, similar to Reimu's. In fact, from a distance, her whole attire was quite similar to that of the Hakurei shrine maiden and he almost mistook this person for her if it hadn't been for the green hair, and the white parasol this lady always seemed to carry around. She was also quite taller and more developed than Reimu. Almost every day, she would show up during the afternoon, coming from the western road and visiting a flower shop. Kyouichi would bet his entire week's wage on his guess that she's a youkai. She always left the flower shop with another bunch of flowers in her hand and headed back where she came from. Kyouichi's curiosity urged him more than once to go out of the bookstore and meet this young lady, but in the end, he decided not to.

* * *

As a couple of days passed, it was already Friday, the 4th of June. Precisely one week since Kyouichi's spiriting away. It was on this day that Reimu had planned to hold the late spring flower viewing at her shrine. He was impatiently waiting for his another school lesson to end as he was trying to imagine what sort of guests would be there at the hanami. With the sound of the bell, he hurriedly packed up his books and headed straight home to have lunch as usual.

"Hi there, Kyouichi." Mizuto greeted him as he opened the kitchen's sliding door. "Will you lend me a hand with preparing the dinner? We're having two important guests today after all."

"Sure, I can." replied Kyouichi, putting the handbag on the floor. "At least I can pick up some cooking skills from you."

"I believe Minako would be a much better teacher, but even I can teach you a few recipes."

"What about the lunch? Need any assistance?"

"No, no," Mizuto refusingly shook his head, "it'll be ready in a few minutes. It's a rather western-style dish…"

The fisherman then returned to the stove, putting something into a frying pan, making a loud hissing sound as the ingredient touched the boiling oil. Kyouichi curiously peeked over his shoulder to see what's being prepared.

"Fried cheese and french fries?" he raised his eyebrow in a curious expression. "Now that's an unexpected change of cuisine."

"It's simple, it's fast and it's good…" responded the fisherman as he flipped one of the blocks of cheese in the pan.

"Mmm-mm." hummed Kyouichi in delight. "Nothing like a nice, big, delicious portion of unhealthy high-caloric goodness…"

"Now that I think about it," continued Mizuto, "I guess you'll be still at work by the time our guests will arrive, so I'm on my own with the dinner preparations."

"Nah, Shimizu-san, will probably let me go home earlier as usual."

"Alright then. I'm counting on you."

* * *

After the meal, Kyouichi still had some time to laze on the futon in his room. As he did so, he also decided to resume his study of the chronicle.

"Man, there's so many books…" he pouted as he stared at the huge pile of literature. "When the hell am I gonna read them all?"

As he was thoughtfully looking at the whole anthology of the chronicle, he became curious about the other titles which Akyuu recommended to him. He took one of the thinnest books in the pile and briefly observed its cover.

"What's this?" he wondered. "Perfect Memento in Strict Sense? What a weird name for a book…"

The author of this title was none other than the ninth incarnation of the Gensokyo chronicler herself and the very first page notified, that it was, in fact, a part of the Gensokyo Chronicle compilation. In the lower right corner of the first page, there was printed "Test printout – not for sale yet, last update: 30th of Shimotsuki (November) 124, Starlight Glyph Publishing".

"So this is actually a part of the ninth volume? No wonder it's so thin… Akyuu must be still working on it. But wait a sec. She said that all the books were a part of the chronicle and the 9th volume should be the last one… So how come there are 21 books in total?"

After double checking the titles of the whole pile, he slapped his forehead with his palm, since he figured out the reason for this irregularity.

"I see now… The first volume took up 3 books, the second one 2, the third one took up 3 again and so on…"

The longest volume was the 6th one, containing 4 books, whereas the shortest was the final one, with only the unfinished version of Perfect Memento in Strict Sense so far. At first glance at its pages, the book reminded Kyouichi of some sort of encyclopedia dealing with various youkai and locations in this land. It was written in a considerably different style than all the other parts of the compilation he had read so far. The text was much more simplified and easier to read even for the less academic types. Furthermore, it was illustrated, unlike the previous titles.

"Hey, this one seems quite handy." he murmured to himself. "Let's see if it says something about any areas outside the barrier… Wait a minute… I remember now. Yes. This is that book that I raced through while I was at the Hieda house. It had an article about the Palanquin Ship Incident."

As he found the Locations section of the book, he came across only those areas that were within the barrier. That was no surprise, since Akyuu was the first incarnation of the child of Miare to be born after the year zero. It would be quite needless for her to describe anything that lies beyond the Great Hakurei Border.

"Man, I'm so dumb!" he suddenly exclaimed when a thought crossed his mind. "If Akyuu remembers everything from her previous lives, she then must remember something about the surrounding areas of Gensokyo! Why did I only not ask her about that when I visited her yesterday?"

He slammed the book shut and nervously started to walk around in circles around the room. The mere thought that he might have some reasonable chance to get out of Gensokyo just as soon as his theory would be confirmed, made the outsider quite excited.

"Okay, okay, just calm down…" he thought to himself. "Today's the hanami and before that, she'll come over to the Saitous. I'll just ask her as soon as I meet her…"

Having settled with this thought, he decided to go to work, even if it was still more than an hour too early.

"Huh? Leaving already?" wondered Mizuto as noticed him putting on his sandals at the door.

"Why not? If I expect Shimizu-san to let me go home earlier, I should as well start working earlier today."

"Oh, I see. Well then, do your best!" called out the fisherman as Kyouichi was opening the main door, ready to take his leave. "And don't overwork yourself there! Save some strength for helping me with dinner!"

"Don't you worry about me!" called Kyouichi back, "It's not like I'm working on a field or something."

Indeed, the work of a bookstore assistant was a walk in a park in comparison to many other forms of manual labor. The hardest thing about it was the cleaning, but Kyouichi was certain, that in a matter of a few days, his body would get at least a little back into shape, and he wouldn't find it so tiring anymore.

* * *

"Good afternoon, Shimizu-san." greeted the outsider as soon as he entered the shop. "Ishimaru reporting for duty… a bit earlier today. Umm… Shimizu-san?"

The storekeeper was nowhere to be seen and Kyouichi thought that he must have left the store to take care of some other urgent business and in his haste, he forgot to lock the door. That, however, was not the case, since Kyouichi could hear some strange noise coming from the printing room behind the counter. A moment later, Daisuke Shimizu's voice called out:

"What? Ishimaru? Boy, am I glad you came…"

Kyouichi slowly walked into the printing room to see the storekeeper helplessly staring at the printing machine. "What's wrong, boss? You seem rather desperate."

"Disaster!" he called out melodramatically. "…And just when I thought that this machine could last at least until the end of the week…"

"Oh, I see. It broke down again, right?"

"Please, Ishimaru-san! You gotta help me!" begged the storekeeper with trembling voice as if he was about to start crying. "Without the help of this printer, my work… and yours too, will become significantly harder. And my business will suffer…"

"But what can I do about it?" asked Kyouichi. "I'm no technician, you know."

"But, but… You're from the outside world. You have plenty of gadgets like that in the outside world. You must be familiar with technology and stuff… You…"

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I have about as much knowledge about the kappan technology as you do. And I'm being overconfident…"

"But… please. At least take a look." urged Daisuke. "Perhaps you can figure out the problem if I couldn't…"

"Sheesh… Who does this guy think I am? Some Japanese version of McGyver?" Kyouichi sighed and reluctantly stepped toward the broken printer. "Are you always so helpless, Shimizu-san? From what you told me, this certainly isn't the first time this machine had a breakdown."

"That's true, but I'm afraid it's serious this time…"

"Serious? How so?" inquired the outsider.

"When I turned it on to make a copy of just a few pages, there was this loud bang… and then… and then smoke started coming out of it…" explained Daisuke, trying to calm himself down.

Kyouichi at least checked if any of the switches on the machine still worked by pushing them randomly. He then pulled a few of its levers back and forth, and after seeing that nothing was happening, he gave the old printer a few smacks and kicks.

"Yep, it's broken alright…" stated Kyouichi after his "expert" analysis of the machine.

"Damn it!" cursed the storekeeper. "I've already wasted so much money on repairs…"

"Why don't you just order a new one?" Kyouichi suggested. "There must already be better, faster and more reliable printing machines than this one…"

Daisuke quietly stared at the wreck of his old printer and nodded silently. "Yeah… It seems I don't have any other choice. To to tell you the truth, the machine's heyday was long since over by the time I bought it from the kappa. It seemed like a good bargain at that time and I have to admit that it had served me well over many years. It broke down quite often, but the repair costs were fairly low, so I decided to keep using it… But now, it seems it's reached its limit. Gonna have to buy a new one."

"So, I guess I'll be transcribing things manually for now, right?"

"No." rejected the shopkeeper. "You're gonna have to take care of the shop for me again, while I go and order some high quality printer. This might take some time, but you already know what to do. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Alright, I know the drill." Kyouichi reassured him. "I'll try to sell something… if I'll have any customers, that is…"

"Thanks again, Ishimaru. You're quite a reliable assistant, you know…"

Kyouichi smiled. "Just doing what I have to… And, Shimizu-san, before you go, I have a little request."

"What is it?"

"I arrived an hour earlier, as you already noticed and I'd like to go home an hour earlier as well. It's only for today."

"Oh, but of course." approved Daisuke almost immediately. "I'll try to hurry then. Do your best until then."

* * *

With that said, the owner of the Starlight Glyph took his leave and Kyouichi was once again left with the full responsibility for the bookstore. He took a seat on a chair, rested his feet on the counter and crossed his arms as if he was now the big boss. Of course, if anyone caught him in this position, be it Daisuke or some potential customer, I'd be quite embarrassing. That's why he kept a close eye on the situation outside the shop through the window. He was sitting there for quite some time, observing the street, but nothing particularly interesting was going on.

"Oh man, this is getting boring." he muttered. "I ought to help me pass the time by reading something. But what?"

He stood up from the chair and began browsing through the tall shelves of the bookstore to find some book he might be interested in reading. At first he thought he'd look for the chronicle, but he soon recalled that both Akyuu and Keine-sensei mentioned that the chronicle is only in the process of being published and copied, and therefore, is not available for sale yet. Although, he did remember copying a part of the chronicle just yesterday, Daisuke apparently already took both the original and the copies and put them somewhere safe. Kyouichi then decided, that he'd just randomly take the first book that would catch his attention. The book he picked up from one of the shelves was a rather thick one and it had a nice and colorful cover. It was some sort of botanical encyclopedia, titled The Universal Guide of Flora.

"Well what do you know… this book has pictures in full color." commented Kyouichi as he randomly opened it approximately in the middle. "This... this must be a book from the outside. Interesting. I might as well take a better look at it…"

* * *

He took the book to the counter, where he sat down again and started reading from the beginning. Every few moments he looked outside the window to check if Daisuke wasn't coming back or if any potential customers weren't about to enter the store. He was quite fascinated to find a book from the outside world in this bookstore. All the more when the book was full of high definition pictures in full color, which Daisuke's old scanning and printing machine couldn't even dream of copying. It was rather strange that this rare piece was sitting among the other books designated for sale. It was really unlikely for Daisuke to be selling a one-of-a-kind original without at least making several copies, even if only in black and white. As he read page after page full of in-depth information about various exotic and common plants, he again paused to check the situation in front of the shop. And then he saw it again… To be more exact, he saw HER again. The green-haired parasol-wielding flower lady was again on her way out of the flower shop just across the street. Kyouichi at first only hesitatingly stared at her through the window, but then he put the book on the counter, stood up and walked out of the shop, stopping at the doorstep. He kept watching as the familiar, but still unknown lady was slowly walking past him, not paying attention to anyone or anything around her. She seemed satisfied though, as she was carrying another bunch of flowers and humming some unknown, but somewhat cheerful melody with a lovely voice. He still thought it would be weird if he just stopped her to ask who she was and who does she buy flowers for every day, so he again just watched her leave the village and head further west. Kyouichi kept staring at the western road even when the lady was already out of sight, as he was indulged in another one of his usual reveries. His brief spacing-out was interrupted as he heard the squeaking sound of a door opening. He turned his head to the right and saw a man in green working outfit stepping outside of the flower shop. He stretched his arms above his head and then his head from side to side. It looked like the flower shop's keeper was taking a short break. Kyouichi looked at the man for a while, and then he closed the door to the bookstore and slowly approached him.

"Umm…good afternoon." he greeted shyly. "Would you mind if I asked you something?"

"Hm? Why no, I wouldn't mind…" replied the man. "What would you like to ask?"

"I was just wondering… Who was that lady in red plaid clothes just now? I've started working part-time in the bookstore over there just this Monday you see, and I've seen her almost every day visiting your shop… Oh, and to clear up any misunderstandings, I'm one of them outsiders who got here a week ago…"

"Oh, that youkai lady? She comes by almost regularly, but it's only in certain times of the year." explained the florist. "Her name's Yuki… or was it Yuuko? I'm sorry, I sort of forgot…" he lowered his head in slight embarrassment.

"Could it possibly be Yukari?" asked Kyouichi curiously.

"Hmm… could be…" shrugged the man phlegmatically. "I'm only certain it starts with "Yu". Why do you ask?"

"Because I'm looking for Yukari Yakumo."

The man suddenly burst into laughter. "Oh, no… that lady is most certainly not the youkai of boundaries. Even if her name really is Yukari. She's just some lesser youkai… at least I think so... But I don't really know."

"What can you tell me about her then?" Kyouichi interviewed further.

"Well, like I said. She comes to buy a whole bunch of different flowers almost every day. Especially during spring and summer. And she keeps wearing that same red plaid skirt and waistcoat all the time…"

"Do you know why does she buy flowers so often?"

The florist thoughtfully scratched his chin. "I… honestly have no idea… She's a youkai. They're all weird in one way or another. If you like her, why don't you ask her that yourself when she comes by next time?"

Kyouichi snickered quietly. "I'm not looking for a date. I just wanted to clear up some facts."

"Well, all I can tell you is that she's really nice, extremely polite and always smiling when she comes to buy some flowers." said the florist. "But sometimes I get this eerie feeling in her presence… almost intimidating. I can't put my finger on it… But otherwise, she's really sweet. Just between you and me, if I wasn't married then I'd…"

"O-kay, I think I get the picture…" said Kyouichi, cutting off the florist's last sentence. "She's not Yukari Yakumo. That's all I needed to know."

"That she isn't." the man shook his head. "At least from what I've heard, Yakumo-san wouldn't bother WALKING to the village or even BUYING things. If she wanted something, she'd just… you know… take it."

"And you haven't happened to encounter her during your life by any chance?"

"Nope, I can't say that I have… Or at least, not that I'd know about it." replied the florist. "I guess she doesn't need flowers too much, hehehe..."

"So… you believe that she exits, I take it…"

"Sure, why not?" shrugged the man. "I guess we wouldn't learn about her back then at school if she was just a myth…"

"Yeah, I guess so…" admitted Kyouichi while nodding agreeingly.

As he turned back for a while, he noticed someone walk into the bookstore. "Okay, I guess I have some customers. Thanks for your time, mister."

"Sure. No problem."

* * *

Kyouichi then hurried back to the bookstore where some customer was already browsing through the books on the shelves.

"Welcome to the Starlight Glyph. Sorry to keep you waiting…" he apologized as he entered the shop.

"Hm? Are you Shimizu-san's…" asked an elderly man in a tattered gray kimono.

"Yes, new part-time assistant." Kyouichi answered immediately. "He's out at the moment, but if you need help with anything, don't be afraid to ask."

"I see… I'm just looking for some interesting novel." explained the customer. "I've got a lot of free time on my hands since my retirement…"

"Ok then, please help yourself."

After about 5 minutes, the elderly man walked up to the counter with a book in his hand, ready to pay for it.

"I'd like to take this one." he said as he put it on the counter.

Kyouichi opened it on the last page, where Daisuke penciled prices on all the books in his shop.

"That will be 2000 yen."

The man in gray took out two paper notes, each worth a thousand yen.

"Thank you very much and have a nice day." said Kyouichi and noted down the transaction into the shop's ledger.

"Aye, a good day to you too, young man." bowed the customer and with his slow pace, he left he shop.

* * *

Again, Kyouichi was left alone, so he again resumed reading the encyclopedia about plants. He read almost 50 pages until Daisuke, his employer finally returned.

"So, Ishimaru, has everything been okay while I was gone?" he asked before the door even closed behind him.

"You could say that…" replied the part-time assistant. "There's been only one customer, but he bought a book for two thousand yen."

"That's good to hear." said Daisuke as he took out some document from his inner pocket and put it in a drawer under the counter.

"What about you, Shimizu-san? Did you order a new machine?"

"Yeah. And it took some time too. Hopefully this new model will be worth the investment."

"I'm sure it will." said Kyouichi. "Anyway, now that you're back, I guess you'd like to take the counter under your control again."

"Oh, right, right... That's my job after all." smiled the storekeeper. "And it seems you got used to that as well. You've even started to read books in your leisure, just like I do." he pointed at the botany encyclopedia that Kyouichi was reading.

"Oh, yeah… It just caught my eye. This book I mean. May I ask where did you get it?"

"This one here?" asked Daisuke, picking up the book and observing it closely. "This one's from the outside world."

"Yeah, I thought so, but how did you acquire it?" wondered Kyouichi. "Do books from the outside world just randomly keep appearing in your shop?"

Daisuke chuckled. "Oh, but of course not. Don't be silly. This one here I ordered from Kourindou. They sell various goods, but it's not here in Human Village. Often times, they offer goods from the outside, but since we in Gensokyo have no idea for the use of all those strange contraptions, nobody really buys them. Well, books are of course a different matter. I regularly check their inventory for some interesting pieces of literature, such as this. But sometimes I just have to haggle for a few minutes, as the shop's owner sometimes doesn't like to part with some of the books."

"So they deal with goods from the outside world?" asked Kyouichi. "I wonder who supplies them."

"Good question…" murmured Daisuke, scratching the back of his head. "My guess is that he gets his goods from folks like you, who get spirited away to Gensokyo every now and then."

"Hmm… I wonder if I could sell my cell phone there." speculated Kyouichi. "But you're selling an original… without making a copy?"

"What do you think I am? A fool?!" asked Daisuke, slightly raising his voice. "No, in fact, I got a whole box of these books, all in full color. But hey, maybe you're right… maybe the new printer I ordered will be able to make colorful copies. That would be great."

"And when is that printer supposed to arrive?"

"I'd say within 3 days." replied the storekeeper. "That means there's a good chance you'll be able to try it out right after this weekend."

"Alright." nodded Kyouichi, his eyes meeting Daisuke's. "So, got any tasks for me?"

"You know what? If you clean this place up a bit, I'm gonna let you go after that. You've already pulled a major part of my shift, so it only seems fair, doesn't it?"

Kyouichi bowed thankfully and went to grab the mop and a bucket. "Thanks, boss. This is actually one of the easiest part-time jobs I've ever done and I've been doing plenty."

"Well, it's a bookstore, so there's not much manual work here." shrugged Daisuke.

"So what you're saying is that you don't usually do much work around here?" asked Kyouichi a little daring question as he began mopping the floor.

"Haha!" chuckled Daisuke. "You're not too far from the truth. Back when I opened this shop, I used to work alone. It was basically the same as now – copying, writing, translating and selling. But when my business picked up a bit, I often needed to visit other villages. The new post office made that a bit easier now, but as you could have noticed, I often have to leave the shop. That's when I wrote a requisition form to the village hall to hire an assistant. And that's when I met Hiroto, who is now recovering from that youkai attack I mentioned before… Well, more like he attacked first."

"Was he armed?"

"No, not with a sword or a knife. Only with his overconfidence, short temper and dim wit."

"Did he use magic then?" wondered Kyouichi, getting done with one section of the shop's floor.

"Naturally, all of Gensokyo's natives have some innate magic abilities. A legacy from times long ago when men and youkai were at war… But Hiroto… that fool wants to become a Ryuuken and he always has to keep proving to himself that he's worthy, so he attacked a youkai only with his bare hands." said Daisuke and slapped his forehead at the thought of his assistant's folly. "A suicide attempt if you ask me, but I guess idiots are lucky and the youkai left him only with one fracture. Not even a veteran Ryuuken warrior would dare to fight a youkai barehanded and without magic."

"If he wants to be a Ryuuken, why didn't he join them yet?" Kyouichi couldn't understand. "Why does he work at the bookstore?"

"Where should I begin…?" murmured the storekeeper thoughtfully. "Have you heard about an old carpenter, Naota Tanisake? He's one of the oldest outsiders in the village."

"Naota?!" Kyouichi looked quizzically at his boss. "Yeah, I know him personally, but what does he have to do with all this?"

"Well, you see, Hiroto wants to follow in his father's footsteps." explained Daisuke with his typical gesticulation. "His father is a well respected Ryuuken captain, so he wanted to be like him."

"I see nothing wrong there…"

"While Hiroto is a good fighter, he never was much of a thinker. Ever since he started attending school, he had problems. There's a custom that in order to join the Ryuuken militia, one has to either take a special course at the school or get an approval from any of the master craftsmen in the village after some years of work. The Ryuuken aren't just a bunch of armed men trained to fight youkai, but they are also adept in many other trades as well. Since his grades at school were below average, taking the advanced course for the aspiring Ryuuken was out of question. He had to choose some crafting guild and get educated as an apprentice. But he apparently didn't have the skills or patience to finish his apprenticeship, so he dropped out of school with only elementary education. His only chance to get among the Ryuuken was to personally apply for work at one of the master craftsmen's workshops. You see, it's not that important for a Ryuuken to know a craft, as it is important to have some discipline and work under a master craftsman helps to build that discipline. But none of the masters would hire him. Nobody except one…"

"Naota Tanisake…" completed Kyouichi.

The storekeeper nodded. "That's right. Since he was an outsider, he didn't hold much regard for our local customs and took young Hiroto as one of his apprentices."

"So how did he end up at your bookstore?"

"Well, he was doing fine at Tanisake's workshop, but only until about one month before he was supposed to get his approval. He got into a brawl with another one of Naota's students for something and he hurt him badly. He was immediately arrested and put to trial. If he was sentenced for his attack, he would spend a good couple of months in a cell, but Naota, as the only other witness, spoke in Hiroto's favor and said that the other student provoked the fight. I wasn't there, so I don't know the truth. But whether Tanisake spoke the truth, or if it was just a convenient calculation on his part because of Hiroto's father's influence, the trial found both of the brawlers partially guilty and let them both go only with the punishment of a monetary fine of 50 000 yen. Immediately after that, Naota retired, leaving his workshop in charge of his eldest apprentice, Mamoru Endou, the elder brother of the one who had the brawl with Hiroto. Naturally, Hiroto had no chance of getting an approval from him, so he left the carpenter's workshop for good."

"And that's when he became your assistant?" asked Kyouichi, who had already cleaned a half of the shop's floor by now.

"Yes. Since all the masters in the village had their capacity full at that time, Hiroto had to cope with the work in the bookstore, waiting until one of the masters will have a place to hire new apprentices. So far, he had no luck. In fact, he just keeps getting into more trouble."

"Hmm… now that I think about it, Naota did say that a certain Ryuuken still owes him a favor." recalled Kyouichi. "Is Hiroto's family name Yukiyama?"

"Yes, Yukiyama Hiroto is his full name." confirmed Daisuke.

"Well that explains everything then…" he remarked with an entertained smirk.

"Did Tanisake tell you about that?"

"No, he just mentioned that Yukiyama guy owing him a favor."

Not long after hearing Daisuke's story about his injured assistant, Kyouichi was done with the mopping and Daisuke let him go home as promised. Kyouichi bowed to his boss and bid him a nice weekend before he left the bookstore and with a brisk pace, he marched home. Since he didn't find any other shoes or sandals at the door of the Saitou residence, he assumed the guests haven't arrived yet.

* * *

"I'm home, Mizuto-san!" he announced his arrival and walked into the kitchen.

Mizuto was just unpacking some freshly bought groceries and putting them on the table.

"Welcome back. So, are you ready to help me with this?"

"Sure. Just tell me what to do and I'll try to do my best."

Mizuto gave Kyouichi a whole multitude of minor tasks from peeling and slicing onions, slicing eel, boiling rice stewing vegetables and flavoring them with spices. Although Kyouichi wasn't very good at cooking, under Mizuto's supervision, he did rather well.

Approximately one hour later, they could hear someone knocking at the door.

"Oh my gosh, they're already here!" said the head of the Saitou family with a bit of overexcitement in his voice. He nervously walked up to the door, swallowed his saliva and opened it.

"Mi-Minako?!" he gasped in a surprised shock. "You got me thinking that the guests have already arrived."

The fisherman's wife made a gesture with her head towards two heavy bags she was holding, asking Mizuto to help her with them.

"I closed the shop earlier and went to buy some drinks and snacks." she explained as she passed the bags to her husband.

"Isn't that a tad too much?" asked Mizuto as he felt the weight of the both bags in his hands.

"Well… umm… some of that is for the kids too."

She then started to show signs of overexcitement as well, as she barraged Mizuto with trivial questions.

"Have you made the dinner already? Have you cleaned up the house? Have you taken the trash out? And I hope you're not going to wear THAT when our guests come…" she pointed her finger at him.

"Oh damn… I forgot to change!" exclaimed the fisherman who was still dressed up in his fishing outfit. He immediately hurried to the guest room to get changed into something more appropriate.

"Here, Kyouichi, help me unload the bags and get me some plates and bowls for the snacks." asked Minako for Kyouichi's assistance. "And the white porcelain cups too…"

Kyouichi was glad to help her and did as she asked. Meanwhile, Mizuto walked into the kitchen, wearing his dark red kimono. The same one as he was wearing when Kyouichi first met him. He got changed just in time, as there was again another knocking on the door.

"That must be the guests!" he excitedly called out and hurried to welcome them.

However, as he was about to reach for the door to slide it open, the person who was knocking already beat him to it and opened the door herself.

"I'm home…"

"Chi-Chitose?!" Mizuto yelled the one-worded question as he was gawking stupidly at his daughter.

"What's wrong, dad?" asked the girl nonchalantly, giving him an asking look.

"What's wrong with ME?!" he called out through his laughter. "More like what's wrong with YOU?! You never knock when you come home and suddenly, when one day in a few months we are expecting guests, all of you guys start knocking…"

"What? Guests? Oh…. Today's Friday! Reimu-sama's coming for a visit! I almost forgot!" called out the daughter of the Saitous, in an almost panicking tone.

"Not just Reimu-san, but also Hieda no Akyuu-san." Minako informed her, making the final preparations on the kitchen table. "And where's your brother?"

"Oh, he's just chatting with his friends outside, he should be here anytime…"

Just as Chitose finished her sentence there was a third knocking on the door of the Saitous.

"Well, I guess he's already here."

"Why does even my son have to knock on the door of his own home?" murmured annoyed Mizuto under his nose as he walked up to open the door. "Why the heck is everyone in this family knocking on the door today?!" he blurted out the question in an annoyed tone, expecting to scold his unsuspecting son, only to be surprised to see someone else.

Reimu Hakurei looked up at the fisherman with a mixed expression of surprise and embarrassment, with her mouth slightly open as she smiled and took one nervous step back.

Hieda no Akyuu, standing right next to her, hid behind the shrine maiden, clinging to her red skirt and frightenedly peeking from behind her.

"Oh, I'm so terribly sorry!" he apologized immediately and bowed several times. "I thought it was my son… Please, come in, come in!"

After but a moment of hesitation the two guests slowly walked into the house and proceeded to the kitchen where the rest of the family short of Tadao-kun was already waiting.

* * *

"Welcome again to our humble home, Reimu-san." greeted Minako with a bright smile. "And I believe this is the first time for you, Akyuu-chan. Please make yourselves at home, we'll be serving dinner right away."

Right after Minako and Chitose welcomed the guests, the shrine maiden and the chronicler took their seats at the table, where Kyouichi, although rather informally, greeted them as well.

"Good afternoon, Reimu-san, Akyuu-san." he smiled and nodded.

Reimu smiled back, but gave him a questioning look. "You call her Akyuu-san?"

"Anything wrong with that?" Kyouichi wondered.

"No, just a little… strange." replied Reimu, turning to Akyuu. "Since she's so little and cute, I call her Akyuu-chan." she explained while smiling brightly and hugging the little chronicler.

"But technically, she's much, much older than you or me." reasoned Kyouichi. "Besides, I don't think we're that familiar with each other yet…"

"It's okay." sounded Akyuu all of a sudden.

"Huh?" Kyouichi quizzically tilted his head to the side.

"I'm okay with being called like that." said the 9th child of Miare. "In fact, I like it."

"See?" said Reimu again, "Now why don't you call her Akyuu-chan as well?"

"Well, if Akyuu-san… I mean Akyuu-chan says so…" Kyouichi corrected himself, feeling a bit awkward while doing so.

"See, it didn't hurt, did it?"

"And is it okay for me to call you Reimu-chan then?" he asked jokingly.

Reimu blushed in her cheeks. "Well… umm… errr…." she stuttered embarrassedly.

"…Since you're young and cute as well…" continued Kyouichi without paying attention to her reaction.

The shrine maiden continued to stutter, unable to find words for a straight reply. "I… umm…"

"Don't worry~!" Kyouichi calmed her down. "I was only joking. I would call you so only with your permission, Reimu-san."

Reimu's face color returned back to normal, but she still avoided Kyouichi's eyes and instead was focused on the empty bowl on the table in front of her.

In the meantime, Tadao-kun just arrived home… and he didn't knock. As he saw the full kitchen, he figured that everyone was waiting only for him. He hurried to wash his hands and as he shyly greeted everyone, he took the last vacant place at the table, by his father's side.

"Finally, everyone's here, it's time to eat." said Minako and began serving the soup into everyone's bowls. "I'm not too sure if will be good, since Mizuto cooked it all…"

"Hey!" called out the fisherman, feeling offended by his wife's remark. "What was that supposed to mean?"

"Yeah, and I helped him…" murmured Kyouichi. "...Which could make things even worse, so be warned…" he added in jest.

Right after that, Minako, the two Saitou siblings and both guests exchanged their mistrustful looks before they began eating.

"Itadakimasu~!"

* * *

Mizuto and his wife excitedly interrogated their guests while they were eating. Kyouichi thought that they'd be polite enough to let them finish their meals at least, but they just kept asking them more and more questions. And since both Akyuu and Reimu kept answering to the best of their knowledge, Kyouichi figured it'd be ok to ask his question.

"Umm, Akyuu-san, may I ask you something too?"

"But of course." smiled the chronicler and took a sip of lemonade. "Ask away."

"I kind of feel embarrassed that I forgot to ask you before, but you do remember the surrounding areas of Gensokyo, right? I mean outside the barrier. What's the nearest town or village in the outside?"

Akyuu looked surprised for a moment as she remained silent, thinking about something. Then she spoke. "To be honest… I only dealt with the history of Gensokyo itself, so I can't really tell you much about that." She then looked down and kept murmuring as if to herself: "I really didn't start with the chronicle all by myself. I was born here, so I wasn't there when the first village was founded. All the information regarding the history before my time I gathered from numerous informants. They gave me the basic material needed to start a chronicle… and Yukari-san of course. She gave me that idea and told me about my unique ability. There's no one in Gensokyo who knows more of the outside world than her… and the spirited-away outsiders like yourself."

"But Gensokyo had no real boundaries back then. You have to know at least where in Japan it lies, right?"

"Before the first barrier? You mean the Youkai Expansion Project? That was a long time ago, Kyouichi-san. The outside world has doubtlessly changed a lot since then. So I'm not sure if anything I tell you will be of any help. I haven't heard of any towns that were closer than a hundred kilometers from the approximate area of Gensokyo I'm afraid."

Kyouichi disappointedly exhaled as his hope was again reduced to but a tiny spark. "Well then, what about the geographic features?" he asked with a lack of certainty in his tone. Anything that could help…"

"Well, I can tell you that the approximate location of Gensokyo in the outside world would be somewhere in both the Yamanashi Prefecture near the Yatsugatake mountain range and the Nagano Prefecture. Lake Suwa lies several tens of kilometers that way…" she pointed at northeast, "and a part of it was also taken to Gensokyo after the Great Barrier. And that's about all I know… I'm sorry."

"Lake Suwa! I know that!" exclaimed Kyouichi, again full of hope. "I haven't been there myself, but one of my friends has and told me about it. There's definitely a lake resort there. In which direction did you say it was?"

"Somewhere over there…" she pointed again, giving the approximate direction. "But it's still very far away. And I wouldn't rely on my approximate directions if I were you. I may remember everything, but I'm still just a human, not a compass. Unless you know exactly where you need to be headed and are well equipped for a long walk through very difficult terrain, I certainly wouldn't recommend you going anywhere."

"I see…" murmured Kyouichi in disappointment. "Thanks anyway."

"Don't worry, Kyouichi, we'll find Yukari so that you outsiders can all be sent home." Reimu tried to cheer him up. "There's a good chance that she'll come to the hanami. She just loves to show up at parties… Especially when she's uninvited…" she added with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"That's right." Akyuu acknowledged Reimu's suggestion, taking a brief look at the shrine maiden. "I have to agree with Reimu-san. It is in your best interest not to leave Gensokyo through the shrine's gateway. The elder certainly didn't request Reimu not to let anyone out for no reason."

"So you even know about the elder's orders?"

"Request would be a better word, since he has no real legal authority over the Hakurei shrine maiden." explained the little chronicler. "And yes, I know about it. This is a small village and word here spreads faster than a wildfire."

Kyouichi frowned. "Man… I've only found out about it by chance that I know Reimu-san. Fukukane should have sent an informing letter to each of us outsiders if he wishes us all to abide by his "requests"."

Akyuu shrugged as she tried to come up with a reasonable explanation. "My guess is that he thought it would be enough to inform Reimu-san about this to make sure she wouldn't let any outsider cross the border via the shrine, should any of them, like you, ask her about that. Apparently he dreads the outside world about as much as he fears the youkai of this world and he didn't want you to get lost out there. Other than that, he probably didn't want to inform the outsiders that such possibility even exists in order to protect them and not to give them any false hopes of return…"

"Well, it's a little late for that…" remarked Kyouichi mockingly.

Akyuu gave him a concerned look "You told the other outsiders about it?"

"Hey… Like you said: Word here spreads faster than a wildfire." retorted the outsider. "Yeah, I told them about it and they are fully aware of how dangerous it would be to just take a random direction and follow it… Don't worry, Akyuu-san, we're not stupid enough to attempt a blind expedition like that. Without any solid lead like a map, we're not going anywhere."

"That's a smart decision." nodded the 9th Are maiden.

Reimu giggled quietly. "…You said "Akyuu-san" again…"

Kyouichi shrugged with a smile settling on his face. "What? We're having a serious conversation here… It would be funny to address her as "Akyuu-chan" when we're discussing serious issues." As he spoke, his smile gradually faded into another concerned frown. After a few seconds of pause, he exhaled heavily and nodded, as if in agreement to the chain of thoughts whirling inside his head. "But who knows… Maybe… Maybe over time we'll grow so desperate that we will do whatever it takes to get home… Even if it means heading out from the Hakurei Shrine without any guidance…"

Reimu put on an unusually serious face and looked Kyouichi straight in the eyes. "Look, Kyouichi… The elder's request is only there for your safety, but if you really want it, I could let you all cross through the gateway to the outside. Even right now. I don't mind or care. It's at your own risk, however. I don't really care about what happens to you afterwards. You must be absolutely sure about this, understand?"

"I understand… and thank you." replied the outsider and bowed to the shrine maiden. "For now, I still think it's better to stay in Gensokyo… But when my desperation gets the better of me…"

"You know where to find me…" Reimu finished the sentence for him and again, her serious face was replaced by a carefree, smiling one.

"Yeah…"

"You should at least wait until Yukari makes contact with any of us, so we could talk to her about it." Akyuu continued. "Although it is rather rare to have her visit… Perhaps Reimu-san is graced by her presence more often."

Reimu shrugged. "That's really hard to predict… She sometimes shows up at the shrine once every day, or once every week, or just twice a month… Sometimes she doesn't come for several months."

"And when did you see her last time?" wondered Kyouichi.

"It's true that I haven't seen her for over half a year now, but that's because she hibernates during winter… I think."

"But we already have summer knocking on our doors."

"Well, either she's just taking her time to visit me, or she's intentionally hiding because she knows that I'll beat her up for causing an incident." said the shrine maiden in a nonchalant manner. "But a hanami should work well enough to attract her. Then we might get some answers from her…"

"How will she know that there even is a hanami taking place?" asked the outsider.

"Trust me, she knows just about anything that goes on in Gensokyo. She might as well be watching us right now and laughing at our stupidity and we wouldn't even know…"

"Heh… Big Brother's watching you, eh?" remarked Kyouichi with a faint smirk. "Or Big Sister in this case… But just hypothetically, if she caused an incident, how would you find her?"

The shrine maiden was suddenly in a loss for words. "Well… that is…"

"You said you dueled her once, didn't you? Where did you find her then?"

"That was in the Netherworld… But that's not where she lives. Nobody knows where exactly she lives… I'm not really sure I'd be able to find her if she wanted to stay hidden."

"That doesn't sound very reassuring…"

"Fortunately for us, Yukari is more of a protector of Gensokyo, who occasionally plays the role of troublemaker… And whenever she makes one of her pranks, she always tends to reveal herself in the end, so that saves me the trouble of looking for her. If your spiriting away was one of her pranks, then she will certainly show up… eventually."

"What if she's the one in trouble?" speculated Kyouichi.

Reimu and Akyuu exchanged their amused looks before the shrine maiden replied. "Yukari? In trouble?" she snickered, "Impossible… Well unless she stands against ME in a fight… or the Lunarians maybe… I heard that she got beaten by one of them… but so was I when I come to think of it…"

Kyouichi looked puzzled. "What's with the Lunarians anyway?"

"Oh, that's a long story, but in a nutshell, Yukari plotted a plan to take revenge for her defeat from over a thousand years ago when she tried to invade the Moon. We… That is me, Marisa and some other folks were a part of that plan too. We made it all the way to the real Moon, but only I got the chance to see the lunar capital, unfortunately…"

"Wait a second…" Kyouichi interrupted her. "Are you telling me that you've been on the Moon?"

"I just said that, yes…" confirmed Reimu, wondering, what could be so strange about it. "I had to convince everyone that I was able to call on the power of the gods to clear up some misunderstanding to calm the moon-people down… I don't really know… I never was too much into politics anyway."

"But there's no air on the Moon…" he tried to argue with common sense.

"It was quite similar to Earth over there… Well, anyway, there are these two very powerful Lunarians, the Watatsuki sisters, who are now sharing the role of the previous Moon princess. We only wanted to take a little tour around the Moon, but one of those sisters, namely Watatsuki no Yorihime, stopped us and said that we can't go into the capital. So we proposed a Spell Card duel to decide if we could at least take a little souvenir from the Moon. However, Yorihime's power is that to call on the powers of the gods into her body, and it was no problem for her to handle all four of us… If I practiced harder, maybe I'd be able to do that one day as well…"

"Was Yukari there too?" asked Kyouichi.

"No. She used us as a distraction to get the attention of the lunar army, while she tried to steal something from the lunar sage's house… or so I've heard. But she fell into a trap that sent her back to Gensokyo, where Watatsuki no Toyohime, the second of the two sisters was waiting for her. Now I really don't know the details, but Yukari supposedly lost to her… or gave up without even fighting… I don't know, I wasn't there to see. I just heard it from her shikigami… that supposedly no one from Earth can stand against a Lunarian in terms of power. Still, it sounds kind of fishy coming from a youkai such as Yukari… She's been known to lie and deceive others every so often…"

"So she failed to take her "revenge" I take it?"

"Actually… She did manage to outwit the Watatsukis in the end… thanks to a third party… Her best friend also made it to the Moon somehow and while both of the lunar princesses had their hands full, they had a priceless bottle of a thousand year old sake stolen from them…"

"What?! Sake?!" exclaimed Kyouichi in an expression of both amusement and disbelief. "Hahahahaha! So she invaded the Moon for a bottle of sake?! That's just the most ridiculous thing I've heard."

"The Second Lunar War wasn't about the sake, as it was more about Yukari proving to the Lunarians that she can just as well be viewed as equal to them… Or perhaps she had some other goal, which none of us even know about… I don't really know. Anyway, the point was that only the Lunarians could probably pose any trouble for her."

"I've heard different opinions though…" remarked Kyouichi. "Are you sure she didn't just lose on purpose?"

"I can't really say… All I can tell you is that both her and the Lunarians are exceptionally powerful. It's possible, though… The first war she led was pretty much also lost on purpose… And even after the second one, mind you, it really wasn't a war, it's just called that way... Well even after that she seemed to achieve her goal… whatever it was."

"So, both of her "defeats" were actually victories?" wondered Kyouichi while scratching his head.

"I guess they were…" estimated the shrine maiden uncertainly. "Anyway, it's very doubtful that Yukari wouldn't show up because she was in trouble. She can basically handle any kind of situation and what's more, she doesn't even need her full powers for it. I bet she's just having fun now, watching a bunch of unsuspecting outsiders wandering aimlessly around Gensokyo, trying to figure what to do next. And when she gets tired of it, she'll show up and return you all back to where you were taken from."

"I just hope it won't take her too long." remarked the outsider, looking blankly into the ceiling.

"Well then, let's go to the shrine and wait for the guests to gather." suggested Reimu. "I personally think that the boundary youkai will show up there too. I have a good intuition."

Kyouichi looked back at her and smiled. "Yeah. I've been looking forward to the hanami for this whole week. So why the hell should I feel depressed now, right? Let's go."

* * *

After that, they stood up from the table, thanked for the meal and took the bags full of snacks with them. As they opened the main door of the Saitou residence, they could see that the sun was slowly, but certainly setting, so without any further ado, they set out on their way to the Hakurei Shrine. They left the village through the northern road which gradually sloped slightly uphill. The Ryuuken stationed at the northern end of the village didn't even try to halt them, so the trio could leave without any delay. The road to the shrine was long, but to Kyouichi's eyes it looked safe. There was nothing suspicious about it. Besides the three of them, there was not another person to be seen far and wide and the young outsider began to wonder if all the rumors about the roads being dangerous were actually true. As they walked, Reimu and Akyuu were talking about their daily lives. Kyouichi didn't talk much, as he was just walking there with them and admiring the landscape. He did notice, however, that the shrine maiden seemed to like Akyuu a lot. Considering her claims of meeting her only once before, she treated her very nicely. She held her hand like she was her little sister, although Akyuu was technically way older than her. After well over 30 minutes, they reached the crossroad, just about 100 meters in front of the Hakurei Shrine. As Reimu helped Akyuu to scale the stone stairs, Kyouichi tightened his grip on the bags with snacks and followed them up. Just as they walked under the torii, a boisterous girl's voice called at them.

"Oi, Reimu! There you are! And you brought some guests already, ze…"

It was Marisa Kirisame, the self-proclaimed "ordinary magician" in all her black and white glory. It looked like she just arrived at the shrine recently, judging by the fact that she was still sitting on her flying bamboo straw broom.

"Hi, Marisa!" Reimu called back at her. "Have you been waiting long?"

The witch girl shook her blonde head. "No, I just got here. Brought some drinks too…" she pointed at a bunch of bottles standing near the donation box. "Oh, Akyuu-chan, what a surprise! Nice to see you again, ze… And you too, Kyouichi."

"Yeah, nice to see you too, Marisa-san." replied the outsider as he put down the two bags next to the donation box. "I met your father the other day… He sends his regards and would like to know how you're doing and all…"

"Whaaat?! You met dad?" asked the surprised magician. "What did he say?"

"He said that he misses you and asked ME of all people to tell him how are you doing. He'd really like to see you again sometimes… I know nothing about how well you get along with each other, so it's okay if you refuse to see him… I'm not here to judge."

"Of course I like my dad." replied Marisa. "It's just… I really can't stand his new wife… I do see him from time to time to check on him, but only when that harpy's not around…"

"So, are you going to see him again in the near future?"

The blonde nodded. "Yeah. I'll stop by tomorrow. And… thanks for telling me, Kyouichi."

He smiled warmly and nodded. "No problem, Marisa-san. By the way… where are the other guests?"

"They'll yet take some time. Since I told them we're having an evening hanami this year." answered the miko instead. She entered her shrine and came out after a moment with a stack of plates in her hands. She put them carefully on the wooden porch of the building and started counting off on her fingers.

"…eight, nine and ten… That's the expected number of people for today. Still, I took out some extra plates just to be sure."

"Do you need any help with anything, Reimu-san?" Kyouichi offered his help.

"If you asked me that two days ago, I'd give you a whole pile of work, but now… all the preparations have been already done. All that's left is to light the fire over there…" she pointed at a pile firewood surrounded by a circle of stones in the shrine yard. "And put some blankets around, so we could sit on the ground."

"I'll get the blankets." volunteered Marisa and disappeared inside the shrine afterwards.

"Guess it's up to me to light the fire then…" frowned Kyouichi in displeasure of this task falling onto him. He unsteadily grabbed two thin wooden sticks from the firewood pile, braced them against the pile of dried-up leaves underneath and started to rub them against each other in hope of creating the igniting spark. Akyuu was there, crouching near the fireside and cheered him up to do his best. After some good 5 minutes of rubbing the sticks, Kyouichi was about to resign his attempt. Oddly enough, both Reimu and Marisa were taking their time to get out of the shrine as well. It was good, since the outsider didn't want them to see how incompetent he was.

"You can do it, Kyouichi-san~!" little Akyuu cheered on.

Kyouichi released the two sticks from his tired hands and wiped off the sweat from his forehead, pouting in frustration. "Akyuu-chan, you're really sweet for cheering me up, but… I've never ever even tried to light a fire like that before. I'm no good at all."

"But the sticks already started smoking."

"I'm tired… my arms are dead. I'm not used to physical activity. Not after over 6 years without any training."

Akyuu apparently initiated her "ignore" protocol, as she just kept cheering on. "Fight~! Fight~! Don't give up~!"

After a while of looking at her, Kyouichi sighed and reluctantly took the wooden sticks to try and light the fire again. Akyuu was just too adorable for him to let her down, even though he was convinced he'd just end up failing again.

"Oh! Look, look, a spark!" exclaimed the little chronicler, pointing at the wooden sticks. "Keep up~! Keep up~! Do your best~!"

Kyouichi clenched his teeth and started to rub the sticks faster. Now that he saw some result of his work, he was determined to finish what he started. Soon after, several more sparks appeared between the grinding sticks. Although his hands were about to fall off, he endured it, and at long last, one of the sparks set the dried-up pile of leaves on fire.

"Oh my god, I think I actually did it!" exclaimed the outsider in amazement from his own success. "I made fire! Hohohooo~! I can't believe it! I made fire with a bunch of sticks!"

"Hooray~!" called Akyuu while clapping her little hands. "I knew you could do it."

"All thanks to you, Akyuu-chan." he praised her. "Ever thought of being a cheerleader?"

"Hey, what's all this commotion about?" sounded Reimu's voice from behind, as she just emerged from the shrine. "Oh look, you already made fire. And I was just about to bring you some matches and old Bunbunmaru pages…" she announced nonchalantly looking down at the mentioned items she held in her hands.

Kyouichi's mouth gaped and the left corner of his mouth twitched in a funny, confused expression. As he slowly turned to the chronicler with that same expression still on his face, he asked her in the same nonchalant manner: "Umm, Akyuu-san? Is it a serious crime to kill a shrine maiden?"

Reimu's carefree smile froze for a moment, but after seeing Kyouichi smile right afterwards, she understood that he meant it just as a joke.

"I was wondering why you weren't coming in to get matches…"

"How the hell should I've known that you even have them?"

"Hmph, I thought you knew…" Reimu defended herself. "I used them in the Ritual of Passage to take you to the outside world on the first day we met."

"You really think that I pay attention to and remember such details?!" asked Kyouichi with a raised voice.

"You don't…?" replied the shrine maiden with a question and an innocent tone.

The outsider shook his head, looking down and chuckling. "I think you're confusing me with someone else…" he suddenly grabbed Akyuu by the hand and knelt down next to her so that their faces could be on the same level. He looked up at Reimu again, his index finger pointing at his face and then moving to Akyuu's. "It's quite understandable, since we do look so much alike, but I really can't remember everything. Sorry."

"Hahahah!" sounded Marisa's ringing laughter. "Hey, this outsider's funny. I like that…"

Reimu turned to the witch and crossed her arms. "What's been taking you so long, Marisa? I've only asked you to fetch some blankets."

"Oh, I was… uhhh… just browsing through your bookshelves for a while…" replied the magician with a suspicious-sounding excuse.

Reimu disapprovingly shook her head. "You're unbelievable. Not only do you steal books from Patchouli, Alice and Rinnosuke, but now you want to rob a poor shrine maiden?"

"How rude." pouted Marisa in denial to any of her friend's claims. "First of all, I BORROW the books… Second, I was just looking at what sort of books you read, that's all. And finally, just because you lack donations doesn't mean you're poor, so don't give people misleading information."

"Oh, look who's talking!" responded the shrine maiden with a sarcastic tone on her lips. "Your "borrowing" is no different from stealing and that's exactly what you do! You take and never return. And you even have the gall to call me a liar! You've really crossed the line here…"

Kyouichi figured this conversation is heading in a dangerous direction, so he stepped between them. "Hey now, girls, just calm down, okay? You're friends, damn it! You certainly don't want to start a fight now, do you?"

"No, but I simply won't let some klepto-witch tell me that I give people misleading information when she's spreading outrageous lies herself… On top of stealing stuff." responded Reimu, with a calmer voice.

"Fufufufu…" Marisa snickered mischievously and gave Reimu a gentle nudge with her elbow. "Geez, Reimu, It's so amusing how I can get you all worked-up so easily… Can't you take a little teasing? Besides, I DO return the stuff I borrow… just not as early as expected."

Reimu could only manage to maintain her agitated expression up for a few seconds, before she returned to her usual cheerful self.

"Well then, if you want to "borrow" something from me then ask me beforehand, okay?"

"Okay, okay, I got it. No borrowing without asking you beforehand." repeated Marisa. "You didn't have any books that caught my interest anyway."

"Well, I don't have any magic-themed books in my little collection, so tough luck." said Reimu and turned on her heel to return the matches and old newspapers back to the shrine.

Marisa watched her back until she entered the shrine building and then she turned back to Akyuu and Kyouichi with a carefree look on her face.

"Do you often argue about stuff, Marisa-san?" asked the outsider suddenly, trying to pry a little into their private matters.

The witch shrugged and took her big black hat off her head. "C'est la vie, Kyouichi-san, c'est la vie… We're friends, we argue, sometimes we fight, sometimes we don't talk to each other for some time and then we're best friends again… That's how it goes. Reimu's been one of my best friends for quite some time now and we've been through a lot together, but… like I said, we sometimes don't see eye to eye. But I guess that's only natural. She often acts like she doesn't care about other people much, she seems like she's self-centered and materialistic, that she doesn't like any youkai in general, but I, of the few people in Gensokyo know that the real Reimu isn't like that at all."

"What's the real Reimu like then?" asked the curious outsider.

"Well, the real Reimu is… Reimu." answered Marisa without giving any real answer.

"You called me?" asked the shrine maiden, who again got out of her shrine, this time, with about a dozen wooden drinking cups.

"Huh? Oh… no, no. You must be hearing things." replied Marisa denyingly.

The shrine maiden either seemed to have fallen for that little lie, or she pretended like she didn't care and continued to put the drinking cups neatly in a line on the elevated wooden floor of the shrine, where the donation box was also standing.

"Well, I should finally put those blankets on the ground." recalled the magician and began doing what she said. "Say, Reimu, why aren't we going to sit behind the shrine, like usual?"

"Well, I just thought that since we aren't expecting too many guests today, we might be having the flower viewing in the front yard. The back yard is usually reserved for larger festivals and such…"

"Well, I don't really mind. I was just curious." said Marisa while putting the first blanket near the fireside, but not too close.

"The cherry trees are basically the same here as the ones in the back, so it makes no difference for our hanami." Reimu continued explaining while filling the clay bowls with various snacks.

Once Marisa was done with arranging the blankets around the fireside, she ran to Reimu and helped her with serving the snacks.

"I think we're all set now…" announced the shrine maiden when she placed the final bowl of snacks on the blanket. "Hmm… I still think we should have pillows to make the seating a little more comfortable…" she speculated.

"It'll yet take some time before our guests begin to arrive." murmured Marisa. "At this rate I might start eating all this stuff before they even show up…"

As Akyuu and Kyouichi picked their place to sit on one of the blankets, the outsider's eyes were locked on Marisa's broom, which was resting on the ground beside her.

"Oh, right… I should put this away somewhere." she said as she grabbed her means of transport.

Kyouichi was quick enough to catch her by the apron before she walked away with it and gave her a questioning look. "Uhh… Marisa-san…?"

"What's wrong?"

"About that broom of yours…" he spoke as he carefully observed it, "…can it carry more than one person?"

Marisa grinned, showing her teeth. "Sure… Want to go for a little ride?"

Kyouichi mirrored her grin. "Can I?"

"Of course~!" she sat astride on the broom, still leaving enough room for one person to sit behind her. "What about you, Akyuu-chan? Wanna come along?"

The chronicler put on a bit frightened smile and shook her head. "Ehehe… I think I'll pass, thank you…"

"Suit yourself~. Well then, Kyouichi, what are you waiting for? Hop on!" she gestured with her hand and put her witch hat back on. As Kyouichi obliged and assumed a sitting position on the broom behind Marisa, he could faintly hear Reimu's voice gradually getting more audible as she again exited the shrine.

"I didn't even know I had so many old pillows in my storeroom…" she panted as she carried a stack of pillows in her arms which was taller than her and obscuring her view, just like the other day, when Akyuu tried to bring an entire Gensokyo Chronicle compilation to the living room in one go. As she caught a glimpse of what Marisa and Kyouichi were about to do, she dropped the pillows on the ground out of shock.

"M-Marisa? What are you trying to do, murder our guest from the outside world?"

"Just taking him for a little ride, ze." replied the magician with her typical speech quirk at the end of the sentence. "I bet he never gets to experience something like that in the outside world."

"Kyouichi, if you hold your life dear, you should get off that broom this instant!" the shrine maiden warned him.

"Oh, c'mon… What's there to be afraid of? I won't fly very fast." Marisa reassured her friend.

"Marisa's right." confirmed Kyouichi. "There's no way I'd experience something like that in the outside world, so I want to try out what it feels like to be flying."

"Hey, if you fall to your death, don't expect me to be crying for you." said Reimu, trying a different approach to convince him.

"Dying by falling or by the hands of some youkai… Does it really make any difference?" remarked Marisa jokingly. "At least let the outsider have some fun in Gensokyo, while he still lives."

Kyouichi let out a weak forced laughter. "Gee, thanks for seeing my future so bright, Marisa."

"I know how to fly, but I still wouldn't sit with you on that broom even if you paid me." said Reimu bluntly.

"Yeah, right..." snickered Marisa, covering her grin with her hand. "You'd do just about anything to get more donations." she then turned her head back to Kyouichi and with a hushed voice she added: "If you ever earn some money here, try donating 10 000 yen to Reimu. Then wait and see what happens, fufufufu…"

"Has anyone ever told you that your jokes aren't funny, Marisa?" asked Reimu with an unnaturally calm voice, but the little vein popping up on her forehead gave away her current emotions quite well.

"That's because that wasn't a joke," replied the witch, provoking her friend some more. "10 000 yen miko…"

"Say, Marisa." spoke Reimu again with her intimidatingly calm voice. "How would like to have a yin-yang orb for a face?"

"Oooooh~! She's scaaaaryyyy~!" called out Marisa mockingly. "Hurry, let's go before she gets really mad!"

Without a second of waiting or warning, she took off from the ground, almost making Kyouichi fall over from the sheer force of acceleration of her flying broom.

"Whoa! Watch it!" yelled the shocked outsider, trying to maintain at least some balance as he watched the shrine below him getting ever so smaller.

Reimu put her hands to her mouth to amplify her voice as she called out: "And no acrobatics, okay? We want to have a hanami today, not a funeral!"

* * *

Marisa and Kyouichi rocketed upwards and the outsider was starting to understand that Reimu's concerns about Marisa's flying were not unfounded. However, the feelings he had from the moment they took off were so mixed, he couldn't even tell if he was more scared or excited.

"Woohoohoohooooo~! Okay, come on, how cool is this? We're flying~!"

"Hold on tightly, Kyouichi!" called Marisa through the howling sound of wind.

"I'm trying!" replied the outsider trying to hold the broom more tightly.

"Not the broom! Hold me around the waist!"

"Like that?" asked Kyouichi as he unsteadily put his arms around her, feeling the sensation of something soft.

"Uhh, Kyouichi-san… my waist is a little bit lower…" informed the witch, her voice trembling slightly from embarrassment.

"Oh! Sorry about that!" he apologized as moved his arms lower and tightened his grip. Since he was quite taller than Marisa, he felt that his arms were a little too low to maintain proper balance, but he just had to cope with it.

"So what do you say, Kyouichi?" asked the witch once she stopped ascending and began to level the broom into horizontal position. "Do you like flying?"

"Oh my god, this is awesome!" exclaimed the outsider. "If I told my friends about it, they'd think I'm crazy. Well, not that I could blame them…"

"Hehe… It's their loss that they haven't been to Gensokyo yet." replied Marisa cheerfully and kicked her broom into higher gear. Kyouichi looked from side to side and figured that Marisa was heading somewhere towards the Youkai Mountain.

"Ungh… big… hat… blocking… the view…" he muttered as he was trying desperately to see what's in front of them. He only managed to get a few brief glimpses of the landscape ahead, as he peeked around Marisa's black pointy hat. Then he got a silly idea…

"Hey! What are you doing?!" called the surprised magician in response to the sensation of having her hat removed from her head. She turned her head back to see the outsider contently smiling with the large witch's hat adorning his head.

"I couldn't see anything in front so…"

"Well, I guess I can forgive you this time since you're new here, but for the next time, never touch a witch's hat without permission, okay?" said Marisa with a serious tone, but her mischievous wink suggested that she was just kidding. Kyouichi was, however, more concerned about the safety of the flight.

"Okay, okay… sorry. You can scold me all you want once we land, but for now, just please, keep your eyes on the… uh…"

"What? The clouds?" asked Marisa in jest. "Don't worry~! I learned to fly before I even learned to walk, ze. I could fly to my home from here with my eyes closed."

"I believe you, so you don't have to demonstrate that right now…" replied Kyouichi, wishing for Marisa to look forward while flying. As if she could read his thoughts, the blonde magician returned her look again to the 12 o'clock position and started humming some melody.

Gensokyo from a birds' perspective was even more amazing a sight to behold than it was from the hill where the Hakurei Shrine was located. The treetops - sporting all shades of green in contrast to the smooth-looking light-green grasslands, the roads and beaten dirt paths - forming the long and thin lines stretching as far as the eye could see, the tiny colorful dots in the distance, being the rooftops of houses in the Human Village, the vast yellow-green crop fields – now, just tiny squares and rectangles in the distant valley, the Bamboo Forest of the Lost - forming a giant dark-green ocean of trees on the horizon, and almost too far away to see - a line of hills overlooking the mentioned forest from the south. Separated from the crop fields by another forest – the Forest of Magic, taking up an enormous area, was another vast crescent-shaped field dyed bright yellow by the plants growing there. The large lake at the foot of the Youkai Mountain, known as the Misty Lake, was now clearly visible, since the usual mist around it had lifted completely, revealing a small green island in the middle of it. On that island, a single large-looking building could be recognized. Focusing his sight some more, Kyouichi could even make out the tiny brown dots on the southeastern side of the lake as the fishing colony, where Mizuto usually went to do his work.

"By the way, where are we going?" asked the outsider suddenly.

"To the lake, as you can see. We're going to check if Remilia isn't already on her way to the shrine…" answered Marisa.

"Remilia? Who's that? One of the guests?" wondered Kyouichi.

"Remilia Scarlet. She owns that big house in the middle of the lake over there…" she pointed forward.

"Is that the…?"

"Scarlet Devil Mansion…" continued Marisa. "It's much larger than it looks from the outside, believe me…"

"Why would someone build a mansion on an island in the middle of the lake?" pondered Kyouichi aloud.

"Build? Oh, no… That mansion wasn't built here. It was spirited away from the outside world, from some place called Europe or something like that…"

"I've heard some rumors about some vampires living there in the mansion too…"

"Why, yes. Remilia and her sister ARE vampires, so yeah."

The magician's reply really freaked Kyouichi out. "Wait a sec. You invited vampires to the shrine?!"

"Only one of them. But you can relax; it wouldn't be the first time. Remilia can be quite reasonable… most of the time."

"So, you're saying she's not dangerous?"

"Ehh… no, she can be very dangerous, but we're on rather friendly terms with her, so she has no reason to harm us…" Marisa reassured him.

"Well, maybe she won't harm you, but…"

"Calm down, Kyouichi. She won't try anything funny with me and Reimu around."

"If you say so…" muttered the outsider.

"It's true that she drinks people's blood, but she's got a light appetite, so her victims almost never die." continued the witch and began to descend lower.

"Won't they become vampires then?"

"No, I think that only happens when a vampire drinks all of the victim's blood, but I'm not too sure about that… Otherwise we'd already have an army of vampires in Gensokyo instead of just two and that would be very bad. If you do ever get attacked by her and there'll be no one to help you, well just calm down. Let her take a few pints of blood. Don't struggle. You could just make things worse."

"I… I'll keep that in mind…" replied Kyouichi with a silent and trembling voice. "But how did you even become friends with a vampire?"

"It's not like we're that great friends exactly. At least not as good as for example: me and Reimu or Alice, or Patchouli, but we get along. As to how we got to know each other… well, suffice to say that she caused one incident about eight years ago and Reimu and I had to resolve it. That's how we met Remilia and the rest of the mansion's residents."

"So you battled against her?"

Marisa shook her head. "Reimu did… But I had the pleasure of meeting her adorable little sister and played some danmaku with her. Now that I think about it, it was the first youkai incident where Reimu's Spell Card Rules were applied… Hard to believe that so much time has passed already…" sighed the witch nostalgically as she drove her broom ever closer towards the Misty Lake. "Ever since, Remilia hasn't caused any trouble, and she was surprisingly friendly to us, so we've been invited to her mansion a couple of times and she's been invited to the shrine several times as well. She sometimes even goes to the village if she becomes bored, but usually she just sends her maid to do the shopping."

"Anything else I should know before I meet her?" asked the outsider nervously.

"Well, hmm… yes. Don't look down on her for her childlike appearance." advised the magician. "She doesn't look any older than Akyuu-chan, but she's well over 500 years old and hates it when someone thinks of her as a child. She sometimes still does behave like a child, though. Being selfish and curious and all, but if you can get along with human children, you'll get along with Remi just fine… Just be polite like you always are and don't make fun of her. She may not look like it, but she's one of Gensokyo's most powerful youkai. She naively thinks that there's no one superior to her, which of course isn't true, but one always has to be careful around her. If you somehow made her angry, I'm afraid that even me and Reimu wouldn't be able to guarantee your safety…"

Kyouichi nervously swallowed his saliva and remained silent. Suddenly, he wasn't looking so much forward to the hanami anymore. His thoughts were focused on how to act as politely and gentlemanly to all the other guests at the hanami just to ensure his own safety from harm. He silently observed the land below and the distant lake drawing closer and closer, all the time holding his arms tightly around Marisa's waist.

* * *

"Well here we are… the Misty Lake." announced Marisa as she just reached the lake's shoreline. Even though she was flying really fast, it took her quite some time to reach the lake from the shrine. Kyouichi's rough guess was something over 20 minutes. It turned out, that the lake wasn't as close to the foot of the Youkai Mountain as it seemed from the distance. The mountain was distanced from the lake by still well over 5 kilometers to the northwest and was surrounded by a range of smaller mountains.

"On colder mornings, this lake is enveloped by a veil of thick mist, limiting the vision below 10 meters, hence the name Misty Lake." explained the witch like an experienced tour guide. "Originally, the island in the middle, unofficially referred to as the Scarlet Island, wasn't a part of the lake and was spirited away to Gensokyo along with the Scarlet Devil Mansion sometime between 116 and 117. Some sources claim that Remilia is not the original owner of the mansion, but no one can confirm that. In 117 Remilia Scarlet created a dark-red magical mist, blocking out the sun for a very selfish and childish reason – so that she could freely move around Gensokyo even during daytime. Fortunately, thanks to the newly introduced Spell Card Rules it was relatively easy for even an ordinary human, such as Reimu and myself to get to the bottom of this incident and effectively resolve it before any innocent humans were harmed…"

"I'm not really sure if I'd call you or Reimu "ordinary humans"." remarked Kyouichi.

"Well… ordinary by Gensokyo standards." Marisa corrected her statement. "But trust me; I really doubt I'd be able to stand against some really powerful youkai in a real no-holds-barred battle. Reimu is a different story... However, with danmaku in its current form, the fights are so much more fun. It doesn't matter if you challenge a fairy or a tengu. Anyone can challenge anyone and win. You have to think strategically, have good timing and dodging skills instead of relying on sheer power. The best thing about the rules is that they've reduced the mortality rate of humans to minimum. It was truly one of Reimu's best ideas she ever had… Almost makes me wonder if it really came out of her head in the first place."

"I was wondering…" said Kyouichi after Marisa finished her sentence, "You say that Reimu came up with the Spell Card rules, right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"And that they are some sort of bilateral contract between humans and youkai…"

"Where are you getting at?" pondered the witch.

"It just comes odd to me that all the youkai of Gensokyo would gather at the shrine to be introduced to the new system and agree to it. If I understand things correctly, you say that this Remilia Scarlet was already fighting according the rules before she even met you or Reimu. I just don't get it…"

"Oh, well… Yes. You're right." affirmed Marisa while slowing down the speed of her broom. "Introducing the rules wasn't a matter of just a few days. I think she mentioned something about an ancient artifact, supposedly a part of the Hakurei clan treasure, like her magic yin-yang orbs. I think she used that object as a sort of seal for the contract, but I can't really talk about details when I wasn't there personally. She just told the rules to a narrow group of youkai, who spread the word all over Gensokyo, giving other youkai the necessary time to make their own Spell Cards and adapt to this system. In my opinion, even this process was mostly carried out by Yukari. You see, even before Reimu actually met her in person, Yukari must have known about Reimu. She is an ancient being who was here long before Gensokyo got its name. She probably knew the entire Hakurei lineage and secretly watched over Reimu long before the two of them met. When Reimu came up with the rules, Yukari saw it as a good idea and helped her inform everyone in Gensokyo and other parallel plains about the Spell Card rules. I guess that's how Remilia and every other youkai Reimu hasn't met before were already familiar with the system."

By the time Marisa finished her little speech, she reached the so called Scarlet Island and Kyouichi could now clearly see the mansion in all its glory. It was a really huge European-styled aristocratic residence with many dark windows, one massive wooden main door and a tall clock tower, jutting out above the rest of the building. The mansion had a large garden or a park with hedges, fountains and white alabaster statues. The whole compound was surrounded by a tall, black iron bar fence with one gate. Kyouichi even vaguely noticed someone standing at the gate - probably a guard. Marisa descended even lower, to the height of somewhere around 20 meters and made one full circle around the entire island.

"Well, I don't see her anywhere… I guess she'll come out after sundown, which shouldn't take too long."

"I don't see any boats around the island…" Kyouichi pointed out after a while of silent observation. "How do they get their supplies?"

"There's no need for boats, since they can all fly." explained Marisa tersely.

"I should have guessed…"

"Okay, Kyouichi, let's get back to the shrine." suggested the witch. "I don't want to wait here until Remilia decides to step out of her mansion… Maybe Alice has already come to the shrine in the meantime…" she thought aloud and turned her broom to face the southeast.

"You keep mentioning this Alice quite often. Who is she?" asked the outsider as soon as the broom was set into motion again.

"She's one of my best friends… you'll see her soon enough."

"Not a dangerous youkai, I hope…" added Kyouichi jokingly.

Marisa gave a simple reply: "Youkai – yes, dangerous – no. She was originally a human, but became a youkai after extensive study and practice of magic…"

"Could you become a youkai too?" wondered the young outsider.

"There are many ways to become a youkai, so yes." responded the witch while nodding. "Even you could become a youkai, hypothetically…"

Kyouichi shuddered to think about that possibility. "God, I hope I won't…"

Marisa again turned her face back to look at him. "Why not? That way you'd significantly reduce the threat of being attacked by other youkai. Although, on the other hand, some of the humans wouldn't be very pleased to see you… But being a youkai has many other benefits… You become healthier, stronger, faster and you'll live much longer… perhaps even forever… I wouldn't mind becoming a youkai magician like Alice and Patchy."

"But I would…" said Kyouichi scornfully. "Because that would mean I'd never be able to leave Gensokyo and return home. And I'd become hated by many humans in the village… I'd probably become an outcast… a very lonely person. And I'd rather die now than to live an eternity in hiding and isolation."

"That's not true." protested Marisa, again turning her face forward. "Well, maybe except that part about returning home… If that's what you wish for the most, then you really shouldn't become a youkai."

"I don't plan on becoming one." murmured the outsider.

Marisa giggled quietly. "I figured as much… Wish I could do something more to help you guys return home, but my specialty is destructive magic, not transporting, ze…" after a brief pause, she sighed. "You outsiders have it very tough in Gensokyo… No magic, no way of defense, life in constant fear… Those who can get used to living here are truly worthy of admiration in my opinion."

After those words, Kyouichi's mind immediately recollected the image of old Naota Tanisake, known as being one of the oldest living outsiders in the Human Village. He couldn't help but to silently agree with Marisa's words. This man must have been through so much in his life that he truly deserved a medal for even surviving here up to now. Kyouichi, however, was not too sure about his ability and will to adapt to the life in this world, that's why his main ambition and driving force was the goal of returning home to Tokyo, where he felt he belongs.

"I have nothing against you, really…" he spoke suddenly, making the broom pilot turn her face back again. "…but I don't want to end up living here. If I could really choose, then I'd prefer not to live in Gensokyo. And so would all the other outsiders that I've met."

"And if you couldn't choose?" asked Marisa curiously.

"Then so be it… But I need to try all possible options, before I can reconcile with settling down here." answered Kyouichi as he noticed the beautiful sakuras on a hill not too far away, and somewhere amidst them, the dark-green tile roof of the Hakurei Shrine. The sun was only minutes away from setting completely, so it was already getting dark by now.

"I just hope your looking for answers doesn't get you into too much trouble, ze." said Marisa as she slowed her broom down until it gradually stopped and remained hovering above the shrine yard. "It would be so much easier if we knew where the hell does Yukari live, but we don't…"

* * *

The witch then began to slowly descend until her and Kyouichi's feet were firmly standing on the ground. Some unknown, high-pitched girl's voice coming from the shrine's porch called out: "Hey, Reimu, Reimuuu~! They're here~! Marisa and that other human are back~! *hic* Hi, Marisa~!"

"Hi there, Suika." greeted Marisa as she got off the broom along with her passenger.

Kyouichi curiously stared into the shadows, trying to adjust his eyes to the dark environment and locating the source of this voice. After a moment, he made out a silhouette of a small person, sitting with her back rested against the donation box.

"Suika? Who's that?" he whispered a question at Marisa.

"Every guest invited is more or less a friend of either me or Reimu." explained Marisa. "I'm not going to introduce them all to you. You go and meet them yourself. Come on, don't be shy…" she encouraged him by tapping a few times on his back.

"Well, okay…" muttered the outsider nervously as he took a few shy steps forward towards the girl's silhouette. He had to acknowledge that Marisa was right. If he wanted to learn something about Gensokyo and its residents, he couldn't rely on being spoon-fed with information by her, but he had to go out there and actively meet new people and make new friends by himself. As he drew another step towards the shrine, the sliding doors opened, revealing Reimu and letting the light inside, made by many portable oil lamps fall upon the small girl's silhouette.

"Where in Gensokyo have you two been?" asked the shrine maiden rebukingly while crossing her arms. "I was starting to think that you kidnapped him…" she said while pointing at Kyouichi, but looking at Marisa.

"Don't worry. I don't resort to borrowing people… yet." remarked Marisa jokingly. "I'll just stay at borrowing books."

"Well, Kyouichi, you can congratulate yourself for surviving a flight with Marisa." said Reimu, this time looking at the outsider.

"Kyooou*hic*chiii~…" sounded the little girl's high-pitched voice suddenly. "Niccce to meet *hic* youuu~!"

From what the outsider could tell, this girl was as drunk as a… as an oni. Upon closer look, however, Kyouichi gasped from shock. The little girl leisurely sitting at the donation box had a pair of long, straight horns resembling wooden branches coming from the sides of her head, decorated by colorful ribbons. Other than that, her appearance wasn't much different from a human. She was about as short as Akyuu, had very long, knee-length ginger hair, tied up in a loose ponytail, closer to the ends of her hair than to their base. Her eyes were brown, and her look was anything but sober. She wore a light-pink tattered blouse with its sleeves apparently torn off and a long purple and pink wavy skirt. Another strange thing about her were the weird accessories she wore attached on short, but strong-looking chains. Two linked to each of her wrists like some sort of shackles and two linked to her dark-purple belt. A small red pyramid accessory was attached to her right-hand chain, a yellow sphere was attached to her left wrist, a blue cube to her waist, and a strange purple gourd, shaped like two unequal spheres grown together. Kyouichi didn't know it was actually a gourd until the girl picked it up and took a couple of gulps from it. The outsider looked up at Reimu with a confused look.

"This girl… is she… really…?"

"An oni?" said the shrine maiden, finishing his question. "Yeah, that's Suika… Say hello, you drunkard!" she called at the little oni girl while kicking her gently.

"B-b-but I did*hic*… I ssaid, niiice to meet youuu~! *hic*" replied Suika while massaging her right elbow. To Kyouichi, her voice sounded funny, but cute at the same time.

"Oh… yes, I'm sorry." he apologized and bowed two times to the little oni. "Ishimaru Kyouichi. It is a pleasure to meet you, Suika-san." said the outsider as he shook hands with her.

The girl smiled brightly and nodded. "Ibuki Suika." she said her name without any problems and stretched out her hand with the purple gourd forward. "Want some sake?" was the first thing she said after her simple introduction.

"I think I'll yet drink enough sake tonight, but thank you…" the outsider kindly refused.

"You mean that cheap watered-down excuse for a sake, that this penny-pinching shrine maiden keeps buying?" asked Suika impertinently, pointing backwards with her thumb at Reimu. "I'm offering you some REAL oni sake… If you don't want to insult an oni, you won't refuse, will you?" winked the ginger-haired girl.

"…I wonder what happened to your drunken voice…" remarked Kyouichi in a by-the-way manner as he took the gourd being offered to him. "Just a little gulp can't hurt…"

He took a little sip of the sake from the gourd out of courtesy. What he got to get a taste of, however, had to be absolutely the best, most flavorful and refreshing sake that ever met his tastebuds. No exaggeration. It was a taste, which he could only describe by one of his favorite words borrowed from the English language and often used by the western members of the Internet society.

"Epic…" exhaled the outsider after enjoying the taste fully. "Truly delicious."

Suika raised her eyebrow. "What?! Only one gulp? What are you, a fairy?! Drink like a man!"

"I just didn't want to drink all your precious sake and leave none to you…" Kyouichi tried to pardon himself, which inspired Suika to burst into jolly laughter.

"Drink all of my sake…! Ahahahahahaaa~! That's a good one!" laughed the oni girl while knocking her fist against the donation box with surprising force.

"Hey, watch it!" called Reimu at the laughing oni. "You'll break my donation box!"

After Suika had calmed down a little, she took the gourd and said: "This is a very special gourd, human of the outside. This is one of the greatest treasures an oni can have. You see, the sake from this gourd… never runs out. As long as I have fresh water, anyway..."

She then raised the gourd above her head, opened her mouth wide and started pouring the sake down her throat in a steady stream to demonstrate her magic gourd's infinite sake reserve. The outsider stared in amazement as the sake kept flowing on and on for 30 seconds, one minute, two minutes…

"How does it all even fit inside her?" wondered Kyouichi while scratching his confused head.

As he was about to start cheering for her and clapping his hands, Reimu scornfully stopped her.

"That's enough, Suika. Can't you wait at least until all the guests gather?" sighed the shrine maiden.

"But it's taking them a bit too long." retorted the oni, but obliged to Reimu's request to stop drinking. "Maybe I should help them… gather.*hic*"

"Just let them come naturally. We don't need you causing another incident here…"

"So the guests aren't here yet?" asked the outsider, shifting his eyes to the shrine maiden.

"No, only Alice and Suika have arrived, while you were having your little sightseeing with Marisa." answered the miko and looked back into the shrine. "Alice, Akyuu, come, let's wait for the rest of the guests outside, okay?"

Kyouichi was rather curious to see this Alice person, so he remained standing at the shrine's door. Soon after Reimu called at them, light and rapid sounds of footsteps could be heard coming towards the door.

"Oh, Marisa-san, Kyouichi-san… You're back." said Akyuu as she came out of the shrine, smiling brightly as ever.

"Why were you two waiting inside the shrine?" Kyouichi asked her.

"I just wanted to take a look inside the Hakurei Shrine for a bit…" explained the chronicler. "…and then Alice-san arrived, so we stayed inside the shrine for a little longer…"

"Good evening." sounded a lovely, but unfamiliar girl's voice from the shrine's doorway.

Kyouichi looked up to see the greeting person stepping outside. She was about as tall as Reimu and Marisa and seemed to be around their age. She had pale, but smooth skin, shoulder-length blonde hair accessorized with a thin red headband. Her eye color was an unusual ochre hue. Her stature slim, but curved on the right places. She wore a western-style light-blue dress adorned by a couple of frilly pink ribbons. She almost looked like a life-sized doll. In one of her hands she held a black book of some sort, bound by two intersecting red straps, sort of like a gift box.

"Good evening." bowed Kyouichi to the girl as he greeted. "My name is Ishimaru Kyouichi, an outsider. Pleased to meet you, uh... Alice-san."

The girl smiled shyly, and stepped forward to shake her hand with him. "Yes, my name is Alice… Alice Margatroid. Nice to meet you as well."

"Yo, Alice, long time no see, ze~!" called out Marisa once she put away her flying broom.

Alice frowned, seeming a bit annoyed. "We see each other almost every day, Marisa… But hello to you too…"

"Have you two met yet?" asked the witch, looking at the only male person in the shrine yard and then at Alice again.

"Yeah, we know each other's names now…" acknowledged the outsider.

"Alice-chan's a little too shy, but she's very nice otherwise…" explained Marisa openly, as if her friend wasn't even there.

"Th-that's not true…" protested Alice, but her face blushed for some reason.

"What's not true?" teased Marisa. "That you're nice? Well, I guess you do remind me of Reimu sometimes…"

Poor Alice looked even more embarrassed and lowered her head to hide her blushing face.

"What was that supposed to mean?!" responded Reimu angrily giving the witch a menacing gaze. " Are you trying to pick a fight again, Kirisame?!"

"See what I mean?" giggled Marisa as she sneakingly pointed at Reimu with her thumb.

"I just wonder if it isn't you who makes other people react that way…" remarked the outsider.

"Hehe… Well, there might be something right about that." admitted the witch, putting on as innocent expression as she could muster. "Sorry, Alice. I was just kidding… And put that Spell Card down, Reimu, please…"

"Seems to me, that's the only thing that works on you these days…" muttered the shrine maiden with a crooked smile. "I really admire Patchouli for having to put up with your antics every time you visit the library… She sure knows how to keep her cool."

"Well, I wouldn't be so sure about that anymore." disagreed Marisa with her tone unexpectedly turning serious. "Last time I tried to borrow one grimoire from her, she literally Royal Flare'd me out of the mansion. Had to buy a new hat, ze…"

Reimu curiously tilted her head to side. "Really? You must have really pissed her off then…"

Marisa thoughtfully scratched her chin. "Hmm… Maybe I borrowed more than just one book from her… apart from the one she was reading at that moment… And maybe I accidentally knocked over her teacup and spilled hot tea on her clothes and some scrolls… But otherwise, I think she really went a little overboard there."

"And I wasn't there to see!" called Reimu, pretending disappointment. "Damn it…"

"Anyway, I'm sure she'll forget about it… some day." said Marisa, with a carefree smile.

"Okay, guys, why don't we sit down by the fire already?" suggested the shrine maiden, gesturing with her hand towards the blankets surrounding the fireside.

"Good idea." agreed the blonde witch and took a seat on one of the blankets. All the other hanami attendants joined her right afterwards. Kyouichi ended up sitting next to Suika by his left side and a vacant place by his right side.

"Hey, how about some more sake~?" offered Suika, holding up her magic gourd, looking at the outsider.

"The point of a hanami isn't to get drunk you know…" Reimu lectured her.

"Shhh~, Reimu…" Suika hushed her, putting her index finger on her own lips. "I'm making new friends here… Don't take her too seriously, Kyouichi. She may be putting on her holier-than-thou attitude now, but she'll just end up getting drunk like the rest of us here, just watch…"

"Well excuse me…" sounded Reimu, apparently offended by Suika's blunt remarks.

Oblivious to Reimu's protests, Suika put her gourd into Kyouichi's hands and prompted him to drink with a wide smile on her face.

The outsider shrugged indifferently and this time, took several big gulps of sake before he returned the gourd to its rightful owner.

"Thaaats more like it, Kyouichi~!" the oni girl praised him and took just about as many gulps from her gourd again. "Ahhh…. Hey, hey, Akyuu-chan, Akyuu-chaan~! Have some sake~!"

The little purple-haired chronicler put on an expression very similar to the one she had when Marisa offered her to fly on her broom – surprised, frightened and adorable at the same time.

"Umm… thank you, Suika-san, but I'm too young to drink sake."

"Nonsense~!" exclaimed Suika and disagreeingly shook her head, her horns swinging dangerously close to Kyouichi's eyes.

"Careful, Suika. Some people here would still like to have both of their eyes intact after the hanami…" mumbled the outsider with a completely calm tone while leaning away from her.

The oni obviously didn't seem to notice him, as she kept persuading the Gensokyo chronicler to have some of her sake.

"Don't tell me you're too young. You've been here for over a thousand years."

"But not in this body…" opposed Akyuu – futilely.

"Just a little~!"

"No."

"Come on~!"

"No!"

"Yes, say ah~!"

"N-ungh….!" Akyuu's protests were silenced by the purple gourd being forcedly stuffed into her mouth by the stubborn oni. Suika let the poor chronicler go only after she took 5 big gulps and started coughing.

"That's far enough Suika!" yelled Reimu, threateningly and pointing her gohei wand at her face. "Are you alright, Akyuu-chan?"

The chronicler showed a thumbs up gesture before she managed to catch her breath again. "Ah, hah, ahh… Yes… I'm fine… ha…" she replied while panting, with a frightened voice, but a strange sparkle of excitement could be seen in her eyes.

"Don't tell me you didn't miss that taste since your last incarnation as Hieda no Aya…" said Suika while giving her a friendly tap on her shoulder. "That ought to give you something to really remember, hahaha!"

Reimu pityingly embraced Akyuu and gently patted her head. "There, there, Akyuu-chan… It's alright now. The evil oni will leave you alone, if she knows what's good for her…"

"Thank you…" sounded the muffled voice of the chronicler. "Thank you, Suika-san for reminding me the taste…"

"Whaaaat?!" gasped the confused shrine maiden in shock.

"And you too, of course, Reimu-san, for comforting me…" added Akyuu immediately.

"Look at what you've done, Suika." the shrine maiden began scolding the oni some more. "You made her drunk and now she's spewing nonsense!"

"But she liked it…" opposed Suika, still feigning innocence. "She was just too shy to ask…"

"Well, don't do it again!"

"Okay… I got a new drinking buddy over here anyway…" shrugged Suika and turned to Kyouichi. "Hey, how about a drinking contest?"

"Unfortunately for you, Suika, this human is smart enough to know better than accepting any challenges from an oni." Reimu tried to turn her down. "There's no way any living thing could out-drink… "

"Sure! Why not?" Kyouichi cut Reimu's sentence, agreeing to Suika's fun-sounding competition.

"…or maybe he's just another idiot…" muttered Reimu as she disapprovingly shook her head.

"That's the spirit!" cheered Suika. "Okay, I may be a little unequal opponent for you, so to make things fair, we're each gonna drink the same amount of sake – let's say:15 cups should be enough for starters…"

"15 cups?!" called out Reimu, just barely able to believe it. "That'll knock him out cold…"

"Oh, I can't wait to see this…" grinned Marisa as she rubbed her hands together.

"Alright, Marisa~! You'll be the judge~!" decided the little oni. "If Kyouichi can manage to drink all the 15 cups without spilling a drop, he wins. If he gives up, he loses. It's as simple as that."

"What's the prize then?" asked the outsider.

"Prize? Hmm…" Suika paused to think for a moment. "…the prize will be… Reimu~!"

"Hey, I'm not a prize!" protested the shrine maiden.

"Yeah… Reimu would be a little hard to carry around." stated Kyouichi with a serious face. "I don't even have enough room for her on the shelves in my guest room… Try thinking of some other prize, Suika-san. It doesn't have to be a tangible prize."

The little oni frowned in a thoughtful expression and muttered: "Well, Marisa can't be a prize, since she's already a judge… Then there's still Alice and Akyuu…"

"Don't make prizes out of people, Ibuki!" Reimu shouted at her.

"People are no good? Well, that leaves us with only one option – Alice-san. She's a youkai so that should be…"

"Cut it out already! You're not funny anymore!" the shrine maiden chided Suika's stupid ideas.

"Okay, I guess we can do without prizes… just a little fun challenge... Are you okay with that?"

The outsider nodded silently. Suika then poured the sake into two cups, one for Kyouichi, one for herself. "Alright. On your marks, set, go!"

The first two cups were emptied in a flash by both contestants, and subsequently refilled, while Marisa the judge kept a close eye on them to make sure none of them was cheating.

After the fifth cup, even Reimu was beginning to amusedly observe this little contest and started cheering for both Suika and Kyouichi. The drinking cups were rather small, so Kyouichi thought it shouldn't be much of a problem to drink 15 of them. However, as the 10th cup of sake went down his throat, he could feel that his stomach was becoming full, his mind and vision, hazy. Suika's sake was very tasty, but at the same time, it was stronger than normal.

"Hahaha!" he could hear Marisa's boisterous laughter as she was watching his desperate face expression. "Looks like he's had enough already… Well, I know I would…"

On the other hand, Akyuu-chan, intoxicated by the fair amount of alcohol she was more or less forced to drink, kept cheering for the outsider. "Fight~, fight~, don't give up now~!"

Even the seemingly shy Alice looked like she was having fun watching the human and the oni drink cup after cup of sake and trying not to spill a drop. Kyouichi saw as Alice took out a little doll out of nowhere and put it on her shoulder like a pet parrot. At first glance, the doll looked like a completely ordinary child's toy – about 20 cm tall, a dark-red dress with a white apron, very similar to Marisa's outfit. She had blonde hair adorned with a large red bow, almost like Reimu and a smaller bow of matching color around her neck. Her blue eyes seemed somehow odd, though. Kyouichi didn't pay much attention to Alice's doll, though, since he already had to drink his 12th sake cup to the bottom. As soon as the doll stared moving on its own, however, the outsider almost spat out the sake on Suika.

As soon as he stopped coughing, he immediately asked Alice: "Is that… a fairy?!"

The doll-like figure continued to clap her tiny hands as though she was cheering for Suika and Kyouichi.

"Oh, no…" smiled Alice and gently shook her head. "This is my doll, Shanghai… Say hello, Shanghai." She turned her face to the doll and the doll turned to her in response.

Then the little doll turned back to Kyouichi and Suika and put on a silent smile. Kyouichi stared in amazement, as he had never ever seen a doll which could not just move on its own, but act so lifelike, he could mistake her for a living being. Shanghai could even change her face expressions and make any movements like a real living person. As Alice prompted her to say hello, the little doll took a slide down her dress and walked slowly towards the outsider. She put on a shy expression and lowered her head. She stopped just a few centimeters in front of him, slowly raised her head to look him in the eyes, smiled brightly and bowed deeply.

Although he was basically drunk already, Kyouichi could still tell that the doll before him was masterfully crafted, with every miniscule detail painstakingly shaped to resemble a living person.

"Awww… So cute~!" cooed Kyouichi as he watched the doll bow to him elegantly. He carefully stretched out his right hand, took her tiny palm between his thumb and index finger and gently shook it. "Hello, Shanghai. I'm Kyouichi, nice to meet you…"

The doll nodded and smiled again. Then she returned to Alice in one big leap.

"Where did you get that doll, Alice-san?"

"I made her myself." she replied with a modest tone. "My entire house is filled up with many similar dolls, but Shanghai and Hourai are my favorite ones."

"You… made that doll yourself? So you animated it with magic or something?" inquired the outsider, who almost forgot he was in the middle of a drinking contest with Suika.

"Well… umm… I guess you could say that." said Alice hesitantly. "My dolls can't move by themselves. I control them with invisible magic strings… But I wish they could be like real living beings, able to move and act on their own. In fact, I've been trying for years and years to make such dolls, but I guess I'm still just an amateur when it comes to magic. It will take a lot more research and practice."

"Hey, Kyouichi-kun~!" sounded Suika's voice. "You can ask all the questions you want… AFTER we finish our drinking… uhh… your drinking contest."

"What do you mean MY drinking contest?" wondered the outsider.

"Because for me this isn't any challenge." explained Suika, stretching up her flat chest proudly. "I am an oni. For me, 15 cups of sake is like one teaspoon for a human. I merely wanted to see if you could drink at least that much."

"You'll see soon enough." responded Kyouichi and kicked the 13th cup of sake into himself.

Suika smiled widely. "Alright~! Keep at it! Just two more and you pass the test!"

With that said, Kyouichi nodded and finished off the final two cups of sake trying not to show any signs of weakness.

* * *

"Yaaaaay~! You did it. Congratulations~!" called Suika loudly while cheerfully shaking Kyouichi's hand. "You're now one of my official drinking buddies~! Just like Yukarin~!"

"Yu-Yukarin?!" repeated surprised Kyouichi.

"A contraction of Yukari-chan…" muttered Marisa with a dull voice.

"I'm not retarded, you know…" frowned Kyouichi at Marisa, who just explained an obvious fact. "But is she referring to THE Yukari?"

"There aren't that many Yukaris in Gensokyo… I personally know just one." said Marisa with a casual tone.

"Yakumo-san." sounded Suika again. "But I just call her Yukarin, since we're old friends. I'd like to introduce you to her sometime…"

Kyouichi's heart skipped a beat. "You're Yukari-sama's friend? That's great! I need to find her as soon as possible and ask her if she'd return me back to my home."

"Alright~!" smiled the oni girl. "I'll arrange a meeting then."

"And when are you going to arrange it?"

"That depends on when Yukarin decides to visit me." answered the little youkai.

"I already told Suika about the situation with the outsiders, Kyouichi, so she'll let Yukari know to send you back." said Reimu seriously.

"So you don't know where she lives either…" he disappointedly sighed while looking at Suika.

"Not exactly." shrugged the oni and wetted her whistle by another dose of sake from her gourd. "She said that she lives somewhere on the border between Gensokyo and the outside world, but it's not around the Hakurei Shrine, that's for sure…"

"That's about as vague as saying "somewhere on Earth"." stated Reimu mockingly. "I guess she doesn't have many visitors."

"It just occurred to me… You say that this shrine lies on the easternmost edge of Gensokyo and is basically a part of the Great Boundary itself, right?" asked Kyouichi suddenly.

"Yes, and?" Reimu raised her eyebrow.

"That would mean if I went anymore eastwards from this location, I'd literally hit the boundary itself, right?"

"Ehehehe." giggled the shrine maiden while shaking her head. "No, this boundary, you see, is not as clear and solid as most people would think. Sure, you could go east from the shrine and you could go on and on for days, months even years if you'd like… But you'd only see an illusion of a world lying ahead. A world that seemingly goes on, but it's a world without any villages, towns, without people or youkai… or even animals. It's just an illusion. And once you'd decide to turn back, you'd figure that you only distanced yourself from the shrine by a little. That part of the barrier between this shrine and the outside world is the so called "field of illusion". Its purpose is to trick the mind into seeing and believing that nothing but endless wilderness lies ahead, whilst in reality, it's only a couple of meters away from the outer boundary."

"So there's no invisible wall?" asked Kyouichi.

"No, I think the boundary is entirely magical and ethereal, powered by the divine magic of the human priests and by powerful youkai magic. But Yukari said it consists of many separate layers, so perhaps there is even a physical one. I find it quite complicated to understand it myself, much less explain it."

"And the barrier weakens greatly every sixty years…" Said Suika all of a sudden, immediately gaining everyone's attention.

"Oh… Y-yes." confirmed the shrine maiden with a surprised look on her face. "…The Flower Viewing Incident…" she muttered thoughtfully.

"Well we ARE having a flower viewing just now…" said Kyouichi. "Was there any incident during a similar event?"

"Well, five years ago, in spring, there was this unnatural outbreak of flowers blooming all over Gensokyo."

"Ah, that was very beautiful…" reminisced Marisa with a spacey look.

"But not natural." continued Reimu with her little history lesson. "Anyway, I first thought it was a work of some youkai again and went to investigate. But that phenomenon turned out to be of a different nature. The outbreak of blooming flowers was caused by the souls of the dead from the outside world. The barrier was significantly weakened and the dead souls from the outside literally invaded Gensokyo. They possessed the plants and those began blooming all over the land… wherever there was a piece of ground where something could grow, there were flowers…"

"So what caused the barrier to weaken?" asked the outsider. "The spirits?"

"The spirits caused the flowers to bloom all over the place, but the Great Boundary was weakened due to the sixty year cycle… as I was later told."

"The sixty year cycle?" repeated Kyouichi while raising an eyebrow.

Reimu nodded. "Yes. According to several youkai that I uhh… interrogated, a very similar event happened over 60 years ago."

"Yes, there was a huge flower outbreak precisely 65 years ago." confirmed Hieda no Akyuu.

"…That was in 1945… The end of World War 2…" thought Kyouichi aloud.

"Yes, I've learned there was a war in the outside world at that time." continued Reimu. "That would explain the immense number of dead spirits from the outside world flocking to Gensokyo, but…"

"…No similar event happened in 2005." the outsider finished the sentence. "Sure there were some natural disasters, but nothing of such magnitude as the Second World War."

"That's right." confirmed the shrine maiden. "Yukari herself later told me, that the Great Boundary undergoes the 60 year cycle during which it weakens and lets in the spirits from the outside to be taken across the Sanzu River. It's much easier to access the Netherworld, Heaven or Makai from Gensokyo than from the outside world… In fact, I've been to Netherworld recently…"

Kyouichi's jaw dropped slightly in a surprised expression. "Really?"

"That reminds me… Where are the rest of our guests?" asked Marisa suddenly. "Didn't you say we were expecting 10 people, including us?"

"That's right…" muttered Reimu while thoughtfully putting her index finger on her chin. "We're still expecting 4 more people... I mean… guests…" she corrected herself.

* * *

As soon as she finished that sentence, she could hear some voices coming from the western end of the shrine yard getting louder and accompanied by footsteps as they walked up the stone stairs. Everyone's looks were focused on the paved stone road and the red wooden torii gateway. Soon after that, 4 persons appeared, still indulged in a lively conversation. And they were all female. Kyouichi turned his surprised face to Reimu and whispered: "Whoa… I didn't expect to be the only guy invited."

Marisa made a sudden silent gasp as if something just came to her mind. "Oh… He's right… I could have invited Kourin too…"

The shrine maiden just shrugged at them before she stood up and walked up towards the late-arriving 4 guests to welcome them.

"Who the hell is Kourin?" Kyouichi asked the blonde witch.

"Another one of my friends. He owns a shop not too far from my home… Aww… I feel guilty for not inviting him, even though he prefers to keep to himself." replied Marisa with embarrassment in her voice.

By now, Reimu was already leading the remaining 4 guests to the fireside and offered them the remaining sitting place on the blankets around it. All the four guests were young ladies and they all looked… strange to say the least. Even though Kyouichi was already well aware that he was in Gensokyo, he still stared at the new guests with his eyes wide open. One of them was short, like Suika or Akyuu. She had short light-blue hair and red eyes. She was wearing a pink dress with red trimming and a matching pink mob cap on her head. From her back jutted a pair of large black batlike wings. She looked childish, but elegant and mature at the same time. From what Marisa told him, Kyouichi easily deduced this girl to be the vampire, Remilia Scarlet.

She was just telling something to her maid – a tall, beautiful young lady, no less elegant than her mistress. She looked around as old as Marisa, Reimu and Alice, although, she was slightly taller – the tallest girl in the group, in fact. Her hair was silver, with two long braids on each side of her face tied with green bows. She had dark-blue eyes, which were now paying attention to her mistress. She was wearing a dark-blue French maid's outfit with knee-length skirt and short sleeves and a white apron. On her head, she had a frilly white maid's headband. If it wasn't for her unusual hair color, an outsider could simply see her as a waitress from one of the maid-cafés which are so popular in Japan. But even so, they could think she's a cosplayer, rather than an actual servant.

The third of the guests was a much stranger sight to behold. She was also rather short - taller than Suika, Akyuu and Remilia, but shorter than everyone else. Her hair was also silver, but almost white in comparison to the maid, whose hair was more like gray-silver. She had a childlike face with dark-blue eyes. She was clad in a dark-green and white short-sleeved dress with some strange white patterns around the edges of the skirt, which remotely resembled the "yang" part of the yin-yang symbol, save the black dot in the middle. Her hair was decorated by a black ribbon with its knot part placed slightly off-center on her head. Kyouichi could see two black sword sheaths affixed behind her back. One longer and one shorter, for the two swords she was equipped with. The longer sword sheath was decorated by a real pink flower tied to the end, and the sword's hilt had a pink cherry blossom insignia. However, the strangest and the most eye-catching part about this girl was a white formless ghostly phantom silently hovering by her side. Kyouichi could suddenly feel that he got goosebumps just by looking at it. Everyone else didn't even pay the slightest attention to this apparition, as they all greeted the girl with friendly smiles on their faces.

"Am I the only one who sees it?" wondered Kyouichi in his thoughts.

He was feeling genuine fear, nevertheless, he had to admit that the girl in question was very cute and seemed very friendly as she was bowing to the other girls, smiling and greeting them politely. He anxiously stared at her for a moment and wondered, who or what could she be. Just as he thought he was starting to get used to the sight of the phantom floating near her, he shifted his look to Reimu's fourth and final guest .As he saw her, he instinctively reached for Suika's gourd, who didn't have any objections, and drank the sake in big gulps, like a thirsty desert wanderer who just found an oasis after three days without drinking.

"Oh-hoooo, Kyouichi! Do you really want to challenge me in drinking?" asked the surprised oni.

"No… *gulp, gulp, gulp* I just need more alcohol in my system to consider what I'm seeing here as normal…"

"Who do you mean in particular?" Suika asked him to specify.

"Well… Come to think of it… Just about everyone…" he answered slowly, feeling his tongue starting to become numb.

"Hehe~! Consider it a psychological preparation for your meeting with Yukari." giggled Suika with her ever-cheerful smile.

Kyouichi didn't respond to her words. His eyes were still locked on the fourth girl… She was about as tall as Reimu or Alice. She had shoulder-length wavy pink hair and eyes of the same color. She looked like she could be 20, give or take a year or two. Her skin was pale and there was something very odd about her. Almost as if she had some kind of inner glow. Apart from the fact that she was basically levitating several centimeters above the ground, there were several smaller ghostly phantoms floating around her. Her attire was a beautiful light-blue and white kimono with a dark-blue trim. On her head, she had a mob cap with a white transparent veil in the back, and on the front side, a hitaikakushi – a triangular piece of cloth with some odd red spiral insignia. She was incredibly beautiful. Easily, one of the most beautiful girls Kyouichi had ever seen. That is not to say that the other girls at the shrine were not pretty, but this one was standing out.

"Um, Kyouichi-kun... You're staring." remarked Suika with a hushed but amused voice.

"Yeah…" muttered Kyouichi without paying any mind to what Suika just said as he kept staring blankly at the beautiful girl.

She gently bowed to Reimu smiled and greeted. "Good evening, Reimu-san. Thank you very much for the invitation. Even though we've already had a hanami a month ago, why should I refuse the opportunity to enjoy it again at the shrine? Right, Youmu?" she turned to the white haired girl and put her hand on her head.

The girl with swords silently nodded and blushed a bit.

"Okay, then…" said the shrine maiden. "Since all of the guests are here, why don't you take a seat?" she gestured with her hand towards the free blankets with pillows.

The four late-arriving guests assumed sitting positions around the fire. The white haired girl with swords sat down by Kyouichi's right side. It was only once all the guests were seated when one of them noticed the outsider. Or to be more exact, said something.

"I smell… some unknown human…" said the vampire girl, sitting opposite of Kyouichi.

The outsider smiled and showed a peace sign, trying to at least look calm in contrast to his current thoughts and feelings. Most of the other guests shifted their attention to him.

"Oh… I knew it." continued the vampire as she stood up to see more clearly.

"Ish-Ishimaru Kyouichi. I'm pleased to meet you, Scarlet-sama." he introduced himself rather timidly and bowed deeply.

"Oh my… How polite. And he even knows who I am…" she noted with a wry smile. "Remilia Scarlet." she said her name and straightened up with pride. "The most powerful, fastest and smartest youkai in Gensokyo. Direct descendent of Vlad Tepes, known as Dracula."

"Oi, oi…" responded Reimu to her obvious exaggeration, if not blatant lies.

"Say, human…" Remilia continued without interruption. "What blood type are you?"

Before Kyouichi could even react to this awkward question, Reimu gave the vampire a warning look. "Don't get any ideas!"

"What? It's just a normal question." pouted the vampire girl, facing the shrine maiden. She then sat back on the blanket and whispered something to her maid.

Although it was a relatively normal thing in Japan to ask about someone's blood type, which some people considered as a sort of horoscope, but coming from the mouth of a vampire, the question got an entirely different subtext.

"Here, have some snacks instead." Reimu offered her a bowl of salted agemochi.

Suddenly, the pink-haired girl in kimono called out joyfully: "Oh look, Youmu~! Snacks~!" her eyes were almost shining with obsession.

"Uh… yes, Yuyuko-sama, I can see that." replied the girl sitting next to Kyouichi with a slightly nervous voice.

"But there's too little…" continued the kimono girl, with her sweet, calm melodic voice.

"Too… little?" muttered Kyouichi quietly, but the white haired girl still heard him and turned to him with an embarrassed smile and giggle. To Kyouichi, there was more than enough snacks in all the bowls for 3 hanami evenings, and yet this slender young lady sid that there's not enough? The outsider thought that there would be even more guests… But Reimu clearly said she was expecting 10 people, her and Marisa included. And there already were ten people… and youkai sitting around the inviting warm fire. Did this pink-haired lady really have such a big appetite? The answer came as soon as he asked that question in his own head. The pink-haired girl took the bowl of agemochi right out of Remilia's hands, and turned over its content into her mouth in a second. She kept satisfyingly munching the snacks for a few seconds and swallowed them. The vampire stared at her with her mouth ajar, unable to find any words.

"Good thing we thought ahead, right, Youmu~?" said the pink-haired girl with a sweet smile.

The white-haired girl with swords, whom she addressed as Youmu sighed with a slightly annoyed expression as she was standing up. "Yes, my lady, just a second…"

Suddenly, a delayed thought found its way in Kyouichi's drunken mind to the zone of curiosity. He turned to his left and leaned backwards. Over Suika's back, he tapped Reimu's shoulder. The shrine maiden turned her curious face to him.

"What is it, Kyouichi-san?"

"Umm… What's with that pink-haired lady, if I may ask?"

"Oh, that's Yuyuko. She's a real gourmet with a huge appetite. She often gets excited when it comes to food and snacks… and even sake."

"Yuyuko, huh?" repeated Kyouichi her name. It sounded strangely familiar.

"Yeah." whispered the shrine maiden behind Suika's back. "I guess you already know that our little Suika-chan here is an unmatched capacity when it comes to drinking sake." she patted the little oni's back, who in surprise, turned to her with a confused face. "Well, then Yuyuko is an unmatched capacity when it comes to eating."

Kyouichi turned again to look at the beautiful young lady in kimono and then at her presumed servant, Youmu, who just showed up with her hands lugging two huge baskets. She then began unloading them onto whatever space that was left on the blankets. The contents of both baskets were all perishables ranging from meat, through various kinds of cheese and fish to sweet desserts.

"Her name…" spoke Kyouichi again after a while, "it's just like of that noble girl I've read about… Sa… Saigo…" he stuttered as he was trying to recall the name from a history book and Akyuu's chronicle.

"Saigyouji." said Reimu to refresh his memory.

"Yes… That was the name…" muttered the outsider with a spaced-out look. "Is she her descendant or does she just share the same name?"

Reimu looked at him confusedly. "What are you talking about? There's only one Yuyuko Saigyouji in Gensokyo and she's sitting right in front of you." she spoke quietly over Suika's back.

"That's ridiculous!" opposed Kyouichi, not paying any more mind to keeping his voice low. "Yuyuko Saigyouji died over a thousand years ago! She committed suicide!"

Reimu also raised her voice in an almost angered response. "Well then why don't you go and explain it to her?!" she called out loud and gestured with her hand towards the girl in question.

The pink-haired beauty shifted her big eyes from the food to the arguing couple and put on a surprised smile. She looked perfectly alive, healthy and full of energy.

"Oh, my… There is a new guest here this time~." she chimed with a cute daydreamy voice.

"Only now you've noticed, Yuyuko-sama?" her servant Youmu asked her with a half-surprised, half-embarrassed tone.

"A very good evening to you, Ryuuken-san~! My name is Yuyuko Saigyouji and I am most pleased to make your acquaintance~!" she nodded and smiled with a smile that could make the North Pole melt. Every bit about her was lovely - from her face, body and clothes to her voice and extremely polite manners. It was enough to make Kyouichi speechless and his heart race like mad.

He returned back to reality only after feeling repeated sensation of Suika nudging his ribs with her elbow. "Hey, Kyouichi-kun, say something…"

"Oh! Umm… Yeah! Kyouichi… Ishimaru Kyouichi… The pleasure is all mine!" he spoke up quickly with obvious panic. "And I'm not a Ryuuken. It's just a kimono that looks similar to their uniforms."

"Yes, Kyouichi-san's an outsider and is a part of the reason why I invited you to the hanami…" Reimu explained to Yuyuko.

"Oh, my~!" smiled Yuyuko joyfully. "You wanted to arrange a date for me~? How sweet of you, Reimu-san~!"

"Eh? No, no, no, no, no!" disagreed Reimu while vigorously shaking her head. "You've got the wrong impression. He's here because he wants to return home and the fastest solution would be to ask Yukari about sending him back… But I haven't seen her for a longer time now and I was wondering if you, as her best friend, might have seen her recently."

"My, my~! He wants to meet Yukari-chan to take her on a date to the outside world? How romantic~!" said Yuyuko while hiding her blushing face behind a decorated folding fan that she carried with her.

"Hey! Are you even listening to what I'm saying?!" asked the shrine maiden, raising her voice again. "He is a misplaced human. He and a band of other outsiders were spirited away to Gensokyo on the same day and they all want to return to their homes. I suspect Yukari did this, so I want to talk to her and convince her to return those people back, understand?"

"You don't like it in Gensokyo, Kyouichi-san?" asked Yuyuko, tilting her head to the side.

"It's not a matter of like or dislike… Gensokyo is not my home. That's all there is to it."

"But if Yukari took you here, she must have done so for a reason." said Yuyuko with a more serious tone, but still with a spacey look.

"It wasn't just me, but probably tens, maybe even hundreds of other people." remarked Kyouichi, trying to speak slowly and audibly. The sake he drunk was taking its toll on his senses, but he could still at least think straight. "Only about 20 of them were officially registered, but since a whole train got spirited away, there could have been considerably more people."

Reimu joined the conversation again. "I don't really care about Yukari's reasons if she really caused an incident. I need to stop her and make her undo all the chaos she's made. And I'm asking you for help. Or do you want me to suspect you for collaborating with her?" she asked Yuyuko and gave her and unpleasant stare.

"But, Reimu-san, I haven't even seen her ever since last year's autumn…" replied Yuyuko calmly.

The shrine maiden put on a surprised and concerned expression. "That long, huh? Almost the same as me… I haven't seen her for over six months."

"Come to think of it, me too~." said Suika with her voice sounding drunk again.

Remilia Scarlet took a calm sip from her drinking cup and waved her hand indifferently. "Bah! Who cares about her? At least now I have a good food supply with all those outsiders…" she smiled wryly and licked her lips.

Kyouichi gulped nervously. "I… think I should be going now…"

"You'd be actually putting yourself in greater danger if you left the shrine now…" Reimu pointed out. "But it really surprised me that even Yuyuko hasn't seen Yukari for such a long time…"

"Yes. I've been wondering what she might be doing if she hasn't come to see me for so long." confirmed Yuyuko as she turned to her armed servant. "But thanks to my cute Youmu, I don't feel so lonely~." she smiled and embraced Youmu lovingly.

"Yu-Yuyuko-sama…!" called the white-haired girl, her face blushing with embarrassment.

"So, you're Yukari's best friend, huh?" asked Kyouichi after a while of processing his thoughts. "The same Yuyuko Saigyouji as in the chronicle. Unbelievable…"

Yuyuko widened her smile as she let go of Youmu and nodded. "Yes~. It is thanks to Yukari that I am who I am."

"So that means you're a…"

"A ghost, yes." answered Yuyuko almost casually. "A dead spirit, eternally bound to the Netherworld and the Saigyou Ayakashi."

"She isn't just an ordinary spirit from the Netherworld." Marisa completed the information. "She is the princess of the Netherworld."

"I still don't see what's such a big deal about it." murmured the vampire girl with a smug tone.

"So how come you're now in the world of the living?" inquired Kyouichi.

"Well, hehehe~… I think I once asked Yukari-chan to weaken the boundary between the Netherworld and Gensokyo… But I forgot what for."

Reimu sighed in annoyance. "That was because over six years ago, you caused an incident."

"Precisely on the 21st of Yayoi, 118." specified Akyuu with a textbook precision.

"Yayoi…That's March, right?" asked the outsider just to make sure. "Ten days before the New Year…"

"That's right." nodded Reimu and continued. "It was a time when spring in Gensokyo should normally start, but… it didn't. Everything was still buried deep under a cover of snow and it was chilly outside just like in the middle of winter. That made me suspect that we had another youkai incident on our hands. As I went out to look for clues, it turned out that the very essence Gensokyo's spring was being siphoned away in a stream towards the sky. I followed the trail of flowing cherry petals until I reached a gigantic gate-like barrier in the sky with four massive stone pillars standing on clouds before it. It looked too strong to be opened by magic, so I flew over it…"

"What a useless barrier…" remarked the outsider as he chuckled weakly.

"Perhaps it would be completely impossible to bypass if it weren't for the strange things that were going on then." Reimu kept on explaining. "So there I was, flying over the great unknown barrier and I found myself facing a hill as tall as the Youkai Mountain, if not even taller and a set of stone stairs, like the ones leading to my shrine were leading all the way up. I saw the stream of cherry petals flowing to the top of that hill so I kept on flying. I noticed that there were a lot of spirits flying around as well and soon after, I even got attacked by some of them. Those were no problem, but as I was getting closer to the top, I met these two." she pointed at Yuyuko and Youmu. "Well, only Youmu-san first… She kept saying something about gathering the essence of the spring and the plan coming close to success before she attacked me… I so-so managed to drive her back… and headed on to deal with her mistress…"

"So you battled against Yuyuko-sama?" asked Kyouichi in disbelief.

"Of course!" confirmed the shrine maiden in a matter-of-fact manner. "She was stealing Gensokyo's spring in order to revive a body buried under a huge cherry tree which never blossomed fully."

"The Saigyou Ayakashi…"

"Yeah, that. She tried to break the seal on that youkai tree in order to bring that person back to life."

"Wait… wasn't it Yuyuko-sama herself who was buried under that tree?" wondered the outsider.

Yuyuko giggled innocently. "Yes, but I didn't know about it at that time… I just found some old scrolls in my library, indicating that there was someone buried under the largest cherry tree in the garden - the only sakura which I have never ever seen blooming for as long as I've been there. In those scrolls, an interesting passage was written: "The girl who bares witness to death, at the time of the Saigyou Ayakashi's full bloom, shall be bound by mortality. So that her soul may rest in peace within the Hakugyokurou, I will seal the cherry blossoms, and make it the barrier. My wish… is that she will never again reincarnate, and never again suffer pain…"."

"Was that part… about you?" asked Kyouichi.

"Yes, written by Yukari herself. But as I mentioned, I wasn't aware of the identity of the author or the buried person."

"Didn't you remember anything?"

"Dear, Kyouichi-san…" giggled the ghostly girl, her face blushing slightly. "I don't even remember what I had for breakfast today."

"Breakfast?" asked Kyouichi, raising his eyebrow. "So even ghosts need to eat?"

"Umm… I don't know… I do feel hungry… But it's more like a desire to eat something tasty." replied Yuyuko slowly, thoughtfully trying to explain her habits. "I still don't remember what I had for breakfast today~."

"So you have an amnesia or something?"

Yuyuko shook her head gently. "I wouldn't say that. After all, I was able to recall events from time when I was still alive. I remember all sorts of different things from the distant past, but somehow… I just don't pay so much attention to trivial details. When you're alive for so long, you end up forgetting even the important and memorable things…"

"So you tried to resurrect a person - that is yourself, without the knowledge that it was actually you, right?" recapitulated Kyouichi.

"Apart from that, I was also very curious to see the full bloom of the Saigyou Ayakashi, so I asked Youmu to start gathering the essence of spring… I read further in the scrolls that making the youkai sakura bloom fully, would break its seal and revive the buried person."

"But unfortunately… or should I say fortunately," continued Reimu in Yuyuko's stead, "I found her just in time to put a stop to her plan and make her return the stolen spring back to Gensokyo."

"However, Reimu-san's interference only shortened the inevitable…" spoke Yuyuko again, "Because even without her, my plan could never succeed. My powers are to invoke death, not to revive… I guess that's why Yukari didn't even bother to tell me: "Yuyuko-chan, what kind of nonsense do you think you're doing?" Instead, the shrine maiden came. She saw me as the mastermind behind an incident, and I saw her as a source of the last few drops of the essence of spring, so… naturally, we launched spells at each other."

Kyouichi again began to chuckle in amusement and turned to Reimu. "Hahaha! Is there anyone in Gensokyo you haven't fought against yet, Reimu-san?"

The shrine maiden thoughtfully put her finger on her chin and hummed. "Well, there's Akyuu-chan…" she replied with a smile as she gave the little chronicler another sweet embrace. "Then you, for instance…"

"Let's keep it that way, please…" said the outsider with a worried smile.

"And most of the people in the village…" continued Reimu after a while of hard thinking.

"And what would happen if Yuyuko-sama's plan would have succeeded?"

"Well, I'm a ghost, so it would end my existence." answered Yuyuko as simply as possible.

"But your soul would be again bound to your body and you'd live again, no?"

"Maybe so, but that would also mean that the Saigyou Ayakashi would bloom again, and started killing people again… Even if I managed to resurrect my own body, I'd probably die again right afterwards, and my soul would be consumed by the youkai sakura. But as I already said, I never had a chance to succeed in the first place. I just wasn't aware of it."

"I just find it amazing to see that almost all of you girls were actually once Reimu's enemies…" remarked Kyouichi and had some agemochi. "To me, you all look like a band of good old friends."

Reimu shrugged and smiled. "Most of the folks in Gensokyo are actually nice... when they're not causing any trouble, that is…"

"Reimu-san is known for getting along with people." explained Yuyuko.

"And its fun to have friendly battles with her every now and then." added Remilia, who's been mostly talking to her maid and to Suika, Marisa, Alice and Akyuu so far.

"I see…" said the outsider understandingly. "So, Yuyuko-sama, you said you asked Yukari to weaken the barrier between the Netherworld and Gensokyo, so that you could take the essence of the spring?"

"Oh~! Yes, I think that's it." chimed Yuyuko cheerfully as if she just recalled it now.

"Why did she even agree with it?"

"Maybe because we're best friends… Or maybe because she knew about my plan being a failure all along and didn't even bother telling me… Perhaps she intentionally wanted me to burn myself and learn from my own mistake." reasoned the ghostly princess.

"So the barrier is still weakened?" Kyouichi kept asking question after question.

"Yes~. After my plan to break the Saigyou Ayakashi's seal had failed, I explained to Reimu-san, that the barrier separating this world and the Netherworld was severely weakened and too many spirits were again aimlessly wandering the world of the living. I told her about Yukari as the only person who could fix this problem…"

"So that's when you fought against Yukari, right, Reimu-san?"

"Yes, yes, like she says. But Yukari never sealed the barrier off completely… sloppy youkai…" she murmured the last two words under her nose.

"That's why it's still possible for a few select spirits to visit the world of the living and for the living to visit the Netherworld without having to die." explained Yuyuko with a serious look, but always smiling. "I put Youmu in charge of guarding the barrier so that the souls or people without permission couldn't enter or leave the Netherworld just as they please."

"And who exactly is Youmu-san?" asked the outsider, turning to the cute white-haired girl next to him.

"Oh, I'm sorry…" Youmu embarrassedly smiled, as she apologized. "We didn't even have a proper introduction…" she cleared her throat stood up and bowed. "Youmu Konpaku - a loyal and faithful servant, gardener, bodyguard and swordsmanship instructor of the Saigyouji family. Pleased to meet you."

Kyouichi picked his butt off the blanket to stand up. "Likewise." he bowed with respect. "I'm Kyouichi Ishimaru, but you already know that…"

"Never mind." smiled Youmu gently. "People should always have a proper introduction, even if they know each other's names." she said as she shook hands with Kyouichi.

"Whoa…" groaned the outsider to a surprising sensation. "You feel just like a living person… Except that your hands are cold."

Youmu suddenly blushed and looked down. "I'm not a ghost like Yuyuko-sama…"

"You're not?"

"I'm… I'm a…" she spoke with hesitation. "…a half-ghost." she murmured quietly as if she was ashamed of it.

"So that ghostly phantom floating behind you is…"

"It's me…"Youmu nodded and lowered her head. At the same time, the phantom behind her also seemed to be looking down.

Kyouichi was in a loss for words for a good couple of seconds. Even though he heard countless stories and watched countless movies about ghosts, he never heard about half-ghosts before. And now… one example of such a being was standing right in front of him. Furthermore, she was a very cute half-ghost.

"Well, that's about all I can tell about myself…" said Youmu humbly and bowed once more, before she sat down again.

"In that case, I think I still didn't introduce myself to that pretty young miss over there…" he looked at Remilia's maid, who turned her slightly surprised face to him.

"Even if I don't plan on staying in Gensokyo for too long, I have to agree with Youmu-san here. People should properly introduce themselves when they meet the first time, even if they'll never see each other again." he stood up and walked up towards the silver-haired maid.

She also stood up and gently dusted off her uniform, carefully measuring him up with cold eyes. After the outsider bowed to her and repeated his name to her, the maid nodded without expression and in a formal tone she introduced herself. "My name is Sakuya Izayoi – chief maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and a part-time incident resolver."

She didn't seem to be in a very friendly mood so Kyouichi didn't ask her any more questions. Or perhaps she just didn't trust strangers easily and Kyouichi could understand that. It was already a big enough surprise that most of the people he met so far treated him friendly.

"I'm very satisfied with Sakuya." explained her mistress. "She's a perfect maid. Her cooking is the most delicious in all of Gensokyo…" she said while praisingly tapping the maid's shoulder.

That was perhaps so, but Kyouichi couldn't shake off the feeling that she'd probably poison his food from the way she looked at him. Or was he just being paranoid? He simply couldn't yet make any opinion about her. And he didn't actually care.

"I'll probably never see any of these people ever again. I'm planning to leave Gensokyo after all…" he thought silently. "But for that I need their help…"

He looked up again at Yuyuko, who was now feasting on everything edible within her reach.

"I'm guessing you don't know where Yukari lives either…"

"Huh?" the ghost princess looked up and wiped off a grain of rice from her lips. She stared at him blankly for a few seconds, but then she smiled sweetly again. "Yukari-chan? Why, she lives in Mayohiga, of course~." she replied cheerfully.

The unexpected answer made the surprised outsider choke on the snacks he was just eating. Fortunately, Suika noticed this and gave him a few good hits on the back.

"*cough-cough-cough* Damn…! Suika… You pack hell of a punch!" he groaned in pain as he was catching his breath again.

"Did you hear it, Kyouichi-san?" asked the little oni who had just about the same surprised expression as the outsider. "Did she just tell us where Yukarin lives?"

"Mayohiga…?" repeated Reimu with her mouth opened and eyes widened.

Everyone just silently stared at each other with dumb looks, trying to process what they just heard. Everyone except Yuyuko who nonchalantly resumed eating the snacks, and Youmu, who looked like she had at least a vague idea about what her mistress was talking about.

"I've heard that name…" mumbled Reimu quietly. "It definitely sounds familiar."

"Where is this Mayohiga, Yuyuko-sama?" asked the outsider finally.

The pink haired princess looked a bit confused for a moment before giving another surprising reply. "I'm sorry, I don't know…"

"Whaaat?!" called everyone simultaneously.

"I've been there many times, but I don't know the way." Yuyuko tried to explain.

"Are you THAT forgetful?!" Reimu asked her angrily.

"No, my dear Reimu-san, I can't possibly know the way to Mayohiga, because Yukari always took me there through a gap." replied Yuyuko calmly, unfazed by Reimu's raised voice.

"But I could tell you how Mayohiga looks. And even what furniture Yukari-chan has."

"So that Mayohiga is a village of some sort?" asked Kyouichi.

"Yes~. It is a village where there are no people. Yukari lives in the largest of the houses with her shikigami."

Reimu gasped suddenly as if she had just realized something important. "I… I think I might have been there too…"

"It's a very lovely and peaceful village…" continued Yuyuko with a daydreamy voice.

"Wait a second…" Kyouichi interrupted her. "Did you say, you've been there too, Reimu?"

Reimu delved deep into her thoughts, trying to recall the past. "I… I vaguely remember flying over a village of some sort when I was looking for clues during the Perfect Cherry Blossom incident… I think it was just before I found the entrance to the Netherworld in the sky… And before I had a run-in with Alice… So I guess I was heading through the Forest of Magic…"

"Then how many villages are there in Gensokyo?" asked Kyouichi.

"There should be 6 villages, including the Human Village." said Akyuu thoughtfully. "And Mayohiga would make it the seventh, but we don't even know if it's in Gensokyo per se."

"Yukari said it lies on the boundary itself…" Suika reminded them.

"Then it must be somewhere in the field of illusion." contemplated the shrine maiden. "But that's hardly a solid lead for us."

"But you said you've been there, haven't you?" the outsider asked her.

"I'm not even sure about it." argued Reimu, apparently confused about the whole matter. "I guess I just found it by chance. I think if one is determined enough, he or she can eventually reach Mayohiga even despite the mind-confusing effect of the boundary. But it's just a theory."

She sighed and drank a cup full of sake in one go. "We're not any closer to finding Yukari just by knowing that she lives in Mayohiga…"

"No need to feel so blue, Reimu-san…" Yuyuko comforted her. "If Yukari ever comes to visit me again, I'll let her know about the people from the outside world."

"She's right." said Marisa suddenly. "We can't really do anything to make her show up when we want to. Let's just enjoy the hanami, like we do every year."

Reimu lowered her head in disappointment. She was intensely thinking about everything concerning the boundary youkai to the point when her head started to hurt. It's true that Yukari had always been unpredictable, but at the same time, Reimu felt like she knew her well enough to at least have a rough idea of what to expect from her. One of those things was an assumption that she was friendly to the people she was already familiar with and that she frequently, although irregularly, visited her friends and attended nearly all parties and festivals. The more Reimu tried thinking about it, the less certain she was about her own opinion. She couldn't tell if she should find Yukari's long absence as something that was to be expected, or something suspicious. She was even starting to doubt her own ability to resolve incidents. But… she had no choice at the moment. She had to admit Marisa's words – there's nothing she could do. At least not now. If anything should happen, there were at least more people, youkai and ghosts in Gensokyo who were now on a lookout for the missing youkai of boundaries and that alone increased the chances for a smooth resolution of this new incident.

"You're right, Marisa. She'll show up… some day…" she nodded reassuringly.

"Of course she will, ze! Cheer up, Reimu!" Marisa tapped her shoulder.

"You want some of my sake, Reimu-chan?" said Suika, generously offering her gourd.

"Yes, I think I'll have some." smiled the shrine maiden and drank a decent amount.

* * *

Then, the actual hanami party started. No more serious talk about incidents from the past, no more history lessons, lectures or warnings, just a joyful and cheerful atmosphere of a pleasantly cool late-spring evening. Sake was flowing like a river… at least down Suika's throat, but others drank a decent amount as well. Eventually, Kyouichi's nervous feelings faded completely away. Marisa started singing some unknown songs. Her singing was terribly off due to her drunken state, but everyone was having fun, so it didn't really matter. Then Remilia asked her maid, Sakuya to sing something as well.

"Me? Sing? Are you serious, my lady?" she asked with a humble and nervous voice.

"Yes. Why don't you show that witch how singing should be done?"

"B… but mistress… I… don't really think I can sing…" said Sakuya bashfully and blushed.

She was actually kind of cute. At least when she was talking to Remilia.

"Come on, Sakuya, sing already! That's an order!" insisted the vampire girl.

The maid blushed even more, but she obediently nodded. "Very well… If that is what you wish, my lady…"

She took a silent deep breath and began singing.

"Sakura, sakura

noyama mo sato mo

mi-watasu kagiri

kasumi ka kumo ka

asahi ni niou

sakura, sakura

hanazakari… "

It was a popular traditional Japanese folk song about the spring and cherry blossoms. Sakuya sang very beautifully and everyone just silently stared at her in amazement. Her voice was trembling a little, because she was nervous, but she put her heart into the song and the result was simply sublime. Kyouichi never thought that a song which he heard a zillion times could sound so… refreshing. Sakuya sang it in a slightly different melody than the original version, but that was not the only thing that appealed to the outsider. This maid had a natural talent.

"…Wow…" uttered everyone in awe after Sakuya finished the last strophe.

"That was… beautiful…" said Kyouichi while clapping his hands.

"That's my line…" said Remilia, who probably didn't even know until now that her maid was actually a very good singer. She wiped a tear forming in the corner of her eye with a laced handkerchief and gave Sakuya a very serious look. "Sakuya…"

"Yes, mistress…?"

"From now on, you're going to sing to me every day before bedtime."

The maid lowered her head, trying to hide her blushing face and silently muttered: "As you wish, Remilia-sama."

"My… What a pretty song~." said Yuyuko-sama with her eyes closed. "And so appropriate for a hanami~. Would you like to sing something too, Youmu?"

"Eeeeh?!" called out the surprised half-ghost, showing both of her palms and shaking them refusingly. "No, no, no… I won't sing. It's embarrassing…" she blushed even more than Sakuya when she was asked to sing and even her ghostly half seemed to have slightly changed its color. "Your voice is much more beautiful than mine, Yuyuko-sama…"

"That's not true…" said the ghost princess, disagreeingly shaking her head. "Your voice is very beautiful and cute, Youmu~. But if you don't want to sing, I'm not going to force you."

Youmu sighed with relief and took a sip of sake from her cup. Perhaps there were even more good singers in this group, but it appeared that no one except Marisa and Suika were actually in the mood for it. And so, they started telling jokes.

* * *

"Hey, hey,…" called Suika, waving her arms to get some attention. "How many fairies do you need to make their total IQ equal 50? All of them! Hahahaha!"

The joke was terribly lame, but everyone laughed anyway, since their mood was uplifted by the intoxicating effect of sake.

"Oh, I know one too…" said Marisa, raising her hand. "A vampire kid runs crying to his vampire mom from school. "Mom, mom! We need to go to the hospital, hurry!" "What's the matter, son?" asks the mother. "I need an urgent tongue amputation!" cries the panicked kid. "Why on Earth would you need that?" wonders his mom. "Because… because my teacher told me today that I've got the gift of the silver tongue!"

One lame joke after another… Still, everyone was laughing heartily.

"Can I tell a joke too?" asked little Akyuu-chan, shyly raising her hand.

"But of course you can, ze!" affirmed Marisa. "Quiet everyone, Akyuu-chan wants to tell a joke too… Go ahead, Akyuu-chan."

The little chronicler waited until everyone was quiet and spoke with a little shy voice. "Okay… umm… Oh, sorry… I forgot…"

…

…

…

Everyone stared at each other blankly for a couple of seconds, before they realized that the joke was already told.

"Hahahahahaa~!" Marisa burst into laughter. "That's a good one! You're so forgetful, Akyuu-chan… Hahaha!"

Of course, a chronicler who was known to remember everything could only joke about forgetfulness. It was a very entertaining evening, especially interesting for the outsider. But one thing he wasn't too sure about was the hanami itself.

"Umm… I hate to be a spoilsport, but… weren't we supposed to be watching the falling cherry petals on a hanami?"

* * *

As if waiting only for his call, a gentle gust of cool evening breeze scattered a flurry of beautiful pink cherry blossoms from the nearby sakura trees, which showered the whole shrine yard. Even though it was dark, the light provided by the fire and a couple of bamboo torches in front of the shrine illuminated the whole spectacle well enough.

"So pretty…" whispered amazed Remilia.

Youmu anticipatively raised her right palm to her eye height and caught a single sakura petal, clasping her hand gently, but tightly. She had her eyes closed and it looked like she was making a wish.

Alice did something similar, although for catching the cherry petals, she used her magically controlled doll, Shanghai.

Yuyuko-sama also took a break from eating to look around. "It's interesting that the cherry trees in Gensokyo are still in bloom. We already have summer in the Netherworld…"

"That's because the spring arrived a bit later in Gensokyo this year." reasoned the black-haired host of the hanami. "Wouldn't you happen to know anything about it, Yuyuko?" she looked at her suspiciously.

"You can remain calm, my dear Reimu-san. I don't make the same mistakes twice." replied Yuyuko reassuringly.

"Yeah, it's the same in the outside world. Not just Gensokyo." confirmed Kyouichi, dissolving Reimu's suspicion towards Yuyuko-sama.

Suddenly, the gentle breeze gradually grew stronger, creating a brief cherry petal storm, making everyone at the shrine close their eyes before it stopped.

"What's with that sudden wind?" asked Marisa, holding on to her hat, so it wouldn't get blown away. "Could it be this year's first storm?"

"You can hardly have a storm without any storm clouds, Marisa." retorted Alice with a bit of sarcasm in her tone.

As the witch looked up to the dark sky, the moon in its last quarter phase reflected in her eyes.

The few clouds which could be seen were moving too slowly, considering the strong wind blowing from northwest at the shrine yard. It was as if the sudden gust was pinpointed at the Hakurei Shrine.

Suddenly, a bright flash of white light temporarily blinded everyone, who was looking at the sky like Marisa.

"What the hell?!" cried the magician, covering her eyes.

"Ayayayaya~!" came an unfamiliar girl's voice from somewhere above. "What do we have here?"

"Oh, good grief…" grumbled Reimu while rubbing her eyes. "What is she doing here?"

"Why the grumpy attitude, miko of the Hakurei Shrine?" asked the unknown voice in response. "I was just on my way home when I noticed some lights at the shrine, so I came to look, and what do you know… It seems you're having some sort of party!"

"Yes~! We're having a hanami!" called Suika with her high-pitched voice. "Won't you come and join us?"

"Oh, Suika-san, good evening." the unknown girl greeted her. "Oh… and even Remilia-sama and Yuyuko-sama… and the 9th child of Miare… wow. Such celebrities… This will make a headline."

Another sequence of bright flashes accompanied by clicking sounds followed.

As soon as Kyouichi finally regained his sight, he looked upwards to see this unexpected visitor. However, all he managed to make out was a dark slim silhouette of a young female floating high above the shrine. She appeared to be holding something in front of her face and she slowly began to descend.

As she touched the ground, the light from the fire revealed her appearance. She had semi-long black hair and red eyes. Her clothing consisted of a simple white blouse and a short black skirt. She also wore a pair of black knee socks and bright red geta shoes. On her head she had a small red tokin with two strings adorned with white feather puffs. The thing she was holding in her right hand was a camera of some sort and a notepad in her left. She also had a bright orange leaf-shaped fan hanging around her wrist by a string. Kyouichi's basic knowledge about youkai immediately associated this girl to the tengu race.

"Alright, Aya, come and take a seat." said Reimu to the tengu. "I guess I should have expected a few uninvited guests after all."

"Oh, thank you very much, Reimu." bowed the tengu girl thankfully. "But look at this gathering…" she paused to take another picture, "...forgive me, but I just can't help it." she said with a smile and kept snapping more shots of the guests. That's when she noticed someone she never saw before.

"Oh… Who's that handsome young man over there?" said the tengu, looking at the only male guest of the hanami.

Kyouichi turned his head to look behind him, to see what handsome young man she was talking to.

"Yes, I meant you." she said to the outsider, giggling amusedly.

Kyouichi turned back to face her and pointed his thumb at his chest and mustered an asking look.

"Yes, you." nodded the girl with the camera. "You're the only handsome young man here at the moment."

"Really?" asked the outsider silently. "In that case…" he slowly took his glasses off his face and made an offering gesture. "…Here. I'm sure you might need these more than I do…"

The tengu suddenly began to snicker, gradually shifting into hearty laughter. "Ahahahahaha~! And he's even quite funny… Don't worry. I have very good eyesight as well as hearing… What's your name, stranger?"

The outsider put his glasses back on and bowed respectfully. "Kyouichi Ishimaru. Pleased to meet you."

"Are you from the village, Kyouichi-san?" inquired the curious tengu.

The outsider shrugged. "More or less… I'm from a village called Tokyo."

"Aaaah, Tokyo. A nice quiet little… Wait a minute… There's no such village in Gensokyo! Are you… from the outside world?"

"Yeah… An outsider." confirmed Kyouichi. "Sucks to be me, doesn't it?"

"Oh, I see… An outsider…" repeated the tengu girl thoughtfully. "How long have you been here? I don't think I've seen you before."

"A week."

The girl scribbled something into her notepad and looked up at Kyouichi again. "Mind if I made a little interview with you?"

"Uhh… sure, why not?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk…" sounded Reimu, disapprovingly shaking her head. "You want to ask him a ton of questions and he doesn't even know your name?"

The tengu girl gasped. "Ayayayaya~! You're right! I completely forgot… My apologies, Kyouichi-san." she cleared her throat and struck a sort of fashion model pose. "Aya Shameimaru, a friendly tengu reporter and journalist, at your service."

Kyouichi's jaw dropped a little, as he most certainly already heard and read that name. And more than once. "Aya-san…! The journalist and editor of the Bunbunmaru Newspaper…"

Aya smiled sweetly. "Oh, have you already read some of my newspapers?"

"Uhh… not really." confessed the outsider. "But we're just learning about the tengu at school. We were even supposed to bring a few old issues of some tengu newspapers to school for homework, but I forgot… Ouch…" he rubbed his forehead upon the recollection of Keine-sensei's punishment.

"Well, to tell the truth, Aya's articles are not always truthful." remarked the Hakurei shrine maiden.

"Still, Bunbunmaru is the best selling newspaper in Gensokyo and I'm proud of it." said Aya, proudly raising her head. "Now, how about that interview?"

"Okay, Aya-san, but you do realize that I'm drunk?"

"Obviously not too much since you can still lead a conversation." Aya pointed out. "Okay then…" she sat down on one of the pillows between Remilia and Yuyuko, turned to a new page in her notepad and began the interview.

"Okay, so I know your name and that you're an outsider who's been in Gensokyo for one week…" preambled the tengu reporter. "Can you tell me your first feeling when you found out that you've been spirited away?"

"My first feeling… Well… fear, panic, anxiety, confusion, bewilderment, hopelessness…"

"Those are all negative feelings, Kyouichi-san… Surely there must be something you found pleasant here, no?"

"Well, it's true that I've been looking forward to this hanami, but otherwise…"

"Oh, that's right, the hanami…" Aya cut off his sentence. "How did you even get an invitation? It's not likely Reimu-san invites strangers, much less outsiders."

"Oh, that's simple, ze." sounded Marisa suddenly. "He donated nearly a thousand yen to the shrine on his first day in Gensokyo. Still not enough to earn the special miko service, but it's a good start, ze…"

Just as Marisa finished that sentence Reimu conjured up a tiny white danmaku sparkle and launched it straight at Marisa's face.

"Kyaah~! That tickles…"

"Oh, I see now…" muttered Aya and she wrote a couple of lines into her notepad. "I've done several interviews with outsiders over the past 125 years, but none of them were too willing to answer my questions."

"Um, Aya-san?" asked Kyouichi when he got an idea.

"No need to be so formal, Kyouichi. Just call me Aya, or Aya-chan."

"Well then, Aya, have you heard about the recent incident in Gensokyo?"

The tengu reporter's eyes narrowed as she leaned closer. "New incident?"

"Yes." confirmed Reimu, shifting Aya's attention to herself. "A large number of outsiders have made their way into Gensokyo from a place far away. Tens, maybe hundreds. All on the same day."

"This is really interesting." remarked the tengu as she scribbled more notes. "What do you plan to do about this, Reimu?"

"I want to talk to Yukari."

"I don't see the problem. Isn't she your friend?"

"She isn't any closer friend to me than you are." retorted the miko with a bitter tone. "And yes, there is a problem. No one has seen her ever since last autumn."

"Hmm, that's really strange…" muttered Aya, not even bothering to look at Reimu as she kept writing. "I already have an idea for a new article – The great youkai of boundaries – missing."

"I bet she's just hiding and having a laugh."

"Or maybe she needs help." speculated Aya and kept on writing a made up story about Yukari being kidnapped.

"She will need help when I get my hands on her." grumbled Reimu.

"But what if Aya is right?" wondered the outsider. "You said yourself that Yukari's ancient even for a youkai. What if she died or something?"

"Oh~! That's even more dramatic!" Aya called out, crossed out a few lines of her text and began editing her story. "This is gonna be the article of the month! Has the powerful mistress of all boundaries finally passed on? Read all about it…"

Aya's words made a sudden and powerful impact on Reimu's emotions. "That's crap!" she screamed furiously. "There's no way! Impossible…"

Aya was slightly shocked by Reimu's sudden outburst of anger. She put down her pen and looked straight into the shrine maiden's eyes. "Why would it be impossible? Even youkai have their lifespans. Well… some of them don't. I wonder if Yukari's one of them immortal ones… But if she really died, that would be…"

"Yukari Yakumo is NOT dead!" shouted Reimu, smashing her clenched fist against her knee.

"That's right~!" called Suika resolutely.

"I can only agree with Reimu-san here." said Yuyuko with a rare serious expression on her face.

"How can you say that with such certainty, I wonder?" asked the reporter, giving Reimu a provocative smirk.

"The barrier, Aya! The barrier…!" replied Reimu with a wild gesture. "The barrier draws magic power from Yukari herself. My ancestors who helped to create it made only one portion of the Great Boundary. The major part, however, was done by Yukari and strengthened over the years by several other youkai. If I died, the barrier COULD collapse, but if Yukari died, the barrier would surely fall. And since I can sense the barrier's power strengthening, I can most certainly say that Yukari is doing just fine."

"Oh, I see…" muttered Aya and nodded understandingly. "Those are some strong arguments against my story… Too bad… I guess I'll just have to redo it into something less interesting… Come to think of it, it really wouldn't surprise me if a youkai with such powers really was immortal."

"You could make yourself useful by helping me find her. If you think you can…"

"Oh~! A challenge! I like that. And I take it!" said Aya excitedly. "My intelligence gathering skills are the best in all of Gensokyo!" she stated while striking another funny-looking action pose, but the very next second, she returned her body to normal standing position upon realizing something. "But… uh… where do I start?"

"You're the reporter, you stupid crow! Figure something out!" shouted Reimu back at her.

"Just kidding…" smiled Aya suddenly. "Of course I have a plan. I'll write an article about the outsiders and tell some of my friends to be on a lookout for Yakumo-san. We'll be monitoring the entire Gensokyo and as soon as we see her, I'll let you know, Reimu."

"How are you going to monitor the whole Gensokyo?" asked Kyouichi.

"I'll answer you with a question: What's the first thing you notice when you come to Gensokyo?"

Kyouichi pulled his lower lip in a thoughtful expression. "Hmm… The first thing I noticed…" he mumbled as he looked around him. "Oh, yeah – there sure is a lot of girls here! Not that I'm complaining or anything, hehehe~!"

"Uhh… well, I actually meant the Youkai Mountain."

"Oh, the mountain…"

"Besides, Gensokyo's population is pretty much 50 – 50 gender-wise." remarked the crow tengu.

"So what's with the mountain?" wondered the outsider.

"You're not too bright are you?" smiled Aya as she curiously raised her eyebrow. "It's the best vantage point in Gensokyo. We, the tengu can see perfectly even over great distances, so it's easy for us to monitor things happening at the Misty Lake just as well as near, let's say, Muenzuka or, for example, the Nameless Hill, which lie beyond the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Even at night, we can see perfectly, so if Yukari-sama appears in the open, we'll know. We can't see Eientei, though, but I'll be sure to inform them to keep a lookout."

"Okay… I appreciate your help, Aya-san. Thank you." bowed the outsider thankfully.

Aya made a brushing-off gesture "Oh, don't mention it. If my newspaper can contribute to resolving an incident, it will become even more popular. But don't get me wrong. I don't do this just for personal gain. Reimu-chan is a friend to me… despite the way she usually acts. And friends are supposed to help each other."

Reimu was silent for a while, but as the other girls resumed their idle chatter, she muttered a barely audible "Thank you, Aya…"

* * *

The mood at the shrine gradually returned back to cheerful and carefree. Aya was so excited to interview everyone that she couldn't decide whom to ask first.

"Do you even realize what great honor it is that you're sitting here with some of Gensokyo's most powerful and influential people?" she asked the outsider.

"It sure is." nodded the young man. "I'm glad to have met you all. It's even… hard to believe."

"Oh, come on~! We're no celebrities." said Suika while shaking her head.

"Speak for yourself, oni." said the childish vampire, Remilia. "The outsider should be aware who's he dealing with."

"My, my~! It's an honor to be with someone from high society~!" said Yuyuko as she looked admiringly at Remilia.

"Uh… Yuyu-sama…" sounded Youmu while tapping her lady's shoulder. "You're from high society as well… You're a princess."

Aya decided to interview Remilia first, while the others just quietly listened and enjoyed the snacks and drinks. Some were paying attention to the interview, some were looking upwards and admiring the slowly falling cherry blossoms. All of a sudden, Yuyuko-sama clapped her hands and pointed at the sky.

"Oh, look, look~! It's Lily White~! Ahh… so cute~!"

Even Remilia and Aya focused their attention to the dark evening sky, looking at the direction where Yuyuko's finger pointed.

Then, for a brief moment, even Kyouichi took a glimpse of a small dark figure flying over the shrine yard, leaving behind a trail of bright pink sparkles resembling cherry blossoms, which slowly faded and disappeared in the darkness.

"Lily-chan, Lily-chan~! Come here~!" called Yuyuko with her sweet voice.

"Who's Lilly White?" asked Kyouichi, still scouring the sky and the sakura treetops.

"She's a fairy who announces the arrival of spring." explained Youmu. "It's a bit unusual to see her here since the spring is almost over."

"D-did you say fairy?" asked the outsider, unable to hide his worries.

"Are you trying to tell me you're afraid of fairies?" asked Suika. "Ahahahahaha~! You're a funny human."

"There's nothing to laugh at, Suika-san~." said Yuyuko while raising her finger like a mother telling her child not to misbehave. "Everyone has some sort of phobia… Youmu-chan, for example, is afraid of ghosts~."

…

A dead silence came about. Youmu's ghostly half again began to gain a pinkish hue as she lowered her head, letting her short white hair hide her face.

"Huh?" uttered Kyouichi with a dumb expression.

"Myon~." sounded Youmu's desperate voice.

"She's afraid of ghosts? But Yuyuko-sama is a ghost as well."

"B-but… Yuyuko-sama's different… Besides… it was just one instance when I got really frightened…" mumbled Youmu quietly. "I normally train my swordsmanship on ghosts that wander into Hakugyokurou."

"Maybe because she's too afraid of them, so she keeps driving them off." remarked Yuyuko teasingly.

"You slash ghosts with your swords?" asked Kyouichi in amusement.

Yuyuko gave him the reply instead of Youmu. "Yes, they're very special swords. The longer one is called Roukanken. It was forged by youkai and it can cut through nearly anything – even ghosts. Youmu keeps saying that it can kill 10 ghosts in one slash."

"What happens to the ghosts that get uhh…"killed" or whatever?"

"You can't kill a ghost, but the Roukanken can actually make them simply reincarnate. The shorter blade, Hakurouken can cut through people's confusion. It can be only used by the members of Konpaku family. If it hits a human, it will cause discomfort and a little bit of pain. When used on ghosts, it will make them achieve enlightenment – meaning they permanently enter the afterlife in Heaven or the Netherworld if they like."

"Permanently?" asked confused Kyouichi. "What do you mean?"

"The Netherworld is something like a temporary place for souls that await reincarnation, but many souls just like it there so much that they completely forget to reincarnate and settle there. I keep telling Youmu that she shouldn't practice on ghosts, but she just doesn't listen. But otherwise, she does almost everything I ask."

The half-ghost girl slowly raised her head. "You saw me practice, Yuyuko-sama?"

"Yes." nodded the beautiful princess of the Netherworld. "Almost every morning… You're very devoted to your duties and to your training, Youmu…"

"Umm, well…" Youmu faltered for a second, "It's not that I intentionally disobey your requests, Yuyuko-sama, it's just…"

"That's okay, Youmu-chan…" Yuyuko put a comforting palm on Youmu's head. "Everyone has some sort of phobia…"

"I guess so…" muttered Youmu thoughtfully and raised her eyes again to the dark sky to watch the fluttering cherry blossoms.

"Yeah, and I had an unpleasant experience with fairies, so I get nervous whenever I see one." confessed Kyouichi.

"You don't need to be afraid of Lily-chan~." reassured the ghostly princess. "She's a cute little fairy who heralds the arrival of spring. Oh…! Look, there she is again~!"

As Kyouichi looked up for the second time, he saw a clear image of a fairy who was about the size of a pre-teen child, dressed in a white one-piece dress with red wave pattern outlining the edges and a matching hat. She had long blond hair and a pair of white feathered wings, like a little angel. She was flying over the shrine yard and releasing streams of those glowing pink cherry blossoms from her palms.

"Her danmaku is so pretty~!" cooed Yuyuko delightfully.

Lily made a circle above the gathered people in front of the shrine and drew a pretty flower-shaped pattern with her danmaku that slowly fell to the ground. Kyouichi wondered if the fairy was welcoming the late arriving spring or saying her goodbye for this year. In any case, the spectacle she provided was truly beautiful and Aya didn't hesitate to take a few pictures of that light show.

"Oh, this will be a nice addition to my collection." said the tengu reporter as she was checking the pictures she just took. Her camera was something like a smaller version of the once popular Polaroid cameras in the outside world, so it printed out pictures almost immediately after the shot was taken.

"Oooh~! And this shot is even more interesting, hehehe~." she turned the next picture towards Akyuu, Reimu, Suika, Kyouichi and Youmu. Somehow she managed to capture the exact moment when Lily was positioned right above the camera's finder, revealing the fairy's undergarments.

Reimu gave Aya a scornful look while she covered Akyuu-chan's eyes. "Put that thing away you perverted tengu."

"It will be a nice addition to my other collection." grinned Aya mischievously as she put the pictures into her folding portfolio.

* * *

Even though Lily White disappeared quite a while ago, Kyouichi still curiously stared into the night sky, but the only trace of light he could see was that of the moon and the stars. He shrugged and lowered his head back into default position. The hanami went on almost until dawn, when the first guests began to depart or fell asleep right on the spot. One of the first to leave was Remilia, who announced that she was getting tired. She was probably unamused to just sit there and stuff herself with snacks or perhaps disappointed that she couldn't bite Kyouichi in the neck with so many witnesses around. After she bowed to everyone at the shrine she took off into the black sky, followed by her trusty and loyal maid, Sakuya. Soon after their departure, Akyuu-chan seemed to have nodded off from the sake right on Reimu's lap. The shrine maiden was overjoyed to have the cute little chronicler rest on her thighs, but she couldn't stay in that position all night. Marisa was trying to make Alice drink some more sake, but she only managed to spill it over herself. The witch had obviously drunk enough for today. Yuyuko was of course perfectly fine and sober, since she was immune to all the negative side effects of overeating or drinking too much. Youmu was a different story, though. Her body was apparently much more prone to the intoxicating effects of alcohol than that of a normal person. She was trying her best not to fall asleep, bumping her head several times into Kyouichi's shoulder and again straightening herself up and apologizing herself. Alice seemed to be fine and she was answering Aya's questions. Suika had surprisingly passed out; her body slumped on the blanket, her arms stretched out to sides and her chest heaving up and down in a slow rhythm. Even oni had their limits and Suika drank enough sake tonight to fill up two bathing tubs. As for Kyouichi, he knew that he drank more than a healthy amount of sake, but he didn't feel like losing his consciousness over it. That feeling lasted only until he stood up to relieve his legs from the stiffness of sitting for hours in the same position. His head became clouded and the whole world was spinning in a dizzying motion.

"Ungh! Bad idea…" he uttered as he fell on his butt. While he was sitting he didn't feel so dizzy.

"Where do you think you're going?" asked the shrine maiden with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh… I thought it was high time I went home too… But the way I see it… I'm going to have to crawl to the village."

"Have you lost your mind?! You'll get yourself killed if you go alone and in this state."

"Aren't you… ugh… coming with me? *hic*"

"No way! You're staying right here until morning… Or until you sober up."

"But where will I sleep?"

"In the shrine, dummy. Just like everyone else."

"Everyone else?"

Just as he asked that question, he felt something heavy falling into his lap. As he looked down, he saw Youmu, who just like Akyuu and Suika, succumbed to the alcohol and tiredness and was now peacefully sleeping.

"Is there even enough room in your shrine for all of us?" he asked facing the shrine maiden again.

"Of course there is." Reimu reassured him. "But if you have any strength left, I'm going to need your help bringing the sleeping ones inside."

"I think I can help you… Just give me a minute, okay?"

Kyouichi took several slow deep breaths, carefully grabbed Youmu and slowly stood up so that he wouldn't get dizzy.

"Are you feeling alright?" Reimu asked him as she took the sleeping chronicler into her arms and slowly carried her into the shrine.

"I guess so… I must have gotten up too fast that time, so my head began to spin. But now I feel alright."

"Just like a prince carrying the Sleeping Beauty~." stated Yuyuko-sama as she watched the scene with amusement.

"Aren't you going to help me put her on a futon, Yuyuko-sama? She's your… err… Youmu after all…"

Yuyuko only giggled behind the fan and said: "Please take good care of her."

"I've already set the futons up in the shrine" announced Reimu, taking slow, careful steps. "Just follow me."

Walking carefully so that he wouldn't wake Youmu up, Kyouichi made his way safely inside the shrine, where he already saw over a half a dozen futons stretched out all over the main room.

"You can put her over here." whispered the shrine maiden, pointing at a futon right next to the one where Akyuu was sleeping.

Kyouichi gently put Youmu down, unstrapped the swords from her back, put away her shoes and covered her up. Her ghostly half was curled up on the floor next to her, as if it was sleeping as well.

"Okay, now to bring Suika in."

Kyouichi quietly walked out of the shrine, ready to carry Suika in his arms. As he stepped outside, he took some more deep breaths of the cool fresh air which helped him fight away the drowsiness at least a little.

"Did you take care of Youmu?" asked Yuyuko with a wry smile.

Kyouichi supported the sleeping oni's head with his left arm and her legs with the right one.

"She's sound asleep and should be okay by morning." replied Kyouichi as he lifted Suika from the blanket. "By the way, do ghosts even need to sleep?"

"I guess they do. I go to sleep just like I always used to." answered the princess of the Netherworld.

"I never thought ghosts could eat, drink and sleep." thought the outsider to himself as he carried Suika towards the shrine. Aya, Marisa and Alice were also looking tired, yawning every moment.

"I think we should call it a day and have a nice long sleep until noon." suggested Marisa.

"Yeah, I think I've burned up my energy for today." said Aya, covering her mouth while yawning.

"I think I'll stay here over the night too…" murmured Alice as she stretched her arms up.

Kyouichi stopped just a few steps in front of the doorway to the shrine.

"This will be a bit tricky…" he thought as he saw that the oni's horns would collide with the doorframe if he took another step. He could ask Reimu to open the door wider, but the shrine maiden was nowhere to be seen. Kyouichi just approached the doorway diagonally, letting Suika's right horn in, then carefully spinning around his vertical axis while taking a step inside, thus successfully taking her through the doorway. He put her on the next vacant futon and covered her up.

"Whew… this reminds me of one of my earlier part-time jobs with a moving company…" he muttered to himself, looking around the shrine to see where Reimu disappeared to.

The red skirt landing on top of the folding screen in the corner of the room answered his question. Reimu was just undressing herself.

"Have you brought Suika in already?" asked Reimu's voice from behind the folding screen.

"Yeah, somehow." replied the outsider. "Now we still have to clean up all those plates, bowls and cups we were using."

"Just bring them in and put them next to the stove, we'll clean them up tomorrow." said Reimu nonchalantly and she hanged the upper part of her shrine maiden outfit over the folding screen. "I'll come and help you as soon as I get changed."

"Alright." said Kyouichi and stepped outside the shrine, ready to bring in the dishes and cups.

Surprisingly, Yuyuko-sama was the first who took the initiative in cleaning the shrine yard up and she had already put all of the plates on a stack. Kyouichi thanked her for the help on his and Reimu's behalf and took the stack of plates back inside. The other three girls quickly finished their drinks and snacks and joined the cleaning up, but not without noisy laughter and clumsy drunken steps. Just as Kyouichi brought in the first stack of plates, Reimu was already dressed in a pure white long nightgown. Without her red ribbon in her hair, Kyouichi almost didn't recognize her. She just walked right past him and out of the shrine.


	18. A Very Close Encounter

"Hey, keep it down!" she scolded the noisy girls who were trying to pick up the drinking cups.

"Oh… I don't remember Kaguya-san being invited to the shrine…" Marisa blurted out and began laughing again.

"Oh, princess, princess!" called Aya at Reimu. "Would you mind me having a small interview?" she asked through her snickering and took out her camera to take a series of pictures.

"Cut it out, you two!" retorted the shrine maiden. "There are people who are already sleeping, you know."

"But Kaguya-sama, it's so rare to see you outside Eientei, let alone here at the Hakurei Shrine…" commented Aya with evident sarcasm. "Oh, and you cut your hair shorter too…"

"Ha, ha… Very funny, Aya. Now why don't you help me by taking the pillows and blankets back inside?"

Aya snickered and bowed mockingly. "Your wish is my command, my princess."

"Hey, Reimu, Reimu!" called Marisa with tears in her eyes from laughing so hard, "Raise your right hand up and down like this and say: Eirin, Eirin! Help me, Eirin! Hahahahahaha~!"

"Shut up already!"

"What's all that shouting about?" asked Kyouichi who curiously popped his head out of the shrine.

Marisa who just walked past him only leisurely waved her hand. "Reimu's at it again…"

Kyouichi gave Marisa a suspicious look. "How did you piss her off this time?"

"Me? I have no idea what you're talking about." denied the witch, but her insidious snickering gave her away.

"Reimu-san looks pretty with her hair untied like that, doesn't she~?" asked Yuyuko's voice from behind Kyouichi.

"Waaah! How did you…? Damn…! Don't scare me like that, Yuyuko-sama." said the outsider holding a palm on his chest. "Weren't you outside just a second ago?"

"Maybe~." said the ghostly girl with an innocent smile.

Kyouichi wanted to ask her how did she manage to get inside the shrine in an instant, but upon realizing that she was a ghost, he just asked her something else.

"So, what's got Reimu so fired up again?"

"Marisa-san and Aya-san thought that she looks a bit like Kaguya-san…"

Before Kyouichi could ask who Kaguya-san was, Reimu was already entering the shrine with a bunch of pillows in her arms, followed by Marisa, Alice and Aya, carrying some stuff as well. The outsider took a step aside to let the girls in, his sight focused on Reimu. Yuyuko-sama was right – Reimu's hair looked pretty even without any accessories. It seemed the girls managed to take all the things from the shrine yard inside in one go.

"Kyouichi~!" called Reimu at the outsider suddenly.

"Yes, Reimu-san?" he turned back to see the shrine maiden with a bucket of water by her feet.

"Could you please put out the fire?"

"Why of course I can." he obliged and took the bucket.

* * *

The weak fire that was still burning in the shrine yard went out with a loud hiss as Kyouichi splashed some water over it. Then he noticed that there were still several lamps and bamboo torches lit that were providing some additional light. He thought it would be a good idea to put them out as well. He found a ladle-shaped metal tool for putting out torches right next to the donation box and went over to the first torch. Its flame went out without a sound, leaving only the strong scent of burnt oil.

Then he repeated the process with all the remaining lamps in the shrine yard. Once he was done, he noticed some dim light coming from somewhere below the torii. Just as he suspected, there was a last pair of torches lit at the beginning of the stairway. He carefully walked down the dark stone stairway lined by thick trees from both sides. As he made his way closer to the last lamps, he noticed it got a little darker. It was strange, since it already was a few hours past midnight and the dark night simply shouldn't get any darker. Even the light from the torches seemed to be weakening the closer he went to them.

"What's going on?" he muttered to himself as he stopped to look around. The moon was now but a dim gray blob in the pitch-black sky and the stars could no longer be seen. It wasn't just the sky. The whole world seemed to fade into deep darkness. No need to say that Kyouichi was frightened like a child.

"This isn't good." he dropped the torch extinguisher on the ground and hurried up the stone stairs, or to be exact, tried to. By now it was already so dark he couldn't see anything at all. He was literally blind, and as such, he tripped over the first stone step and fell down.

"What the hell?! What's happening?! Help!" he shouted as loudly as he could.

He clumsily stood up again and tried to walk up the stairs while tracing them with his hands.

Not a second later, something hit him heavily from the front and knocked him down to the ground. Then he felt something clawing at his chest violently.

"Aaaaaah~!" he screamed from pain.

Something definitely attacked him, but he couldn't see anything, so he just instinctively covered his chest with his arms.

"Damn it! Remilia, is that you?!" he shouted into the darkness, but got no other answer than a series of nasty scratches, tearing his sleeves apart and cutting his wrists. His heart raced like mad from panic and his mind was desperately trying to come up with anything that could help him in his current situation.

"What did Marisa tell me back then? Don't struggle and let her take a few pints of blood if I get attacked?" he thought as he struggled against his unseen foe. "Like hell I'm gonna do that!" he shouted and tried to return a few blows to whatever was sitting on him and ripping his clothes into shreds. He managed to hit something, but not with enough force to knock it off from his body. Right after that, he could feel his right wrist being grabbed and forcefully pushed down to the ground. The attacker was apparently much stronger than Kyouichi. Then the outsider felt a very painful sensation on his left arm which was covering his chest and neck. It was just as if something bit him.

"Aaaaargh!" he let out another terrified scream as he felt the teeth sinking into his flesh. The creature's mouth was quite small though, so the bite wasn't all that serious, but it was painful nonetheless. Right after that, the thick, impenetrable darkness gradually faded as the creature was gnawing on Kyouichi's forearm. The outsider blinked a few times in disbelief as he saw what was attacking him. Sitting on top of his chest was a small girl dressed in a black vest and skirt, white blouse and a small red ribbon tied to the left side of her short blonde hair. Her bright-red eyes were focused on Kyouichi's neck. She was doubtlessly a youkai.

"Who the hell are you?!" asked the confused outsider, still trying to free himself from under his attacker's grip.

The red-eyed girl didn't pay any attention to his question and took a second bite at Kyouichi's bleeding forearm.

"Goddamn, that hurts!" he groaned and desperately kicked his feet.

The attacking girl let go of Kyouichi's right wrist and used her free hand to push away his left arm from his neck. Kyouichi saw that as an opportunity and punched her to the left side of her head with all his might. He had no time to feel bad about hitting a girl when his own life was at stake. Furthermore, he wasn't even sure if it wasn't just one of the ways this youkai masked its true form. Kyouichi's hit had enough force to knock out an evenly strong adult man, plus, it hit a vulnerable spot, so he thought he just managed to save his life… But he was wrong. The youkai girl didn't even seem to notice being hit and continued to bite and scratch at his poor left arm. He desperately repeated the hits into the same area only to make his knuckles hurt. The attacking youkai didn't even flinch.

"Aaaah! Get off me!" he screamed and punched, but he was simply no match.

Thinking that this would be the end of his short adventure in Gensokyo, he managed to find a small rock on the ground just within the reach of his right arm. Using the last amount of strength in his body, he grabbed the rock tightly in his palm. At the same time, he felt that his left arm was pushed aside, leaving his neck vulnerable to attack. It was literally a do-or-die situation with no room for error. He closed his eyes, clenched his teeth and swung his right arm with great force. This was enough to hurt even this youkai.

"Ack!" she screamed in a childish voice as she was grabbing her head. There was no blood anywhere, but she definitely felt the hit. Kyouichi didn't hesitate for a second and he slid from under her, kicked her down and ran to find cover in the nearby thicket of trees. The youkai girl took no more than 10 seconds to recover from the surprising blow and she was ready to fight again. However, Kyouichi was already hidden and watching her motionlessly.

"Aww… my dinner got away." groaned the youkai with a sad tone.

She took off into the air and levitated about 1 meter above ground. She then created some kind of dark sphere around her, enshrouding everything within a 5 meter radius.

"So this is what caused that sudden darkness…" thought Kyouichi, still trembling from fear and excitement. A small branch cracked under his weight and the youkai noticed it. Kyouichi could only see the big sphere of darkness getting dangerously close to him. He immediately grabbed a small rock from the ground and threw it somewhere away from his location.

"There you are~!" sounded the youkai's voice from the middle of the darkness as she followed the sound. Kyouichi even held his breath as she passed just a few meters away from him. Then something unexpected happened.

"Kyah! Ouch!" cried the youkai as she just bumped into a tree. Apparently, she couldn't see properly through her own darkness. That was probably what saved Kyouichi's life that night. That and a conveniently placed rock by his side… He waited there for well over ten minutes, crouching behind a tree, biting his nails. When the sounds of dull bumps and the youkai girl's voice could no longer be heard, he slowly stood up and returned to the shrine's stairway. The sun was already rising and Kyouichi took a look at his wounds.

"Aw, damn it… Just as soon as my first wounds heal up, I get new ones."

His left arm was in pretty bad shape with three deep bite marks and cuts from the youkai's nails. His chest was also crisscrossed with scratches, but they weren't too deep to cause serious bleeding. His clothes took the worst of it, though. His upper part of the kimono was torn into straps with only the right sleeve being intact. On the ground, he could see the remains from his white kimono lying scattered in the dirt and the rock he used to defend himself lay broken in two.

"Well, at least the hakama's still okay…" he summed up the damage tersely.

He slowly walked all the way up the stairs to the shrine yard when he saw Reimu in her nightgown nervously looking everywhere around.

"Over, here…" he moaned and waved his unhurt arm in the air to make her notice him.

"Kyouichi!" called Reimu with a relieved expression and ran towards the outsider.

As she saw his injuries, she gasped in shock. "What… what happened to you?"

"A youkai happened." answered the outsider, still unable to believe what just happened to him.

"What did I tell you about not going home on your own?!" she yelled at him angrily.

"I didn't… I just wanted to put out the torches in the shrine yard." said Kyouichi, looking back over his shoulder. "Heh… I guess they burned out already anyway… Now I believe you that the roads are dangerous."

"Kyouichi… I was so worried…" sighed the shrine maiden with a quiet, but very concerned voice. She tightly embraced the outsider as if to make sure he was still alive.

"Ow… It's not that I don't like you, Reimu-chan, but this kind of hurts…"

Reimu took a look at his left arm and turned away immediately. "This looks serious. You better go to Eientei…"

"Maybe… But first, I need some rest." said Kyouichi and yawned. He was barely able to stand on his feet and he wasn't even in a mood for talking. A good sleep is all he thought about at that moment.

"Of course, Kyouichi-kun. Please, let me help." said Reimu and helped to support Kyouichi's weight as she led him towards the shrine.

"Ugh…thanks, Reimu-chan…"

* * *

As soon as the two of them stepped inside, the idle chatter between Aya, Marisa and Alice immediately stopped to be replaced by dead silence.

"What the hell?!" asked Marisa with her eyes widened.

"Kyouichi-san…" uttered Aya, apparently too surprised to even take pictures.

"Oh, no~! He's hurt…" stated Yuyuko, who also looked worried.

"I'll tell you what happened to me… But after I get some sleep…" said the outsider with a hushed voice.

"We can't leave that arm of yours like that." said Reimu as she led him to a futon in the corner of the shrine. "You could get an infection."

"Well… Do you have anything for disinfection then?" asked Kyouichi, undressing the remains of his torn up kimono top.

"Yes, I've got a first aid box from Eirin." replied Reimu and went to fetch some disinfecting solution and a coil of bandages.

"Was it a youkai?" asked Marisa while Reimu was searching for the first aid box.

"Yeah… I think." nodded the outsider, checking his left arm again. "It'll probably take a few stitches and leave some scars…" he murmured to himself. "But still, I'm glad that I'm even alive…"

"Damn! That's really troubling." cursed the magician.

"What's worse, it all happened right under our noses." added Reimu who returned with the promised medicaments. "This will make everyone think that we're not competent enough to do our jobs of protecting people. You must think I'm a terrible shrine maiden now…" she said with a voice full of guilt and self-disappointment.

"What did that youkai look like? Where did it go? I'll Master Spark it to hell!" raged Marisa as she stood up.

"Sit down, Marisa." said Kyouichi, picking up a small brown bottle of hydrogen peroxide from the first aid box and giving it to Reimu. "She's already far away…"

"Now you seriously got me curious, Kyouichi-kun." said Aya, getting her notepad ready. "So you're saying that it was a female youkai, right?"

"That doesn't narrow our search much." grumbled Marisa as she nervously walked around the room. "There's thousands of female youkai in Gensokyo. Hell, millions if we count the fairies…"

Alice was the first to make a logical remark. "This doesn't look like a work of the fairies, Marisa."

"Okay, Kyouichi, this is probably going to hurt…" Reimu warned him before she poured the contents of the bottle on his injured arm.

Kyouichi halted her for a moment. "Oh, wait a sec." he said as he took a piece of cloth from his torn-up kimono and put it in his mouth to bite on. "M-kay… I'm weady…" he mumbled and turned away.

"So, did you manage to see what that youkai looked like?" inquired the tengu.

"Ow, yea… Fhe haw…Ah, screw this…" he cursed as he took out the cloth from his mouth to be able to talk clearly. "She was kind of short, had short blonde hair, red eyes and… Aaaaaaaaaaaa~!" he yelled from the sudden searing pain. His scream was loud enough to wake up Youmu, who quickly rose up with her sword ready.

"What the…?! Yuyuko-sama, are you alright?!"

"I'm perfectly fine, Youmu, thanks for asking~." replied Yuyuko with her ever calm voice. "But it looks like our new human friend had a recent run-in with a youkai."

"Really? When?" asked confused Youmu, still wielding her sword in a fighting stance.

"Excuse me, Youmu-san, but I'm in the middle of an interview here, so please ask your questions later." Aya interrupted her. "But you can listen and maybe your questions will be answered before you even ask them… So, Kyouichi-san, could you repeat your description of the youkai that attacked you?"

"Well, like I said: she was short, had short blonde hair and red eyes… Oh, and don't put that screaming part in there, okay?"

"What about clothes? What clothes was she wearing?"

"I don't know… some plain black dress with a vest and a white blouse. Nothing too conspicuous."

"And how did she attack you?"

"That's the strangest thing… I didn't see her coming. It was like the whole world went black for that moment. Then I got pounced on by her and knocked to the ground. I still didn't see a thing and only instinctively tried to push her away, but she was incredibly strong. Then I felt scratches all over my body and then a bite on my left arm. Then all of a sudden, the darkness faded and I was able to see her up-close."

"Say no more, Kyouichi." Marisa stopped him. "I know that youkai…"

"Rumia." muttered Reimu thoughtfully as she was binding the bandages around Kyouichi's forearm. "The youkai of darkness."

"Rumia-san, huh?" repeated Aya, putting a pen to her mouth. "Yeah, that description does sound like her… I knew she was dangerous for humans, but I never thought, she'd lurk for prey so close to the shrine."

"You know her too, Aya-san?" wondered Kyouichi.

"What did I tell you about calling me so formally?" she reminded him. "Yes, I know her… I know many youkai all over Gensokyo. I've even done an interview with her a couple of years back."

"She's just a small fry, but for a defenseless outsider…" said Reimu without finishing her sentence.

"Indeed." nodded the reporter. "Despite her appearance, she does eat humans. Now, to the question I'm most curious to hear an answer to: How did you manage to survive that encounter?"

Kyouichi exhaled and shrugged. "I guess I rolled double sixes on my luck check…"

"Could you be a bit more specific?"

"I hit her hard with a rock that was lying on the ground next to me. Then I ran for it. I hid behind a tree and she wasn't able to find me… I guess I really am a lucky bastard."

"That's quite impressive for an outsider." complimented the tengu while taking notes. "Kind of makes me feel bad that I wasn't there…"

"Would you help him or would you just stand back and take pictures?" asked Reimu with a disdainful look.

"Of course, I'd help him…and take a few shots while I'd be at it…" replied Aya with a smile.

"Then I could write an article about a brave heroine, Aya-chan…"

"Perhaps another time, you'll have such a chance." said Kyouichi jokingly. By that time, Reimu already treated his injured arm to the best of her abilities.

"There, that's all I can do for you… Make sure you go visit Eientei, okay?"

"I don't even know where that is. But some folks in the village might…"

"Right… Well, then I'll at least take you to the village when you're ready." promised Reimu and put away the leftover bandages back into the box.

"It's a little late now, but you could at least give him some protective blessing, no?" asked Marisa when she had calmed down and assumed sitting position on her futon.

Reimu slapped her forehead with her palm. "And I couldn't think of it sooner… I really am a terrible shrine maiden… I can't even protect people at my own doorstep."

"Nobody's blaming you, Reimu-chan." Kyouichi reassured her. "You can't seriously hope you'll be able to protect every single person in Gensokyo. It's impossible. It's me who should have listened to people's advice and warnings…"

"But it was me who told you to put out the fire…"

"What's happened has happened and none of us can change it. Besides, it was a valuable experience. A one which I will remember for the rest of my life, and another reason for me to find a way home. The sooner, the better. Now… why don't you tell me about that blessing Marisa mentioned?"

"Oh, yeah… The blessing." Reimu shook her head as if waking up from a trance. "Well, basically, as a shrine maiden, I can confer blessings upon people or cleanse them from evil spirits. The blessings can have various effects from good health, success at work to protection from youkai. I can even use some of them on myself, but unfortunately, the one for more donations doesn't seem to work…"

"So can you give me a protective blessing?" asked Kyouichi curiously.

"I can, but I shouldn't perform the ritual in my nightdress. But I'll give you a blessing when we wake up tomorrow… I mean today, since it's already morning."

She then stood up and put out all the lamps inside the shrine. The others made themselves comfortable on their futons and closed their eyes. Finally, Reimu crawled into her own yin-yang patterned futon and yawned before she fell asleep.

Despite experiencing another unpleasant event in Gensokyo, Kyouichi managed to fall asleep easily. He was still alive and that was all that mattered to him at the moment.

* * *

He woke up to a pleasant smell of something delicious. He opened his eyes and figured it was already around noon. The only person that was still sleeping was Suika. Everyone else was already awake. Just a few steps away from his futon, Reimu and Youmu were standing over a stove, preparing lunch. Both were wearing aprons on top of their regular clothes.

"Oh, I see… You put the meat in afterwards, huh?" asked Reimu, who was carefully learning some new recipe from Youmu.

"Yes, just wait until the onions fry to golden-brown, then put the rest of the vegetables in, let them fry for a minute or two and finally, put the meat in, pour in some water, cover the pot and let it cook for about 20 minutes." Youmu instructed her.

"Good afternoon morning to you, Kyouichi-san~." greeted Yuyuko-sama, sitting at the table, looking at him with her sweet smile.

The outsider yawned loudly before he managed to utter any words. "Yeah… Good afternoon to you too, Yuyuko-sama."

The girls at the stove looked back for a moment to greet him as well and returned back to cooking.

"How's your arm doing?" asked the shrine maiden while she was stirring something.

"It still hurts, but I'll make it." answered Kyouichi truthfully.

"That's good to hear." she said with relief. "Please wait a couple of minutes and the lunch will be ready. And since Youmu-san's helping me, today's lunch is guaranteed to be delicious."

"Youmu has many talents~." said Yuyuko matter-of-factly. "I think her cooking is at least as good as Sakuya-san's."

Youmu didn't say a word, but her ghostly half was blushing again. She got embarrassed even when Yuyuko-sama was praising her.

"Where are the others?" asked Kyouichi, since he didn't see anyone else inside the shrine.

Reimu was the first one to answer his question. "Marisa, Akyuu and Alice are drinking tea outside and Aya already went home."

"Need help with anything?"

"Are you kidding me? You want to help me even after what happened to you last night?" asked Reimu unbelievingly.

"I'm just hurt, not a cripple." replied Kyouichi as he was standing up. "And I really don't like when people pity me."

"I don't pity you. I'm just being considerate."

"Well, thank you for your concern, but I really am able to work. Fortunately, I'm right-handed, so I can still perform most tasks like usual."

"Well, if you insist, there's still quite a pile of unwashed plates over there…" said the shrine maiden while pointing at a stack of plates standing next to a large wooden bucket.

"Well then, I'll get right to it." said the half-naked outsider and started washing up right away.

Kyouichi could still use his left hand, since only his forearm was badly bitten. He didn't do the washing up as fast as he would with a healthy arm, but neither him, nor anyone else at the shrine was in much of a hurry, so he just worked at his leisure pace. He finished washing the last plate almost in-sync with Reimu and Youmu, who were just about to serve lunch.

Kyouichi took his place at the table, again sitting opposite to Yuyuko-sama. Reimu went to call the girls in, while Youmu served the food with great finesse.

Marisa, Alice and Akyuu were eager to hear Kyouichi retell the event from today's early morning, but he refused, convincing them that he already told them everything. He certainly wasn't in a mood for recalling that attack. Youmu interrupted their chatter with an announcement: "The meal is served. Hope you'll like it."

"Itadakimasu~."

Finally… Sweet silence. At least for this short moment while everyone was savoring the delicious taste of the meal, everyone was quiet. Kyouichi didn't hurry to gobble up his portion as he usually did. The curry made in a joint effort of Youmu and Reimu was even more delicious than his mom's home cooking and that was really something to say. The quiet atmosphere was suddenly interrupted by Suika.

"Good morning, everyone~!" she squealed through her yawn. "Something smells nice~. Hey… You're already eating! Wait for me~!"

She quickly got on her feet and hurried to the table, tripping over one of the futons and landing on another one. "Kyaaaah~!"

Her scream was followed by a silent thud as she was stretched on the floor.

"Hey, careful there…" smiled Kyouichi as he watched the little oni standing up and rubbing her knee. "You still don't look too sober, Suika…"

"You bet she isn't…" stated Reimu as a matter of fact. "Now, when was the last time you were sober, huh, Suika?" she asked and hummed thoughtfully. "I think I'd have to take a look at Akyuu-chan's chronicle for that… One of the early volumes."

"Oh, come on, Reimu~…" pouted Suika as she finally crawled to the table on all fours. "An oni that isn't drunk is either ill or a weirdo."

"Well, you're a weirdo regardless…" jabbed the shrine maiden at her. "Come over here and eat or there'll be nothing left…" she warned her. Then her eyes turned to Yuyuko-sama and she added: "You really ought to hurry before SOMEONE asks for seconds…"

"How much did you even drink yesterday?" asked Kyouichi as Suika sat down by his side again.

"I don't know… I don't measure it. I just drink till I drop." she replied nonchalantly, taking a ladle into her little hand.

"Heh… I think you'd really get along well with Naota-san." chuckled the outsider and took another piece of meat with his chopsticks.

"Who's Naota-san~?" asked the curious little oni as she was serving some curry on her plate.

"One of my friends… But he doesn't like youkai much, so I'm not sure he'd be too eager to meet you… Come to think of it, I'm not sure I like them too much myself."

"Considering what happened to you, I can't say I blame you, ze…" stated Marisa as she was playing chopstick hockey for a piece of meat from the pot with Yuyuko-sama.

"Huh? What happened to him, Marisa~?"

"This happened." answered Kyouichi by showing her his bandaged left arm.

"Eeeh?! Did you trip and hurt yourself, Kyouichi?"

"Err… something similar…" replied the outsider, not willing to retell the whole story about being attacked.

"He was attacked by Rumia last night." said Marisa, still struggling to get the same piece of meat that Yuyuko wanted. "And he managed to chase her off all by himself."

"And when did I ever say something about chasing her away, Marisa-san?" asked Kyouichi surprisedly."

"Amazing~…" stated the little oni, who apparently fell for Marisa's made up version of the tale. "You're quite something, aren't you?"

"For the last time, Marisa, I did NOT chase that youkai away!" insisted Kyouichi. "I just gave her a hit in the head with a rock, crawled from under her and kicked her down while she was holding her head. Then ran for cover and hid behind a thick tree… That Rumia or whatever you call her was up on her feet in a matter of seconds without a scratch on her. Then she created that dark field around herself like before and tried to find me… But she didn't. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here talking to you."

"That's still impressive… for a human that is." Suika complimented him.

"If you say so…" muttered the outsider, gently pressing his injured arm with his right hand. It was sensitive to even little pressure.

"Make sure you get that arm looked at at the village or at Eientei, okay?" Reimu reminded him, wagging her finger.

"Yes, mom…" replied Kyouichi jokingly. He thought that she was sometimes being a bit too patronizing. But at least he knew that Reimu wasn't completely indifferent to other people's well being.

* * *

"Ahh… that really was delicious." praised Kyouichi after he finished his meal. He amusedly watched as Marisa finally managed to grab the piece of meat with her chopsticks, giving Yuyuko a wry, triumphant grin. The ghost princess stared at her with her mouth agape, her sad eyes widening and tears forming at their corners.

"Look at it this way…" spoke the witch to her like a person giving away consolation prizes at a competition, "You're a ghost. You eat only for enjoyment, whereas I eat to stay alive. Surely you must acknowledge that I'll need this piece of meat more than you, ze…"

Having that little speech was Marisa's great mistake. Just as she finished her sentence, Yuyuko opened her mouth wide, and since she was immaterial, or at least seemed to be to a certain degree, she swallowed the piece of meat right from between Marisa's chopsticks without any difficulty.

"Mmmm~… Delicious~ ." she sang in delight as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the taste as well as Marisa's shocked expression.

"What the heck?!"

Everyone then started laughing at the outcome of that situation. Alice even made her doll, Shanghai pityingly pat Marisa's head.

"Hahaha!" Reimu chuckled heartily. "That's Yuyuko-sama for you…"

"Next time, we should settle similar things with danmaku." grumbled Marisa angrily.

"We still can~." Yuyuko pointed out calmly.

"And what for? You've already eaten the prize."

"Or she's too scared she'll get her butt kicked…" whispered Reimu to Kyouichi.

"Say, Reimu, are you going to take me to the village now?" he asked the shrine maiden.

"Oh, that's right… I should take you to the village. Okay, but I should get you some replacement for your kimono…"

"Hey, why don't we take him to Kourindou first?" suggested Marisa. "There's a good selection of clothes too. Then we could take him and Akyuu-chan back to the village."

The black-haired miko hummed and scratched her chin. "That's not a bad idea. I've got some clothes I need mended as well."

"Alright, it's decided then! Let's head to Kourindou!"

"In that case, it's time for us to go home as well." announced Yuyuko. "We can't leave the Netherworld unattended, right, Youmu?"

Youmu took it as a cue to stand up, bow to everyone and come to Yuyuko's side.

"Thank you very much for the invitation, Reimu-san. You've been a great host. Next time, I'll be sure to invite you people to a big feast in the Netherworld. And Kyouichi-san, I hope you'll manage to meet Yukari soon and get home…" she paused for a moment and smiled at him warmly. "And if you die by some unfortunate turn of events, you can come to live with us at Hakugyokurou~. There's plenty of rooms for many souls to live~."

"Uhh…Thanks… I'll keep that in mind."

Kyouichi's smile froze on his face as he heard Yuyuko talk about his death so nonchalantly. However, given the current state of affairs, people like Kyouichi would be among the first ones on the Grim Reaper's list in Gensokyo. He was now more than well aware that this world, which was still quite alien to him, presents deadly dangers at every corner and that if he wanted to stay alive, he'd have to live by its unwritten rules. First and foremost, he should listen to people's warnings and never act on his own, because just being careful is not good enough here.

He absent-mindedly watched as Yuyuko and Youmu were leaving the shrine, bowing twice to everyone before they soared up into the blue afternoon sky.

"Okay, are you all ready to head out?" asked Marisa, putting on her pointy black hat.

"I'll stay here and hold the fort~." said Suika who stretched herself on a futon again, patting her satisfied stomach.

"In other words, you'll laze around and drink sake." stated Reimu with a hint of sarcasm. "Fine. Just don't break anything."

* * *

With that said, the Hakurei shrine maiden left the shrine's living quarters and closed the sliding door. Kyouichi was already waiting outside with the other girls. He was, of course, still half-naked. Before he left the shrine, however, he took his ID card from the breast pocket of his torn up kimono shirt and put it in the pocket of his hakama.

"Can I get that blessing now?" he asked the shrine maiden suddenly.

"Oh! But of course…" she nodded as she just recalled her promise. She took a gohei wand into her hand, took several deep breaths and began performing a series of elegant movements around the outsider, occasionally swinging the gohei at him, letting only the paper straps hit him. All the while she kept muttering some sort of incantations, too silently for Kyouichi to make out the words of the prayer. The whole "dance" lasted something around two minutes and was finished by one final touch of the gohei on top of Kyouichi's head.

"There… You are now blessed to repel youkai and to heal up faster." explained the miko. "Now remember, blessings are only temporary, lasting but a few days at best. But I could sell you some protective charms that I use as danmaku…"

Kyouichi didn't take a second to think of his next question: "How much?"

"For you, let's say… 50 yen per piece."

"Will I need more than one?"

Reimu shrugged. "Better safe than sorry. These omamori are a weapon I throw at youkai. They're vulnerable to faith-based attacks. If you ever find yourself in a dire situation like yesterday, just take one of these and touch a youkai with it. The amulet will disappear instantly, but the youkai will feel the burn of divine power."

"I'll take 5." said Kyouichi, reaching inside his hakama to prepare the money. "I still need some cash to buy a new kimono shirt."

Reimu smiled and counted off five of her rectangular, red and white paper amulets and gave them to Kyouichi, who paid her equally with a sum of 250 yen.

"Okay then…" spoke Marisa, getting everyone's attention. "Kyouichi, Akyuu, you will ride on the broom with me… Don't worry, I'll fly really slowly." she added as she saw the scared look in the chronicler's eyes. "Alice and Reimu can fly by themselves so don't worry about them."

"Does that mean that you can't fly by yourself, Marisa-san?" wondered Kyouichi. "…since you're using a broom to fly and all…"

"Oh, but I can." answered the witch, waving her hand. "But this is faster… Furthermore, I can tie a bag to the tail and carry heavier loads like books and such…"

"From the Scarlet Devil Mansion, right?" pried the outsider.

"Hehehe… Well…you know… Patchouli has already read those books hundreds of times, so there's no harm if I borrow some every now and then… That is… unless she thinks otherwise and protests with danmaku, which is the case most of the time, ze…"

"Patchouli, huh?" muttered Kyouichi silently as he was sitting astride over Marisa's broom. "Now why does that name sound so familiar to me? Wait a second…." he finally remembered where he first came across that unusual name. "Patchouli… Patchouli Knowledge?"

"Yes, that's her full name." nodded the witch.

"Seriously... That's the weirdest name I've ever heard." remarked Kyouichi, giving a hand to Akyuu, who was just trying to sit on the broom as well. "Damn… And I thought it was just some kind of pseudonym… She's the one who's written some books about magic and elements, right? I've seen some in the bookstore I work at."

"Oh-ho! Not just SOME books, Kyouichi. She's written so many books, that you could build a house from them. Not to mention the other ones she keeps in her library. I'm telling you, you haven't seen a library yet until you visited the one inside Koumakan (Scarlet Devil Mansion). It's freaking huge, ze… Maybe I'll take you there… some day. Hopefully, Patchy won't mind to see a new face."

"Hold on, isn't Remilia-sama the mistress of the mansion?" Kyouichi inquired further.

"That she is. But Patchouli is her close friend who received permanent residence in the mansion – the library part, obviously. Even though she's basically a just guest in the SDM, even Remilia respects her privacy. She rarely comes down to the library anyways. To be honest, most of the time I visit the library, Remilia doesn't even know I'm there. And sometimes not even Patchouli… Okay, ready to take off?" she asked, turning her head back.

Kyouichi nodded affirmatively. "Well, I'm ready. What about you, Akyuu-chan?"

As he turned back he saw the chronicler already sitting on the broom with a face flushed from embarrassment that she will have to hold onto Kyouichi's half-exposed body. The young outsider figured as much and smiled at her reassuringly.

"Oh, come on, Akyuu… I won't believe you if you tell me that you haven't yet seen a naked man during your previous eight lives…"

Actually, he thought the exact opposite. "I bet she's already more "experienced" than any other normal woman."

That thought was just as intriguing as it was disturbing.

"Come on! I'm just half-naked, so what?" he tried to encourage her.

Finally the chronicler obliged and tightly embraced Kyouichi's waist.

"Alright, Captain Marisa, this is the Hakurei Airbase control tower, you have permission to take off from the torii runway." he announced with humor - one of the things this human almost never seemed to lack.

"I have no idea what you just said, but we're taking off, so hold on tightly."

* * *

The next second, they were in the air, slowly gaining altitude and flying right over the shrine's torii. Marisa was true to her word and she was flying much slower this time. At first, Kyouichi thought that perhaps another passenger on the broom had something to do with this fact as well, but Akyuu-chan was just a child who could weigh only something around 30 kilograms, so the broom couldn't be overloaded. If it could fly like a rocket with Marisa and Kyouichi sitting on it, then Akyuu's negligible weight could hardly slow it down.

"If my hat gets in your way, you can do what you did yesterday." said Marisa on a side note.

"I was just thinking the same thing." sounded Kyouichi from behind her and borrowed her large witch's hat. The sight at them must have been ridiculous – a blond teen girl with black and white dress, a half naked, long-haired young man with glasses wearing a hakama and a witches' hat and a small purple-haired girl wearing a bright, colorful kimono, all riding on a magical flying bamboo straw broom in broad daylight. Reimu and Alice escorted them by each side.

"I bet Aya would take pictures of us if she was here…" thought the outsider to himself.

They were heading west, along the road which Kyouichi walked one week ago when he got spirited away.

"Maybe I'll see that clearing where I first appeared." came another thought to his mind.

As they followed the road below them, the trees were gradually becoming more and more dense until the road was no longer visible. They were now flying over the vast Forest of Magic. Kyouichi noticed the tall hill which he had fallen down from as Marisa drove her broom further and further west.

"Um… Marisa?" he asked her bashfully. "How are you going to land with all those trees in the way?

"We're not there yet, Kyouichi. The shop's at the edge of the forest, so there's no problem with landing." Marisa informed him, turning her heading a few degrees to the south.

A couple of minutes later, they were already nearing the south-eastern edge of the forest and the road which led to crop fields, farms and eventually, the Human Village.

"Here we are." announced the blonde witch and began descending to the ground. Only now Kyouichi noticed a wooden building, not much different from a regular Japanese house in both size and architecture standing at the edge of the forest near the road, leading further into the woods. Marisa managed a smooth landing, letting the outsider and the chronicler get off the broom and feel the solid ground beneath their feet again. Reimu and Alice were already standing in front of the shop, waiting.


	19. Let's go Shopping

"This here is Kourindou." said Marisa, making a theatrical gesture. "You can get all sorts of goods here… even from the outside world. Hey, maybe you can tell me something about some of the stuff I've seen there a little better than Kourin. Come on, let's go inside."

Marisa opened the door to the shop and the others followed her in.

"Oi~, Kourin~! Long time no see, ze!" she greeted and waved her hand.

The person she greeted was the shop's owner – a tall, young looking man with short silver disheveled hair, wearing a black and blue kimono with white zigzag pattern along the hem and a pair of rectangular glasses. He also had a small leather bag resembling a school bag tied to the front of his obi sash. He rolled his golden eyes from a book he was reading to Marisa and the rest of the band.

"Oh, Marisa, good afternoon." he greeted with a mixed expression of surprise and happiness.

He took a while to observe all the people standing inside his shop, before he shook himself awake again from his thoughts.

"Uh… Greetings to you as well, Reimu, Alice… and even Hieda-san… and umm…" his eyes stopped at Kyouichi, who was just returning the witch's hat back to Marisa.

"Ishimaru. Ishimaru Kyouichi." the outsider bowed and introduced himself. "Nice to meet you, Kourin-san."

The shop's owner looked at him with a surprised and embarrassed smile and Marisa began snickering for some reason.

Kyouichi gave the witch an asking look. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Oh, no, no… It's just that "Kourin" is only a nickname by which only I call him…" explained Marisa. "His real name is Rinnosuke."

"Oh… Well then, my apologies, Rinnosuke-san." said Kyouichi as he bowed again to the owner of Kourindou.

"Don't apologize." smiled Rinnosuke and waved his hand. "Yes, my real name's Rinnosuke. Morichika Rinnosuke. As you can see, I run this humble little antique shop…"

Kyouichi slowly turned his head to look around the entire shop and examined the various items on the shelves. Just like the Starlight Glyph, it also seemed to be much bigger from the inside than from the outside.

"Well, I certainly wouldn't call it little…" stated the outsider after a while of looking around.

Just as Marisa said, there were tons of various items, many of which were certainly not made in Gensokyo: books, clothing, food, drinks, sweets, toys, gardening implements, cosmetic goods, cleaning detergents and even various electronics. In the corner near the shop's entrance stood an old Coca-Cola vending machine and placed right on the main counter was a laptop, a portable television set, a digital camera, several iPods, a disassembled radio and a Nintendo DS.

Of course, since there was no electricity in Gensokyo, all of these electronic devices were uselessly sitting there and collecting dust. Unless they were powered by batteries... But even batteries run out eventually, so there was really no reason for anyone to buy them. Nevertheless, at a price like 500 yen for an iPod, or a 1000 yen for the digital camera, Kyouichi seriously considered buying some of these items, so he could take them home later.

"Are you interested in buying anything, Ishimaru-san?"

"I was just looking at what sort of jun… uh… I mean merchandise you are selling in this shop." replied Kyouichi, correcting a word in his sentence.

Rinnosuke snorted with an understanding smile. "Just go ahead and say it – junk. Yes, doubtless these are all very interesting items for me, but I just can't sell them, even if I lowered their prices several times."

"Do you even know what these things are, Rinnosuke-san?" asked Kyouichi with a raised eyebrow.

"I do have an idea about their purpose, but the way they work is still quite a mystery to me." explained the shop owner. He corrected the position of his glasses and made a gesture towards one of the iPods.

"This here for example is a device used to store and play music and moving pictures. But don't ask me how. I've heard it's quite trendy in the outside world."

He moved to the laptop and continued explaining. "And this one… It's a sort of shikigami that people in the outside world call computers. Like these small boxes which they call iPods, the computers can perform all sorts of other different tasks, like remembering texts, or drawing or enabling two people to communicate with each other across very long distances, like telepathy… This one here is sleeping and I couldn't get it to wake up. Maybe it only listens to its master."

As Kyouichi heard Rinnosuke's descriptions of his merchandise, he couldn't help but to start chuckling. "Hahaha~! Okay, that's enough, Rinnosuke-san… You don't have to explain their purpose to me. I know what all these things are used for. Your descriptions are quite amusing, though."

The shop's owner looked at him quizzically. "So you also have the same ability as me? To tell the true name and purpose of anything at first glance?"

This time, Marisa was the one who started laughing again. "No, silly Kourin… Kyouichi is a human from the outside world. We just came here so he could buy some clothes…"

"Really? An outsider?" he measured him up carefully. "I see… The glasses you're wearing… Their frame is made from an artificial substance… What was it called again? Plastic…"

Kyouichi just smiled and nodded silently. This man was really smart.

"Well then, could you please shed some light on how this computer here works?" inquired the silver-haired man.

"Uhh… well… I'm sorry, but I have no idea on how computers are made, or how do their programs work. I just know how to use them, that's all…"

Rinnosuke scratched his head and hummed thoughtfully. "I wonder why does every outsider say that… They all say they know how to use these things, but nobody can tell me how they work or how to reproduce them."

"So you got all of these things from outsiders?" asked Kyouichi, curious about the origin of all these goods.

Rinnosuke shook his head. "No, not all of them. I have a… how should I put it… an irregular supplier."

"A supplier?" repeated Kyouichi, feeling the curiosity building up inside him.

"A certain youkai… Yukari Yakumo…"

Kyouichi's heart suddenly began pumping faster "Her?! When did you see her last time?"

Rinnosuke was a little jumped by Kyouichi's suddenly raised voice and the question itself. "Well, it's been more than a couple of months since her last shipment… Why do you ask? Do you know her?"

"Only from other people's talk and a bunch of texts." replied the outsider. "I'm asking because I'm looking for her in order to return back home. But those people who claim to be her friends have all said that they haven't seen her for over half a year, so I was wondering if perhaps you haven't come into contact with her recently…"

"Well, I wouldn't call her a friend." spoke Rinnosuke after a brief pause. "We're just business partners."

He then suddenly leaned closer to Kyouichi and continued with a hushed voice. "To tell you the truth, I don't really like her. Whenever she comes I get this eerie feeling and goosebumps. Her presence alone makes me feel uneasy… like she's always up to something. But… it also makes me wonder why she hasn't come to make another delivery already…"

"Then please, if she ever shows up at your shop, make sure to let any of us know." requested Kyouichi, looking briefly at the girls standing in the shop.

"I suppose I can do that." shrugged Rinnosuke. "Now, I'm guessing you'd like to take a look at some clothes…"

"I don't need anything fancy. If you have a plain white kimono shirt that would fit me, I'll take it."

"I sure do." confirmed the shopkeeper. "Please give me a minute."

He disappeared somewhere in the back of his shop and took a few minutes to return back with a stack of several white kimono shirts.

"Please, help yourself and try them on. Pick the one which fits you the best." said Rinnosuke with an offering gesture.

Kyouichi tried all of them on and easily decided which one of them to choose. It cost 3000 yen, but since the outsider no longer had so much money on him, he managed to haggle the price down to 2500 yen. Rinnosuke wasn't very pleased that he had to sell it cheaper, but at the same time, he wanted to make some business. After putting his new kimono shirt on and paying for it, Kyouichi decided to take some more time to browse through the shop's interesting inventory. The girls weren't in a hurry either, so they all spent at least another 30 minutes in Kourindou. Kyouichi suddenly stopped at one section of the shop.

"Ho-ho~! Check it out…" he said as he was looking at all the snacks from the outside world.

"Did you find anything interesting?" asked Marisa from the other side of the shelf.

"What are all these little colorful packages?" wondered Reimu, who was standing just a few steps away from the outsider.

"Snacks, snacks and more snacks." smiled the outsider, taking a box of chocolate Pocky sticks.

"Hey, look, Reimu. Pocky~!" he showed her the package.

The shrine maiden looked at him with a puzzled expression. "I don't know much about snacks from the outside…"

"You don't know Pocky?" asked Kyouichi in slight disbelief. "It's one of my favorite snacks. I'll buy one box and let you have some too."

"I thought you had no more money left…"

"I can still afford one pack of Pocky." said the outsider and took the snack with him to the counter.

He paid for it with his last coins, opened the package and took out one chocolate-coated stick

"Okay, say aaah~." said Kyouichi, holding the stick in front of Reimu's face, obviously trying to feed her.

She took the snack with her hand, observed it for a while and took a little bite.

"Mmm… it's sweet. And crunchy…" she muttered and took another bite.

"See? And these snacks come in many different flavors… I still prefer the classic, though."

He offered a piece of Pocky to each of the girls and then he ate the rest of the pack himself.

"Ah… I never would have guessed I'd come across these here." he stated as he finished off the small package. "All it needs is to wash it down with some drink."

"There's an old thirst-quenching shikigami right there…" sounded Rinnosuke, pointing at the old vending machine standing in the corner. "But that one is also in some sort of hibernation and it won't obey requests. I tried donating some coins and praying to it, but nothing happened. If you could make it work somehow…"

Kyouichi took a closer look at the old unplugged machine and grinned mischievously.

"Ah… how nostalgic…" he muttered as he ran his hand over its button panel. "We've had the same kind of vending machine back in our elementary school… Those were the days…"

He turned back to face Rinnosuke and the others, tapped his hand on the machine and added: "This is an old-fashioned vending machine and back in my school days, I learned a little trick from some of my… uhh… more inventive classmates how to obtain drinks from it without paying a single yen."

"Really? Like some sort of spell?" asked Marisa curiously.

"Yeah, something like that." smiled the outsider back at her. "Now… provided there are still any drinks left in it, I could show you how I used to "buy" drinks after my PE class."

"Show us then." she encouraged him.

"Okay." he turned back to the machine and began knocking gently on its front side, carefully listening to the sound of the knocks. When he found a spot where the knocks didn't sound hollow, he nodded to himself and held his hand over that spot, turning back to the spectating girls and Rinnosuke. "Don't try this at home…" he remarked jestingly before he stood up again. He then grabbed the vending machine by the top side and slightly leaned it towards himself. He took a step back while he still held the drink machine in its leaned position with one hand, while the other pushed and held a button for the drink of his choice. He readied his right leg into a kicking position. The next second, he gave the old machine a good kick right above the drink dispenser. The onlooking girls exchanged their surprised looks with the shopkeeper. Suddenly, a loud clang sounded and a can of the most popular soft drink of the United States appeared in the dispenser slot.

"Well, what do you know, there's still something inside…" said the outsider, returning the machine back to its upright position and taking the can of coke from the slot.

"Wow…" sighed Marisa in amazement.

"Doesn't that classify as stealing?" asked Reimu, giving the outsider her typical scornful look.

"It sure does." acknowledged Kyouichi shamelessly. "That's why our school vending machine was replaced by a modern one, once they figured that the amount of money in its coin box didn't add up to the amount of drinks sold, hehe. But before that, I used to help myself to a free drink whenever there was nobody looking."

"I like the way you think, Kyouichi-kun." grinned Marisa approvingly.

"I didn't think you were that kind of person…" stated Reimu with disappointment.

"I was no saint, let me tell you..." Kyouichi admitted. "But trust me; compared to some of my other classmates, I was like a lamb."

"Nobody's perfect." stated Akyuu tersely. "I also have a couple of thefts on my hands from my previous lives." she confessed shyly.

Her unexpected confession made Reimu open her mouth in a shocked expression. "W-whaat?! Akyuu-chan…?" she shook her head in disbelief.

"It's nothing that I'd be especially proud of, but there were times when my temptation and curiosity got the better of me."

"So even Akyuu-chan did something like that…?" muttered Reimu, barely able to imagine it.

Marisa smiled at Reimu wryly and tapped her a few times on her shoulder. "You're not exactly sinless either, Hakurei shrine maiden…"

Reimu blinked several times, as if she was hit by a brick in the head. She just thoughtfully stood there for a good couple of seconds without a word. Her face was unusually serious and somehow… she looked as though as she was blaming herself for something.

"Oi, Reimu, are you alright?" asked Marisa, waving a palm in front of Reimu's eyes.

The shrine maiden quickly returned back to reality, and nodded reassuringly. "Yes, yes. I'm fine… Okay, then, Rinnosuke-san. Make sure you mend my clothes properly." she addressed the shopkeeper.

"Whatever you say." muttered Rinnosuke with a hint of annoyance. "Come back tomorrow. And make sure you actually pay for the service this time."

Reimu pouted and crossed her arms. "Hmph… Some people just aren't grateful for me keeping Gensokyo safe." she whispered to herself.

"No wonder if you can't even make your shrine's doorstep any safer than the forests near the Youkai Mountain…" jabbed Marisa at her friend, scoring another low blow against Reimu's already bruised ego.

Alice took pity of Reimu and gave Marisa a blaming look. "You were there yesterday as well, so you have no right to make it sound like it's all Reimu's fault. In a way, it was our collective fault."

"Yeah, that was a bit harsh from you, Marisa…" agreed Kyouichi. "If there is really someone to blame, it's me for doing something I wasn't even asked for."

Reimu shook her head in disagreement. "You just tried to be helpful. Nobody could predict there'd be a youkai lurking so close to the shrine…"

"The Hakurei Shrine itself doesn't have any youkai-repelling effects, so yes, in fact, we should have seen it coming." remarked the blonde witch. "But Kyouichi should be safer now that he bought some of your amulets, ze."

"Yeah, I hope…" said the outsider, opening the can of coke with a characteristic hiss and pop and took a few gulps. "Mmm… A bit too warm for my tastes, but still drinkable…"

"Okay, people, we all got what we wanted and said everything we wanted to say… I think we can go now." Reimu suggested, waving her hand in a "follow me" gesture.

"Uh, yes, have a nice day." said Rinnosuke, standing up and seeing his customers off. "I'll let Yukari know that you're looking for her if she ever shows up… And come back to Kourindou again sometime…"

"Yes, thank you, Rinnosuke-san." bowed Kyouichi on the shop's doorstep. "Goodbye."

* * *

They left the various goods shop and Marisa was already preparing her broom for another flight. Reimu suddenly stepped to her and said: "You take them to the village. I'm going back to the shrine."

"As you wish." shrugged Marisa. "See you later." she waved at her as the shrine maiden took off and flew back to her home. "What about you, Alice? You coming with us, or do you have some other plans?"

"Actually, I should get home as well and do the laundry while the weather is still nice." said the youkai dollmaker. "But I think I'll come over to you for a visit later, if you don't mind…"

"Of course not~! Just come over…" agreed Marisa, nodding repeatedly. "Take care, ze…"

Alice bowed elegantly and headed further down the road into the forest on foot. Her doll was flying behind her like a pet fairy.

"Alright, you two…" said Marisa, looking at Akyuu and Kyouichi. "Time to take you home… Get on!"

Kyouichi was starting to get used to riding on Marisa's broom. He took his place behind the witch and Akyuu sat behind him. Once Kyouichi gave the ready signal, Marisa slowly drove the broom forward, accelerated to a high speed and increased the broom's altitude. This time, they were flying along the so called "Western Road"- the one which led all the way to the village, crossing through farmlands and along the new Buddhist Temple and its adjacent cemetery.

They still had a long way to their destination, though. If they went on foot, it could take them over 90 minutes to reach the village. Using the advances of magic flying, however, this trip would take only something around 15 minutes. Kyouichi watched the land stretching ahead of them, and the brown dirt path in the middle of it. They were still over 2 minutes away from the crop fields, when Kyouichi's eyes noticed a single person walking on the road, heading towards the village, wearing some familiarly looking red and white clothes. The opened white parasol above the person's head made Kyouichi immediately identify her. She was the youkai lady who regularly visited the village's flower shop. He didn't know her name, but he saw her several times already. Apparently, Marisa also noticed the person on the road and her reaction was quite unexpected.

"Oh, crap!" she cursed and drastically changed the broom's heading and accelerated to a dangerously high speed.

"W-w-what's wrong, Marisa-san?!" called Akyuu-chan from the tail of the broom, tightly holding onto Kyouichi's waist.

"Yeah, what's with that crazy maneuver?!" Kyouichi seconded Akyuu's question.

"You don't want to know!" called Marisa through the wind and took a big detour to get to the village.

Kyouichi wondered for the remainder of the flight what could make Marisa change her course so suddenly, but he didn't ask.

* * *

They landed safely at the northern end of the village, less than a hundred meters away from the Saitou residence. The outsider and the chronicler got off the broom and thanked Marisa for her time to take them both to the village.

"You're welcome." she smiled at them. "Now that I'm here already, I might as well pay my dad a visit…"

Kyouichi immediately recalled the favor that Kirisame-san asked him – to let him know how his daughter was doing. Now that Marisa was planning to see him personally, Kyouichi no longer needed to inform the man about Marisa's daily life. Besides, he still didn't know basically anything about Marisa, except for a few basic facts and a vague idea about her personality.

"No doubt he'll be beside himself when he sees you." said Kyouichi, returning the smile back.

"Yeah… I can imagine…" chuckled the blonde. "Very well then, Kyouichi-kun, Akyuu-chan… Hope to see you again soon, ze." she saluted with two fingers and headed down towards the center of the village, disappearing behind a corner.

Akyuu also bowed to the outsider. "It's been a wonderful hanami at the Hakurei Shrine if it hadn't been for that attack, of course… Please read my chronicle, Kyouichi-san. At least the final volume. There's a Youkai Encyclopedia dealing with the youkai currently inhabiting Gensokyo and a Dangerous Area Guide as well. You won't find information about every single kind of youkai in there, but it should give you enough information for you to live a safer life here in Gensokyo."

"I haven't gotten to the last volume yet, but I raced through its pages… Thanks for the advice, Akyuu-chan."

"No problem." smiled the ninth child of Are. "I hope we meet again soon. And may your wounds heal up quickly."

* * *

With that said, she bowed one more time and walked slowly to her home. It was about time Kyouichi showed his face at the Saitou house, his current home. He slid the door open and called from the doorstep.

"I'm back~!"

Light footsteps sounded from the kitchen and a few seconds later, Minako appeared.

"Welcome back, Kyou-kun! Did you have a good time at the hanami?"

"It was great. And I learned a LOT from just being there." answered Kyouichi without telling the whole truth.

"Are you hungry?"

"Nope. I've eaten recently."

"If you're looking for Mizuto, he's gone fishing to the lake again and the children went to play outside." Minako informed him.

Kyouichi stood for a while in silence, trying to think what to do next, but it didn't take him long to decide.

"I'll go for a little walk around the village… Visit some friends maybe. I just came to tell you that I'm back from the shrine already."

"Very well, Kyouichi-kun, don't let me keep you…" said Minako with a pleasant smile as the outsider left the house again.

* * *

It was a few hours past noon, and the sun was heating the air up to warm summer temperatures. Kyouichi felt a little hot in his clothes, so he tucked up the sleeves of his brand new kimono shirt, which was unrecognizable from his previous one. He headed down the street, planning to see Naota and Midori. He didn't even have to walk all the way to the old man's house as he saw him outside, sitting on an old folding chair near the fireside, basking in the sun and reading a newspaper.

"Good afternoon, Naota-san!" he greeted as he stopped right in front of him.

The old man lifted his head to meet Kyouichi's eyes, silently measuring him up for a while with his mouth slightly agape.

"What the hell did you get yourself into this time?" he asked without even greeting him first, gesturing towards his bandaged forearm.

"Oh, that… hehehe, you see…" Kyouichi started off uncertainly, but told him the whole story.

As soon as Naota heard the part about the youkai attack, he stood up from his chair and gave Kyouichi a stinging slap.

"Hey, watch the glasses! They're the only ones I've got…" called out the young outsider as he rubbed his cheek with his one hand, while affixing the position of his glasses with the other one. "You know, I kind of expected your reaction would be something like that, Naota-san... But didn't you say that you no longer care what happens to me?"

"I just can't help it, seeing what kind of a big moron you are!" growled Naota angrily. "Despite what you've heard about Gensokyo and the youkai, you dare to do something as dumb as wandering away from the shrine at night! If I didn't have any heart, I'd say that it serves you right to get attacked."

"Yeah, I realized that already… if a little late." admitted the outsider, focusing his attention to his hurt arm. "I should have that arm looked at, but I'm really reluctant to go to Eientei. I really don't feel like trying my luck, wandering through the bamboo forest…"

The retired carpenter took a closer look at Kyouichi's arm and snorted. "At least you still have some reason left inside that immature head of yours…" he stated harshly, even though it was actually a compliment. "It looks like it's just a little flesh wound. Nothing that people would die of… Certainly not a reason to drag your ass all the way to Eientei… They'd laugh you off if you showed yourself up in there with such a trifling scratch and send you back where you came from. Eientei is only worth visiting when things are REALLY serious and the village hospital can't help. Besides, getting there is risky and difficult."

"Oh, right…" recalled Kyouichi suddenly. "Almost forgot there's a little hospital here in the village."

"Yeah, just head down to the marketplace and enter the next street to your left. It's the first building with the red cross sign, right opposite the fire station. Can't miss it."

"I know where it is, Naota-san, thank you…" thanked the young outsider, a smile settling on his face again. "…May I ask you something?"

"If you think I can answer, go ahead…"

"Tell me, Naota-san, but honestly… Were you never ever attacked by a youkai during your life in Gensokyo? Even AFTER you heard how dangerous they are and how dangerous the areas outside the Human Village can be?"

The old man inhaled through his teeth and after a silent moment, he shook his head.

"I've already lost count of how many near-death situations I've been in during my time in Gensokyo. You could call it one hell of a lucky streak of coincidences that I'm still kickin'. I've been saved a bunch of times by Ryuuken, back when I still used to gather materials for my work by myself… Before I became recognized as a master craftsman. Once, I was nearly torn and beaten to death by some vicious youkai in the bamboo forest… I have no idea what saved me that time. Probably the youkai thought I was dead already, which wasn't too far from the truth. But that also makes me wonder why I wasn't eaten after it beat the crap out of me… Anyway, the next thing I remember, I woke up in Eientei on a bed, all patched up. I don't know what secret methods the doctors used on me there, but I healed up just within three days. No wounds, no scars, nothing! As if I was born into a whole new body. They even took me all the way back to the village once I was up on my feet… Never again did I wander to that accursed forest alone. Not without at least a pair of Ryuuken watching my back while I chopped bamboo trees."

"Wow, that must have been a terrible experience." stated Kyouichi in amazement.

"And that was just one of many. And I'm not even mentioning all the minor injuries I've taken from the less serious youkai encounters…"

"So, that's why you're so… reserved towards all youkai, huh?"

"No, Kyouichi, that's not the reason…" grumbled Naota irritably. "I already told you I won't speak of this… At least not yet…"

"Okay…" muttered Kyouichi understandingly and changed the topic. "So… what's that tabloid you're reading?" he gestured towards the folded newspaper in Naota's hands.

He raised the paper up, revealing the name "Bunbunmaru News" on the front page.

"Oh, Aya-san's newspaper… Does it say anything interesting?"

The old man chuckled bitterly and opened the paper on the second page. "This one might interest you… The mass spiriting away and the missing youkai of boundaries."

"What the…?" asked Kyouichi with a surprised expression. He just told that thing about the outsiders to Aya yesterday, and now, the people in the village were already reading the newspaper about it. "Wow… she's fast…" thought the outsider silently.

"Besides what you might already know, the article says that nobody has seen the old Yakumo in a long while… So what? I haven't seen her for over 20 years. Can't say I miss her either…"

"Yeah, we've already discussed that thing at the hanami too…" remarked Kyouichi.

"Looks like just another incident to me…" said Naota and closed the newspaper again.

"I hope Reimu will be able to resolve that one as well." thought Kyouichi to himself. "By the way, how's Midori doing?"

"She's very kind and helpful." replied the old outsider. "She looks happy to be able to live in my house, but sometimes I'm not too sure if she isn't just forcing her smile… You wanna pay her a visit?"

Kyouichi smiled, glad to hear that Midori was starting to like her new home, but he refused Naota's offer. "No, thanks. I'll see her at school in a few days anyway…"

"Suit yourself…" shrugged Naota and sat down on his folding chair again.

"I better go to that hospital now." said Kyouichi and bowed to the old man.

"Good idea." approved Naota and waved his hand at the departing young outsider "And… try to avoid the youkai next time…"

* * *

Kyouichi was contemplating all the way to the village hospital how can he completely avoid the youkai in a land where they severely outnumbered the human population by hundreds, maybe even thousands of times. Even the Human Village itself was not so entirely human as one would think. Trying to avoid all and any contact with the youkai was pretty much impossible in Gensokyo. Furthermore, Kyouichi knew that there are just as many friendly youkai out there, as those dangerous ones. Alice, Aya, Suika, Youmu, Yuyuko, and even partially Remilia… All of these supernatural beings, made Kyouichi certain, that he simply can't view all the youkai as aggressive or evil.

After a two minute walk, he reached the building of the village hospital and entered it.

"Hopefully they won't ask money from me for treating my wounds…" hoped Kyouichi as he was nearing the reception desk. He was basically penniless now that he bought the kimono shirt at Kourindou.

"Welcome, how may I help you?" asked the desk receptionist – a brown-haired woman in her thirties, wearing a white doctor's uniform.

Kyouichi unbound the bandages on his left forearm and rested his arm on the desk. "Will treating this be expensive?" he asked the desk clerk nonchalantly.

She quickly observed the bite marks on his arm and smiled at him. "Not at all, young sir. Is this your first hospital visit or what?"

"Yes." nodded Kyouichi and explained that he's an outsider.

"Ah, I see." smiled the receptionist understandingly. "Well, for future times, you should be aware that any hospital service is complimentary. Our modest facility is entirely financed by the village council. In other words, from the money of the tax-paying citizens of the Human Village… We're not as great as Eientei, but we buy some of our supplies from there and our staff is highly qualified and professional."

"That's good to hear." said the outsider and took his bitten arm off the desk. "So… where should I go to get this treated?"

"Second floor - Traumatology, room 204. Kobayashi-sensei will stitch you up in no time."

* * *

A minute later, Kyouichi was knocking on Kobayashi-sensei's door. It turned out that the doctor in question was a surgeon, a traumatologist and an infectologist in one. He was a middle aged man with short grey hair and a strict-looking face, but otherwise quite friendly in nature. Kyouichi's injury was just another routine task for him and he managed to stitch up his wounds quickly and painlessly without much effort. He had to disinfect the wounds again, though. It hurt, but considerably less than when the bites were still fresh.

"There. All done." informed Kobayashi-sensei once he finished the last stitch. "Come see me in two weeks to have the stitches removed, mister… Ishimaru." he added as he checked Kyouichi's ID card.

"Well that was quick…" muttered the outsider, checking the doctor's handiwork on his own forearm.

"It's my job to be quick and effective." smiled Kobayashi-sensei, returning Kyouichi his ID card. "Goodbye, Ishimaru-san. And try to stay out of harm's way."

"Thanks a lot, doc. See you in 2 weeks." bowed the outsider and left the premises of the village hospital.

Since he had no other plans for today or any money in his pockets, he decided it would be best to go home and laze off the rest of the day on a futon, reading the Gensokyo Chronicle.


	20. Always Someone New to Meet

Kyouichi's life in Gensokyo went on in an almost routine, stereotypical fashion. School, work, home, occasionally intervened with a little reunion with his friends and classmates in a tavern or a teahouse.

The following two meetings of the Transfer Students' Club brought a large amount of interesting information to light, as all the members were presenting what they found out in their research. Everyone was now aware that Yukari lived in Mayohiga and a few inconsistent indications suggested that it could be located somewhere around the southwestern edge of the Great Boundary. However, that was just a rumor. There has been little success in finding a map of Gensokyo's surrounding areas, though. The one that Yuujin Ueda mentioned to find in the archives of Kazemura – a remote village located far in the north, east of the Youkai Mountain, was way too old and undetailed to be of any use. He also mentioned that Kazemura was a small quarry village with population slightly exceeding 500, only 200 of which were humans. He said that there has been some rare archeological discovery made at the quarry recently and that the stone mining operations have been halted in favor to the archeological excavations. Kyouichi didn't know if this piece of information was of any relevance, but he told Nagahashi-san to write it into the club's research book anyway. To sum things up, the Transfer Students' Club was off to a good start. They all agreed upon one thing: to leave Gensokyo through the shrine and set out on a hit-or-miss expedition to find their way to Tokyo before winter, should they not find Yukari until then.

The regular lessons at school were quite fun. The outsiders and the young native students learned a great deal about Gensokyo, about its areas and various kinds of youkai, such as phantoms, werebeasts, vampires and the oni. Keine-sensei even threw in a surprise exam to see if her students were taking the school seriously. Fortunately, almost everyone passed it with excellent results.

As for Kyouichi's part-time job, he had no problems. Ever since Shimizu-san ordered a new printing machine, the copying of books was a smooth and easy task. The printer was much better than the previous one. Not only could it print faster, it could also print colorful images. And in quite a high quality too. Kyouichi was needed only for manual transcriptions or to tend to the shop and customers during his employer's absence. He had plenty of free time on his hands nonetheless, so he could even read books at work. In the next two weeks, he had read through almost one half of that plant encyclopedia which he started reading out of boredom and curiosity.

His wounds from the encounter with the youkai of darkness healed up nicely and he now had his stitches removed. There were some little scars, of course, but otherwise his arm was perfectly healthy and useable.

He hasn't been in contact with any of his friends from Gensokyo with the exception of Akyuu-chan, whom he regularly visited on weekends. Other than that, he hasn't heard from Reimu, or Marisa or anyone else he was so-so familiar with.

The only interesting thing that happened to him during the first half of Minazuki was the fact that his face appeared in one of the issues of the Bunbunmaru Newspaper. It was a picture taken from the hanami where he was photographed after his first interview with Aya. It didn't make him famous, but on a few occasions people did recognize his face, so he got greeted by complete strangers a couple of times.

As for his mental state, young Kyouichi was gradually getting used to living in Gensokyo without even realizing it. Of course, there were still times when he felt depressed, thinking thoughts like: "I could have been home in Tokyo, drinking beer with my friends and watching the live broadcast of the FIFA 2010 championship in South Africa, but nooooo~. Instead, I'm stuck in some god-forsaken middle of nowhere full of dangerous youkai." However, his duties and school kept his mind away from the depressing thoughts and instead, forced him to focus on how to solve his problems.

* * *

One day, when he was just taking a short break in front of the Starlight Glyph and stretching his stiff neck, he again saw the familiar youkai lady in red plaid dress leaving the florist's. This time, the bunch of flowers she carried was quite smaller. Kyouichi thought that he should be at least polite enough to greet her, if he already saw her so many times. He gathered some courage and bowed to her as she was leaving the flower shop.

"Good afternoon to you, young miss. Buying some flowers today as well?"

He didn't even know why he asked that, but since he wanted to start this conversation, he had to find some topic. The green-haired youkai lady stopped and gently bowed with a very sweet smile. Even though her clothes and appearance in general didn't fit in with the image of most of the people from the village, this young lady was truly beautiful. Her shoulder-length emerald-green hair gently swayed in the pleasant warm summer breeze and her dark ruby-red eyes were dimly glittering in the sunlight. Kyouichi's inner voice called: "Watch yourself around this one…", but now that he spoke to her, he didn't feel so nervous anymore. In fact, he felt peace and serenity as he was looking at her.

"Good afternoon~." she spoke with a honey-sweet voice. "Yes, I've come to buy some new flowers to liven up my garden, but this flower shop doesn't have any hibiscus."

"Hibiscus?" Kyouichi repeated the name of the plant. He did come across several examples of this plant's genus in the encyclopedia and now he tired to recall what it looked like.

"Yes~. A white one would be nice, but I haven't seen such flowers in quite a while."

"Maybe it's because hibiscus flowers aren't native to Japan." reasoned Kyouichi. "I don't think you'll see them growing wild in Gensokyo… Although, I could be wrong."

"What a pity~. " sighed the youkai lady with a little disappointed voice. "I can still remember how its flowers look like, but I just couldn't find it anywhere."

"And where exactly did you see a white hibiscus, young lady?" he inquired, being slightly surprised that this young miss knew about a flower that probably never ever grew in Gensokyo.

"I don't even remember…" said the green haired beauty with a thoughtful look. "Some place far away from here, I guess… A couple of centuries ago."

Kyouichi raised his eyebrow. "A couple of centuries? So you used to roam the world before you settled in Gensokyo?"

"I used to go wherever there were flowers~. I still do, but now it's only within the boundaries Gensokyo. I can still remember flying over water for several days during my journeys."

"Wow, you crossed oceans on your journeys to find flowers?" asked the outsider in amazement, even though he was aware that he was talking to a youkai. "Now that's what I call dedication. If I had so much dedication to my goal, I'd be home already…"

"Huh? You know about oceans? And you say that you'd like to go home?" wondered the green-haired girl. "Ah~. But, of course… You are a human from the world beyond the barrier." she deduced quite easily.

"Uh… yes, I am…" confirmed Kyouichi bashfully. "The name's Ishimaru. Kyouichi Ishimaru. It is a pleasure to meet you." he made a late introduction and bowed again.

"Kazami Yuuka." the youkai lady said her name and nodded gently. It was certainly a Japanese name, but her clothes didn't look very Japanese. Probably because she was a youkai.

"Yuuka-san, is it? You're a nature youkai, or something?"

The beautiful youkai smiled as sweetly as ever and nodded. "Yes, something like that~."

"Were you born in Gensokyo?"

"I was born in Mugenkan, the Dream World. I still have a residence there, but Gensokyo is now my home as well… Before it was sealed off, I used to travel a lot."

"To look for flowers, right?" asked the young man, getting a sudden idea. "Could you please wait a minute?"

"Certainly~." replied Yuuka positively and watched as Kyouichi entered the bookstore.

He took the colorful plant encyclopedia from under the counter and hurried back outside, but Daisuke stopped him half-way.

"Isn't it already time to get back to work, Ishimaru-san?"

"Of course, boss." bowed the outsider in an apologizing manner. "I just… I may have a potential customer…"

"Really? Then why didn't you say so?" smiled the shopkeeper approvingly. "Go, strike a good deal, Ishimaru." he added with a friendly tap on Kyouichi's shoulder.

"I'll try…" shrugged Kyouichi and left the bookstore with the borrowed book.

"Sorry for the wait." he apologized to Yuuka, opened the botany encyclopedia on a page with pictures of white hibiscus flowers and showed it to her. "This is what you're looking for, right?"

Yuuka's red eyes sparkled with interest. "Oh, this is it~!" she ran her finger gently over the picture as if she was patting it. "Hibiscus Arnottianus… If I could only get my hands on just one of these, I could make it grow anywhere and as many as I'd like…" she muttered to herself. She flipped a few pages of the book and let out another delightful sigh. "Ah~! So many beautiful flowers… and I haven't even seen these before…"

She was completely mesmerized by the pictures in the encyclopedia and completely ignored everything for well over 5 minutes. Her reactions as she saw some new flowers were quite amusing and adorable. Kyouichi couldn't bring himself to interrupt her and patiently waited until the youkai lady reached the end of the book. Fortunately, she was just looking at the pictures and not reading the texts. Otherwise this would be a really long wait.

"Do you like that book, Yuuka-san?" Kyouichi asked her after patiently observing her reaction.

"Yes, very much~!" she replied with a happy face. "Can I buy it?"

"Sure can. Please, follow me into the shop." gestured the outsider towards the door. He opened it and gentlemanly held it for Yuuka to walk through before he closed it behind her. As she walked past him, he could smell a faint pleasant scent of some unknown flowers. However, as he tried to inhale some more of the scent, his nose became itchy and caused him to sneeze.

"Uhh… excuse me… My allergy season is starting… Anyway, welcome to Starlight Glyph."

Daisuke opened his eyes wide as he saw the new customer enter his shop and he suddenly started acting really strange for some reason. Instead of his typical cheerful monologue about the fantastic selection of the bookstore, accompanied by his wild gesticulation, he began to stutter and sweat.

"Uhh… I just remembered I needed to check on something…" he bowed in apology. "Please excuse me… You handle this one, Kyouichi-san…" he nervously muttered and disappeared in the printing room.

Kyouichi confusedly tilted his head to the side as he watched his boss hide himself in the printing room. He chuckled amusedly.

"I think that's the first time you called me by my first name, boss… Very well, I'll tend to this customer." he turned back to Yuuka and whispered. "You'll have to excuse the boss… He isn't usually like that. I wonder what's wrong with him today…"

Yuuka smiled and blinked innocently. "Who knows...?"

Kyouichi went to fetch an untouched copy of the encyclopedia and brought it to the counter.

"Okay~! That will be… 2750 yen. I know, it's a little steep, but this IS a rare book from the outside world…"

Yuuka took out a small flower-shaped wallet from her pocket and put 3000 yen on the counter.

"Thank you very much…" thanked the outsider, and gave 250 yen back to Yuuka. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Yuuka curiously scanned the whole shop's interior for a moment and then her eyes rested on Kyouichi again. "Would you mind if I looked around some more?"

"Not if you won't mind me asking you some more questions."

"I can agree to that." said the green-haired youkai and slowly proceeded to the bookshelves and began browsing through the books.

"So… uhh… You have power over plants, right?" the outsider continued inquiring.

"I do. But it isn't my innate power. I acquired it not so long ago… And I also learned some magic." revealed Yuuka about herself. "But I was always fascinated by the beauty of flowers. Long before I learned to manipulate them."

"Do you have any favorite flower? Other than hibiscus…?"

"Hibiscus is very nice, but my most favorite are sunflowers~. I just love sunflowers…"

"Sunflowers, huh? Well, it's the beginning of their season, isn't it?"

"Yes, that's why I love summer so much~."

"And what do you do in winter, when there are no flowers growing?"

"Oh, but there are~." Yuuka corrected him. "There are flowers blooming in all seasons – even in winter. I simply love seasonal flowers… I move to different locations depending on the season, so I'm active all year around."

Kyouichi decided it would be a good time to change the subject.

"Say…Yuuka-san… Do you know a youkai called Yukari Yakumo?"

"Yukari?" she suddenly stopped looking at the books and turned to Kyouichi with a kind of intimidating look in her eyes, but still smiling. "Of course I do. We used to have Spell Card duels every once in a while…"

"Not anymore?"

"Not since last summer…" she paused herself, absentmindedly looking at one direction, as if she was able to see through walls. "I hope she stops by sometime… I really enjoy our battles…"

Kyouichi was a little unnerved by her last remark. He really wouldn't say that a peaceful-looking person such as Yuuka would enjoy duels, especially those against Gensokyo's probably most powerful youkai. But come to think of it, he never saw an actual Spell Card duel yet, and from what he had heard already, he figured it was considered as one of Gensokyo's most popular form of entertainment besides its primary purpose – being a non-lethal means of conflict resolution. He even recalled Marisa's words that anyone can challenge anyone and win. The fact that someone was good or bad at Spell Card battles was not a measure of their actual power. How else could have Reimu Hakurei – a mere human child resolve so many incidents, often times facing opponents of immeasurable power and still live to tell the tales?

Figuring out that there was nothing odd about Yuuka finding enjoyment in Spell Card duels, Kyouichi became more curious about her relation to the youkai of boundaries.

"Are you two friends?"

"There aren't many youkai and almost no humans whom I'd call… friends." she said in a deeper and more serious voice. "But Yukari is one of those rare exceptions."

"Really?" asked the outsider, surprised by her statement. "I'd say that a sweet young lady like yourself has many friends… You really don't have any friends in the village?"

Yuuka smiled sweetly at Kyouichi's flattering remark. "It's not that I don't interact with humans, just that I had… very few human friends."

"Had? Did you have quarrel or something?"

The green haired youkai giggled and shook her head. "They're all dead~." she said with the same smile on her face as always. "…That was some time ago… You humans are so short-lived. You wither away so fast... just like the seasonal flowers~."

"Hm… you're right…" agreed Kyouichi and nodded thoughtfully. "We're not built to last too long. But if that's how the gods wanted us to be, then so be it. I wouldn't want to live for too long in this world anyway."

"Gensokyo?"

"No, I meant the world in general… Well, anyway, the reason why I brought up Yukari's name is that a lot of her friends are looking for her, but she's a no-show. I'm looking for her as well…"

Yuuka kept on browsing through the books about herbs, plants and flowers, seemingly not paying attention to what Kyouichi was saying until she spoke again. "She hasn't shown up in a while, but it's nothing unusual. It usually means two things: either she is too lazy or she is plotting something."

Yuuka was another person who suspected Yukari's absence to be intentional and that the youkai was planning something big.

"Maybe I'll buy some of these other books later~." she directed the sentence more at herself than Kyouichi. She put the book she was checking back into the shelf and slowly walked towards the shop's exit.

"It's been a pleasure meeting you, Yuuka-san." said the outsider, smiling at her as she was leaving. "Please come again."

Yuuka returned one last smile before she opened the door. "I think I will~. Goodbye, young human and watch out for dangerous youkai~."

The door closed behind her with a gentle knock and Kyouichi watched through the window as the young youkai lady walked out of the village, heading down the Western Road. After a minute, he realized that his boss still didn't get out of the printing room.

* * *

"Uhh… Shimizu-san?" he curiously peeked inside the room behind the counter.

Daisuke was crouching over a box with finished book copies, pretending he was working. Kyouichi found his behavior really suspicious today. "Can I help you with something?"

"Uh… Ishimaru… Just… umm… clean up the shop a bit and you can have the rest of the day off…" uttered the shopkeeper with a shaky nervous voice.

"Sweet…" rejoiced the young outsider and hurried to do his task. He dusted the shelves and cleaned the floor in less than 30 minutes. In the meantime, Daisuke finally assumed the place behind the counter and began sorting the copies he printed into several small piles. Kyouichi didn't bother asking him what was wrong with him today and as soon as he was done with the cleaning, he bid him farewell and left the bookstore.

* * *

He had saved up some money from the previous two weeks of working in the bookstore, so he could again afford buying things. Since his today's shift ended earlier than usual, he thought it'd be nice to go for a beer in this hot summer day. Right at the corner of the Western Street and the marketplace was a tavern called Drunken Oni. It wasn't as fancy as Uzume, but popular nonetheless. Whereas Uzume was more of a restaurant, the Drunken Oni was more tavern-like. It was a popular place for Ryuuken who were currently not on duty. As Kyouichi entered the establishment, he immediately noticed several men wearing the colors of the militia, sitting at the bar. He walked up to the bar to order some beer when one of the men put a hand on his shoulder. Surprised by this, the outsider slowly turned towards the person to see what he wants. He was relieved to see a familiar face.

"I knew it! It IS you!" called out the young Ryuuken warrior. His name was Akiyoshi Takamori, a lieutenant of the village militia. He was smiling widely and tapping Kyouichi's shoulder. "You're... uh… that... outsider, right?"

"Takamori-san?" asked Kyouichi as he recalled the man's name.

"No, that's my name… You are… Wait a minute, I remember… I just…"

"Ishimaru… Kyouichi." he refreshed the lieutenant's memory. "How's your work, Takamori-san?"

"Oh, you know… The usual – doing night patrols around the village, the farms, escorting the fishermen to the colony and back, protecting the trading caravans and so on. I haven't seen much action lately. Well, except one time when we chased off a youkai lurking near the road to Kazemura… But what about you, Kyouichi-san? How are you doing?"

Kyouichi took a few gulps from his beer stein and told him about his experiences and mishaps during the 3 weeks of his life in Gensokyo. Akiyoshi listened with great interest and stopped him a few times to ask some questions. Once Kyouichi finished his story and his beer, he was curious to hear about the recent events going on in the village of Kazemura. He already heard something from Yuujin, but it couldn't hurt to hear about the matter from another person.

"Yes, the quarry workers have found some ancient ruins and are now proceeding slowly with unearthing them."

"When did they discover those ruins?" inquired the outsider, gesturing to the bartender that he'd like another beer.

"I believe something over two months ago. It looks like they've found some kind of ancient temple or perhaps a tomb. Nobody can say with certainty. But they already managed to uncover quite a bit of those ruins in relatively short time. If you'd like to see them, I could take you there. My next assignment in Kazemura will be on the 27th of Minazuki and we're leaving the village early in the morning, so if you want to go, you should be waiting at the Northern Road at 6 in the morning."

"Minazuki 27, huh? That's in 10 days…" murmured Kyouichi and sighed with reluctance. "As much as I really hate getting up early, I'm curious to see the other parts of Gensokyo besides the village… Alright, Takamori-san, I'll be there… But… what about the return trip?"

"Oh, we're just escorting a caravan, so we're returning to Human Village on the same day."

"Very well, I think I'm convinced to take that trip. Provided you can ensure my safety…"

Lieutenant Takamori chuckled amusedly. "I can't guarantee anything, but I'll try to protect the caravan should it get attacked. You shouldn't worry too much, though… From my own experience, only 1 out of 6 caravans gets attacked…"

"You call that "ONLY"?!"

"Relax. There haven't been any human casualties among the caravan runners ever since 112."

If that was Akiyoshi's attempt to reassure the young outsider, it certainly didn't work much. However, Kyouichi knew all too well that no trip throughout Gensokyo was without a risk, so in the end, he made the agreement with the lieutenant to travel to Kazemura on the said date – the 27th of Minazuki. He and Takamori spent the rest of their conversation talking about various trivial matters and drinking beer. Once they left the tavern and parted their ways, Kyouichi went home to indulge himself in further reading and understanding the history of Gensokyo.

* * *

The stereotype of his previous days was about to take an unexpected turn. That's what he thought when his part-time employer, Daisuke Shimizu, gave him some more important assignments. Apart from his usual tasks, he was now responsible for handling business correspondence with suppliers as well as buyers. Among one of the suppliers was the library in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. At first, there wasn't anything strange about handling the orders, shipment logs and invoices, but soon after Kyouichi began signing the business documents in his name, he got an unexpected letter accompanying one of the shipments from the mansion.

It was addressed directly to him and was signed by the proprietor of the library, Patchouli Knowledge. The letter was an invitation to the mansion, but it stated nothing about the purpose of this invitation. Kyouichi found it very unusual and turned down the invitation out of fear for his own safety. He wrote an apology letter, in which he made up some excuse why he couldn't accept the invitation and was about to go to the post office to send it to the mansion.

"There's no way in hell I'm going to that place…" he thought to himself quietly as he folded the letter and put it into an envelope. As he opened the door and left the Starlight Glyph, he met Yuuka-san again, but this time he was too busy to stay for a conversation and only tersely greeted her as she was passing by. He hastily marched towards the marketplace and from there he turned to the street by the left side of the village hall.

"Come to think of it, this will be my first time visiting the post office."

Although it was already one full week since he was assigned to help Daisuke manage the correspondence, it was always the storekeeper who dealt with the post office personally.

He opened the door of the new post office building and entered. After waiting some time in the line, he put his letter on the clerk's desk and explained that this was his first time using the services of this post office and that he simply wanted to send the letter to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The clerk was a young crimson-haired girl dressed in a dark-blue outfit, similar to a school uniform.

"Oh, so this is your first time in this post office?" she asked and without waiting for an answer, began a short introduction. "In that case, welcome to the First Fairy Post Office~. My name is Kurohana Ai, but you can just call me Ai-chan." she said and smiled brightly. "I am the founder and owner of this post office. My fairies are all well trained and can deliver letters or parcels to almost any place in Gensokyo… Except Mayohiga, that is…" she added and scratched her head embarrassedly.

"You… trained all those fairies?"

Ai widened her smile and proudly nodded. "Yes~. I love fairies so much. It all started when I left my curry to cool down a little on the windowsill and went to make myself some tea in the meantime. By the time I remembered I put it there, the plate was already half-empty and grains of rice scattered all around it. I knew it was a fairy, but I didn't pay it any mind. Then another day I saw a fairy flying just outside the window and looking inside my house. When she noticed me, she fled immediately. I figured it was the same one who ate my dinner the other day, so I thought to myself: "She must be hungry.", so I put some cookies on the windowsill and watched. The fairy returned after a few minutes and started eating the cookies.

She was so cute~! But she was still frightened when I came closer to her… Only after a few weeks, she didn't fly away, when she saw me. I slowly moved towards her, holding a cookie in my hand and told her: "Little fairy, little fairy, don't be afraid… I'm Ai and I've got more cookies for you." She just stood there and watched me. I moved closer and stretched out my palm with the cookie. The fairy hesitated for a minute, but she snatched it and fled in an instant. That day I made myself a new friend. It took almost a year until the fairy was so used to my presence that she let me pat her on the head, but it was worth the time and effort. Soon after that, she brought another fairy with her and eventually, a whole pack of them. As I was feeding them, I tried to teach them some things by playing some simple games with them and they learned quickly. Now, seven years after befriending my first fairy, I managed to teach my big fairy family how to read and some of them even how to talk. I taught them about the names of places in Gensokyo and how to make small deliveries. For the first time in Gensokyo's history, I managed to do something nobody else did before me. I proved that the fairies can help humans. Well, perhaps not completely first, as the Scarlet Devil Mansion has fairy maids, but I trained my fairies to be helpful to a wider community. Don't listen to what some people say about fairies. They're really smart. Although, a bit clumsy sometimes."

"And sometimes even dangerous…" added Kyouichi upon the recollection of his first encounter with the creatures.

Ai looked at him quizzically. "They're playful and mischievous, but dangerous…? I don't know…"

"But I do…"

"Well, if you make them angry, then of course, they can be aggressive, but still, most of them are hardly a challenge for even average humans."

"I guess I must have made them really angry back then…" murmured Kyouichi to himself.

"So you were attacked by fairies? Didn't you try fight back?"

The outsider let out an embarrassed sigh. "I'm incapable of using magic… I'm not from Gensokyo."

"I see. So, my guess is that you don't like the fairies too much…" presumed the owner of the Fairy Post Office. "Nonetheless, please don't be afraid of my fairies. They're very friendly and very cute. Wait a second…"

She turned her head back and let out a high-pitched whistle. A couple of seconds later, a single fairy came flying towards Ai from the mail sorting room. She was small like most fairies – just around 1 meter tall, had light-pink semi-long hair trimmed by a silver diadem. Her dress was white and pink and her wings resembled those of a butterfly and were flapping rapidly as she hovered next to Ai, looking at her with questioning eyes. Ai stretched out her arms, as if prompting the fairy to come closer to embrace her. And that's exactly what happened. The fairy joyfully exclaimed: "Ai~!" and threw her little arms around the girl in a loving embrace. Ai gently held the little fairy in her arms and planted a feather-light kiss on her forehead.

"I just wanted to introduce you to someone." said Ai as she let go of her.

The fairy again began hovering in mid-air, propelled by her wings and curiously stared at the young man standing at the other side of the desk.

"Umm… h-hello…" she greeted shyly and bowed once. "I… My name is… Moe-chan… I'm a fairy… umm… nice to meet you."

Even though Kyouichi felt nervous whenever he saw a fairy so close, this one seemed like a very peaceful one. Furthermore, he never ever met a talking fairy before, so he was more curious than nervous. He introduced himself to her with almost the same level of shyness as she greeted him.

"Yes, this is Moe-chan – my most beloved fairy. She's the first one I managed to befriend." explained Ai while looking at her. "She now voluntarily helps me with sorting the mail… In return, I give her cookies." she smiled and took out a home-baked cookie from a lunchbox she had under the desk. "Say aaah~."

The fairy closed her eyes and opened her mouth in anticipation. Ai moved her hand with the cookie to the fairy's mouth and fed her. Moe delightfully munched the cookie with a blissful expression. It was a very endearing sight. For a moment, even Kyouichi forgot about how dangerous can some of these creatures be.

"So, Kyouichi-san…" Ai broke the brief silence. "You want to send this letter to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, am I right?"

"Yes, please." he nodded and passed the letter to her.

"No problem. That will be 20 yen, please."

As the outsider searched his pockets for the coins, Ai forwarded another question. "May I ask what business does an outsider have with the residents of the mansion?"

"Uh… just… business, that's all. I work for Daisuke Shimizu-san, the owner of the bookstore."

"Ah, so you're his new assistant…" Ai smiled understandingly. "Well, you didn't hear this from me, but his previous one is a really unsympathetic guy…"

"Really?" asked Kyouichi, raising an eyebrow. "Do you know Hiroto-san personally?"

"Yes… unfortunately…" she affirmed with a certain level of distaste in her voice. "I've heard he provoked a youkai. A really powerful one too… Ended up with a broken arm, he did. A very, VERY lucky outcome for someone who angered such a mighty and dangerous youkai... Hopefully, he'll learn something from that experience."

"Well, it seems he'll return back to the bookstore as soon as his fracture heals… I'm afraid, I'll have to look for some other work soon…" predicted Kyouichi thoughtfully.

"I don't know about Shimizu-san, but he'd be foolish if he fired you in Hiroto's favor." speculated Ai and put a stamp on the envelope of Kyouichi's letter.

"Even if you say that, I still think I'll be made redundant in a week, maybe two. Anyway, I'm still on duty, so I should hurry back to the bookstore… It's been a great pleasure meeting you, Ai-chan… and Moe-chan too." he added and smiled at the fairy.

"Looking forward to seeing you again too, Kyouichi-san~!" called Ai, waving her hand.

* * *

Kyouichi hurried back to Starlight Glyph, where he still had his hands full with writing more business documents. Daisuke even put so much trust in him that he asked him to help him check the accounts in his ledger and make an inventory check. Even though he no longer acted as strangely as he did on the day when Yuuka-san came to buy a book, it was still quite unexpected for him to develop such trust towards Kyouichi in such a short time.

Today was one of those rare days when Kyouichi worked all the time until the bookstore's closing hour. Just as he double-checked the store's income for the past month, there was a knock on the shop's door. Daisuke and Kyouichi exchanged their surprised looks and the outsider volunteered himself to open the door. It was really unusual for someone to be knocking on the door to the shop and not entering. He opened the shop's door to see a small creature standing at the doorstep.

It was a fairy, holding a small leather satchel and a letter in a light-purple envelope. It didn't take him long to figure that the fairy was one of Ai-chan's postal fairies, but it still surprised him to see one knocking on the door of the bookstore at this hour. Just as he took the letter from the fairy's little hands, the little youkai took flight, heading towards the post office. The letter was again addressed personally to Kyouichi, written in a familiar elegant handwriting, characteristic of Patchouli Knowledge. The envelope gave off a faint scent of lavender. Kyouichi nervously stared at the letter for a few moments and after swallowing his own saliva, he tore the envelope open.

"What's this?" asked Daisuke, curiously looking over Kyouichi's shoulder. "Another letter form Patchouli-sama? Addressed to you? I wonder what's this all about…"

"I'd like to know that as well." said Kyouichi and turned his head back to his boss. "Ehm… Will you excuse me for a moment?"

Daisuke backed off almost immediately as he realized that reading letters addressed to other people was none of his business, no matter how curious he was.

"Oh, but of course, Ishimaru-san…"

Kyouichi entered the printing room and took a seat as the table. As soon as he had some privacy, he unfolded the letter and began reading it by candlelight.

_Dear Ishimaru-san,_

_I fully understand that my sudden invitation to the library without giving any reason or stating my intention has left you in doubt and you probably hesitate to accept it, because you might fear the mistress of the mansion._

_Rest assured that my intentions are not of malign nature. On the contrary, my wish is to help you and the rest of the outsiders who got spirited away to Gensokyo over 3 weeks ago. I'd like to speak with you about this matter personally and try to come up with a reasonable solution for your current situation._

_Remilia-sama herself wishes to see you again and discuss the same matter. We both guarantee you absolute safety within the premises of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, provided you abide a couple of our rules, which will be explained to you upon your arrival. It would be best if you arrived as soon as your duties will allow you._

_Yours truly,_

_Patchouli Knowledge_


	21. A Devil's Invitation

As Kyouichi finished reading the letter, a maelstrom of thoughts and questions stirred up inside his head. Why does this Patchouli even want to help him? What guarantee does he have that this invitation is not simply a trap? Does she really know of some way to transport the outsiders back to Tokyo? She IS a well known sorceress after all…

He thought long and hard about it, considering all options and chances. If he turned down this invitation now, he could be held responsible for denying the other outsiders including himself a chance to return home, if it indeed exists… He couldn't live with the thought that he would let this chance pass him by and go to waste because of his own cowardice. Now was not the time to be afraid. He brought it upon himself that he'd lead the other outsiders towards their goal, and if he really didn't try everything in his ability to find a way to Tokyo, he would regret it for the rest of his life. A decision was made. Tomorrow he'll travel personally to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. He nodded repeatedly, as if he was trying to encourage himself.

"It will be fine… It will be just fine… I want to go there… I HAVE to go there…" he tried to convince himself.

Folding the letter back and putting it inside his pocket, he stood up from the chair and told Daisuke about the content of the letter and his plans for tomorrow.

"You want to go to the mansion, huh? You sure you know what you're doing, Ishimaru?"

"Hell, no… But I'm going either way." announced Kyouichi, trying to sound resolute.

"I see…" nodded the storekeeper. "So should I not expect you to come to work tomorrow?"

"No, I need every coin I can earn. I'll skip school tomorrow and travel to the mansion with Mizuto in the morning. I should be back in the village before afternoon. And if I won't, it means I died." explained Kyouichi with a bit of black humor.

"Sounds reasonable enough… Just watch yourself inside the mansion. Try not to provoke the vampires." Daisuke warned him.

"Gee, I would have never figured that out by myself, Shimizu-san. Thanks for the tip." retorted the outsider with sarcasm. "I know how to behave myself. Even towards youkai… unlike somebody…"

"Are you hinting at Hiroto? Well, yeah, I guess you are more level-headed than him."

Kyouichi only nodded silently. It actually wasn't just Hiroto he was hinting at, but also Daisuke himself and the day when he acted so strangely when Yuuka entered his shop. It certainly wasn't very professional of him.

* * *

Daisuke closed his shop and wished Kyouichi good luck for his tomorrow's trip. The outsider had a lot to think about all the way he went home and all the time he was eating dinner with the Saitou family. He explained the whole thing to Mizuto and when he didn't believe him, he showed him the letter. After good 30 minutes of negotiating, Kyouichi finally made his point by telling him that this might be just the chance he and all the other outsiders were waiting for and the fisherman agreed with him at last.

"Thanks for understanding the situation, Mizuto-san." bowed the outsider thankfully.

Mizuto nodded a few times and chuckled forcedly. "At least I can show you where I work… However, I expect you to get up as early as me. That is at 5 in the morning."

"Oh my God, why so early?" protested Kyouichi. "The fish won't grow legs and run away from that lake if you come a bit later, will they?"

"Well, this IS Gensokyo, so I wouldn't be too sure about that statement…" joked Mizuto. "But that's how I always go to work. The walk to the lake alone takes over 3 hours, so by the time we get there, it will be 8 o'clock. And you said you wanted to be back in the village by noon, so that doesn't leave you much time for staying in the mansion."

"Hmm… you're right." admitted Kyouichi after giving it some thought. "If I want to come on time to my work, it means I've got like 2 hours for taking care of my business in the mansion."

Kyouichi sighed with contempt. "Such a long walk… If only I had a flying broom like Marisa-san…"

After he woke up from his little daydream, he figured that he'll need a lot of strength tomorrow for such a long walk and so early in the morning. So even though it was only half past seven, he decided to go to sleep.

* * *

Kyouichi didn't even sleep properly that night, so he basically just waited on his futon until Mizuto came into his room to wake him up. The fisherman woke him up at 4 a.m., so that they could both prepare themselves for their trip to the lake. Kyouichi took a quick bath and had a light breakfast. His hair didn't even get to dry up properly when Mizuto announced that it was just about time to head out.

As Mizuto packed up his fishing gear and Kyouichi some extra onigiri for the trip, they quietly left the Saitou residence and waited a few minutes until a 5 member Ryuuken patrol escorting several other fishermen marched up to them. They greeted the fisherman in a friendly manner while they curiously measured Kyouichi up with their eyes.

"Is he coming with us too?" asked the man in charge of the squad, gesturing at the outsider.

"Yes, he's with me." replied Mizuto tersely and without any further ado, the whole group set out on their way to the Misty Lake. Even though it was summer, the early mornings could be still quite chilly. The morning dew formed tiny silvery droplets on the blades of grass and the leaves of the trees, glittering in the early rising sun.

The walk was a quiet and peaceful one. Neither the Ryuuken warriors, nor the fishermen they were escorting were very chatty. As they passed the crossroad, Kyouichi instinctively looked up a hill by his right, as if in hope to see the Hakurei shrine maiden sweeping the stairs. As he suspected, he didn't see her, so he just shrugged and kept up the pace with the rest of the group.

The road was sloping up and down every few hundred meters as they walked through the foothills further north beyond the crossroad. A few times something caused the Ryuuken commander to halt the whole group and wait in complete silence until the scouts made sure there was no imminent danger. Kyouichi did see a glimpse of some youkai as they fled from the sight of the Ryuuken and quite a lot of fairies dancing on the meadows, several hundred meters away from the road. Other than that, the trip was quite uneventful.

The group took only one 10-minute break once they were halfway to the lake. Kyouichi was starting to feel the fatigue in his legs, but he was more or less used to long walks. The group came across another crossroad - this time, only 3-directional. One direction headed further north with a wooden post saying "To Kazemura", the other one turned gradually to northwest and a signpost pointing in its direction said "To Misty Lake and Youkai Mountain". The third direction was, of course, the way the group came from. After another hour of marching, Kyouichi finally saw the thick haze formed above the appropriately named Misty Lake, which formed a natural moat around the Scarlet Devil Mansion – his destination. Of course, the mist was too thick for anyone to see even the shores of the lake, much less the mansion itself.

"By noon, the mist usually dissolves, but I guess you don't have so much time, right?" asked Mizuto as he looked at the outsider.

Kyouichi nodded agreeingly. He really didn't want to idly wait at the lake's shore until the mist disperses.

* * *

At long last, the group of Ryuuken and fishermen arrived at the fishing colony on the southern side of the lake. The warriors assumed their guard posts all over the small encampment and Mizuto led Kyouichi to his modest fishing hut.

"Well, this is the place…" he announced and unlocked the hut's door. "My little fishing hut."

It consisted of only one 4 tatami room with one bed, one stove for heating and cooking, a small shelf with kitchen utensils and two tables. One table for gutting and cleaning the fish and the other one for eating. There was also a large wooden closet in the corner, probably for Mizuto's fishing outfits and gear. It was quite messy inside the hut and the strong smell of fish permeated the air.

"Okay, Kyouichi, I need some time to prepare my rods and bait, but you can already go to the mansion. You can borrow one of my boats. Come, I'll show you the way…" he gestured to Kyouichi to follow him and led him to one of the small wooden piers built on the southern shore of the lake. He gestured towards a couple of boats tied up to the pier.

"Nice boat…" stated Kyouichi with a smirk on his face.

"Pick whichever one you like, I need to get to work. If you won't find me at my hut, I'm probably still fishing. But you don't have to wait for me. Just wait until the Ryuuken patrol gets relieved and go with them back to the village." said the fisherman before he returned back to his hut. Kyouichi took a while to choose a boat before he got on one of them which looked the safest and untied it from the pier.

The mist was so thick that the visibility was less than 10 meters. He grabbed the oars tightly in his hands and in one stroke he set the boat into motion, distancing himself from the pier. He steered it to the left so that the boat's front faced the direction where he presumed the Scarlet Island to be. He didn't really see where he was going, so he slowly rowed on and on, hoping that he'd see the island's shore before he'd crash into it.

After one minute of rowing and looking back over his shoulder, he noticed a single dim white light shining in the distance, as if calling him to come closer. Kyouichi was a bit freaked out, but he didn't stop. He rowed the boat in slow long strokes until the light grew brighter and closer. The chilling silence was only disturbed by the quiet splashes of waves.

In less than two minutes, he could already make out the faint silhouette of the island's shoreline, the light was still some distance further away. Since the residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion had obviously no use for boats, it was also expected that there'd be no piers on the island to tie the boat to.

With one final stroke of the oars, the boat reached the shallow waters before it was stopped by the island's shore and Kyouichi could get out. To make sure the waves wouldn't carry the boat away, he laboriously dragged the boat up to dry land. He was finally standing on the mysterious Scarlet Island, staring at the light that guided him here. He still didn't know what was its source, but he didn't take his time to stand there and contemplate. He walked towards it, carefully watching his step so that he wouldn't trip over something in that dense fog.

After a while he could make out the barely visible silhouette of the tall iron bar fence, marking the borderline of the premises of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The light that led him here was coming from a single lantern placed in front of the ominously looking gate. Sitting on a chair at the side of the gate was a single person – a tall young female, resting her back against one of the gate's pillars. It looked like she was sleeping. Kyouichi didn't recognize her. She had long scarlet hair with two long braids by the sides of her face and the rest, flowing freely. She was wearing a green outfit, similar to a traditional Chinese dress and a beret of matching color with a golden star on its front side. Engraved into the star was a single Chinese character: "long", meaning "dragon".

Kyouichi stood there for a while, looking at her and wondering when she would notice him. After his patience ran out, he decided that he'd gently wake the girl up to let her know that he's been invited to the mansion.

"Umm… excuse me." he addressed her in a low voice. The girl didn't react. "Young lady, please wake up…" he spoke to her gently again.

"Umm.. mfmummsum…" mumbled the girl out of her sleep. "Wha…? What is it…?" she asked, obviously still sleep talking.

Kyouichi saw that trying to wake her up gently didn't bear much fruit, so he had to try a different approach. He cleared his throat, took a deep breath and from the top of his lungs he shouted: "ATTEEEEEEEN-TION!"

In an instant, the girl was on her feet, saluting, with her eyes widely open. "Yes, general…! Huh? Oh… it was just a dream…"

"Good morning." greeted Kyouichi, with an innocent smile and bowed politely.

Only now did the girl notice him. "Eh? Who are you? What are you doing here? You better not try to trespass into the mansion." she warned him and assumed a fighting stance.

Kyouichi just smiled at her reaction and calmly took out Patchouli's letter from his pocket and gave it to her. The girl's aqua-colored eyes raced quickly through the text and her mouth opened slightly as she finished reading it. She looked up at Kyouichi again, who in the meantime took out his ID card and was now showing it to her, smile not leaving his face. The girl nodded understandingly.

"You're Ishimaru-san… My apologies for startling you."

"I'm the one who should be apologizing for that…" said Kyouichi as he got his letter back.

"No, no… I'm a gate guard and I shouldn't be really sleeping on duty, but… it's just so… boring."

"So, will you let me through the gate, miss?"

"But of course!" nodded the girl and hurried to unlock the iron gate. "Remilia-sama and Patchouli-sama said they were expecting you, they just didn't know when you'd arrive." explained the gate guard. "My name is Meiling. Hong Meiling."

"Pleased to meet you, Meiling-san. Are you Chinese?"

"Uhh… yes. Not that hard to guess, huh?"

"You speak perfect Japanese."

"Oh… Thank you." smiled Meiling and opened the gate with a loud shriek. "The mansion's straight ahead. Just follow the pavement."

Kyouichi thanked her for letting him through and let her continue her guard duty as he walked towards the mansion. He swallowed his fear and kept on walking until he reached the massive wooden door and knocked on it. A second later, the sound of the door unlocking came from the other side and the door slowly opened as if moved by some unseen force. He found himself inside the main foyer of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. It was really huge. The interior as well as the exterior of the mansion was built in a renaissance style. The floor was covered by dark-red carpet and the tinted windows were letting in a dim dark-red light. The additional lighting was provided by numerous candlesticks attached to the walls and one large crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. As soon as Kyouichi entered, the door behind him closed.

Frightened by the sound of the shutting door, he turned around and saw a tall, slender figure.

* * *

"Welcome to the Scarlet Devil Mansion." sounded a female voice, greeting him formally.

"S-Sakuya-san?" asked the outsider as he recognized the person standing in front of him. He had no idea where she appeared from, but she was now standing there, looking at him with her dark-blue eyes. She was the head maid of the mansion and this time, she was wearing slightly darker uniform with a seductively short skirt. It appeared she also had a silver pocket watch hanging on a small chain tied to the side of her apron. Kyouichi also noticed that she had a thigh strap on her left thigh, stocked with what looked like a set of throwing knives.

"Yes." confirmed the maid. "Please follow me. Patchouli-sama is waiting in the library."

She turned to the left and walked into a long narrow corridor lined with numerous doors. Kyouichi followed her silently and obediently. Her formal attitude combined with her calm voice, elegant movements and cold look in her eyes gave away an aura of respect as well as fear. Even though she was very attractive, Kyouichi felt uneasy in her presence.

"Remilia-sama hasn't woken up yet, so you'll be seeing Patchouli-sama first."

"Okay…" shrugged Kyouichi and followed the maid's lead.

She turned at the corner of the corridor and led the way further until she came to a staircase leading to the lower, underground level of the mansion. After descending down the stairs and passing another long hallway lined with lit torches, they stopped in front of a massive wooden door.

"This is the library." she announced and opened the door, leading Kyouichi inside.

* * *

As soon as he stepped inside, his jaw dropped out of sheer bewilderment. The library was one gigantic 2 storey hall, large enough to house several Boeing 747 airliners. A line of tinted windows near the ceiling was giving the place just enough natural light so that it wouldn't be buried in pitch-black darkness. He couldn't even see where the library ends. Even with countless candles, lamps and torches lighting the place up, it was still eerily dark inside.

Besides wondering how anyone could read books in this poor lighting, he couldn't understand how the library could be so enormous, since the mansion definitely didn't look as large from the outside. And that was just one part of it. It was truly mind-boggling. And those bookshelves… They were at least 5 meters tall and there were so many of them that they made the whole library look like a labyrinth, or almost like a little city. He kept following Sakuya with his eyes and mouth wide open as he couldn't even find words to describe the grandeur of the whole place.

It took almost 2 minutes to reach a clear area in the center of the library. There were several tables for reading and several comfortable armchairs as well. Sitting in one of those armchairs and reading a thick book was another young girl. She could be around Reimu's age, judging by her height and appearance, but Kyouichi knew that appearances may be deceiving. The girl had long purple hair decorated by several colorful ribbons. Her eyes had the same color and her skin complexion was as pale as Kyouichi's. She was wearing a long light-purple nightgown and a matching nightcap decorated by a few more of the colorful ribbons and a golden crescent-shaped decoration. It seemed like she just woke up recently, since she didn't even get changed from her sleeping wear. Actually, she looked quite lovely. As she saw Sakuya leading a guest, she closed the book and put in on a table next to her.

"Are you Ishimaru-san?" she asked in a quiet, but pleasant voice.

"Yes, I'm Ishimaru. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance."

"I am also pleased to meet you in person." she smiled gently and nodded instead of bowing. "As you might have already guessed, I'm Patchouli Knowledge and before you ask, yes, that is my real name…"

Kyouichi didn't say a thing, just put on an amused smile.

"Please take a seat. Make yourself comfortable." she gestured to another armchair opposite of her. "Sakuya, please make us some tea and bring some dessert."

The maid bowed with respect. "Yes, Patchouli-sama, I'll be right back."

A loud popping sound echoed throughout the library and a platter appeared in Sakuya's hand with a porcelain tea set and two plates with tiramisu. Kyouichi blinked a few times, not too sure of what just happened. Sakuya elegantly poured the tea into both cups and bowed again once she was done.

"Thank you very much, Sakuya. That will be all for now." thanked Patchouli and as soon as she finished her sentence, another loud pop sounded and Sakuya was no longer there.

"Wow…" uttered the amazed outsider. "How did…?"

"Time manipulation." said Patchouli suddenly, before Kyouichi even got to ask his question.

"Huh?"

"Sakuya has the power to manipulate time." she continued. "That's why it looks like she appears out of nowhere and disappears just as suddenly. She can also manipulate space, that's why the inside of the mansion is so large."

"Oh…"

"Apropos, welcome to my library, Ishimaru-san." she welcomed him in a more easygoing tone.

It took a couple of seconds for Kyouichi to realize that he should say something. "Uh… yes, thank you for the invitation, Miss Knowledge."

"You don't have to pretend your gratitude." said Patchouli, looking at him intensely, but smiling to show that she doesn't mean any offense. "You turned down my invitation at first, because you feared this place, am I right?"

Kyouichi only managed to open his mouth slightly in admiration to this girl's logic. "Wow… she's sharp… As if she can see right through me…" thought the outsider to himself.

"As for the formalities, I don't insist on them at my presence as much as Remilia, so feel free to call me Patchouli or just Patchy." she explained on a side note and took a sip of tea from her cup.

"Well then, Patchouli-sama," Kyouichi decided to address her in the same way as the head maid did, "I'm sorry that I turned down the invitation the first time, but…"

"No need to apologize, Ishimaru-san." she interrupted him half-way. "I should have given it some more thought and time to explain my intentions. But I'm glad that you accepted it and arrived sooner than I expected. Let me explain everything to you, Ishimaru-san."

"Kyouichi."

"Pardon?"

"That's my name… You said yourself you don't need me to address you formally, so you don't need to be formal with me either." explained the outsider and smiled at the thought that he met another sympathetic and friendly person.

"I understand." murmured Patchouli and took the plate with tiramisu into her hand. She took a bite of the dessert and savored its taste for a while before she continued. "As I mentioned in the letter, I want to help you."

Kyouichi raised his eyebrow and gave her a distrustful look. "Why?"

"Let's just say that we share the same goal." said the purple-haired girl and took another bite of tiramisu.

"What, you want to go to Tokyo?"

Patchouli giggled and shook her head. "No, Kyouichi, I want to find out the reason for the unusual absence of Yukari Yakumo. In other words, I wish to find her and speak to her about certain… issues concerning whole Gensokyo."

"I see…" muttered the outsider and as he thought about his next questions, he helped himself to the tiramisu. In the meantime, Patchouli kept explaining.

"There is also quite a high possibility that Yukari decided to entertain herself by causing an incident and see who will be the first one to take the initiative in its resolution. If that is the case, then we must all prepare ourselves for unpredictable things to happen and hope that someone can find her and do a formal duel with her. I'm 99.9 percent positive that Yukari would not do anything that would harm anyone, be they human or youkai. However, given the nature of the event from 3 weeks ago, I'm no longer sure…"

"You mean our spiriting away?"

"Yes." said Patchouli quietly, almost whispering. "If it was indeed her job, which I suspect it to be; it would be an unprecedented incident responsible for the deaths of dozens of people from the outside world."

"What?! So there have been so many deaths confirmed?!" asked Kyouichi with a shocked expression. Even though he knew that only a small percentage of the people riding the subway made it to the Human Village and that a lot of them probably didn't make it, but now Patchouli said it as a fact.

"Yes, unfortunately… Over 25 bodies of outsiders were reported to be found in random locations all over Gensokyo. They've had the misfortune to be spirited away into some of Gensokyo's most dangerous areas and fell a victim to the youkai or were unable to find their way to the village and died of starvation or dehydration. If that's Yukari-sama's new idea of entertainment, Gensokyo is in big trouble. I still don't believe that a loving protector of Gensokyo would let so many outsiders die, but her long absence has only increased my suspicion in her. If my theory proves to be correct, we'll need to stop her at all costs before she repeats it or does something even worse…"

"But haven't youkai been killing people in Gensokyo all the time?"

"Yes, some indeed have." confirmed the librarian. "We can't really blame the youkai for that; it's in their nature. If a few humans die here and there, it's considered normal, natural. As sad as it may sound, it's the everyday reality of not just Gensokyo, but also the world where you and I come from. Youkai hunt people and vice versa. It's a natural cycle and not even Hakurei's Spell Card system is a guarantee for no bloodshed. Nobody pays much mind if a few humans die in Gensokyo, but when a few hundred people suddenly appear here, it's bound to attract everyone's attention. I really can't tell why were you all spirited away here. I'm afraid only Yukari may have answers for that."

"And if she wasn't responsible?"

"True, there are several ways how to breach the barrier and enter or leave Gensokyo, which would exculpate Yukari from being responsible. However, the only known and possible way a mass of people from a faraway place such as Tokyo could appear suddenly in Gensokyo, is by the means of Yukari's boundary manipulation. But that still leaves us with plenty of unanswered questions…" continued Patchouli and took another refreshing sip of tea. "Such as: Why would she do it? Or perhaps it would be more fitting to ask: Why didn't she watch over these people and left them at the mercy of deadly youkai and the unforgiving land? Which brings me to another interesting question: What if she wasn't able to protect these humans? As doubtful as it may sound, what if Yukari is experiencing some serious difficulties and is unable to control her power? Like I said; too many questions and no certain answers… That is why I wish to find her."

"I've heard she lives in Mayohiga…" said the outsider. "And from a very reliable source… However, not even that reliable source knows the way to that place as does nobody else in Gensokyo…"

Oddly enough, Patchouli didn't look the slightest bit surprised. "I know of Mayohiga, but very little about its actual location. Still, I have a way of contacting her. I'm in possession of a communicating amulet, by the means of which I could contact Yukari in case of need. I didn't really want to, but two years ago, during the so called Subterranean Animism incident, when earth spirits began emerging from the underground through a geyser near the Hakurei Shrine, I figured that it would be best to consult the matter with Yukari. She told me that only humans could enter the underground for some reason and since both of us are youkai, we had to once again rely on the humans…"

"Reimu and Marisa?"

"Yes… They took care of the problems. But I've digressed. The amulet, which I could contact Yukari with, seems to have either lost its power, or she simply ignores my attempts to talk to her, which I find also very unsettling. That would not surprise me as much, given the fact that our relationship is more of a formal one, but if she even avoids contact with her best friends, something must be going on… I'll let you in on a secret, Kyouichi-san; I hate to be left in uncertainty… when I can't find the answers to my questions in any book…"

Kyouichi drank some more of his tea and tried to explain another theory. "Well, I don't really know much about Yukari, but I asked Reimu-san once if it was possible that the youkai of boundaries could be in some sort of trouble. She said that it was out of question, but still…"

"Yes, that theory crossed my mind as well. Surely, Yukari is youkai with unbelievable power, but even that power has its limits. For example she said that she couldn't enter the underground…" remarked Patchouli and paused herself in a thoughtful expression. "But I still find it weird how could she talk about the underground locations and the youkai living there in such detail…"

"Wait a second…" Kyouichi interrupted her. "Did you say youkai living in the underground? Doesn't that contradict with what Yukari said about the fact that youkai can't enter that place?"

"She said that the youkai from the surface cannot enter underground, but I have a feeling that it doesn't apply to her… Anyway, even if the shrine maiden claims that Yukari cannot be in trouble, I certainly can't omit this theory… But like I said, the most probable theory is that Yukari is the culprit behind your spiriting away and is planning something more…"

"What if there is another youkai of boundaries?" asked the outsider out of the blue.

Patchouli opened her mouth as if she realized something. "I… never even considered such a possibility. But I'm 99.9 percent certain, that there is only one in Gensokyo and the whole world…"

Kyouichi shrugged and smiled. "Well, it was just an idea… Anyway, Patchouli-sama, how do you plan to find Yukari?"

She took the last bite of tiramisu on her plate and finished the tea in her cup before she spoke.

"If she's planning an incident and if she really was responsible for your spiriting away, we'll probably just have to wait until she makes an appearance. So far, she always did whenever she played some prank or caused an incident…"

"Well beg your pardon, Patchouli-sama, but why did you even invite me here then? Everyone keeps telling me that it's just a matter of time before she appears to someone, but waiting is hardly a solution."

A smile crept again to Patchouli's otherwise serious face. "You didn't let me finish, Kyouichi-san. There is a way we could use my communicating amulet to locate her, but it won't be so simple…"

Kyouichi's eyes widened. "You have my full attention, Patchouli-sama."

"There is a youkai with a very useful ability living in the underground who could use that amulet to pinpoint Yukari. But the problem is that I cannot go to the underground as I explained earlier."

"But why tell this to me? Why not Reimu-san or Marisa-san?" wondered Kyouichi.

"I would, Kyouichi-san… But recently our relationship hasn't been exactly what you'd call friendly. Besides, I have… other duties in the mansion besides my work in the library, but you… From what I've heard from Remilia, you seemed to be on good terms with both the witch and the miko."

"What about Sakuya-san or Meiling-san?"

"Meiling's a youkai, so she can't go there. Sakuya may be a human, but she's never been in the underground. On the other hand, Reimu and Marisa already know their way around, so it would take them less time to get into contact with that youkai… But since we've had quite a serious quarrel recently, I don't think any of the two will listen to me."

"Oh, I've heard something from Marisa…" said Kyouichi, trying to recall what the witch mentioned at the hanami. "Something about stealing books and some Royal Flare or something…"

Patchouli again giggled in her lovely voice, but soon after, she began coughing abruptly.

"Patchouli-sama, are you alright?" asked surprised Kyouichi, standing up from his chair and coming closer to the librarian.

"Yes… I'll be fine..." uttered the girl through her coughing as she took out some kind of inhaler from her pocket and took one deep breath from it. Her coughing subsided and she was breathing slowly and calmly. She smiled again, this time a little bitterly and murmured: "Hah… I can't even laugh with this stupid asthma…" she poured some more tea into her cup, and drank it all in one go. "But when I recalled that day, I just couldn't help it… Royal Flare is actually one of my most powerful Spell Cards. I used it on Marisa when she was stealing books from me. But now I also regret it. I'm afraid that was the end of our friendship…"

As Kyouichi saw that Patchouli stopped coughing, he took his seat again, looked at her and smiled reassuringly. "Patchouli-sama…"

"What is it?" she looked back at him with her beautiful violet eyes.

"You need not worry about your friendship with Marisa. She said herself that you're one of her best friends when I asked her about you."

"Really? She said that?"

This information surprised her and Kyouichi could also see that she looked relieved to hear it.

"She did." confirmed the outsider. "And she's not angry at you at all… In fact, she's the one who thinks that it will take some time before you can forgive her."

"So even after that, she still speaks of me as a friend? I… I'm glad to hear that…"

"As for Reimu… Well, I think she mentioned you a couple of times as well… I think she wanted to invite you to the hanami, but Marisa said that you wouldn't come because you're mad at her… I don't think any of the two has anything against you, Patchouli-sama. On the contrary, I'm sure they'd hear you out…"

A happy and relieved smile settled on Patchouli's face. "I'm so glad…" she sighed and stood up from the chair. "In that case, let's not waste any more time. I'm going to send them letters and inform them about the situation."

Kyouichi raised a palm to halt her. "No need to waste ink, Patchouli-sama. I will tell them personally. Or better yet, send them here, so you can all discuss this issue together."

"But you don't have to…" said the librarian, but Kyouichi didn't let her finish.

"It's okay. It's the least I can do for you after coming all the way here."

The youkai sorceress was in a loss for words for a moment. "I… Thank you, Kyouichi-san."

"No, Patchouli-sama. I thank you for wanting to help us outsiders…"

"In that case, I'm going to give you the amulet. You'll give it to either Reimu or Marisa, but only after they agree to go to the underground."

"As you wish…" shrugged the outsider, and stretched out a palm, expecting to receive the amulet.

"Wait a minute, Kyouichi-san. I don't have it with me. It's in my room. Please wait here for a while…"

"Okay." muttered the outsider and sat down again as he watched Patchouli walk away towards a large double door.

"Please don't wander off anywhere…" she warned him before she opened the door. "And don't touch anything."

"Understood." nodded Kyouichi and crossed his arms.

* * *

Even though Patchouli said she'd be back in a minute, that minute lasted at least 15 minutes and Kyouichi was starting to grow impatient. He stood up from the armchair and slowly strolled back and forth around the center of the library, curiously observing the books in the shelves. There were books of all sorts, colors, genres and sizes. Some of them were written in some unknown language. Some didn't even have any titles at all. Kyouichi obeyed Patchouli's warning and didn't touch a single book. He was just looking. Suddenly, he thought that he heard a silent sound of a door opening somewhere in the distance, but as he looked behind him, the big double door was still firmly closed and there was nobody there. Shrugging it off as just his own imagination, he continued to browse though the library's endless collection, trying to see if he wouldn't find any books from the outside world. After a couple of more minutes, he could hear light footsteps dampened by the carpet coming closer to him and a young girl's voice humming some melody. It didn't sound like Patchouli's voice, but the outsider still didn't pay it any mind and kept on browsing through the shelves. Suddenly, the footsteps stopped and after a few seconds of silence, the girl's voice sounded from behind him: "Hey, Onii-chan, good morning… Will you play with me?"

Kyouichi let out a sigh and muttered to himself: "Oh, great… Just what I needed… More people calling me Onii-chan."

He stood up from his crouching position and turned around to see the girl talking to him. As he saw her, he curiously tilted his head to the side and blinked a few times.

She was a short young girl who appeared to be something over 10 years old. Her eyes were dark-red, just as Remilia's or Yuuka's. She had short blond hair tied into a single ponytail on the left side of her head. She was wearing a red skirt and a vest with a pink shirt underneath. She also wore a pink mob cap decorated by a small red ribbon. And she had wings. A very intriguing pair of wings… They looked… artificial. Their black crooked frame seemed to be made of iron and each wing was decorated by a set of colorful gem-like shards. There were 8 of them on each wing: light-blue, blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, green and light-blue again.

She was standing there and looking curiously at him. Kyouichi observed her with the same curiosity. He stretched out his hands forward and drew an outline of her wings with his fingers in the air. The girl noticed it, smiled cutely and gently waved her wings up and down making the crystal shards clink like a chime.

"Do you like my wings?" she asked in a childish voice.

"Umm… yeah… they're nice." replied Kyouichi, still quite confused by the girl's appearance. "Are you Remilia-sama's…?"

"Younger sister." said the girl, finishing Kyouichi's sentence. "My name is Flandre."

"O-oh… I see…" stuttered the outsider for a moment. "I'm Kyouichi. Nice to meet you, Flandre-sama." Only now he recalled that Marisa mentioned that Remilia had a younger sister. However, she didn't look any younger or older than her.

"Hey, Onii-chan, you smell like a human…" commented the girl after taking a few whiffs of air. "Are you a human?"

Kyouichi embarrassedly lowered his head and whiffed at his own armpit. "I just bathed this morning… But yes, I'm a human."

"Really? You're the fourth human I've met~." rejoiced little Flandre and smiled. "Are you my playmate or a drink?"

That question really unsettled him, but he tried to hide his fear and reply truthfully. "Actually, I've been invited by your sister and Patchouli-sama to talk about something… Which reminds me that she should have been here already. I wonder what's taking her so long."

"So you know Onee-chan and Patchouli-sensei?" she asked with a curious face. "I guess I shouldn't eat you if you're their friend…" she murmured with a little disappointed voice. "Then… Will you play with me?"

"Play? And what game do you want to play?"

"Danmaku~." said Flandre with a joyful sparkle in her eyes.

Kyouichi mustered a crooked smile and chuckled. "I'm sorry, but I can't play danmaku."

Flandre looked at him with an unbelieving expression. "Eeeh~? What do you mean, can't play danmaku? Everyone knows how to play danmaku."

Kyouichi shook his head in disagreement. "No, only those from Gensokyo."

"So, you're not from Gensokyo?"

"No, Flandre-sama, I'm a completely ordinary human, who doesn't have any cool magic. You'll have to find some other playmate or think of some other game…"

The younger Scarlet sister hummed thoughtfully. "How about I just shot danmaku and you just dodged?"

"I don't think I'd last for longer than 10 seconds. Besides, what would Patchouli-sama say?"

Flandre seemed to suddenly realize something. "Oh… You're right… She wouldn't be too happy… So, what does Onee-chan want from you anyway?"

"I don't know yet… I've met her only once before and we didn't talk much."

"Hey, hey, Onii-chan…?" asked the little vampire again. "Tell me about the outside… Are there more humans?"

Kyouichi raised his eyebrow at her weird question. "You don't go outside much, do you?"

Flandre frowned and lowered her head. "Onee-chan says I can't. She says it would be too dangerous. But I've been outside a few times. I think it's very nice. But only when it's not raining."

"Well, yes, people usually stay indoors when it's raining…" confirmed Kyouichi and smiled at her. "I think your sister loves you so much that she's too worried about you. But I don't think it's right to make somebody stay inside all the time."

"That's just what I think too…" said the vampire and walked up to the table and stared at Kyouichi's unfinished tiramisu.

"You can have it if you want."

Flandre smiled joyfully and took the fork into her hand and tried to cut off a piece of dessert with it, but she pushed the fork a bit too hard and a piece of tiramisu fell on the carpet.

Kyouichi immediately picked it up and ate it. "Hehe… 3 second rule…" he smiled and came closer to the cute vampire girl. "Here, let me help you." he took the fork and sliced off another piece of tiramisu. "Say aaaah~."

Flandre closed her eyes and opened her mouth. "Aaaaah~."

Kyouichi could see that she indeed had vampiric fangs, but since she was so adorable, he wasn't really afraid. He fed the girl with tiramisu and she looked like she was enjoying it.

"Is it delicious?"

"Yes~." smiled Flandre and asked Kyouichi to feed her some more. And so, Kyouichi fed her the rest of the dessert until it was all gone.

"You remind me how my Onee-chan used to feed me long ago…" reminisced the little vampire.

"Your sister fed you? Not your mom?" asked the outsider.

Flandre looked absentmindedly at him, her mouth slightly open as if she was trying to remember something from a very long time ago. "I don't even remember my parents… For over 500 years it's been just me and my sister… Well, now there's also Patchouli-sensei and Meiling-san and Sakuya-san, so it's not so lonely… "

"You said that I'm the fourth human you've met… Who are the other three?"

"Umm… well, Sakuya-san, then sometimes a witch named Marisa comes to visit, but she just comes to see Patchouli-sensei… And the third one is a shrine maiden. But I've met her only once. She didn't want to play with me."

"Oh, I see... Reimu… But did you really not meet anyone else before?"

"No… I didn't even know how people looked like. I hadn't seen them in any other form than drinks or snacks. But after meeting some of them and learning something from Patchouli-sansei, I became curious… I'd really like to go outside and make many friends, but then Onee-chan would yell at me for disobeying her… Say, Onii-chan, will you be coming here for a visit from now on?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't think so… I'm here because Patchouli-sama wants to help me return home." said the outsider with a little bit of regret. "I'm not sure if it's even possible, but we're all going to try our best…"

"But if you won't be able to return, will you come and visit me again?"

Kyouichi paused himself in a serious expression and after a moment of silence he again smiled at the younger of the Scarlet sisters and nodded. "If I won't be able to return home, not only will I come to visit you, but I'll convince your sister and take you for a walk around the Human Village and buy you some ice-cream or something…"

Flandre's eyes again widened with joy and she smiled endearingly. "Yaay~! I love ice-cream~!" she rejoiced and happily flapped her wings. After calming down a little, she turned again at Kyouichi with a questioning look. "Do you promise, Onii-chan?"

Kyouichi frowned and with a cold tone he replied: "I don't make any promises… ever…"

Flandre pouted and for a moment she looked really angry, but Kyouichi continued.

"…But in your case, …I'll make an exception…" he added and smiled at her sweetly, stretching out his right pinky finger.

Flandre returned back to her cute, joyful expression. "Pinky promise~!" she called out and interlocked her little pinky with Kyouichi's. The both shook their hands, singing the pinky promise song and the promise was made.

"I almost wish you didn't succeed in getting home now…" said Flandre once she parted her hand with the outsider.

"Now that's a little selfish wish there, Flandre… I can imagine how you feel, but I feel the same way here… Like I said, I'll be sure to keep my promise if I won't be able to get back."

"And how long should I wait?"

"Until autumn." replied Kyouichi after a pause. "We have a plan… me and other people from the outside world, that we're going to try our luck and walk on our own from the Hakurei Shrine to find our way home…"

Flandre pouted in a thoughtful expression and shrugged. "Well, I don't really know what you're talking about, Onii-chan, but I know what autumn is… It's one of the four seasons of the year that comes right after summer and before winter."

Kyouichi nodded affirmatively. "That's correct. It would be very hard for us to travel through the mountains in winter, so we must go before winter comes. However, Patchouli-sama may have some plan that could help us all return even sooner."

"Patchouli-sensei is very smart, but she is a little boring sometimes…" revealed Flandre about the librarian.

* * *

Just as soon as she mentioned her, the large double door of the library opened and Patchouli stepped inside, accompanied by the mistress of the mansion – Remilia Scarlet. Both were indulged in a lively conversation as they entered the library, but as soon as they saw Kyouichi and Flandre they stopped dead in their tracks, their eyes and mouths wide open.

"Onee-chan, good morning~!" Flandre greeted her big sister cheerfully. "And you too, Patchouli-sensei~!"

"F-F-Flan?!" stuttered the older Scarlet sister with a very surprised expression. "What are you...?"

"I was just waiting for another lesson with Patchouli-sensei and met Onii-chan instead…"

"I'm Kyouichi…" murmured the outsider to her.

"Hey, human…" called Remilia at him. "Are you alright?"

"I'd feel better if I had some sleep last night, but otherwise I feel fine." replied Kyouichi and bowed deeply to greet her. "By the way, good morning to you, Remilia-sama."

Remilia turned to Patchouli with the same half-frightened expression and asked her to take Flandre back to her room. The librarian complied with her request and took the younger Scarlet sister by the hand and led her somewhere away. Flandre turned back at Kyouichi one last time and waved at him, smiling cutely as ever. He also smiled and waved back at her before she and Patchouli disappeared behind one of the massive bookshelves.

"Are you sure she didn't try to rip you into shreds?" asked Remilia again as she measured Kyouichi up.

"Huh? I don't know what you're talking about, Remilia-sama… Your sister is one of the nicest and cutest girls I've ever met. We just talked a little…"

"Hehehe…" chuckled Remilia in disbelief. "You sure are one lucky outsider…"

"Why would you say that?"

"My sister…" she spoke uncertainly and carefully picked words. "She's… well… not very used to humans…"

"Yes, she told me… But she's very sweet. And apparently she loves you a lot…" argued the outsider on Flandre's defense.

Remilia again gave him a very surprised look and couldn't find a word to let out of her mouth. It really wasn't common to see her like that. So unsure of herself…

"Um… Remilia-sama? Are you feeling alright?"

She finally woke up from her trance and repeatedly nodded. "Yes, yes, I'm fine…"

She took a seat in the armchair where Patchouli was sitting just a couple of minutes ago and asked the outsider to sit down as well. He obliged and sat opposite of her, looking straight into her eyes, waiting until she spoke first. But the vampire just sat there quietly, resting her cheek on her palm and scanned the outsider like an x-ray.

Unbeknownst to Kyouichi, Remilia possessed a unique power – the power to see a person's "strings of fate" and the ability to manipulate those strings to a certain degree. She could see them around everyone and the young outsider was, of course, no exception. She saw all the thin red strings, invisible to anyone but her, stretching out from all parts of the outsider's body. Each of them meant this human's fate in various respective aspects of life. His lifespan, health development, school, career, family, wealth, friendship, love, everything… Depending on how each string curved and twined, she could already tell how each of the person's life aspects were going to develop up to several decades into the future. She carefully studied each of Kyouichi's fate strings and traced them with her finger. Kyouichi only stared at her confusedly, wondering what she might be doing. Remilia didn't pay him any mind at the moment and curiously read his fate. She could see that the string representing his school life has been severed at one point and after a blank spot, continued in a quite different direction. His family fate string, stretching from the area of his heart was strangely curled up, separated into two, with one end severed and the second, continuing in an uncertain pattern until it gradually faded out of Remilia's fate vision. She wasn't sure if the second of the ends also wasn't severed and was tempted to pull the string a bit to see further into his future, but that would also mean that she'd irreversibly manipulate his fate in some way and that was something she didn't do very often. Summing up all of the strings' patterns, Remilia amusedly nodded to herself and stated: "Interesting life…"

Even as she spoke to him, she could see the fate strings subtly change their formation – some to better, others to worse. Such was her ability. She could change people's fate even unwittingly, just by talking to them.

"What? Here in the mansion?" wondered Kyouichi about Remilia's last statement. "Yes, I'm sure I could get used to all the luxury pretty quickly…"

"No." retorted the vampire, shaking her head. "I meant YOUR life, human…" she spoke in a deeper, more serious voice.

"I have a name, you know…" murmured the outsider under his nose. "Wait a minute… Did you just say MY life? What would be so interesting about it?" he wondered. "I'd say it's been rather boring."

"Perhaps until, now… Kyouichi." she finally addressed him by his name. "But as for your future… I see some interesting development here."

"Are you an oracle, Remilia-sama?"

The vampire giggled childishly, smiling wryly so that one of her upper fangs jutted over her lower lip. "Something better." she replied. "Do you believe in fate, Kyouichi?"

"No." he answered immediately and with absolute certainty in his voice.

"Why not?" she asked him teasingly as she playfully coiled a strand of her hair around her slim white finger.

"I don't like the thought that I'm not in control of my own life."

"Ah, but the existence of fate does not depend on whether we like it or not." she continued with her teasing, drawly speech. "Just as afterlife exits, independent of people's belief or disbelief in it…"

"Regardless, I still don't believe in fate." insisted Kyouichi on his opinion.

Again, the blue-haired vampire girl giggled, amused by his obstinate beliefs. "And tell me, Kyouichi, with your hand on heart, did you also believe in the existence of vampires or youkai until three weeks ago?"

Kyouichi's lips parted in a silent, wordless expression, revealing to Remilia that she made a good point. "Now that you say it… No, I didn't…" replied the outsider after processing the thought.

Remilia's smile slightly widened as she blinked slowly. "Then is it really so hard to accept the existence of fate?"

Kyouichi hummed thoughtfully, pulling his lower lip. "Perhaps it would be easier for me if you specified what you mean by "fate"."

"By fate I mean a certain predestined path all living beings take at certain points in their lives. A complexity of actions and consequences depending on their decisions and their possibilities. Every living being lives in belief that they decide their own path. That they choose their own fate. Ironically, they're almost correct. However, strings of fate are tied to everyone and they are the representative of their current beliefs upon which each individual acts and decides, thus, unwittingly, follows their inevitable fate – their predestined path… And I am able to see those strings and even alter them as I please."

"But if you can change it, you can no longer call it fate, can you?" argued the outsider.

"If you believe that fate is a series of events that are going to happen in your life based on your decisions, than fate is nothing more than your state of mind that determines how you are going to act in those future situations. In a sense, you've already made your future decisions based on your current beliefs, opinions and world view. You may now think that you can decide on what path your life will take, but in the end, you will take only THAT one path, which you had chosen now or perhaps even long ago. But fate does not consist of our individual beliefs and decisions alone. It is a complex equation with many variables: random natural occurrences, supernatural occurrences and the fates of other beings that are all entwined together in one gigantic mass of strings. Sometimes, when I see two people standing close to each other, I can see some of their fate lines bound together. I can see that with members of one family, colleagues at work, childhood friends, lovers, enemies and even complete strangers… However, even my sight is limited, and I cannot see all the strings' patterns too far in the future."

"You still haven't answered my question." Kyouichi pointed out.

"You are indeed a perceptive one…" giggled the mistress of the mansion amusedly. "I can change people's fate and alter their lives, but only as long as they are not aware of the future that awaits them… If I told you that you'll be struck by a lightning tomorrow and die, naturally, you'd try to oppose that fate and stay inside your house for the whole day. Thus, you'd break and change your fate. Such are the limitations of my power…"

"So… were you manipulating my fate strings just now?"

"Yes and no…" replied Remilia unclearly. "I didn't touch any of your fate strings directly, but I'm speaking to you right now… That alone is altering your fate slightly, but the full extent of that alteration I cannot yet see... However, I can see that your fate… is an interesting one."

She could see the strings forming patterns that meant both great sadness and great happiness in the life of the human before her. However, she did not tell him anything more.

"O-kay… If you say so. But I guess you haven't invited me here to tell me my fortune, have you, Remilia-sama?"

"You're right. That is indeed not the reason why I summoned you here." nodded the noble vampire. "Don't worry, I'm not going to drink your blood…" she jestingly added, showing both of her fangs over her sweet, but mischievous smile.

Kyouichi was somewhat relieved to hear that, but still feeling the tension hanging in the air.

"I wanted to talk about the same matter as Patchouli did…"

"Yukari?"

"That's right." said Remilia. "Patchouli might have told you a way to find her, but I don't think she told you the exact reason."

"She said she wanted to talk to her and ask her why she spirited away so many people at once." Kyouichi informed her. "And she also said something about some issues concerning the whole Gensokyo, but I guess she meant that thing with the outsiders…"

"There is another reason." explained the vampire. She paused herself as if she was looking around for something and called her maid: "Sakuyaaaa~!"

Instantaneously, the silver-haired maid appeared out of nowhere, her hands folded one over the other. "Yes, mistress?"

"Tell Patchouli to come here, please." she ordered her with a nonchalant tone.

Two popping sounds echoed and Patchouli was standing next to Sakuya, holding the maid's hand.

"What is it, Remi?" asked the surprised sorceress.

"I believe this outsider should be told the whole truth about our reason why we want to find Yukari Yakumo." said Remilia to her. "There has been something else going on in Gensokyo… Something that started even before the mass spiriting away."

Kyouichi curiously leaned forward to be able to hear her even better.

"At first, it was nothing serious." she continued. "Just a bunch of crazed fairies attacking the mansion… Meiling took care of them without much trouble. However, more recently, the attacks of the fairies seemed to have intensified. This is apparently a very unusual behavior for otherwise peaceful creatures. I'm no expert on this matter, but Patchouli here knows much more about that stuff than I do… Please, Patchouli, explain it to us once more."

Patchouli nodded affirmatively. "Yes, Remi, just a minute…"

She raised her hand with a stretched out index finger above her head and flung the arm forward. In a bright red flash of light a shining circle with a pentagram appeared on the floor. A second later, thick white smoke rose from the centre of the circle and once it lifted, another, to Kyouichi yet unfamiliar person, stood in its middle. Again, the person was or at least appeared as a young female, dressed in a simple black dress with white sleeves. For a second, the outsider thought that she was the youkai who attacked him two weeks ago, but the only similarity between her and this new person were the clothes. The girl, who was apparently summoned by Patchouli, was a little taller than the sorceress herself. She had long red hair, eyes and a pair of black batlike wings coming from her back and a much smaller pair from the sides of her head. At first glance, she looked like another vampire, but was she really? She was looking at Patchouli with a docile and curious look. "Patchouli-sama?" she asked her summoner as if expecting her order.

"Koakuma…" Patchouli addressed the girl. "Please bring me the books about fairies that I asked you to bring me before… Do you still remember?"

"Yes, Patchouli-sama." bowed the winged girl and took off into the air, flying somewhere away from the center of the library. In a minute, she was flying back with three books in her hands, passing them to Patchouli once she landed.

Kyouichi curiously looked at the girl and as Patchouli turned her face to him, he asked: "Ehh… Patchouli-sama? Aren't you going to introduce us to each other?"

"Huh? Oh… but of course…" she nodded and gestured to her summoned helper. "Kyouichi-san, this is Koakuma, my library assistant. Koakuma, this is Kyouichi-san, our guest."

"Pleased to meet you." said both Kyouichi and Koakuma at the same time.

"As her name suggests," continued Patchouli explaining while turning the pages in one of the books. "Koakuma is a little devil… The devils are a quite powerful race of youkai living in Gensokyo, but their home is in Makai. Koa-chan, however, is one of the weaker ones. She's a great help to have in such a big library. She has an excellent overview about the books in this library and can find me whatever book I'm looking for in just a moment… Provided that the requested book is still in the library…" she then pretended to cough and uttered "Marisa" in-between her fake coughing.

Finally, the purple-haired sorceress found the desired chapter in the book and put it on the table.

"As Remilia already mentioned, there have already been several fairy attacks on the mansion. All happened at night and all from the same direction, each attack more intense than the last. At first, I thought that something must have startled them so much that they attacked everything in their path as they fled, however, as the attacks repeated themselves, I dismissed that theory."

"I was attacked by a bunch of fairies on the evening when I was spirited away… if it has any connection…" said Kyouichi on a side note. "But I think I just startled them when I entered their territory."

Patchouli turned to him and raised her eyebrows. "Really? There might be a connection… Where were you attacked?"

"I don't know… some tall hill in the Forest of Magic…"

"Hmm… Could be that you just disturbed them, but it could also mean that they were crazed. I'd have to be there to confirm that. The book says that the fairies hide when an intruder enters their territory. Anyway, not long after the fairy attacks on the mansion, several of our fairy maids began acting strangely and aggressively even towards their own kind. Only after eliminating them and their subsequent rebirth, they returned back to normal with no memories of what happened during their madness."

Kyouichi hummed thoughtfully and commented: "Okay, so we've got one missing border youkai, a large group of spirited away outsiders and a bunch of crazy fairies going berserk. Is that the matter you wanted to discuss with Yukari or do you blame her for this phenomenon as well?"

Remilia again entered the discussion. "Yes, that is what we wanted to discuss with Yukari. Something is definitely driving the fairies insane and it isn't the moon. And not all the fairies are affected. All the attacks came from the east which makes me think that someone is sending those fairies at us. I've sent Sakuya to investigate several times, but she didn't manage to find anything."

"From the east?" asked the outsider. "What lies to the east?"

Patchouli started naming: "Fields, meadows, foothills, mountains, forests and the old mining village of Kazemura."

Suddenly, an idea struck Kyouichi in the head. "Kazemura… I've heard rumors about some archeological discovery… They say they've found some ancient ruins in the quarry about two months ago."

Remilia's lips parted as her eyes gazed into the unknown. "Two months ago… Didn't the first fairy attack happen over two months ago?"

"I believe it did." confirmed Patchouli and drummed on the table with her fingertips.

"But, I've been to Kazemura several times, my lady." said Sakuya suddenly. "There was nothing unusual about those ruins except that they looked pretty old."

"But you've only gone to investigate in daytime." pointed out her mistress. "Our culprit or culprits act exclusively in nighttime."

"Well, should I go and investigate again tonight?" asked the maid.

"No, Sakuya." said Remilia, dismissively waving her hand. "Whoever keeps doing this must have already noticed you snooping around and is probably keeping a low profile. If you showed yourself in Kazemura again, the culprit won't do anything suspicious. If he or she is indeed from the village…"

She then raised her head and looked at Kyouichi with that mischievous smile of hers and nodded to herself. "But, you, Kyouichi-san… You're an outsider. They barely know your face even in the Human Village. That's a huge advantage for you… Furthermore, you don't draw so much attention as me or Sakuya would. I have a proposition for you, Kyouichi…"

The outsider smiled understandingly and nodded. "I see where you're getting at, Remilia-sama… Well, good news for you then. I'm planning to visit Kazemura by the end of this month. I'll be sure to take a good look around and then I'll send you a report with my findings."

Remilia's smile broadened. She looked very cute right now. "This may be a good start to a nice friendship, Kyouichi-san… Although I thought you'd go there sooner, I guess I can't rush you as an outsider who has to depend on protection of others. Very well, Kyouichi, make sure you investigate the village and the ruins properly and thoroughly and report back whatever you find out. But don't start asking everyone too openly, or they might become suspicious of you. It would be best if you stayed there overnight. If you notice anything suspicious, don't do anything. Just inform me. If our culprit is in the village, we'll take care of them. If not, well, at least we'll have our search narrowed. Either way, I'll be willing to pay you quite nicely if you give me that report. But don't try any tricks. Patchouli knows a spell that can instantly tell if your written report will be true or a lie. I would not recommend you betraying our agreement…" she added with an intimidatingly calm voice.

Kyouichi's heart started beating a little faster, but the outsider was not afraid. He never intended to deceive Remilia with a fake report.

"But what about Patchouli-sama's request with the amulet and the youkai living underground?"

"Oh, yes…" recalled Patchouli and handed out a shiny bimetallic medallion-like amulet to Kyouichi. "Of course, I don't expect you to go the underground. Let Reimu and Marisa handle that. If they succeed and find out where Yukari is, you'll be as good as home in no time."

"Very well, then." said the outsider and stood up from the armchair. "I'll go and see Reimu and inform her about your idea, Patchouli-sama. And I'll check out Kazemura in 10 days for you, Remilia-sama. I better get going right away…"

"Good luck to you, Kyouichi." said Remilia as she also got off the chair. "You'll need it…" she added with a smirk.

* * *

They bid each other farewell and Remilia tasked Sakuya to see Kyouichi off. She led him back all the way to the main foyer and opened the door for him.

A while after he left, Patchouli checked again some general facts about fairies and their behavior in the book on the table.

"Say, Remi…" she addressed her old friend.

"Hm?"

"Why did you lie to him about that truth detecting spell that I'm supposedly capable of…?"

"Just to give him a good motivation to try hard while looking for clues, that's all." answered Remilia with an innocent smile.


	22. The Dress Makes the Man

After bowing to Meiling on his way out, Kyouichi had to push the borrowed fishing boat back into the water. The thick mist from the morning had significantly lifted and it was now possible to see the lake's shore from the island. Once the boat was again floating on water, he got on and with a few hard strokes of the oars, he picked off from the island's shore. He was more relaxed now that he left the mansion and that the mist over the lake was now rather thin. He leisurely rowed the boat at a slow pace, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere. However, something unusual caught his attention. He could hear two childish voices from somewhere, but as he looked around, he couldn't see anyone. It sounded like two girls arguing about something. He sopped rowing and focused his senses to hear what the voices were arguing about. Finally, as he looked up, he could see two faint silhouettes floating above the lake. As he took a better look, he saw that the two figures were fairies. One in a blue dress and the other one clad in red and white. They didn't even notice him as they were arguing.

"W-Whaat?!" called one of the fairies.

"That's right, I haven't forgotten!" replied the other one. "You destroyed my house the other day, didn't you? So I declared a war on you! Which I just remembered now.

"Wait, so perhaps the one who declared the war on us…"

"It was me! And now you're gonna die!"

"Huh? So you mean it wasn't Marisa-san? Too bad…"

"It's a good thing I remembered! Now today will be the anniversary for my declaration of war!"

Right after that, the two fairies began their battle. One of the fairies conjured up a widespread barrage of bright yellow shots of energy while the other one launched icicles in a straightforward rapid-fire stream. This lasted for over half a minute as the two kept shooting and missing or dodging away if a stray shot or two headed their way. The icicle-shooting fairy seemed to have the edge in this battle. Her attacks were more accurate and when she was overwhelmed by a dense barrage of light, she stopped her attack, stretched out her hands forward and a white shimmering light appeared in front of her as she charged up her energy. Just when the yellow wall of shots was about to make contact with her, the ice fairy activated her power and a chilling wave erupted out of her palms, freezing all the energy shots in front of her and as the frozen bullets were hit by those behind them, they also stopped their motion and joined the frozen ones in a chain reaction that spread all the way back to the other fairy.

"Aaaack!" cried the red-white fairy as she felt the frostbite on her palms.

The mass of frozen bullets burst in a loud crashing sound equivalent to the sound of breaking glass. Hundreds of small ice fragments scattered everywhere and hit the lake's surface like a hailstorm. The red-white clad fairy didn't falter and wasted no time to charge up another attack, this time forming a sphere of larger yellow and orange energy balls around her body and sending them off to all directions. As Kyouichi saw what was about to happen, he panicked and tried to row the boat away as fast as possible. Luckily, the outburst of yellow shots spread wider and missed the boat by a few meters. This time, the ice fairy didn't have as much luck. As she used another quick-charge freezing wave, several of the orange fireballs continued in their flight.

"Kyaaah~!" screamed the ice fairy, confirming that she's been hit.

Kyouichi did what he could to get out of the scene of their battle, but the boat didn't move very fast.

"That's it!" shouted the ice fairy. "I'll freeze you like a frog!"

She drew something out and held it above her head.

Kyouichi interrupted his rowing to look up once more. "Oh… That looks like a Spell Card. I've never seen one those in action yet…"

"Ice Sign "Icicle Fall"!" declared the ice fairy and with a bright blue flash, the Spell Card in her hand dispersed into blue sparkles. Behind her appeared a few shining blue lights out of which flowed unsteady rhythmical streams of magical ice shards directed not at the other fairy, but launching sideways. However, as the first burst spread wide enough, the ice shards changed their heading and closed in on their target in slow half-circle waves. The fairy in red and white looked surprised at first, but she managed to cleverly dodge the first two waves with little effort. She closed in on her ice-powered opponent and stopped just a few meters in front of her.

Kyouichi's eyes widened in panic as he saw the wave of icicles that missed its target dangerously closing in on his boat. "This won't end well…"

It was too late to move out of the way. Impact was imminent. Kyouichi could only do as much as cover his head with both arms. He heard a series of splashes interjected by a loud crack. Kyouichi was unharmed, but the boat was hit. As he straightened up and lowered his arms, he noticed a bubbling sound which drew his attention to his feet. Looking down at the boat's bottom, he saw a single hole through which the water flowed into the boat.

"Oh, great! I'm sinking." he grumbled as he tried to plug the hole with his foot. He tightly grabbed the oars again and hurried to the southern shore of Misty Lake. Meanwhile, the ice fairy's Spell Card ended. The other fairy was unscratched and all she had to do was stand right in front of her enemy and wait.

"Ahahahaha~!" she laughed amusedly. "And THAT is what passes for a Spell Card? Ahahaha~! How pathetic. Now it's my turn!"

She drew out her own Spell Card, showed it to her opponent and declared: "Sun Sign "Aggressive Light"!"

Apparently, this fairy had powers related to sunlight. Right after the declaration of her spell, the air in front of her was filled with unguided bright orbs of light combined with rapid narrow beam-like streams of smaller projectiles. The ice fairy just barely dodged the rays and in panic, she drew out another of her cards. Fortunately for the outsider, this attack was more directed at its target, so the boat was safe. However, with a hole in it and slowly filling with water, it was a bit too late. Kyouichi's foot only managed to slow down the flooding, but he estimated that he should make it to the shore anyway. That estimation changed instantly when the ice fairy declared another of her Spell Cards in a desperate act to survive the sun fairy's barrage.

"Freeze Sign "Perfect Freeze"!"

It suddenly became very cold. Every single energy projectile including the bright fireballs was frozen solid, hanging there in thin air for a couple of seconds without motion. Even as the sunlight fairy fired new shots, they just froze instantaneously. In the following moment, the ice thawed and all the bullets were set back into motion, but this time their heading was erratic and unpredictable.

Kyouichi only managed to utter a swear word as he helplessly watched a few of those projectiles heading his way ram into the fishing boat and add a couple of more holes in its hull.

The water was flowing in fast. He was no longer curious about the outcome of the fairies' duel. He needed to row hard and fast. He tried to hold both his feet on the holes, but it did little to prevent water from flowing in. He was still more than 200 meters away from the shore.

Huffing and puffing with each stroke of the oars, he felt his feet and the lower part of his hakama getting wet. As the boat gained more and more water, it became slower. With all his effort, Kyouichi still managed to close the distance between himself and the shore to something around 150 meters, but he was already knee-deep in water by now. He resignedly let go of the oars and shrugged.

"This boat is going to the bottom…" he muttered to himself as he looked up once more to the fairies that caused the boat to sink.

It appeared that the ice fairy was victorious, since the other fairy was nowhere to be seen. She either fled or was eliminated. It didn't unsettle Kyouichi's mind, since he knew that the fairies get reborn right after they suffer mortal injuries.

"Well, little ice fairy, I hope you're happy now… Mizuto's going to kill me for this…" he commented as he was standing up. Fortunately, one of Kyouichi's few talents was swimming, so he wasn't as much worried about drowning, as he feared Mizuto's reaction when he finds out that he managed to get his boat sunk. He found this situation somewhat tragicomical. He smirked at the thought of how this all happened and as he whistled the melody from the movie Titanic, he prepared himself for the unpleasantly cold water, in which he would be forced to swim soon. As he began to feel that the boat's bottom was going down, he took one deep breath. With a last few bubbling sounds, the fishing boat disappeared under the lake's surface, leaving the outsider to swim on his own.

"Damn, is it cold…" he commented as he was trying to stay afloat. "I just hope that no lake monsters live here…" However, his worries were soon dismissed by a logical assumption that if the lake was truly a home to any dangerous creatures, there wouldn't be any fishing colony here in the fist place.

* * *

Swimming in a kimono wasn't exactly easy, but this wasn't the first time he was forced to swim with clothes on. He was a good swimmer and 150 meters wasn't a very big distance. He didn't hurry to the shore, though. Instead, he used slow strokes in combination with slow breathing to save his strength and prevent getting a spasm in the foot. In less than 3 minutes, he was already climbing up the lake's shore. He was wet from head to toe, but he didn't want to see Mizuto to ask for some spare clothes. He was too scared to see him and tell him that he has one less fishing boat. He didn't think that the fisherman would buy his story that the fairies sank it, despite it being the truth. Just as he was thinking what to do now, he saw a Ryuuken patrol leaving the colony.

"This is my chance." he thought to himself and hurried to follow them. "Maybe if I won't say anything, he won't find out… But I think it's just a matter of time until he finds out… I should apologize to him… and pay him for a new boat…"

As his guilt and fear wrestled inside his head for supremacy, he quietly followed the relieved Ryuuken out of the colony. He was walking 10 meters behind them, too embarrassed to be walking there with them in his soaked clothes. The guards looked back at him a couple of times and had a good laugh at him as his clothes were dripping water even after 20 minutes of walking.

* * *

Meanwhile, Mizuto returned on one of his boats to the shore after catching quite a lot of fish. He docked his boat at one of the piers and after taking a better look, he noticed that both of his two other boats were tied to the pier. "Hmph I guess Kyouichi-kun already got his business settled… Okay… Time to cut these fish up…"

After he got off of the boat with a net full of fish hanging over his shoulder, he greeted a fellow fisherman, who was nervously walking around and muttering something.

"Hey, there Kenjiro-san… How's your work today?"

The elderly fisherman gave him a sidelong look and frowned. "Ah man, this is such a pain… Some of those young anglers must have borrowed my boat again. I can't see it anywhere."

"Pfff, kids these days…" stated Mizuto as he passed his friend by.

"I wonder what are those goddamn Ryuuken doin' if the boats just keep disappearin'."

* * *

By now, Kyouichi was already a long way from the colony, still falling some distance behind the small squad of warriors. He blamed himself all the way for not avoiding the battle between the fairies.

"At least I didn't lose Patchouli-sama's amulet…" he muttered, grasping the object in his palm. "Let's just hope you'll bring me more luck at getting me home than you brought me at getting across that lake…" he whispered, addressing his words to the ornate amulet.

An hour and a half has passed since he left the fishing colony and he was starting to feel hungry. Furthermore, the wet clothes were chilling him. He was prepared that the Ryuuken would take a break at the crossroad, but to his surprise, they didn't stop and continued on their way… to Kazemura.

"Hey, wait, wait, waaaait~!" called Kyouichi after the Ryuuken leader. "Aren't you guys going to the Human Village?"

The Ryuuken officer let out an amused laughter. "No, you dimwit. We are assigned to Kazemura. The next patrol headed for the Human Village departs the fishing colony in two hours from now."

"What?! Damn! What should I do now?"

"Well, you can either come with us, or stay here and wait for the next patrol or head to the village on your own. You choose…"

Kyouichi considered his options for a while and finally made a decision. "I'm going on my own."

"Suit yourself." shrugged the Ryuuken indifferently and commanded his men to follow his lead.

* * *

For some reason Kyouichi had the confidence that he wouldn't be attacked by any youkai on his way to the village. He continued his way at a brisker pace, to warm up a bit. He still had Reimu's blessed amulets in case some hungry youkai would get in his way. Cursing the life in Gensokyo, the fairies and even the youkai of boundaries, he made his way through the foothills on the northeastern side of the Forest of Magic. He didn't encounter any youkai all the way. After another hour, he came to a crossroad in front of the stairway to the Hakurei Shrine. As he looked up the stairs, he saw the shrine maiden sweeping.

"Hi, Reimu~!" he called at her and waved his hand.

The shrine maiden waved back as she saw him and made an inviting gesture. Kyouichi was tired and hungry, so he thought he'd stop by for at least some soup. As he stepped up the stairs towards Reimu, she noticed that his clothes were drenched.

"Hello, Kyouichi. I haven't seen you in quite a while... Why are your clothes all wet?"

"You want to hear the short version or the whole story…?" replied the outsider with a bitter tone, but with a pleasant smile.

Reimu stopped her sweeping and invited him to the shrine. She was curious about what happened, and so, Kyouichi told her the whole story including the letter, his trip to the lake, the short stay in the Scarlet Devil Mansion and his way back. Reimu listened carefully and with great interest while she made him some tea. Suika was also at the shrine, and just like Reimu, she asked a whole lot of questions. Kyouichi explained Patchouli's plan to find Yukari using the amulet and that someone would have to go to the underground and meet a certain youkai who can supposedly pinpoint Yukari's location.

* * *

"I see…" muttered Reimu and nodded understandingly as she observed Patchouli's amulet. "I guess it's time to visit the Palace of the Earth Spirits again."

"Hey, Reimu~. Give me, give me…" asked Suika childishly for the communicating amulet.

As the shrine maiden sighed and obliged, the little oni took the amulet, shook it in her palm, tapped it with her finger and spoke to it: "Heeey~! Yukariiiin~! Are you in there~?"

Reimu gave her a questioning look. "Uhh, Suika? I hate to break it up to you but, I don't think that Yukari is actually IN the amulet."

The oni didn't listen to her and kept on talking to the amulet. "It's me, Suika~. And Reimu's here too… Come on, say something. We want to see you again. Come out already~!"

As expected, there was no response coming from the amulet and Suika sadly lowered her head as she gave up her attempt.

"Reimu~! I want to see Yukari again~!" she whined as she was returning the amulet to the shrine maiden.

"I know…" muttered Reimu, tracing the ornaments on the amulet with her finger. "Me too…"

"So, you're going to the Former Hell again?" asked the oni.

"I don't really want to go there…" pouted the shrine maiden and took a sip of tea from her cup. "But if that girl can really help us find Yukari… I'll go."

"And what about Marisa-san?" asked the outsider.

"Yeah, we'll get there faster if we go together." thought Reimu aloud. "We'll need some time to prepare for the trip"

"Thank you, Reimu. Take the amulet then and let me know what you found out once you're back." Kyouichi requested from her. "I better hurry to the village or I'll be late for work."

"Wait a minute." she halted him by grabbing his hand. "You can't go to the village in those wet clothes."

"It's not like I have a choice. Besides, I walked all the way from the lake in these…"

"No. You need to get changed or you'll catch a cold." protested the shrine maiden. "Wait here."

She went into the shrine and after five minutes she returned with another cup of hot tea and some folded clothes.

"Here… And take these too…" she handed him two white pills.

"What's that?" he asked as he mistrustfully observed the drugs.

"It's a cold preventive medicine from Eientei." Reimu explained and passed him the cup of tea.

"Okay…" shrugged the outsider and swallowed both pills, washing them down with tea. "So, have you found any clothes I could get changed into?"

"Yes." smiled Reimu and unfolded the clothes which she brought. "They may be a bit small for you, but…"

Kyouichi spat out the tea in laughter as he saw them. "What?! Miko clothes?! That's not gonna happen!"

* * *

An hour later after waking up from a sudden blackout caused by the medicine he took, Kyouichi was already groaning in displeasure as he was looking down at his chest and tucking onto his new shrine maiden's attire. Suika who was standing behind him was covering her mouth as she giggled. "Oh, Kyou-chan… You're so cute~!"

"What the hell did you do to me?!"

He stood up slowly and walked up to the mirror hanging on the wall. His jaw dropped from the shocking image staring back at him from the mirror. "W-Where are my normal clothes?"

"They're drying up outside, of course." replied Reimu who just entered the shrine. She put on a wicked smile and she couldn't manage to hide her chuckling.

"I can't show myself like that in public…" said Kyouichi, refusingly shaking his head as he watched his new image reflected in the mirror. "At least you could spare me from this hair ribbon…" he muttered as he was untying the big red ribbon from his hair - the same kind that Reimu had in her hair.

"What are you doing? You look so good in it~! Miko-miko Kyouichi~!" laughed Suika, holding her stomach.

"Just look at me! I'm a freak! And you, Reimu…" he threateningly pointed his finger at the shrine maiden. "Those pills were no cold medicine, were they?"

"Oh, but they were… They're just a bit strong and have a little side effect. They put you to sleep for a while."

"What time is it anyway? I need to get to the village and go to work."

"I don't have any clocks at the shrine." shrugged Reimu. "But it's sometime around noon I guess…"

Kyouichi finally untied the red ribbon from his hair and quickly thought what to do next.

"My clothes are drying outside and the walk to the village takes over a half an hour… If I go now, I just might make it to the bookstore on time. And when I get to the village, Minako-san will surely give me some normal clothes… Alright, I better get going." he said reluctantly, hoping that nobody would see him like this.

"Okay, then. I'll go with you." Reimu volunteered herself and told Suika not to break anything while she's gone. "Come on, Kyou-chan~!" she teased him as she giggled at how ridiculously her own clothes looked on him.

"Yeah, ha, ha~… So damn funny." grumbled the outsider as he followed Reimu out to the shrine yard.

They didn't even get halfway to the torii when a rapid clicking sounded from behind, followed by an amused call: "Ayayayaya~!"

Kyouichi froze on the spot, trembling from embarrassment. "Oh, no…! Not her! Anything but her!"

A sudden gust of wind blew from behind them and a renowned tengu reporter made her appearance. "Oh, this will be a scoop." she smiled wryly and rubbed her hands. "The Hakurei Shrine has a new shrine maiden…"

Another series of pictures was taken from all angles as Aya excitedly flew around them.

"Aya-san, please… give me that camera…" Kyouichi tired to desperately negotiate with her.

"No can do~!" sang the tengu teasingly and snapped more shots of the embarrassed outsider.

"Reimu, please tell her something." he turned to the shrine maiden in hope of her support.

"Let me know when the next issue comes out." called Reimu at Aya, hiding her giggling with her hand.

"You'll be among the first ones to get the new printout." smiled Aya and waved at her before she jetted off into the sky again.

Kyouichi stood there dumbfounded, blinking a few times before managing to find the right words to describe his feelings. "Someone… kill me, please."

He could already see the looks on all the people's faces when they read the next issue of the Bunbunmaru Newspaper. If his appearance in the news during the hanami from two weeks ago didn't make him famous, this doubtlessly will. However, the correct word in this situation would be "infamous".

"Damn… So this is what Remilia meant when she said that my life will get really interesting?" asked Kyouichi himself. "She should have told me frankly that it will suck like hell…"

"Oh, don't worry." Reimu tried to cheer him up. "People will forget about it… eventually."

"Just when I thought I was going to like the tengu girl… And she does this to me…"

* * *

They walked down the set of stone stairs, ready to turn left and head towards the village when they both noticed rhythmical drumming sound like a horse gallop.

"Oh, please, no more witnesses…" whined Kyouichi, covering his face with his palms.

However, he was curious who could be riding down this road, and so, he uncovered his face to look. Reimu also prepared herself, reaching her hand inside her sleeve, ready to unleash her amulets. However, as soon as they both saw a human figure riding from the north on the back of a brown horse, they felt relieved. At least Reimu did. The horseman's clothes bore the hallmarks of the Ryuuken militia and he seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. As he spotted Reimu and Kyouichi, he pulled the reins, making his horse slow down gradually and stop. Judging by the stripes on his shoulders, Kyouichi knew that this young rider had the lowest ranking among the warriors. He was definitely one of the new recruits. The way he was unsteadily balancing on the saddle of his horse revealed that he couldn't have been in the service of the militia for too long. He looked like a scout or a messenger. Even though he saw Kyouichi in his ridiculous outfit, he maintained a serious face. Then he curiously raised his eyebrow and asked the dumbest question he could.

"Which one of you is Reimu Hakurei?"

Kyouichi put on a half-surprised, half-angry smile with his lips slightly agape and the corner of his mouth twitching.

"Which fist would you like me to hit you with first?" he asked jokingly, showing off his clenched fists.

"Yes? What is it that you need from me?" asked Reimu curiously.

"There's some trouble in Kazemura. The village has been attacked by a swarm of aggressive fairies. We're holding them off, but there's too many. We need your help as soon as possible." explained the messenger.

Reimu opened her mouth in slight surprise and nodded. "Okay then, I'll be right there." She then turned to Kyouichi and apologized. "I'm sorry, but I won't be able to walk you to the village. You should wait at the shrine with Suika until I get back."

Without even saying goodbye, she took off from the ground and headed north. The Ryuuken messenger turned his horse around in the meantime and off he went, heading north as well.

Kyouichi was again left alone. He unbelievingly stared into the sky at the flying shrine maiden and shrugged helplessly. When he looked down, he noticed something shiny lying by his feet.

"Huh? What's this?" he asked as he looked at the shiny round piece of metal. "Oh… Don't tell me…" he didn't even finish his sentence. He knew that it wasn't a coin. It was Patchouli's magical amulet used for communication. Reimu must have dropped it as she soared up into the sky. He picked it up and scratched the dirt off its surface.

"Epic… This is just… epic." he grumbled as he realized that he'll have to visit Reimu again to hand her the amulet. Hopefully, she won't go into the underground before she realizes that she no longer has it. Kyouichi immediately got an idea to give the amulet to Suika, but the drunken little oni would probably lose it too. He decided to keep the amulet until his next meeting with the Hakurei shrine maiden or optionally, Marisa. Right now, he had other things on his mind. First: to get a move on to the Human Village and second: to get changed from Reimu's outfit into something more masculine.

* * *

He trotted at a moderate pace down the road to the village. The sooner he'd make it there, the lesser the chance that he'd encounter something dangerous. He jogged all the way to the village. It was exhausting, but he forced himself to keep the pace up until he was within the outer premises of the Human Village. As he expected, he saw two guards stationed at the northern end. He decided to stray from the road and make a detour to avoid being seen by them. His plan worked. He managed to sneak into the village undetected. Pressing his back against the wall of one of the houses and peeking around the corner, he waited for the right moment when there was nobody on the street. Then, he darted across to the other side and right into the Saitou residence.

"Whew…" he exhaled with relief as he closed the door behind him. "That was close."

He tiptoed to the guest room to undress himself from the shrine maiden's clothes. Minako was home on her lunch break and she noticed some noise coming from the corridor.

"Huh? Kyouichi-kun, is that you?"

Kyouichi quickly hid Reimu's clothes under his futon before Minako entered his room.

"Oh, you're home already? And… did you take a bath?" she asked him with a surprised expression.

"Ehh… yeah." he lied to save himself from embarrassment. "But I accidentally got my kimono wet… Do you have any spare clothes for me?"

"I'm sorry, Kyouichi-kun." Minako bowed in an apologetic manner. "I've taken all the clothes from the guest room to the shop already… But I'll take a look inside the wardrobes and see if I have something you could put on…" she said and left the guest room.

"Anything will be better than what I was wearing just a moment ago…" murmured Kyouichi quietly and let out a relieved sigh. Minako fell for his little lie, but Mizuto probably won't.

"I better think of some really good excuse to explain why I didn't return with his boat."

In a minute, Minako was back in the guest room, handing him her old yukata with a regretful look in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Kyouichi-kun, but Mizuto's clothes are all dirty so this is all I can give you at the moment."

Kyouichi raised his eyebrow. "A yukata?"

Truly, Minako's pink yukata with purple flower pattern and a bright red sash wasn't exactly masculine. Kyouichi seriously thought that walking around the village in Minako's yukata or Reimu's attire wasn't so much of a difference, but now, he had to choose the lesser evil.

As Minako helped him tie the sash into a knot behind his back, Kyouichi shook his head while looking in the mirror. He still refused to accept it as real and thought it was just some kind of bad dream.

"Say, Minako-san. What's the time?" he asked her to divert his attention from the silly young man dressed in pink yukata staring back at him from the mirror.

"Half past one." she replied nonchalantly as she finished tying the sash.

"Already?! I better move it…" he commented and after thanking Minako for her kindness, he gathered all his courage and stepped outside.

* * *

As he walked down the street to the marketplace, he attracted a lot of attention. He could literally feel everyone's eyes staring at him as he walked through the crowded center of the village. He managed to swallow his embarrassment and walked all the way to the Starlight Glyph, just as if he was wearing his usual kimono. He entered the bookstore as nonchalantly as ever and as he approached Daisuke sitting behind the counter, the man immediately stood up

"Oh, good afternoon! Welcome to the Starlight Glyph! Have you come to buy a… wait a second… Ishimaru?!"

In the meantime, Kyouichi heard the shop's door open behind him as some customer entered right afterwards, but the outsider only looked at his boss, sighed with contempt and shook his head. "…Don't ask…"

Daisuke's face showed an expression of utmost surprise and disbelief as he pointed his finger at Kyouichi. "Y-Yu…Yu-u-ka…"

"Yes, a yukata…" nodded Kyouichi affirmatively, looking down at his stylish wear. "I've been so enthralled by the atmosphere of the upcoming summer festival that I just had to express my emotions… So yeah… I've come here in a yukata today." he explained with sarcasm laced on his words.

He didn't even finish his sentence before Daisuke walked backwards into the printing room with droplets of sweat forming on his forehead.

"Hey, where are you going?" Kyouichi called behind him. "Aren't you even curious how my today's trip to the mansion went?"

The only reply coming from the printing room was the sound of the running printer and the rustling of paper.

Kyouichi shrugged and crossed his arms. "Hmph… Fine… Be that way… I wouldn't tell you if you begged me!"

Suddenly, a gentle female voice sounded from behind him: "Good afternoon~ ."

A little surprised, he turned around to the familiar voice and smiled joyfully. "Yuuka-san! A good afternoon to you as well." he bowed and greeted.

The flower youkai closed her eyes, widened her smile and also bowed gently. Even though Kyouichi never had the time to talk to her much, Yuuka was one of the people (or in this case, youkai) he liked the most. She was always so polite, always smiling and always so calm. He knew that she preferred solitude, but she didn't avoid social contact either. Now she was standing inside the bookstore for the second time.

She curiously rolled her eyes up and down, looking at Kyouichi's borrowed yukata. "Is there a summer festival already~ ?"

"Not really…" Kyouichi shook his head. "I… just… went for a swim in the Misty Lake, you see…"

"In your clothes?"

"Well… yes." he shrugged embarrassedly and changed the topic. "Anyway, what brings you here today?"

"Oh, I've saved up some more money to buy another book I saw here the other day~ ." she replied sweetly.

"Very well, then. Let's see…" he led the way to the encyclopedia section until he stopped at a part of the bookshelf dedicated to books about plants. "Here we are. Can you see that book you mentioned somewhere around here?"

Yuuka slowly shifted her head from one side to another and pointed at the book that caught her interest.

Kyouichi picked it up for her and checked its title. "Hmm… Herbalism in a Nutshell by Eirin Yagokoro… This book is quite in demand here. Just over the last week, we've sold over 10 copies. I haven't read it myself, but I guess it must be good."

"I'll take it then~ ."

"Anything else?" Kyouichi asked her before returning to the counter. "Do you also grow tea in your garden, Yuuka-san? Or fruit trees?" he wondered as he raced through the titles of the other books.

"No, but perhaps one day I will."

He led her back to the counter where she paid for the book. As she was about to leave the shop, she stopped on the doorstep and added teasingly: "Nice yukata…"

Kyouichi furrowed his brows in annoyance and replied. "Trust me, compared to what I was wearing just a half an hour ago, this is quite ordinary."

Yuuka giggled amusedly. "I wonder what that was… Goodbye, Kyouichi-san. And stay out of trouble~ ." she gave her usual friendly warning before she left.

"Yes, goodbye." he called after her. "And watch out for crazy fairies…" he added in jest.

* * *

As the lovely flower youkai left, Kyouichi grabbed Daisuke's ledger from one of the counter's drawers. He checked how much money he earned over the last two weeks and tried to calculate how much he would need to pay Mizuto for a new boat. Suddenly, Daisuke walked out of the printing room, pretending that nothing happened.

"What's wrong with you, Shimizu-san? You disappeared just like that again… I'm the one who's supposed to be handling the copying and transcription and you're supposed to be dealing with the customers." Kyouichi pointed out, wondering why was his boss acting so strangely sometimes. "You've had countless youkai customers before, so what's eating you again?"

"Nothing, nothing…" denied the storekeeper, but Kyouichi could tell that he's not willing to tell him something. "I just had to refill the ink tank on the printer…"

Kyouichi didn't mean to pry, though. He rather changed the topic to his most recent mishap and asked his boss for some advice on how to tell Mizuto that he was partially responsible for sinking his boat.

"Well, if I were you, I would tell him the truth." said Daisuke after hearing out Kyouichi's version of the story.

"Yeah, I thought you'd say that… And I also think that's the right thing to do, but…"

"Always better than if he'd find out on his own."

"I bet he already had..." sighed the outsider with self-concern. "Well… I guess I've no choice. I'll confess."

"Yeah, you do that…" approved Daisuke and handed him a box of books for copying. "Now, let's make five copies of each so that we wouldn't run out."

* * *

The rest of today's shift went on as usually. There were over a dozen customers throughout the day, Kyouichi was keeping an eye on printing and he also took care of some business correspondence. By the end, he swept the shop clean and finally went home, mentally prepared to confront Mizuto with the unpleasant truth. He was physically exhausted and he at least wanted to ease up some weight from his mind. As he entered the house of his caretakers, he was greeted by the head of the family. Oddly enough, Mizuto seemed to be in a good mood for some reason.

"So, how was your day, Kyouichi-kun? And what on earth are you wearing? Are you advertising Minako's shop or something?"

Kyouichi took one deep breath of self-encouragement and explained everything.

"…I know it sounds ridiculous and that you don't believe me a single word, and I don't blame you, but that's how it happened… I'm sorry… I was going to tell you, but I was worried that you'd be mad at me. I'll pay you for a new boat with my own money. Just give me some more time."

Mizuto silently stared at him with eyes widened from surprise and a tension-strained face. His mouth slightly opened and it took a while before he spoke.

"What are you talking about, Kyouichi-kun?"

Kyouichi's heart skipped a beat as he heard Mizuto's reaction. "What do you mean what am I talking about? I just told you the whole truth…"

He seriously expected a slap or some harsh scolding, but to his great surprise, none of it happened. Mizuto shrugged and smiled. "I've seen all of my boats docked at the pier…"

"What?!" asked the outsider unbelievingly. "In that case… I must have borrowed someone else's boat!"

"Now that you mention it, a colleague of mine complained about his boat disappearing again… I guess he must have meant the one you accidentally borrowed and that got sunk…"

Kyouichi was relieved that Mizuto's property was unharmed, but on the other hand, he'd just have to go and apologize to someone else.

"But don't worry about it," Mizuto continued, "Kenjiro-san had all of his boats insured against damage and theft, so he should be compensated for his loss."

"And how is he going to prove that his boat got sunk?" wondered Kyouichi.

"He doesn't have to." explained the fisherman. "The Ryuuken guarding the colony are held responsible for the safety of civilians as well as their property and they write daily reports about the state of every person and item. If anyone has something to explain, it's them."

"But that still makes me guilty of borrowing his boat without permission."

"As it is also my fault for not telling you which boats were mine exactly." retorted Mizuto, accepting a part of the guilt. "But we can both save us some trouble if we just leave things as they are. Kenjiro will get his money and the Ryuuken will keep a better lookout. You should be happy that you didn't drown yourself and not worry over some stupid boat."

Kyouichi exhaled heavily with relief.

"Seriously, Kyouichi-kun… You should take things easy. Anyway… I'm dying to hear what happened in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. How does it look from the inside? Did you meet the vampires?"

* * *

The outsider explained everything in detail, while he was stuffing himself with fried chicken.

None of the Saitous said a single word to interrupt him. Kyouichi said that there may be hope for all the outsiders to be sent back home soon if everything goes as planned.

"Wow… So you met both of the vampires?" inquired Mizuto after Kyouichi's monologue was over. "Weren't you scared?"

"Well, I did feel a bit unsettled when talking to Remilia-sama." admitted the young outsider. "At first I thought she'd be kind of childish and all, but… Well, maybe she is indeed like that, but not all the way through. She is surprisingly wise and serious. And when she started talking about fate and stuff... That was just weird. But she's got the sweetest little sister. She didn't see many humans before because Remilia doesn't let her out much, or at least that's how I understand it… Anyway, back on topic, this here amulet is supposedly used to communicate directly with the legendary youkai of boundaries."

Mizuto raised his eyebrow as he inspected the ornate round medallion-shaped amulet made of silver and gold. "Yukari-sama?"

Kyouichi nodded. "Yes, but like I already said, Reimu dropped it when she hurried to help the Ryuuken at Kazemura… I wonder how she fared today… If the village became so dangerous, I'm kind of hesitant to go there, but… I also feel like I should."

"You're not planning to enter that underground realm on your own, are you?" wondered Mizuto.

Kyouichi chuckled and shook his head to reassure him. "I'm eager to return home, but I'm not suicidal. I'm going to give this little trinket to Reimu or Marisa and let THEM handle the rest. And if this whole amulet business brings no fruit, we'll go through the shrine's gateway whether elder Fukukane likes it or not."

"So you're going to leave us soon either way…" stated Minako after she had enough of being silent the whole time.

"So it seems…" muttered Kyouichi, feeling a hint of discomfort. "It all gives me a mixed feeling. I don't even know if I'm looking forward to it or feeling bad about leaving all the nice people I met here, never to see them again… I just… don't know…"

Then, Chitose said something very nice and comforting. "Maybe you can make an agreement with Yukari-sama so that you could come back to Gensokyo for a visit every once in a while. That way everyone could be happy…"

Kyouichi couldn't help but smile at Chitose's cute naivety and optimism, even though he could never make himself believe in something like that.

"Thank you for the dinner…" he said while standing up from the table. He picked up his plate and volunteered to wash it. Minako protested at first, but the outsider insisted.

* * *

Since it was weekend coming, he figured, he should head to the shrine to hand over the amulet to Reimu. That way he wouldn't have to take a day off or skip school as he did today. He could also choose to give it to Marisa, but since he had no idea where she lived, Reimu was the only option. Furthermore, he wanted to return her the shrine maiden's outfit that she and Suika made him wear today and also, get back his own clothes that were left out to dry. And finally, he could also ask her about the situation in Kazemura. The plan for the weekend was decided. As for today, Kyouichi had burned out his entire energy reserve. Only courtesy prevented him from laying down on the kitchen's floor and falling asleep there. He bid the Saitou family good night and dragged his feet to the guest room. He slumped himself over the futon and closed his eyes.

"Ahh… so comfy… Time to pay a visit to the dreamworld again…" he thought to himself. "Hey… didn't Yuuka-san say that she comes from dreamworld…?"

As he was thinking about it, he gradually passed out.


	23. Weekend at the Shrine

The next day he woke up, it was just like the other normal days. Nothing noteworthy or special happened. He just briefly informed his five closest friends from the outside world that they're one step closer to finding the youkai of boundaries. And although they were all very curious to hear the details, Kyouichi didn't tell them anything more and instead, he promised that he'd brief them about the situation on the next club's meeting. While still at school, he asked Yuujin whether the caravans still go to Kazemura. His reply was positive. The trade between the two villages was unaffected by the recent events. This was somewhat reassuring and Kyouichi was now firmly decided to travel to that village in 6 days.

The rest of the day was completely uninteresting in comparison to yesterday. For some reason, the new issue of Bunbunmaru hasn't come out yet. At least Kyouichi didn't have to listen to people's jokes about his new "fashion trend".

* * *

As Saturday came, the young outsider was preparing for his trip to the shrine. However, now he had a little problem. Mizuto already left and he had no permission to leave the village. The Ryuuken would halt him and turn him back due to their regulations. But he had an idea.

"I'll just slip out of the village the same way I sneaked in here two days ago." he planned in his mind. "Regulations my ass! The Ryuuken patrols are a joke. Anyone could just slip in and out of the village anyway."

With this plan in mind, he took the crumpled up shrine maiden's dress from under his futon, folded it up and put it into a leather handbag which he used for carrying notepads and textbooks to school. Of course, he didn't tell a word about his today's plan to anyone of the Saitous so that they wouldn't worry and protest. He just said that he's going for a little walk as usual. He borrowed one of Mizuto's kimonos and headed out on his little trip. He chose the same detour on his way out of the village as he used to get here the day before yesterday, thus successfully avoiding the Ryuuken guards. After distancing himself from the village to about half a kilometer, he returned back to the road and continued further north. He didn't encounter another person until he reached the Hakurei Shrine, marking the eastern wall of the Great Hakurei Border. Sitting on the shrine's porch was the resident shrine maiden, enjoying a peaceful summer afternoon. Kyouichi waved at her from a distance as he approached her. Reimu waved back and waited until he came within earshot of her voice.

"Hello, Kyouichi…" she greeted with a lazy voice. "How are you *yawn* doing today?"

She looked very tired. Her eyelids were half open and it seemed that all she could do today was laze around and drink tea.

"Hi, Reimu. I've come to return you your clothes…" he waved with his handbag.

"Oh, yes… that's great... *yawn* thank you." she mumbled. "You can put them somewhere inside."

"And have my clothes dried up yet?"

"Huh? Oh… yes… they're right behind the shrine."

* * *

Kyouichi did as she said and left her clothes folded on her futon. Then he went behind the shrine to get changed from Mizuto's kimono to his own. After 5 minutes he showed up in front of the shrine again and sat down next to Reimu.

"Suika's not here anymore?" he asked.

"She's gone to Marisa's place…" murmured the shrine maiden and took another sip of tea.

"You look tired, Reimu…" stated the outsider after a while of watching her just sit there in silence.

"Yeah… So hot... Don't feel like doing anything…" she replied while repeatedly pulling her top to cool down a little.

"You haven't been to the underground yet, have you?"

She turned to him with a depressed face and disappointedly replied: "I think… you're not going to be happy about this… I have been there yesterday... But… you see…" she spoke incoherently, trying to find the right words.

"You didn't have the amulet." finished Kyouichi in her stead.

"Huh? How did you know?"

The outsider took out the amulet out of his pocket and showed it to her. "You dropped it when you hurried to Kazemura."

The shrine maiden pouted and exhaled heavily. "I've made a total idiot out of myself down there… Fighting my way through all of those youkai… And for nothing."

"You did what?!"

"I don't want to go there again… not now… too tired…" she breathed heavily. "At least Satori said she'd come up here sometime…"

"I'm guessing that's the youkai who can track down Yukari via this amulet…" guessed Kyouichi, tilting the trinket in his palm and admiring its shine.

"Yeah, but when she will come out, I can only guess…"

Kyouichi smiled at her reassuringly and patted her on the head. "In that case, your trip wasn't all in vain. Thank you, Reimu." he thanked her and gave her the amulet. "But make sure you don't lose this until this Satori person comes here."

Reimu smiled weakly and received the trinket. "Um… Kyouichi?" she asked bashfully. "Want some tea?"

"Sure." nodded the outsider.

Reimu reluctantly stood up and went to make some more tea. She returned back with another cup and passed it to her guest before she sat down again and rested her back against the shrine's wall.

"So, what's the situation in Kazemura?" asked Kyouichi suddenly.

"Kazemura? Oh… there was some really big attack of fairies on the village." Reimu recounted. "Hundreds of them. I used up all of my Spell Cards on them and it still wasn't enough. Fortunately, when we reduced their numbers down to around half, the rest of them just scattered and fled. But that sure was one intense battle… Almost like a small war. My yesterday's trip to the underground was a walk in the park compared to Kazemura… But like I said, we drove them off…"

"And… do you have any idea what could have caused it?"

"The fairies of course. I just told you, didn't I?"

"But what caused the fairies to attack the village?" asked the outsider. "You know, Remilia asked me to take a look around the village and look for anything suspicious… Her mansion too was attacked several times by crazed fairies and all the attacks came from the east of her mansion… from somewhere near Kazemura…"

The shrine maiden suddenly looked more energetic as she heard this piece of information. Kyouichi continued: "Not only that, but some of her own fairy maids became violent as well. Could be a disease or some mind control or something…"

Reimu looked at him suspiciously. "Why didn't you tell me about that sooner?"

"But I told you about the fairy attacks." argued Kyouichi. "That's the reason why Patchouli wanted to contact Yukari and why she gave me the amulet."

"I meant that part about Remilia's fairy maids going crazy as well…" Reimu specified. "And why would she want to send YOU of all people to investigate?"

"Because I wouldn't draw attention." explained the outsider. "She wanted to resolve this little incident by herself, but Patchouli suspects something bigger is going on. She suspects Yukari has something to do with this."

"Hmm… I never thought that she'd be sending fairies to attack villages, but this is Yukari we're talking about so everything is possible…" thought the shrine maiden aloud.

"Another theory is that Yukari is in some serious trouble." continued Kyouichi. "But Patchouli's not very sure about that one. Either way, we need to find her."

"Then maybe I should go back to the underground once more after all…" murmured Reimu to herself.

"I'm not urging you, Reimu, please, just take your time and rest a little… You're exhausted."

"But this can be urgent…" she protested.

"Then we can ask Marisa to go there." speculated the outsider.

"She's been there with me yesterday. She called me an airhead for forgetting the amulet. I don't think she'll be in a mood to go there again today."

"Then why don't you take a day off, Reimu? Just relax and take it easy. If you need any work done, I can help."

Reimu gazed at him unbelievingly. She did feel really tired today, so it might not be a bad idea to use this outsider as a cheap labor force.

"Then can you please sweep the shrine yard a bit?" she asked pleadingly. "And the stairs too…"

Kyouichi smiled and nodded agreeingly. "Heh… just the kind of job I used to do back in the outside world as a part-time… Apart from other jobs…"

* * *

He found the broom in a storeroom behind the shrine. The area behind it was really large. There was even some sort of wooden stage probably meant to be used during festivals for performances.

Kyouichi whistled admiringly. "That's enough ground to sweep to keep me busy for a couple of hours… But for you, Reimu, I'll do it gladly…"

He started sweeping the stage in the backyard. Fortunately the rest of the area behind the Hakurei shrine was not paved, so he didn't have to sweep so much. The front yard was a different story, though. Fortunately, Reimu swept it regularly, so it was relatively clean, apart from some fallen leaves and tiny branches.

"Hey, sweep it properly!" called Reimu from the porch as she watched him do his voluntary work.

"Yes, yes~…" mumbled the outsider and tried to stay focused on his work. "But if I sweep any faster or harder, I'm afraid this broom will catch fire."

The sun was high and the air was very hot. It could be something around 30 degrees Celsius on that day.

"No wonder she's so tired today…" thought Kyouichi while wiping sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his kimono. "This heat is starting to wear me down too…"

* * *

After an hour of sweeping, Kyouichi finally swept the last square centimeter of the last stone stair. He was now about as tired as Reimu, if not even more. He must have sweated out nearly 10% of his body fluids. With the last remnant of willpower, he walked up the stairs and sluggishly walked towards the shrine. He sat down in the shade provided by the shrine's pagoda-like roof.

"The shrine yard's so clean you could eat from it…" he muttered while breathing heavily. "Man, my stamina sucks…"

Suddenly, he felt a sensation of Reimu's hand softly tapping his shoulder from behind. "Thank you, Kyouichi…" she whispered in his ear and offered him a refreshing cup of cool lemonade.

"Reimu? Oh… thanks…" he grabbed the cup and emptied it in an instant. "Ahhhhh~ Oh yeah~. That hit the spot." he let out a blissful sigh.

"I'm so glad I didn't have to do the sweeping today…" said Reimu and rested her shoulder against Kyouichi's. The outsider felt a bit surprised to have Reimu clinging to him like that, but he didn't find it the least bit unpleasant.

"Maybe you should invent a Spell Card for sweeping the shrine yard." he suggested. "Wouldn't that be neat?"

Reimu chuckled weakly. "You know, I was considering that idea for quite some time now… But I don't have any spell that could get the job done."

The two of them sat there for the next few moments quietly and enjoyed this peaceful summer afternoon. The occasional breeze cooling their bodies felt really nice.

"Hot days like there should be banned…" murmured the outsider. "Sure could use a bath about now."

"Why don't you have one then?" asked the shrine maiden, pointing her thumb at the shrine's doorway. "The ofuro's in the back…"

Kyouichi stood up, pulled his lower lip in a thoughtful expression and nodded. "Fine then, I'll cool down a bit…"

* * *

In the back of the shrine's living quarters was a separate room with a large wooden ofuro tub, a water pump and a small corner furnace with a cauldron for heating the water. He didn't take a proper bath, just poured a bucket of unheated cold water over himself, soaped himself up and washed it all down with another bucket of cool water. It was refreshing enough to shake him up from his sleepy mood. Once he dried up and got dressed, he could already see Reimu inside the shrine, cutting up some vegetables and meat.

"Oh, you're going to make lunch? What's it going to be?"

"I'm going to try and make that new curry recipe that Youmu showed me after the hanami." she replied without even raising her head to look at Kyouichi.

"Really? That curry was fantastic." rejoiced the outsider, fastening his hakama properly.

"Yes, because Youmu did most of the cooking." murmured the shrine maiden as she sliced the carrots. "But this time, I don't guarantee it will be as tasty."

Kyouichi walked up closer to her to see what ingredients she was about to use.

"Do Yuyuko-sama and Youmu-san come to the world of the living often?" he asked suddenly.

Reimu shrugged. "Youmu comes here quite often, but most of the time she's just running some errands for her mistress. Last time I saw her was a week ago, while shopping in the Human Village. As for Yuyuko, she stops by only occasionally… Even Yukari used to visit me more often than her."

As Kyouichi observed Reimu's work, she rolled her eyes at him. "Why are you looking at me like that? Am I doing something wrong?"

"Uhh... sorry. Didn't mean to stare." he apologized and shifted his look elsewhere. "I'd help you with the cooking, but I'm afraid that my "for emergency purposes only" cooking skills wouldn't be much of a help…"

"Don't sweat it, Kyouichi, you've already helped me enough today." said Reimu and poured some oil into a frying pan. "I shouldn't let people spoil me by doing work for me too often… Otherwise I'll get too lazy to even fight the youkai."

"Well, you can rest assured that I'm not going to do THAT for you." snickered the outsider and sat down at the table. "My memories of Rumia-san are still quite fresh…"

A sudden hiss sounded as Reimu put the sliced onion into the heated frying pan. "Oh, yeah… I saw Rumia the other day." she remarked as she stirred the onions. "She was hanging around the northern edge of the Forest of Magic. That's her usual spot."

"Didn't she attack you?"

"Ha! She wouldn't dare. Even though she's not the brightest of youkai… No pun intended."

"So you say she's one of the weaker ones, right?"

"Rumia's usually not very dangerous, but what she did two weeks ago was… really unusual of her…"

"I guess she was really hungry for some human flesh…" shrugged Kyouichi. "And if she is a weaker youkai, I don't even want to imagine what a really powerful youkai would do to me…"

"The powerful youkai are usually not as aggressive as the weaker ones." explained the shrine maiden, while putting additional ingredients into the frying pan. "In most cases that is..." she added after a pause.

"So, Suika-san is one of the powerful ones too?" inquired Kyouichi curiously.

"Suika? Yeah, you could say that. But she's a friend to the humans. She's been living here with me in the shrine for quite a few years… Almost like a little sister."

"I have to admit that my impression of the oni race was quite different before I found myself in Gensokyo… According to the legends of the outside world, the oni are considered evil and violent…"

"I don't know many oni myself." admitted Reimu. "But those few whom I've met were really friendly and jolly. They like drinking, eating, festivals and competitions. Oni are mighty and powerful, but not to be feared. I'd say that about Yukari too, but… I still feel like I know nothing about her."

While the curry was being stewed, Reimu started preparing rice. A pleasant smell was gradually filling up the shrine. As if drawn by that smell, a voice from outside the shrine called: "Oi, Reimu~! I've come for a visit, ze."

The voice was obviously Marisa's. Her greeting was followed by another one, this time pronounced by a high-pitched voice. "I'm back, Reimu~." called Suika.

Even without seeing the two people, Kyouichi and Reimu couldn't mistake their voices for anyone else's. Soon after their greeting the shrine's sliding door opened and in came both of their sources.

"Oh, Kyou-kun you're here too? Hello." Marisa greeted as she was putting her hat down.

"Hi, Marisa and Suika." bowed the outsider to both girls, not even noticing when was his empty cup of lemonade refilled by Suika's sake.

"Something smells good." Marisa remarked as she sniffed the air. "Should I help you with cooking?"

Reimu gave her a very mistrustful look and with a strange crooked smile, she refused kindly.

Marisa shrugged. "Whatever…" she sat down at the table along with Suika and Kyouichi.

"So, Marisa…" Kyouichi addressed the witch. "You've been to the underground yesterday?"

"Oh, don't even remind me." she brushed him off with an annoyed voice. "We've gone there all the way to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, fighting our way through, and when we finally reach the throne room this airheaded red-white here says that she doesn't have the amulet! How are we supposed to find Yukari now?"

"The truth is, she just dropped it as she hurried to Kazemura, so don't worry." Kyouichi reassured her. "And you, Reimu, please calm down and put away that knife…" he asked the shrine maiden with a calm voice.

* * *

In a conversation that lasted for about ten minutes, everything was explained in detail.

"Yeah, fortunately, Satori did say something about coming to the surface sometimes…" nodded Marisa when Kyouichi asked about her. "We're lucky we didn't lose this amulet."

"Anyway, Kyouichi, I haven't seen you in quite a while now… How's your life in Gensokyo? You didn't get into any more trouble, did you?" asked Marisa, derailing from the serious topic.

Before Kyouichi answered her, he took a gulp of what he thought was lemonade, only to be surprised by the intense taste of sake.

"What the…?!" he blurted out after he swallowed it. "Suika-san…? At least give me a warning next time."

The oni girl put on an innocent face. "I just wanted to see how you'd react…"

"It's a good thing I wasn't thirsty and didn't drink it all in one go…" said the outsider. "As for your questions, Marisa, I almost hate to admit it, but I think I'm getting more and more used to living in Gensokyo with each passing day."

"And how is that a bad thing?" she couldn't understand.

"Because if it goes on like this, I'm seriously going to miss it here once I finally return home."

"I think I've gotten used to you already." smiled the blonde magician.

"Me too~." Suika seconded. "Not many humans want to compete against an oni in drinking…"

Reimu didn't say anything. She was focused on the cooking, which she was just getting done with. She took out four plates out of her cupboard and four pairs of chopsticks.

"I too, have grown to like you very much…" admitted Kyouichi to cut off the silence. "You and many other people… even some youkai. It's true that I wish to return, but on the other hand, I'd also like to get to know some of these people and youkai a bit better… I'm afraid that if I stay here for too long, I won't even want to return home."

"Oh, so you'd like to make more friends around Gensokyo, huh?" asked Marisa. "Hey, hey, is there any girl that you like here?" she forwarded an impertinent question while grinning wryly.

Kyouichi's face reddened slightly as he was thinking about his reply. "You mean like my first impression? Well, I guess I can be honest…"

Marisa, Suika and even Reimu leaned a bit closer to hear him clearly.

"I like a lot of girls whom I've met here so far. I try my best not to get too attached to anyone, though. I plan to leave this place after all and emotions like regret and love would only be an obstacle… However, I have to admit, if Gensokyo was my home, I'd probably fallen for someone…"

"Really? Like who?" pried Marisa, holding her breath to hear the answer.

"That's a tough one…" he murmured to himself.

"I saw you looking intensely at Yuyuko-sama the other day~." remarked Suika.

"It's true that Yuyuko-sama is incredibly beautiful and nice, but… seeing as how she's a ghost and all… I-uh… I don't think that would work…"

"Then do you like anyone else?" Suika continued the interrogation.

"Well, I like Reimu for instance…" he said nonchalantly, making the shrine maiden widen her eyes in a surprised expression.

"Wait… what?"

"I also like Youmu-san, even though I don't know much about her…"

"Youmu-chan, huh?" asked Marisa.

"Then… hmm… there's something about Patchouli-sama that I found somewhat… attractive, but like with Youmu, I don't know almost anything about her either."

"And what about Marisa?" asked the prying little oni.

"Marisa… Marisa is a very interesting, cheerful and spontaneous character with a straightforward personality and a good sense of humor, but… a bit too tomboyish for my tastes… Sorry, Marisa-san."

The witch just grinned and giggled. "No hard feelings… You're not my type either, Kyouichi, but as a friend, there's no point about you for me to complain about."

"And is there a certain type of girls you like?" Suika continued her inquiry.

"Type? Well… I don't know really… But there are more girls in Gensokyo who I'd like to know a bit more about."

"Which ones~?" Suika wanted to know.

"Apart from those I already mentioned? Well… for example I'd like to get to know… Yuuka-san…"

Marisa suddenly spat out the tea she was drinking all over the table, staring at Kyouichi with a shocked face. Reimu's and Suika's expressions copied hers.

"For God's sake, don't!" Marisa shouted.

"Then… for example..." continued Kyouichi in a nonchalant manner. "I don't know… Flandre-san…"

Marisa's expression turned from shocked to freaked-out. Her mouth was strained in a forced smile with its corner twitching. She slowly turned to her miko friend who donned a very similar expression and uttered in a shaky voice: "Ehehehe… Now that you mention it… Yuuka-chan is quite cute, isn't she…?"

"Ehh… yeah…" muttered Reimu as if she was in a trance of some sort.

"You think so too?" asked Kyouichi while smiling. "I've talked to her a few times when she came into the bookstore, but not much. For some reason she doesn't have many friends among humans. She does remind me a bit of Yuyuko-sama, by the way…"

"Yeah… She too can invoke death in all sorts of ways…" remarked Marisa jestingly and Kyouichi took it as a joke.

"Anyway, what are your plans with the amulet I gave you?" Kyouichi started asking questions again. "Are you going to try the underground one more time or are you just going to wait until Satori-san comes out?"

Marisa served some of the curry and rice on her plate and hummed. "Well, if tomorrow won't be as hot as today, we just might go there… After all the youkai we've fought through, the resistance can't be so strong anymore, ze…"

"What did you two even fight against?"

"Restless earth spirits, phantoms, fairies, undead fairies, an earth spider, a hashihime, an oni, a kasha, a yatagarasu hell raven and Satori-san…" Marisa started naming creatures, most of which Kyouichi never even heard about.

"Wait, Marisa." Reimu halted her. "We didn't fight against all of these yesterday… Just the hashihime, the kasha and Satori-san…and the earth spirits of course…"

The outsider raised his eyebrows. "Why on Earth did you have to fight the youkai we need help from? Was it really necessary?"

Reimu and Marisa exchanged their thoughtful looks and shrugged synchronically. "That's how we always do it…" muttered Marisa.

"Yeah… It's easier to explain one's demands through danmaku… It always works." smiled Reimu and crossed her arms.

"Gee… is this how you ask someone a favor?" wondered Kyouichi. "I'm almost afraid to think what you would do to me if I refused to sweep the shrine yard for you today…"

"Do you think I'm some kind of heartless brute?" retorted the shrine maiden.

"Well… yeah?"

The miko sighed resignedly and shook her head. "So that's the impression people have of me, huh…?"

"I just wanted to say that you can solve conflicts even without violence…"

"Kyouichi-san, with all due respect," said Reimu while looking into his eyes, "you don't know what a shrine maiden's job is all about. You don't know all those youkai. You can't possibly understand…"

"Well, he did survive an encounter with Yuuka and even Flandre, so I guess there is some truth to his words…" murmured Marisa to her best friend.

"But danmaku battles aren't even considered as acts of violence here." argued Reimu stubbornly. "Besides, it was your idea to shoot at Satori-san first and then ask her favors…"

"Uh-uh…" Marisa shook her head in denial. "She saw your harmful intentions as soon as you flew over her doorstep. No wonder she'd react the way she did…"

Kyouichi interrupted them before they started arguing again. "Okay, okay, I get it… Danmaku is like saying "hello" in Gensokyo… You don't need to start another one of your arguments now."

"Kyou-kun's right~." said Suika as she put her hands on both Marisa's and Reimu's shoulders. "We're not in a mood to listen to your quarrels."

They had to admit that there was no need to point out each other's mistakes now. Reimu put the curry and rice pots on the table, letting everyone take as much as they like.

"Tomorrow does sound like a fine day for a second attempt." admitted the shrine maiden, mentally getting ready for yet another flight to the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

"I wonder how this amulet will help us…" Marisa scratched her head. "Even if Satori finds out Yukari's whereabouts, how are we going to get to her?"

"We'll try to figure that out later." Reimu answered. "Maybe Satori will manage to get in contact with her. Maybe she'll convince her to show herself…"

Marisa rolled her eyes and exhaled. "Oh, Reimu… Optimistic as always, are we? I don't recall the two having any friendly relationship. If someone could actually convince that old hag, I'd put my money on either you, Yuyuko-sama or Suika."

"I wouldn't call her old hag if I were you~." said Suika as a friendly warning to the witch. "Otherwise she could pop up from somewhere and make you regret it…"

"Isn't that exactly what we want?" retorted the magician as she scooped some more rice onto her plate. "Hell, if all it takes for her to show up is to piss her off, then why not?"

"Marisa…"

"Old hag, old hag, old hag!" shouted Marisa out loud while beating her fists against the table. "Come on, show yourself and do your worst! I ain't afraid of ya!"

"No, seriously, Marisa, you should calm down…" Reimu tried to tame the witch's short temper.

"Oooooold~ haaaaaaaag~!" sang Mairsa almost like an opera singer. "Yakumo! Do you hear me?! You're older than your own grandfather! If you have any… You're so old that Adam and Eve could be your great grandchildren!"

"Who?" asked Reimu, raising her eyebrow.

"You know… from the Bible…"

"Oh…"

After yet a while of Marisa's theatrical calling and provoking, she gave up her attempt and resorted to drinking tea instead. "Haaa~." she exhaled with contempt. "I don't like her anymore… She's just not communicating, ze…"

"If she's up to something bad, I don't think that words will be enough to make her reveal herself." speculated Reimu.

"Fine… We'll see what Satori can tell us. We should just rest up today so we'd heve enough energy to go to the underground again."

"Sounds like a fine idea~." agreed Suika and poured her sake into everybody's teacup. "Cheers~!"

Suika really knew how to convince people to stop thinking about serious matters and start having fun. But Kyouichi was still curious to ask Marisa what she thought about the attacks of aggressive fairies.

"Aggressive fairies?" she repeated. "Well, some fairies are naturally aggressive. Me and Reimu call them death fairies. They're usually more powerful, resilient and reckless than the most of their kin. Attacks of fairies are nothing uncommon in Gensokyo. At least they give me a chance to try new spells on them, ze." she grinned widely. "But I didn't experience anything like in Kazemura or what Remilia told you… But hey, I found the youkai that attacked you the other day and zapped her, hehehe."

"Rumia?"

"Yeah… You should have seen that. She didn't stand a chance."

"Whatever you say…" muttered Kyouichi. "But you're saying that there isn't anything strange about the fairy attack on the Scarlet Devil Mansion and Kazemura?"

"Probably has something to do with the recently recurring fairy wars…"

"Fairy wars?"

"Yeah. Something like that happened here two years ago, but I saw a bunch of fairies dueling in the forest the other day and they kept saying something about a war against each other or some nonsense like that… Not too sure I heard them right, though…" said Marisa with a strangely embarrassed tone.

Reimu hummed and nibbled on her chopstick. "So probably Yukari has nothing to do with this? I don't know… There's still that sudden aggression breakout among Remilia's fairy maids that needs to be explained…"

"Oh, I believe those two fairies that sunk my boat were talking about a war declaration or something…" recalled Kyouichi. "Well… it wasn't really my boat, but that's not important… When did you say you saw the two fairies dueling, Marisa?"

"Two days ago… I believe that's the same day you saw those two fighting at the Misty Lake…"

"Yeah, on the day when I walked around Gensokyo in Reimu's miko dress…" muttered the outsider embarrassedly.

The girls immediately burst into jolly laughter. When they calmed down a bit, Marisa's face was strangely serious. "You know… I had an embarrassing experience on that day as well…"

"Such as?" asked Reimu.

"Actually…" Marisa started uncertainly and her face blushed. "To tell you the truth, that day when I saw the fairies dueling…"

"Yes?" Reimu gestured to her to continue.

"I met Cirno that night, you see…" she paused herself again and drank all the sake in her cup to encourage herself. "And she challenged me and…. And won a Spell Card duel against me…" she finished her sentence, while exhaling heavily and shaking her head.

Reimu gave her a questioning glance. "What? You're kidding, right?"

Marisa didn't reply, just kept shaking her head and asked Suika for a refill.

"Umm… You're talking about someone I don't know again." remarked Kyouichi who wanted to know why was Marisa feeling so embarrassed.

"Cirno's a fairy." Reimu began explaining. "An ice fairy… Not too smart, nor too powerful. What else would you expect from a fairy? But…" she paused herself and snickered. "What were you doing, Marisa? How did you manage to get beaten by our local idiot?"

"I-I… don't even know…" stuttered Marisa. "She's become really skilled and powerful ever since our last encounter. She even acquired a new power to freeze danmaku shots. At first I was just giving her some chance to win to see if she'll even survive, but she did surprisingly well. Even when I unleashed almost all my magic, she bested me that time. I must have had a really bad day…"

"So you think that Cirno is responsible for the attacks of fairies?" asked the shrine maiden.

Marisa shrugged with a grimace. "Dunno… Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't… But she didn't seem to be crazed or anything. It was your typical formal Spell Card duel. Don't know if this fairy war is still going on…"

"But if the fairies are in a war with each other, why would they target a village full of youkai and some humans?" wondered the shrine maiden.

"I'm sure we'll be all wiser when you show this amulet to Satori-san." said Kyouichi and finished the sake in his cup.

"I hope I can count on your assistance tomorrow, Marisa."

"Sure, Reimu. Not a problem. Maybe I'll stop by at Yuugi's place while we're down there, ze. And you should put that amulet somewhere where you won't lose it."

"Alright, alright." pouted the annoyed shrine maiden. "I'll be careful this time."

They finally closed the serious topic for good and enjoyed the food and sake until evening.

* * *

"Actually, that curry wasn't so bad, Reimu." said Marisa in retrospect. "Not as great as when Youmu helped you cook it, but not half bad…"

Despite her criticizing tone, it was actually a praise coming from Marisa.

"T-Thanks…" muttered Reimu with a flushed face. It was either her blushing from being praised or due to the sake she drank. It was a bit hard to tell at that point.

"Hey, hey, I got an idea!" called out Marisa suddenly. "Since there's four of us, we could play mahjong."

"Oh~! That's a great idea!" rejoiced little Suika. "But, do you have the tiles?"

Marisa's smile froze suddenly. "Ehh… no. What about you, Reimu?"

"I don't know…" shrugged the miko. "But I could take a look in the storeroom. There's all sorts of old things I don't even use. But I rarely find what I'm looking for…"

"I did find the wind chime you were looking for the other day~." remarked the oni.

"Really? I thought I lost it…" said Reimu while standing up. "But if I could find one of Alice's dolls, Sakuya's knife and even Yukari's cap in there, I should also be able to find some old mahjong tiles."

* * *

She trotted out of the shrine and left the trio of two humans and one oni wait until she finds (or doesn't find) the mahjong tiles. As they waited for five minutes and as Suika refilled everyone's cups, they heard a sudden commotion coming from the outside.

"What the hell is she doing?" complained Marisa who got startled by the sudden banging noise.

"Let's take a look~." suggested Suika and clumsily stood up on her feet. Marisa was faster, though, and was the first to get outside. Kyouichi and Suika followed her and took a look around once they were in the shrine yard.

"Reimu~?" called Suika after she managed to get her horns unstuck from the narrow doorway.

The sun was still peeking from behind the western horizon, shining its last orange rays to illuminate Gensokyo for the last couple of minutes for this day.

Since the storeroom was located behind the shrine, the trio didn't hesitate and headed to the backyard.

As Marisa saw what was going on, she excitedly clapped her hands and gestured to Suika and Kyouichi to hurry up and take a look as well.

"What's going on Marisa?" wondered the outsider.

"Come on, come on…" she called them. "Look, look…"

Kyouichi caught up to the magician and his eyes saw the image of Reimu floating high above the ground, facing another unknown girly figure.

"Looks like we're going to see a duel…" stated Marisa as she stared up.

"Who's that?" asked Kyouichi as he tried to identify Reimu's opponent.

She wasn't very tall, her clothes were brown and white, her hair had a similar color – a mix between brown and pink and she sported a pair of light-pink bird-like wings. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that she was a youkai, but Kyouichi hasn't seen any youkai like her before. She didn't look like a fairy.

"That's Mystia Lorelei." announced Marisa while waving her hand in disrespect. "A little night sparrow. No big deal, but at least we can enjoy Reimu blasting her away."

"A night sparrow?" repeated Kyouichi. The little youkai floating on Reimu's level looked pretty humanoid to him, but then again, he's heard many times that youkai in Gensokyo in almost all cases resemble humans.

"Yeah." nodded the blonde witch. "The likes of her aren't very friendly to humans so, I'd watch out for her if I were you."

"So she's dangerous?"

"For you, yes. But for any more capable human, she's not much of a challenge."

"I guess I needn't even ask, since even fairies are dangerous for me…" thought Kyouichi while looking at Mystia and Reimu. Both of them looked like they were about to attack each other any moment.

"There's going to be a festival here soon." echoed Mystia's voice from above. "So I just thought I'd practice some new songs before doing a live performance here."

"Go practice somewhere else!" shouted Reimu back at her. "And I'd rather listen to Marisa's drunken singing all day than your songs."

"How rude!" Mystia pouted angrily. "Everywhere I go there's always someone who complains about my singing. But practice is practice and I'm not going to do my live performance unprepared. And what better place to practice than the stage where I'll be singing to a whole crowd of youkai and people on the day of the summer festival?"

Reimu gave her a look of disbelief combined with an asking smile. "Who says that my opinion about your singing will change until the festival? Who says that you're even invited?"

"Just for your information, I AM a popular singer and my grilled lamprey stand is an inseparable part of the festival that takes place here every year. You can't just kick me out!"

Marisa put her hands to her mouth to amplify her voice as she called: "I hate to say it, but she's right, Reimu! She's one of the attractions of the festival."

"But I need some peace and quiet today. You should really go home – wherever that is, and practice where you won't bother anyone."

"How about we settle this with a battle?" suggested Mystia with a confident smile.

Reimu sighed. "I was hoping I'd get some rest today, but I guess that's asking too much… Very well, I'll humor you. How many Spell Cards will we use this time?"

"Three." replied the night sparrow with determined look in her eyes.

"That sounds like a fine number." said the shrine maiden and picked three cards from her deck. "How hard should I be on you?"

"Ehehehe~. Don't be too hard, okay?" uttered Mystia, smiling sheepishly.

"Okay then, I'll give you some room to breathe… maybe."

Kyouichi disbelievingly listened to their conversation before he turned his gaze to Suika and Marisa. "Are they really going to fight over such nonsense?"

Both girls just exchanged their looks and shrugged. "You've probably heard this before, but… welcome to Gensokyo." responded Marisa.

Kyouichi snorted amusedly and shook his head. He couldn't say that he was too happy about how things worked in this magical world, but at least its inhabitants kept their conflicts on a non-lethal level… most of the time. As he raised his head to the scene of the upcoming battle between a shrine maiden and a night sparrow, he saw that the two were now distanced much further from each other. Not long after that, the battle began. Mystia was the first to take a shot at Reimu, stretching out her right hand and sending a spreading wave of white plasma-like spheres at her opponent. Each of the projectiles left a trail of smaller stationary bright green orbs. Reimu looked completely calm and confident even as the streams of energy spheres missed her by a few centimeters. She was basically surrounded by them, but she didn't even flinch. A moment later the halted green orbs were set in motion heading the same direction as the main projectiles that spawned them. None of them hit its mark, however. Reimu's response was swift and merciless. She took out a whole bunch of her blessed ofuda-like amulets and by the help of some unseen force sent them flying in steady straightforward streams from both of her hands. They flew ridiculously fast and despite Mystia's effort to dodge them, quite a few of them hit the night sparrow's various body parts. Each amulet disappeared in a reddish flash of light upon making contact with the youkai, but it looked like it would take quite a number of them to cause Mystia any serious harm. Kyouichi thoughtfully took out the same amulets that he bought from Reimu the other day and wondered if they were really going to be of any help, should the situation from the two weeks ago repeat itself sometimes.

"This is what I paid 250 yen for?" he asked himself as he looked at the five rectangular paper amulets in his hand. "They don't look very effective."

However, he didn't feel like thinking too much about it as he was now more interested about the Spell Card duel taking place right in front of his eyes. All seemed to be telling him that Reimu had the upper hand in this fight, but he couldn't forgive himself not to ask Marisa a question: "Say, Marisa, does Mystia-san even have any chance of actually winning?"

"In a Spell Card battle, any outcome is possible, but quite frankly, I don't think that we'll witness any such miracles as Mystia winning today…" answered Marisa and took a seat on the porch of the shrine.

"Did you notice how Reimu asked her how hard she should be on her?" she asked the outsider.

"Why, yes. What about it?"

"Before any formal battle is declared, the opposing parties have to agree upon some terms of victory and defeat and the rules for their match. That basically means that Reimu's pretty much holding back now. She's using just a small fraction of her skill and power. Should be still interesting, though…"

Reimu didn't look like she was about to ease up on her attack and seemingly out of nowhere, a pair of red and white yin-yang orbs appeared by her sides and each of them began spewing white circular projectiles that homed in on the poor youkai girl and hit her with an unfailing accuracy.

"Kyaaah~!" shrieked Mystia in her vain attempt to move out of the way of Reimu's homing shots.

"Oh, come on, Mystia!" Marisa cheered her up from below. "Show her some resistance. Otherwise this fight will end without Reimu using even a single Spell Card."

It seemed that Marisa's words came like an advice to the night sparrow. Despite being hit from every side by countless amulets, she managed to draw out a Spell Card and declared it: "Vocal Sign "Hooting in the Night"!"

"Seriously… Who comes up with the names of those Spell Cards?" thought Kyouichi to himself as he heard Mystia declare her next attack.

Immediately, Mystia became surrounded by an irregular sphere of purple and teal light particles. Reimu concentrated her fire, but this time Mystia didn't even try to dodge the shots. She entered a trance and the light sphere she was concealed by began bursting its layers one by one. The particles it consisted of were actually some sort of arrowhead-like projectiles, which were sent out in rhythmical ring-shaped waves, which gradually picked up speed and followed a deceptively curved trajectory. Reimu deftly managed to evade the first wave simply by increasing her altitude by a few meters. The second wave was a combination of teal and purple shots with intersecting trajectories. Reimu probably already knew this Spell Card well enough to wait for the right moment when the purple and teal shots intersected and she quickly made a beeline straight through one of the gaps formed in the wave. She kept on firing her conventional danmaku at the night sparrow, but Mystia's attack also grew in intensity. The waves becoming more frequent and consisting of more shots gave the shrine maiden little time to think and little room to fly around. Gradually, the gaps between the shots became so narrow that Reimu's sleeves got singed as she squeezed herself between the projectiles. She gritted her teeth and launched another barrage of amulets at the little night sparrow who still remained floating in one place. Suddenly a loud popping sound echoed over the Hakurei Shrine as Mystia's spell was broken and all the shots that were launched by her disappeared in that very instant. Reimu managed to break her opponent's Spell Card without using her own. Kyouichi was very impressed by her flying skill.

"Rei~mu! Rei~mu! Rei~mu!" he cheered for her while raising his arm repeatedly.

"Actually, I'd like to see Reimu defeated once for a change." muttered Marisa to him. "But don't tell her, okay?"

As soon as she said that, Mystia declared her second Spell Card: "Moth Sign "Sphingid's Wingbeats"!"

As soon as the night sparrow activated the spell, several white phantom-like apparitions resembling birds or presumably moths appeared from both left and right sides of the dueling girls. They weren't directed at anyone. They just flew in front of them, flapping their phantom wings and leaving behind a trail of small white dots. At the same moment, Mystia shot out a fast straightforward burst of larger red spheres directly at Reimu. The miko managed to move out of the way and returned fire. Now Kyouichi could see that the trail of white dots that was left behind by the phantom moths changed its color to purple as each of the dots was separated into two arrowhead shots heading in opposite directions. As a result, the sky above the shrine was now basically littered with purple shots directed both at Reimu and Mystia. However, the magical arrowheads faded harmlessly upon touching their caster. Reimu was too busy dodging the purple shots to notice another red stream of spheres coming at her from Mystia's palms. She got hit by three of the spheres directly in the chest.

"Unrgh! This really hurts…" muttered Reimu to herself.

"She got hit, didn't she?" asked Kyouichi who tensely spectated the match.

"That's because she's holding back." explained Marisa calmly. "You know, giving the night sparrow some chance, making things look more dramatic…"

"Oh…"

"And why don't you sit down here with us?"

"No way!" refused Kyouichi resolutely. "What if I'll have to run from some stray danmaku and take cover? You two can fly so you're fine, but I can't."

Meanwhile, Reimu recovered from the hit she took and reached inside her sleeve to pull out her Spell Card.

"Spirit Sign "Fantasy Seal –Concentrate-"!" she called out, holding the card high above her head.

"Ahh, the focused Fantasy Seal…" commented Marisa from the porch. "Reimu's classic. Despite how it looks, it still CAN be dodged."

Kyouichi wondered what she meant by that. His inner question was answered immediately as five brightly shining orbs; each of different color erupted from Reimu's Spell Card and formed a circular formation around her as they rotated rapidly. Each of the orbs was as large as a basketball and they orbited Reimu ever faster. Mystia's spell was still active, but her shots didn't seem to have any effect against the shrine maiden now. Then as the orbs around Reimu reached their top speed, they were launched one by one at Mystia. They closed in on Mystia really quickly and as she tried to make a dodging maneuver, they instantly changed their heading and tracked her down. All five of them hit her with considerable force, knocking her several tens of meters backwards. However, the night sparrow proved to be tougher than she looked.

"Now let's see how you'll fare against this!" shouted Mystia at Reimu, while rubbing her stomach in pain. "Night-Blindness "Song of the Night Sparrow"!"

"Uh-oh…" uttered Marisa nervously.

"What do you mean "uh-oh"?" asked Kyouichi nervously. "Should I start running already?"

Suddenly, Mystia began singing some melody.

"What the hell?!" asked the outsider, looking at Marisa and Suika who were already covering their ears. The very next moment, Kyouichi experienced a very similar, if not the same thing that happened to him two weeks ago. Everything suddenly faded into darkness. He was only able to see things distanced less than 2 meters away from him.

"Aaaah~!" he shouted in fear. "Rumia's come back for me!"

Marisa put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. "Relaaax, Kyouichi~. This is just the effect of Mystia's song…"

"…No Rumia…?"

"No Rumia…" the witch reassured him. "Every human subjected to Mystia's hypnotizing song will become night-blinded, which is kind of unfortunate, ze. We can't see the actual battle now."

"So how is Reimu going to win now?"

Marisa giggled. "You really care about Reimu, don't you?"

"I'm naturally concerned."

"No need to worry. She's been up against much worse and won."

Since Kyouichi, Marisa and Suika couldn't see what was going on during the following seconds, all they could do is listen to the sounds of blitzing magical projectiles. They all tensely awaited what would happen once the darkness (or to be exact, their night-blindness) wears off. For well over 30 seconds all they could hear was popping, hissing and humming coming from above.

* * *

Finally another loud booming sound of breaking glass echoed and everyone regained their sight again. Mystia was lying on her back on the ground and Reimu remained hovering above and looking down at her beaten opponent.

"You did it, Reimu!" cheered Kyouichi as he saw the shrine maiden slowly descending and landing.

She turned to the spectators of her battle and waved her hand: "Tsch… Youkai kids these days…"

Kyouichi then shifted his look to Mystia's unconscious body. "Is Mystia-san going to be okay?"

"She'll be up on her feet in a few minutes." answered Reimu with an indifferent tone. "But she's not going to train her singing here tonight, that's for sure…"

"So we're just going to leave her like this?"

"Yes." replied the shrine maiden tersely.

"Just tell me one thing…" requested Kyouichi after taking a while of looking at the defeated night sparrow. "Is she really going to be singing songs that make people go blind on the summer festival?"

"If the crowd will ask her to, then I'm afraid yes… By the way, I'm afraid I don't have any mahjong tiles in the storeroom."

"What a pity." shrugged Marisa and stood up from the porch. "But watching other people dueling is much more fun than some Chinese table game."

Reimu stretched her arms above her head and yawned with her mouth opened wide. "I'm so tired~…"

Her clothes were torn and burned on the places where she got hit, but still holding together and covering up what they should. She didn't even need to say that she was tired. It was obvious to everyone. Suika took her by the hand and helped her walk into the shrine. The sun finally set, but it wasn't completely dark yet. Kyouichi figured it would be best if he went back to the village and let Reimu take a proper rest, but as he asked Marisa to take him there, she blatantly refused.

"Oh, no… Flying the broom in the dark is one thing, but flying the broom while drunk is just… no."

"You didn't drink all that much, have you?"

"I'm not going to risk… Reimu said that she's perfectly fine with you staying here overnight, so don't worry."

* * *

Kyouichi would have thought otherwise, but if Reimu said that it was okay, he agreed with Marisa's suggestion and decided to stay at the shrine. Reimu already went to sleep despite the time being just barely past 9 p.m., but Marisa, Suika and Kyouichi stayed up drinking some more sake and talking about various things in hushed voices.

"So, was your dad happy to see you that time when you showed up?" wondered Kyouichi as he forwarded the question to Marisa.

"Ha! Should have seen his face… He was like: "M-Marisa? Is that really you? W-W-what are you doing here?" Hahahaha~! You bet he was happy. And me too…"

"That's good to hear."

"He's doing fine and his sales are picking up again. He also says you should stop by his shop sometimes, Kyouichi."

"Doesn't he sell goods for magic users and such?" asked the outsider. "I doubt there's anything for me in his shop, but I suppose I could stop by for a chat."

"He said he wanted to thank you for helping arrange our meeting."

Kyouichi denyingly waved his hand. "I don't really think I did anything special, but… if he says I should pay him a visit, then I will."

"Before we go to the underground tomorrow, I'll take you to the village."

"Okay." smiled Kyouichi. "Thanks."

"Or maybe I could go there with you~." suggested Suika and drank a decent amount of sake from her gourd.

"You'll probably wake up in the afternoon before you sober up…" remarked Marisa and flicked Suika's right horn with her finger.

"So? What's wrong with that?" wondered the little ginger-haired oni. "You're not in a hurry, are you, Kyouichi~?"

"I'm not, but… I think I'll just hitch a ride on Marisa's broom anyway." replied the outsider. "Say, Suika-san…"

"What?"

"Do you actually live here in Reimu's shrine?"

"Heee~. Not really, but I hang around here quite often." she smiled brightly. "I used to live where Reimu and Marisa are planning to go tomorrow."

"In the underground?"

"Yes~. In Ancient City where other oni live." explained Suika. "I'm actually the only oni living on the surface. Currently, I have a cottage on the Youkai Mountain and sometimes I go to Heaven for a party…"

"So you're a bit of a drifter, eh?"

"You could say that."

"I'd say she's more of a drinker, ze…" the witch corrected the statement.

"The oni didn't always live in the underground, though." Suika continued. "Long ago, we used to roam the surface world just like any other youkai. But humans feared us and they began exploiting our weaknesses to wipe us out. That's why the oni decided to go into hiding, taking refuge in the Ancient City in former Hell. Not too long ago, I decided to return to the surface and tried to attract other oni to come up as well."

"In other words," Marisa interrupted Suika's speech, "Suika was responsible for an incident 6 years ago. She used her power of gathering and made people gather for a feast every 3 days. I honestly do like parties too, but… that was a bit too much."

"So that was considered an incident?"

"It was then when we first met Suika." Marisa went on and pointed her thumb at the oni sitting beside her. "She wanted to create an ideal festive atmosphere here on the surface in an effort to make other oni come out from the underground. But ultimately, her plan failed."

"So your first encounter was in battle?"

"More like after the battle…" specified Marisa. "Neither me nor Reimu could figure out what force made all the people gather for the feasts until Yukari showed up and told Reimu who was responsible. Then Reimu and Suika battled it out against each other and she somehow managed to win…"

"Reimu got me that time~." nodded Suika and added some more sake into her system. "That would make her one of the few humans to beat me in a contest… I really like her."

"I see…" muttered Kyouichi and looked at the corner of the room where Reimu was sleeping.

"So, you're not too old friends with Reimu and Marisa after all…"

"It's been six years… For someone it's long, for someone else not." shrugged the oni and imbibed some more of her precious endless sake.

"So does that mean you've also known Yukari for only 6 years?"

"Of course not~!" denied Suika in her childish voice as she waved her hand. "I've met her millennia ago… Can't even remember when exactly. It was back in the days when oni still lived on surface. And she wasn't as powerful as she is now, but still possessed greater youkai powers than most of her peers. Even back then, she was already considered an elder youkai, but she's the kind of person who can get along with just about anyone and the age difference doesn't even matter…"

"By the way, Suika, what's with these chains that you're wearing?" asked Kyouichi as his sight fell upon the oni's unusual accessories. "Are they some sort of charms?"

"That's another mark of an oni besides the horns." answered Suika and raised her arms to show the chains. "These symbols attached represent my power. The circle or the sphere, to be exact, stands for nothingness and represents diffusion. The triangle or the pyramid means harmony, or collection. And finally, the square or the cube signifies permanence, and stands for the self. This basically means I can manipulate density."

"Interesting."

"That's basically how she manages to fit so much sake into her little stomach." Marisa cleared up. "Hey, maybe you could use that gathering power of yours to drag Yukari here…"

Suika giggled weakly. "You think I haven't tried yet? It just doesn't work…"

Marisa gave out a contemptuous sigh. "But of course… What would it be about if resolving incidents was easy for once? As if we didn't have enough trouble in our lives as it is… As if we needed the most powerful youkai contributing to our problems…"

"Now you sound just like Reimu~." remarked the little oni. "When it's peaceful, she complains that she's bored, but when an incident starts, she complains that it's annoying and distracting…"

"Hehe… I guess so." admitted Marisa and yawned. "It's our job after all, so we shouldn't complain, right?"

"You look tired too, Marisa." stated Kyouichi as he saw her droopy eyes.

"I am…" she yawned a second time and reluctantly stood up on her feet. "I better go get some sleep as well." she mumbled to herself as she looked at her sleeping friend.

"Kyou-kun, could you please open the back sliding door a bit?" muttered Suika who was holding her head. "The air has become a bit heavy~…"

The outsider stood up and obliged. The back section of the shrine had a sliding door too, so he walked up to open it and let in some fresh air. While Marisa undressed herself, Kyouichi decided to wait a while and sit on the porch. It was quite hot even in the night. The sky was dotted with stars and there was barely any wind. The sounds of chirping cicadas echoed throughout the entire shrine yard and its surrounding areas. It was an unfailing sign of summer. As his eye pupils readjusted to a darker environment, he took a better look around the backyard of the Hakurei Shrine which he didn't have a chance of admiring fully yet. Mystia was already up and gone, leaving only a small depression on the ground where she fell down after her defeat. Everything looked quiet and peaceful tonight and even Kyouichi didn't feel any unease about sitting alone outside. Oddly enough, he wasn't sleepy yet. His old habit to stay up late until early morning still persisted. After sitting idly for about ten minutes he turned back to peek inside the shrine. Marisa was already in her futon, sleeping like a log and Suika found comfort for her head on top of the table. Her quiet snoring resembled a cat's purr. Everyone was fast asleep, leaving the oil lamps still lit. Kyouichi shrugged and resumed watching the stars. Eventually, his eyes grew tired and the young outsider decided to call it a day and go to sleep as well. As he walked inside the shrine, however, he noticed that there were only two futons occupied by Marisa and Reimu.

"Hm? No other futons? I guess the extra ones are in that storeroom…" he thought to himself as he took one of the lanterns and walked back outside towards the storage house.


	24. Not a Single Trace

He removed a pin from the simple locking mechanism and opened the door. He found himself in a relatively large single-room building filled up with shelves, crates and various odds and ends lying about in a disorderly manner. It took him a while to find where Reimu stored her extra futons and once he found them, he took two – one for himself and one for Suika. As he got out of the storehouse, he put both futons on the ground so he could close and bolt the door.

After he did so, he picked them up again and was ready to enter the shrine, but when he turned around, he immediately dropped them again. The only thing he managed to hold was the lantern, shining weak light in the otherwise dark backyard of the Hakurei Shrine. Just about ten meters in front of him and about 3 meters above the ground he saw a shadowy figure of a small girl floating silently and staring at him. Kyouichi's heart kicked its performance into high gear as his body froze in motion. He couldn't make out any features of the dark figure, so he speculated that it was either Rumia or Mystia, but this shadow didn't have any wings. His instinct made his free hand reach inside his pocket to grab Reimu's amulets. As soon as he did so, the figure spoke in a quiet voice, very similar to Patchouli's.

"Do not fear me… outsider."

Kyouichi's eyes widened even more out of sheer surprise. "Who is she? And is it really so obvious that I'm an outsider?" he thought, but didn't say a word.

"I know that you're not from Gensokyo." said the girl, as if in response to the question in his mind. "Ishimaru Kyouichi…"

Kyouichi still stood frozen in disbelief as he heard the girl say his name. "If she knows my name, then does that mean…? Oh, right… the new Bunbunmaru issue must be out already and she saw my embarrassing photo… Great…"

"Who are you? (You're not some nasty human-eating youkai, I hope…)" he finally asked her.

"My name is Komeiji." replied the girl and slowly hovered towards him. "Satori Komeiji… And I don't eat humans, if that's what you're afraid of…"

"Huh? You're Satori-san? From that underground palace… whatever… thing?" asked Kyouichi uncertainly.

"Yes, I'm the mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits." answered Satori in her monotonous voice. "After Reimu Hakurei's request, I came up to the surface as I promised. However, I didn't expect it would be nighttime by now…"

As she was closer, Kyouichi could see the girl's features clearly. She looked around the age of 12 or so, had short purple hair with a black headband with a single yellow heart decoration. Her hairstyle was similar to Youmu's, only that Satori's hair was a little disheveled. She was wearing a light-blue shirt with yellow heart-shaped buttons, pink collar and sleeve hems. Her skirt was also light-pink with faint flowery pattern and she wore a pair of pink slippers. There was also a little white heart symbol on each of them. The weirdest thing about her was a red eye placed over her heart with four cords or arteries connected to her other body parts. Two of them connected to each of her wrists, one to her waist and one to the heart-shaped decoration on her headband. The eye looked organic, but at the same time it seemed that it was just a part of her clothes, not her body. All in all, she looked peaceful and even cute.

"So you're here to see Reimu, huh? (Another girl… Seriously, what is it with Gensokyo and so many cute girls?)" Kyouichi wondered as he scanned the details of Satori's clothes.

"Yes, about the amulet that she was supposed to bring with her…" replied Satori. "And do you really find me… cute?"

Kyouichi's jaw dropped in awe. "W-What?! Wait, wait a second…!" he stuttered. "You're not supposed to hear what I say in parentheses, because that's just what I'm thinking… (Unless…)"

"I can read people's minds." explained the girl. "I am a satori after all…"

"Wait… that's also a species of youkai, right?"

Satori nodded. "I can see that you do have some vague memories of tales about youkai, including my kind, but your mental image of us greatly differs from reality… We are the youkai who can see and hear the minds of other living beings, but unlike what your outside world legends say, we don't see humans as an enemy. It's usually the other way around."

"So… you're a satori called Satori. How cool is that? (I wonder if there is a tengu called Tengu or an oni called Oni too…)"

Satori gave him an unamused look. "Is my name really so funny?"

"No, not at all, Satori-san… (It's cute.)" replied Kyouichi, trying to keep his face expression as serious as possible.

For a second, the satori girl smiled weakly and descended to the ground. Kyouichi took a better look at her and at the strange red eye on her chest.

Satori's reaction was immediate: "That's my third eye." she explained. "Every satori has one, and with it, we can see the hearts and minds of all living beings. And no, it doesn't come off."

Kyouichi nodded understandingly and wanted tell her that Reimu was already asleep, but Satori spoke again: "Yes, I should imagine that people are usually asleep at this hour. I guess I better head back home…"

"No, Satori-san." Kyouichi stopped her. "Please wait here, okay?"

Satori looked at him curiously, seeing that he was thinking about going into the shrine and waking Reimu up. "Please, go ahead and try it…" she encouraged him.

"Hehe… Do I even need to talk to her at all?" he asked himself in his mind.

"Not really…" replied Satori in her monotone.

* * *

The outsider then picked up the futons he was about to take to the shrine and entered its living quarters. When he put the futons on the floor, he walked up to the sleeping shrine maiden and gently prodded her shoulder.

"Reimu, sorry to bother you, but we have a guest…" he whispered into her ear. However, she was reluctant to abandon her dream and mumbled something incomprehensible.

Kyouichi tried again to shake her awake, being a bit rougher this time. "Hey, Reimu, get up!"

"Mmmurmfruffafmn… Marisa~?" she talked in her sleep.

"No. Guess again." said Kyouichi as he waited for Reimu to wake up. However, she didn't. Kyouichi was tempted to try the same method on her as he used on the Scarlet Devil Mansion's sleeping gate guard, Meiling, but then he'd probably make all three girls in the shrine his new enemies. He suddenly got a much better idea. He reached inside his pocket to grab a few coins and rattled them in his palms next to Reimu's ear. The next instant, Reimu was fully awake, sitting up in her futon.

"Donations! Money! Huh? What the…? Kyouichi? What's going on?"

She was loud enough to wake Marisa who was sleeping next to her. "Calm down, Reimu… I'm commin', ze…" she mumbled before opening her eyes.

"Sorry to wake you up, girls, but Satori-san is here. Apparently, she was unaware of the time on the surface…" Kyouichi informed them.

"No donations?" mumbled Reimu as she was wiping her eyes. "Why do I never get do… Wait, did you say that Satori is here?"

The outsider nodded. "She's waiting in the backyard."

Reimu blinked a few times and parted her lips as she processed the information. Then she turned to Kyouichi and ordered: "Well what are you waiting for then?! Let her in!"

"That's what I was waiting for." muttered Kyouichi and went out to call Satori into the shrine.

"Sorry to intrude…" greeted Satori from the doorway as she entered.

"Umm… Welcome to my shrine, Satori-san." Reimu welcomed her in her nightgown. "Right, the amulet..." she walked up to her folded dress and found the bimetallic communication amulet.

"Oh, I'm curious to see this." said Marisa and hurried to wake Suika up. However, the oni slept like a log and Marisa couldn't shake her awake.

In the meantime, Reimu took the amulet and walked up to Satori. "This is it." she said as she handed the coin-sized pendant to the mind reader. "Hope that you can find Yukari with this."

Satori's expressionless face turned down to the amulet in her palm. "I'm going to try."

Marisa finally gave up her attempt to wake up the little oni and hurried to see what Satori was going to do with the amulet. Satori closed her eyes and positioned the amulet right in front of her third eye. The eye's pupil seemed to have focused itself on the object and stared at it without motion. Reimu, Marisa and Kyouichi waited in anticipation and were curious to hear Satori's answer. A minute of silence has passed and nothing particularly interesting happened with the exception of Suika who began snoring a bit louder. Finally, Satori opened her eyes and clasped the amulet in her palm.

"Well…?" Reimu wanted to hear the answer.

"Where is that old hag hiding?" asked Marisa.

"I'd like to know that as well." replied the mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

"What do you mean?!" asked Reimu and Marisa in unison.

"Yukari… is not responding…" muttered Satori and looked up. "I don't sense her presence… She's not here."

"Don't tell us where she isn't, but where she is!" Marisa prompted her, gritting her teeth in impatience.

Satori's face didn't change its expression. "She's not in Gensokyo. That's all I know."

"Not in Gensokyo?" repeated Reimu. "So could she be in the outside world then? I did hear rumors that she has a house somewhere over there too… But did you see anything else? What was she thinking or what was she planning?"

"I couldn't even feel her mental activity, because she is not in Gensokyo. She's somewhere far beyond the operation radius of this amulet."

"Where could she be?" Reimu wondered and thoughtfully scratched her chin.

"Maybe she really is in the outside world now and is planning to bring in more people to Gensokyo." theorized the magician.

"Or perhaps she's in one of the other realms like Makai, Higan or the Netherworld." contemplated Reimu. "Perhaps she decided to try her luck again and invaded the Moon for the third time."

"Could be." admitted Satori and returned the amulet back to Reimu. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you more…" she frowned and lowered her head.

"Don't worry about it." Reimu cheered her up. "Thanks anyway."

Kyouichi didn't feel disappointed by the result of Satori's attempt. He kind of saw it coming. While it was a bit of a letdown that Yukari wasn't found, he knew that he may not need her help at all in order to leave Gensokyo.

"I should take my leave now." said Satori and turned to the door, but she got halted by Reimu.

"You don't have to… You can stay here if you like. I'll bring you a futon and we can talk some more tomorrow."

Satori slowly turned back to the shrine maiden, silently looked at her for a couple of seconds and her lips curved in a genuine happy smile. "Thank you, Reimu-san."

Kyouichi seriously thought that this girl was emotionless and that she couldn't even manage a smile, but he was now proven wrong. Reimu brought in one more futon for the guest and Kyouichi in assistance with Marisa pulled the sleeping Suika from under the table and bedded her. The oil lamps were put out and everyone went to sleep. Even Satori, who was adjusted to be up during nighttime lay down and tried to fall asleep. However, she had it quite difficult now, since she could basically hear everyone else's thoughts.

She never was used to sleeping with someone else in one room besides her pets and her younger sister. However, something pleasant warmed up her heart. It was a feeling that she couldn't entirely comprehend. She could see that none of these three humans felt any dislike towards her for being able to see their every thought. It was a new sensation she had yet to get used to. She might have lost a fight against the team of a miko and a witch, but thanks to them she was basically pulled out of her underground shell where she's been avoiding human contact for the better part of her life. Now she was beginning to see that there are at least some humans, who took her for what she was and didn't hate her for it.

"Perhaps losing a danmaku battle and accepting your opponent's terms isn't always so bad…" she thought to herself before she fell asleep.

* * *

With the new dawn came the new day and this time, even the late-sleeping Kyouichi woke up almost simultaneously with the other girls. It could be something past eight when he got out of the comfortable cover of his borrowed futon.

"Good morning, everyone." he greeted while standing up to roll the futon up.

"Morning, Kyouichi." Reimu greeted back. She was just tying up the strings on one of her detached sleeves, so it would hold in place and wouldn't slip down her arm. Once she finished the knot, she gathered her long, straight black hair up behind her head and trimmed them with her usual red ribbon with white zigzags and dots. Kyouichi caught himself staring at her for almost a minute. One thing he had to admit was that her hair ribbon looked much better on Reimu than it looked on him. He still shuddered to think about how he looked like when Suika and Reimu put him into a shrine maiden's outfit while he was knocked out by Reimu's special cold medicine. It was probably a good cold medicine, since Kyouichi didn't catch a cold after swimming in the cold waters of Misty Lake and then running around in a soaked kimono for a few hours. However, the worst was probably yet to come as he was caught on the camera by none other than the most popular journalist in Gensokyo, Aya Shameimaru. Once those pictures show up in the newspaper, he might as well kiss his dignity goodbye.

"Hey, Reimu," called Marisa who was now nosing around Reimu's pantry, "looks like you're running low on supplies here. What shall we make for breakfast?"

"We'll have to use whatever there's left." replied the shrine maiden and went over to take a look into her pantry herself. "Hmm, it really is almost empty… I guess I'll have to do some shopping in the village today."

"Yeah... It's almost as if Yuyuko paid you a visit recently." stated the witch in jest.

"At least you still have enough eggs. How about some tamagoyaki?"

Reimu shrugged. "I'm okay with that…"

"Me too." muttered Satori.

"I don't mind either." sounded Kyouichi.

"Not that there's really any other choice, though…" murmured Marisa and took the pallet of eggs, ready to start making tamagoyaki. "Okay, so first we melt some butter in this pan here…" she began the preparations while Reimu desperately tired to find any meat and vegetables in her pantry.

"I've even run out of milk?" she scratched her head as she checked the crate with milk bottles. "I definitely need to go to the village or perhaps to Kourindou. Rinnosuke sometimes sells food at a discount price." she muttered to herself. She was trying to save every yen she could.

"Yeah, you might wanna have your torn and singed clothes mended again." suggested the magician as she cracked eggs into a bowl.

"Say, Satori-san…" Reimu addressed her new guest, but before she asked her question, she got a reply.

"I suppose I can come with you for a while, but I'm going back home by noon. I can't leave my pets unattended for too long… And who is this Akyuu-chan and why do you think I look like her? Oh, I see…" nodded Satori understandingly and smiled.

Marisa turned back to snicker amusedly at Satori's mind-probing ability and at how she didn't even let Reimu talk much.

"Marisa-san…" Satori turned to her immediately. "You can't cook so well, can you?"

This time Reimu and Kyouichi were the ones who were chuckling. "At least there isn't much to ruin about making tamagoyaki…" jeered Reimu at her.

"Maybe I should help you with that…" Kyouichi jokingly volunteered to help.

Satori tilted her head to the side as she kept looking at Marisa and added: "So you can't cook because you're too busy studying magic and stealing books… I see…"

This last line irritated Marisa a bit. "Hey, now!" she turned with an angered face at the satori. "You see, that's your problem, Satori…" she said, but got interrupted halfway.

"I'm simply telling what I see…"

"Quiet! I'm talking now, so PLEASE let me finish." reacted Marisa with a scolding tone.

"But I know what you're going to say."

This time Marisa shouted really loudly. "SHUT UP! I don't give a damn if you can read everyone's freakin' mind, ze! Your problem is that you keep constantly reminding everyone that you can see to the very bottom of their mind. SO WHAT?! If you were at least a little bit considerate about other people's hearts, you'd know that this is exactly what pisses everyone off about you. And yet you keep wondering why all humans and youkai hate you with the exception of your pets and your sister… I know that you can't just turn your power off, but at least don't keep reminding everyone that they have no privacy when you're around." she then took several deep breaths after she made her point to calm down and tried to stay focused on making the tamagoyaki. Even Suika was shaken awake from her slumber and surprisedly glared at the scene and wondered what was going on.

Satori stood frozen-solid after Marisa's sudden outburst. She sadly lowered her head and stared into the floor for a good minute. After a long while of introspection, a tear rolled down her cheek as she sobbed quietly.

"S-Satorin?!" asked Suika as she wiped her eyes and focused her glance. "You're here?"

The little satori girl didn't respond verbally. She just buried her face in her palms and sobbed some more.

Kyouichi felt pity for her, but he couldn't think of anything to do or to say to cheer her up. Reimu was the first to take action. "There, there, Satori…" she comforted the girl by an embrace and patted her on the head. "Marisa didn't mean it that way…"

"She did," muttered Satori between her sobs. "And… and she's right."

"Hey, Marisa, you should apologize." Reimu looked scoldingly at her old friend.

The witch turned back and just now she realized that she made Satori cry. "Wha..? Hey… what's wrong?"

"Don't play dumb now and apologize." said Reimu and handed Satori a handkerchief.

"But…"

"It's okay." murmured Satori, waving her hand. "I… I'll try… not to…"

"…remind people that you can see their thoughts?" Kyouichi finished the sentence for her.

"Yes…"

"Hey, I'm sorry if I was a bit impulsive there," Marisa began to formulate her apology, "but I was merely trying to help you improve your relationship with people."

"But you even got ME startled there…" frowned the shrine maiden.

"I just said I'm sorry… Sheesh…" grumbled Marisa and resumed her cooking.

Satori could see that she was sincere about her apology, but she also saw that Marisa insisted on her opinion that she was right. On the other hand, she felt an unusual comforting feeling coming from Reimu. The shrine maiden truly held no grudges against her or any other youkai despite the fact that she's encountered and fought against many of them. On the outside, she always presented herself as a person who embraces the idea that all youkai should be exterminated, but beneath that thick, hard shell was a heart full of understanding and compassion.

"Hey, Satori~." Suika suddenly joined the conversation. "What's new in the underground? It's been quite a while since I've seen you. And did you guys give her that amulet already?"

Suika knew Satori just vaguely as the underground's most hated person, but the oni didn't feel any hatred towards her.

"It's been a while, indeed." replied Satori as she turned to Suika and measured her up. "Sorry, but I haven't been able to find your friend. As for the situation in the underground, everything looks peaceful so far. Even the Hell of Blazing Fires is pretty calm these days… And no, I don't want any sake right now, thank you."

Suika looked a bit disappointed, but continued the conversation. "You put that bird in charge of it, right?"

"Okuu is doing a good job now that she's learned how to control her power a bit more."

"Okuu? Hell of Blazing Fires? What?" wondered the confused outsider.

Marisa turned back again. "Be glad that you don't know, Kyouichi…"

"I… guess I am…" shrugged Kyouichi. "Some things I'm better off not knowing…"

Even though Kyouichi said that, Satori didn't find anything wrong about his curiosity and tried to give a simple-to-understand explanation. "The Hell of Blazing Fires is a part of the former Hell where the souls of the worst of sinners were banished to. It's located under my palace. It's been inactive for a long time until quite recently. And Okuu is one of my pets – a hell raven, to be exact. She used to be just like any other of her kind until she consumed a yatagarasu – a divine three-legged crow which is said to be a manifestation of a sun god. With this new power, she reignited the Hell of Blazing Fires and is now responsible for maintaining the heat."

"Aaand…?"

"What's that good for, you ask? Well, the heat from the former Hell provides energy for the kappan industry inside of the Youkai Mountain."

"Okay…" nodded Kyouichi who still needed some extra time to process information about things that would be normally considered supernatural. "Thanks for the explanation, Satori-san."

"You still find it hard to imagine it, don't you?"

"Frankly, yes."

"Then perhaps you could come to the underground one day to see for yourself." Satori suggested. "It's not that dangerous for humans if you know your way."

Kyouichi smiled sheepishly and shook his head. "Unless I won't have a VERY good reason to, I'd rather not go there."

Reimu suddenly broke the conversation as she took a few sniffs. "Speaking of Hell of Blazing Fires, I smell something burning…"

Marisa giggled embarrassedly from the stove. "Ehehehehe~ I think this tamagoyaki roll will be a bit crispy…"

"I can't believe she burned it…" murmured Reimu and shook her head in disbelief.

Marisa attempted a pitiful excuse. "Hey, it's not my fault that your stove is so hot."

"Sure, blame the stove…" retorted Reimu sarcastically. "What's next? You'll blame the eggs for being so easily burnable?"

"This never happens to me when I cook at home…" Marisa defended herself.

Satori turned to Reimu and just silently shook her head to tell her that the witch was lying.

* * *

Once Marisa was done making her special extra-crispy tamagoyaki, everyone stared silently at their plates. Nobody dared to make a move to taste it.

"Well… umm… itadakimasu?" Marisa encouraged everyone to start eating. Everyone exchanged their tentative looks and Kyouichi probingly poked the tamagoyaki with his chopstick. It made a crunching sound as he touched it.

"Hehe… Even a master chef can make a mistake sometimes, right?" shrugged the magician and took a piece of tamagoyaki into her mouth.

"I'm not sure if even Yuyuko would eat this…" muttered Reimu as she sniffed the food a few more times.

Suika seemed to already have a plan thought up. She took several big gulps of sake, ate the tamagoyaki and immediately washed it down her throat with more sake to kill the bad taste.

Kyouichi widened his eyes and opened his mouth in amazement. "You're a genius, Suika-san! Mind if I do the same?" he grinned at her pleadingly.

The oni was always happy when she could share her infinite sake with someone. "Of course not, Kyouichi-kun~! Have as much as you want." she passed him her gourd.

Kyouichi copied Suika's technique and ate the crunchy egg roll mixed with an ample dose of the alcoholic drink. "Mmm… It's actually quite delicious, Marisa-san. (Ugh… never again…)" he gave a fake praise after he finished the seemingly inedible meal.

"Really?" Marisa showed a surprised smile.

"Yes, this sake is really good…" he grinned jeeringly.

Reimu and Satori tired to remain sober, but they couldn't hide their funny expressions as they chewed their food as if they were forced to eat sand. Even Marisa herself didn't look especially pleased to be eating her own cooking, but in the end, she just swallowed it as quickly as possible.

"Well, I'll admit, I've eaten better things from myself."

Reimu put down her chopsticks and cleared her throat to get the others' attention. "Okay, now that we're… um… not hungry anymore, we need to do some shopping."

"So are we going to the village or to Kourindou?" asked Marisa.

"I think we should first check out Kourindou and if the prices will be too steep, we'll go to the village." suggested the shrine maiden.

"Fine, let's get going." said the witch and looked at Suika. "Are you coming with us?"

"Well, I …"

"Yes she is." Reimu replied instead. "You'll help me carry the heavy stuff…"

"Geez, Reimu… Since when have I become your pack mule?" pouted the oni in annoyance, but obliged her friend's request and dusted off her clothes as she stood up. "I'll get the bags then…"

* * *

"Is everyone ready?" asked Reimu before she was about to close the door of her shrine.

Everyone replied positively since they were already standing outside in the front yard.

"Alright, let's fly… And you, Satori, just follow us, okay?"

The mind-reading youkai nodded silently and slowly lifted off from the ground.

Kyouichi took his usual place on the broom behind Marisa, habitually borrowing her hat for the time of the flight. The flight on the broom already seemed like something normal to the outsider. He certainly wasn't afraid anymore when Marisa drove her broom through the sky at over 100km/h speeds. This time, he wasn't as much focused on admiring the landscape as amusedly observing Suika's intriguing flight. It looked like she was side-gliding through the air and at times she even flew backwards. She was really funny to watch. Satori didn't look very energetic, but she kept up with the group just fine.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, they landed on a knoll near the various goods shop called Kourindou, owned by a half-youkai young man with unsatiable curiosity for items from the outside world – Rinnosuke Morichika. They entered his shop and saw that there were a few other customers from the Human Village shopping there as well.

"Oh, Marisa, Reimu, good morning to you." greeted the busy shopkeeper as he saw them pass by his counter. "Oh, and even Suika and… Kyouichi, if I remember your name correctly…" he nodded at the other two of the group. "Annnd…" his curious gaze stopped at Satori, whom he had never seen in his shop before.

"I'm Satori." muttered the girl and nodded to greet him.

"Really? It's not that common to see a satori among other humans…" he stated and corrected his glasses. "You probably know my name by now, but I'll introduce myself anyway. I am Rinnosuke Morichika and I own this humble shop… And what's your name, young miss?"

"I just said it. I'm Satori. Nice to meet you."

"Uh… yes, I know what your youkai species is, but…"

"Sa-to-ri." she repeated her name by syllables.

"That's her name, Rinnosuke-san." explained Kyouichi after a while of watching their conversation. "She's a satori called Satori… Mind-blowing, isn't it?"

Rinnosuke slapped his forehead with his palm. "Ahahahaha~! Now I get it." he laughed at his own misunderstanding. "I see, Satori-san… Sorry."

"No problem." muttered the purple-haired girl and went on to catch up with Reimu and company.

"And I thought you had the power to identify the name and purpose of anything, Rinnosuke-san…" remarked the outsider.

"That applies only for objects, not people and youkai." explained the shopkeeper. "Anyway, is there anything that you'd like to purchase?"

"I'll just browse, like usual." replied Kyouichi and went on to regroup with the girls and help them with shopping.

"Oh… Look here." said Reimu excitedly as she pointed at a pallet with vegetables. "Potatoes here are cheaper than at the marketplace in the village."

"Then you should take at least one bag." advised Marisa and Suika immediately took one.

"…But meat on the other hand is more expensive at Kourindou." Reimu pouted at the higher prices. "Let's take a look at the prices of rice, flour and butter…"

"Okay…"

Kyouichi was amazed by Reimu's overview about the prices of staples at the village and how she was immediately able to tell what was cheaper and what wasn't. While she, Marisa and Suika were excitedly talking about what to buy next, Satori was more intrigued by observing other human customers and reading their minds. Kyouichi killed his boredom by browsing through the stuff from the outside world. He was currently checking out a section of various tools and gardening implements – lawn mowers, scissors, rakes, leaf blowers, chainsaws and other things that were nearly useless in Gensokyo. He was about to turn back and leave the section when his eyes were caught by a pallet of small packets of plant seeds. He took a better look and opened his mouth out of surprise.

"No way…" he smiled, bur refused to believe what he saw. "Is this some crazy coincidence?"

He took the small bag of seeds with a picture of a beautiful white flower printed over it. It was definitely from the outside world. The Latin name of the flower was written in small black letters below: Hibiscus Arnottianus.

Kyouichi's smile widened. "Well, Yuuka-san… It seems Christmas comes early for you this year."

He took the packet and returned to the girls who were loading additional staples into their bags. Suika was the one who had to carry all that stuff, but on the other hand, she didn't seem to have the slightest problem with that.

"Ah, there you are." said Reimu as she saw Kyouichi coming towards her. "I think we have everything, so I won't be going to the village today. Are you coming along, or are you going to stay in the shop for a while longer?"

"I guess there's nothing else I'd need from here." replied the outsider and followed Reimu to the counter. "But I guess I'll just head right to the village from here. You don't need to give me a ride, Marisa. I'll just tag along with some of the other villagers." he gestured with his head towards other customers in the shop.

Marisa shrugged. "As you wish then… Have a safe trip."

* * *

After everyone paid for what they bought, Kyouichi parted ways with the four girls who were headed back to the shrine and set out on a long walk to the Human Village in company of three unknown villagers. It took a really long time for them to reach the village on foot, but at least today wasn't as hot as yesterday. During their long hike, Kyouichi became friends with the other three men and learned that they were farmers and were not customers at Kourindou, but its suppliers. They managed to sell all of their crops to Rinnosuke and were now pulling an empty cart behind them. They said that they weren't afraid to travel without any escort, because they were supposedly recently blessed at the Temple of Myouren.

"That's that strange looking building near the farmlands, right?" asked Kyouichi to make sure.

"Yes." nodded one of the farmers. "Byakuren-sama's blessings protect us from youkai by reducing their aggressiveness, but still, the Kourindou is as far as we dare to go from the village."

"Yes, it pays better when we sell the crops ourselves than if we sold them to the caravans. That's why we're making these trips to Kourindou on our own. And we don't even need to pay the Ryuuken for protection." explained the other man.

"By the way," said the third of the men, "we could always use an extra hand to help out. If you're interested in some extra coin, just let us know."

"Thanks for the offer." said Kyouichi. "I'll think about it."

* * *

As they reached the farms lying just several hundred meters away from the village, Kyouichi noticed and old abandoned house standing next to the road. He wasn't sure if it was even a house. The simple small wooden structure looked like some sort of shack or a small cabin similar to Mizuto's fishing hut, only with a horizontal roof. It was in terrible condition.

"That used to be a hunter's lodge." said the farmer when he noticed that Kyouichi was curiously examining the building.

"And now?"

"As you can see, it's been abandoned for over two years now. The hunter who lived here was an adventurous type and often left his hut for even several months, roaming around Gensokyo. He was a weird guy. Not just a game hunter, but also treasure hunter and collector. However, he's been gone for too long to be alive… I'd say that some youkai ended his adventurous days. A hunter who got hunted down…"

"But nobody knows that for sure…" argued another of the farmers.

"True, but that doesn't change the fact that this cabin is already now in possession of the village council. My guess is that they're going to tear it down soon. Nobody's interested to buy it. I mean just look at it… It's not even worth of wasting time and effort for its repairs. Only rats and spiders are happy to live there."

Kyouichi shrugged and turned away from the deteriorated cabin to face the three farmers again. "Alright, gentlemen, it's been a pleasure to meet you all and thanks for keeping me company on the way to the village. I guess this is where we part ways."

"Hey, no problem, young one… Until we meet again." said the farmers and dragged their cart towards a farmstead.

Kyouichi still had a bit of a way ahead of him, but compared to what he had walked already, it was nothing. He walked past the Temple of Myouren and couldn't tear his eyes away from it until it was behind him. Finally, he made it to the Human Village. He was getting really hungry by now and his feet hurt from the long walk. The Saitou residence was the only thing on his mind right now and that's exactly where his steps led. He smiled with relief when he removed the sandals from his feet before entering the house.

* * *

"Good afternoon!" he announced his arrival. "I'm back."

"Kyouichi!" called Mizuto from the living room and hurried to welcome him. "Where have you been? I was really thinking of declaring you as missing to the Ryuuken."

Kyouichi needed to apologize and explain in detail that he was at the Hakurei Shrine, but he didn't tell a word that it was because he went to get his kimono back and return Reimu's shrine maiden outfit. He just made some false excuse as to why he went there without telling anyone of the Saitous about it. Mizuto didn't look like he'd fall for it, but in the end, he nodded understandingly and smiled.

"If that's how it was, then I suppose it's fine…"

He had already said once that he could only give Kyouichi warnings and advice, but he wouldn't restrict him and forbid him leaving the village, should he decide to. If Kyouichi was in Naota's custody, however, he'd probably get another slap by now.

He was glad that he could live with such a nice family like the Saitous and he felt a little bad about making them worry about his safety.

After he ate something considerably more delicious than Marisa's tamagoyaki, he lay down in his room to take a rest. Inside his head he was already forging an alternative plan for leaving Gensokyo, taking all details he could think of into consideration. He even took some notes of his ideas into one of his school notepads. As the president of the club formed solely by outsiders with desire to return to their homes, it was his duty to inform everyone about the progress of the search for the youkai of boundaries. Since nobody had any idea about her current whereabouts, he decided it was time to slightly readjust the focus of the other members to other activities…

"There…" he muttered to himself as he wrote down the last idea that he wanted to present on the next club's meeting. "And that's all that I can think of… With or without your help, Yukari, we are returning home…"


	25. A Change in Plans

A couple of days have passed and Kyouichi was only more firm about his decision to stop looking for the youkai of boundaries. However, to realize his plan to leave through the shrine's gateway, he and every other outsider would need to be well prepared and well equipped. It was therefore without a question that he'd need more money to afford all the traveling supplies. On Monday afternoon, when his school was over, he went to the village hall and knocked on the door of elder Fukukane's office. The secretary called him in and after a formal greeting he took a seat at the conference table, opposite of the elder.

"Good afternoon, Ishimaru-san. What can I do for you?" asked the head of the village council.

"I'd just like to know if there's any work available."

"Work, eh? Well, let us take a look then." he turned around and browsed through some papers on his shelves. "By the way, Ishimaru-san, don't you still work at the Starlight Glyph?"

"Yes, I do." admitted Kyouichi. "But just in case Shimizu-san would fire me after his assistant recovers from injury, I'd like to have some certainty that I won't be without a job."

"Yes, there are some requests for part-time jobbers here." Fukukane said and took a thin pile of papers and put them on the table. "Here you go. Please, take a look at these and tell me if any of these catch your interest."

"No, Fukukane-san, thank you." said Kyouichi and bowed. "I just wanted to know if there even is any work at all. Looks like there are plenty of opportunities so I don't need to worry when I lose my current job. I kind of like it there, you know, but still…"

"Oh, is that right? So you just wanted to see the situation on the job market? Well, I can certainly say it got better than when you were here last time… Is there anything else you wanted then?"

"That is all, thank you." replied Kyouichi and took his leave.

* * *

He felt a little relieved to know that there were quite a few job offers to choose from, if by any chance he wouldn't be working at the bookstore anymore. However, he still worked there and right now, that's where he was headed. He left the village hall office building and walked past the bronze dragon statue. Its mysterious gem-like eyes were now glowing in a blue light, predicting the beginning of the rainy season. The sky was still relatively clear with a few white clouds here and there, but the rain would start pouring down soon enough. Kyouichi entered his familiar workplace and greeted his employer in a friendly and informal manner. Daisuke was reading as usual. However, he wasn't reading a book, but a newspaper. As the outsider entered, he gave him the same look as when he entered his shop dressed up in a pink yukata and started chuckling.

"What's so funny, boss?" asked the confused outsider, but he wasn't too sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"You are…" chuckled Daisuke a bit louder.

Kyouichi now realized what he meant. "Oh no… You're reading Bunbunmaru…"

Now, the shopkeeper burst into laughter. "Hahahahaha~! Way to make a name for yourself, Ishimaru…" he laughed as he passed him the newspapers.

Right there, on the front page of the new edition of this irregularly published popular newspaper full of biased articles and half-truths, there was a large black and white photo of Reimu Hakurei and Kyouichi Ishimaru in front of Hakurei Shrine, both of them wearing the same color and same size miko outfits. Kyouichi wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

A large-lettered title said it all: Introducing the Hakurei Shrine's New Shrine Maiden.

Kyouichi speechlessly stared at the newspaper, his hands shaking like those of an old man.

"…Aya… I don't like you… Reimu, Suika…. I don't like you anymore either…" he whispered as he dropped the paper on the counter, not even able to bring himself to reading the article inside. In reality, he didn't really dislike any of the girls he mentioned, it was just that he knew that this article was going to yet stir things up in his near future and not in a way he would like.

"Okay, just keep breathing…" he told himself. "Nice slow, deep breaths… Look at it all with rational eyes… You're going to get out of Gensokyo anyway… People will forget… They will not remember… They will not care… And neither will you…"

"I know that this is Bunbunmaru and that pretty much 70% of stuff written there is crap, but when I saw you on the front page…" said Daisuke and didn't finish his sentence due to another laughing seizure.

Even Kyouichi's tolerance had its limits and it was just being tested right now. Daisuke kept on laughing. "First a pink yukata, now a shrine maiden's dress…?"

Kyouichi got a good idea to silence Daisuke's laughter. "Oh, look." he pointed outside the window. "Isn't it Yuuka-san coming to the shop?" he asked, even though the said youkai wasn't really there.

The mere mention of that name was super-effective. Daisuke's laughter stopped immediately, his smile froze and his reddened face paled instantly. A total opposite of what he looked like just a second ago. Kyouichi couldn't hide his amusement.

"…*snicker*…Pfhahahahahaaa~!" he exploded into laughter. "Oh, man! This is too good… You should have seen your face, boss!" he chuckled as he tried to mockingly imitate Daisuke's shocked face.

Daisuke frowned and exhaled with relief. "That wasn't very funny, Ishimaru. You shouldn't joke about such things…"

"Okay, okay…" Kyouichi promised, still smiling from the afterglow of his good laugh. "But only if you won't poke fun at me for what I was forced to wear on that horrible day." he added and ripped the front page of Bunbunmaru Newspaper into shreds. He still didn't quite understand what made Shimizu-san so much afraid of such a sweet and lovely flower youkai lady, but he didn't have any time to ponder the question as he was immediately tasked to work. More books to copy, more manuscripts to rewrite and more documents to handle. It was another busy day at the Starlight Glyph. Particularly, there were much more customers visiting the shop than usual.

Part of it was probably caused by the fact that it started raining in the meantime and people without umbrellas simply wanted to find some shelter. It was a refreshing sight for Kyouichi to see his boss actually working hard instead of just reading books half the time of his shift. It was also refreshing to have the unbearable heat of summer dampened by a nice cooling rain. However, Kyouichi feared that the rain wouldn't let down any time soon. Not just for today, but for the next couple of days and weeks too.

As he worked on rewriting manuscripts of some unknown author with terrible handwriting, he felt at least a bit relaxed that he was hidden in the printing room – safe from the looks of the people who could have read today's newspaper and recognize its new protagonist. Time went by and there were still many people browsing through the shelves of the bookstore. Many of them got so intrigued that they actually fell for Daisuke's smooth talk and bought some books.

* * *

Kyouichi finally deciphered the last paragraph of some alchemical recipe, or at least he thought he did it right. It was now about time for his usual cleaning duty, so he didn't hesitate and took a mop and a bucket of water and began wiping the floor clean, regardless of the many customers still waiting inside for the rain to subside. He didn't bother to tell the people to step aside because they were in the way of his work. He just cleaned whatever else he could and put away the cleaning utensils back where they were usually stored. As he looked out of the window, he could see a really fierce downpour that held no indication of stopping in the following minutes.

"I don't suppose you took your umbrella with you today." said Daisuke Shimizu behind his back.

"I don't even have one to begin with." replied Kyouichi, still facing the shop's window.

"Too bad. Looks like the rain isn't stopping."

"Maybe I could borrow some large book from you and use it instead of an umbrella." jested the outsider.

"You could." admitted the shopkeeper. "Although that would be the last thing you'd do as my employee."

"O-hohoho~!" laughed Kyouichi in a sort of melodramatic manner as he turned his face to his boss. "Look at you, threatening to fire me… As if it's not going to happen in a few days anyway."

Daisuke raised his eyebrow and confusedly tilted his head. "Don't know where you gather that nonsense from, but I never said anything about firing you when Hiroto recovers."

Now, it was Kyouichi who was dumbfounded in confusion. "So… you're saying that you're going to have two assistants?"

"I don't see why not." said the shopkeeper casually. "You could be the one handling correspondence, cleaning and dealing with customers and Hiroto could be the one making copies, transcriptions and running errands if needed."

"What? You're still going to let him run errands outside the shop? After what he got himself into?"

"Look, I know Hiroto for some time and despite him being an ass sometimes, he knows his way around Gensokyo. I wouldn't risk sending you, a defenseless outsider to go on a trip to… I don't know… Youkai Mountain to help us establish some new contacts with potential customers or authors."

"Isn't Youkai Mountain off limits to humans?"

"I was saying that just as an example, Ishimaru." responded Daisuke, frowning at the outsider. "Hiroto will not do anything stupid like provoking a youkai and do you know why?" he asked without waiting for Kyouichi to answer. "Because that's the last chance he'll get from me. If he does any more bullshit like that, I'll fire him on spot and he can go and look for work in the fields. If he survives another encounter like that, of course…"

"So we'll be working together, huh?" asked Kyouichi and looked outside the window again.

"I might have called him a short tempered fool, but I'll give him a clear definition of acceptable behavior and a clear warning of what happens when he strays from that behavior. I want you to cooperate and do your best while working. I won't care if you two won't get along with each other as long as you don't let it show and do your duties right. Nobody's telling you to be best friends with him."

Kyouichi nodded silently and turned around. He walked past Daisuke and around the counter.

"Well, at least I can stay and do what I got used to." he murmured to himself as he was reaching for the door, ready to open it.

"Aren't you at least going to wait until the rain calms down a bit, Ishimaru?" called Daisuke at him.

Kyouichi smiled, waved his left hand to show that he doesn't care about the rain and left the bookstore after his shift was over.

* * *

The rain was dense, but he didn't hurry. He'd get wet even if he ran so what was the point of hurrying? The streets were nearly empty, with the exception of those few people who had umbrellas. Kyouichi just leisurely walked to the Saitou house, ignoring the rain completely.

"Welcome back." said Minako, greeting him in the corridor. "You got all wet. Looks like you're going to need an umbrella during the following days."

"Hi, Minako-san… Perhaps you're right, but I don't like umbrellas."

"So, Kyouichi-kun… How was your work today?"

"I'm not complaining… Yet." he added as if he could predict something bad was going to happen soon.

"And what are you going to do during the rainy season?" she inquired as she brought him a dry change of clothes.

Kyouichi really didn't know that himself. "Beats me." he shrugged. "I guess I'm just going to keep on reading the Gensokyo Chronicle. Although I don't see the point anymore…" he murmured, lost in thought. Since he was convinced that he won't find Yukari by reading references to her name in the books, he considered the whole compilation of the Hieda chroniclers as little more than entertainment reading.

"I guess that the following days are going to be rather boring…" he said as he dressed himself up to a dry kimono. Meanwhile, Mizuto showed up in the kitchen with a folded roll of newspaper in his hand. When Kyouichi saw it, he expected to be laughed at, but instead, Mizuto didn't even mention the photo or the article.

"You know what they say..." he said as he sat down at the table. "That after every rain comes the sun."

Kyouichi didn't know if the fisherman meant that literally or metaphorically, but for him, that sun was the day when he and other outsiders will successfully find their way to Tokyo. He knew that day wasn't tomorrow, but he also knew that it wasn't too far in the future. After the whole family had dinner, the outsider felt really tired. He thought he'd keep on reading, but instead, he just lay on his back in the guest room and stared into the ceiling, listening to the sound of beating rain. He felt just as tired and lethargic as Reimu did when it was too hot and he blamed the whole lack of energy on the weather. Even such was the life in Gensokyo – not always packed with fun and interesting things to do, but also boring at times. That was one of Kyouichi's laziest days ever.

* * *

The next day was a different story, though. The rain let up during the night, turning into a calm drizzle by morning. Kyouichi absentmindedly prepared for his meeting with the outsiders and didn't pay attention to mostly anything he was being told or asked by the members of the Saitou family when he had breakfast.

"Hey, Kyouichi-kun… What's wrong? Why don't you say anything?" wondered Minako who just poured some tea into his cup.

"Huh? Oh… Sorry, I wasn't paying attention…" apologized the outsider as he returned back to reality.

"I can see that." remarked Minako, giving him a concerned look. "Haven't you woken up yet?"

Kyouichi chuckled weakly. "Yeah, I guess I haven't."

"Then you better wake up soon." smiled the tailor. "I remember that Keine-sensei doesn't like it when her students aren't paying attention during her lessons."

"You're right." nodded Kyouichi and drank the warm tea. "I can imagine my life even without being headbutted by a were-hakutaku…"

"Hey, hey, Kyou-kun?" asked Chitose who just finished her breakfast. "I've heard you've been at the shrine again recently… That's not fair. I want to be Reimu-sama's friend too."

"I don't even know if we're friends exactly, but… she definitely deserves to be called a friend since she's doing what she can to help us."

"Dad won't let me go to the shrine so I could visit her…" she kept complaining. "But one day, I'll be good enough to travel on my own and go wherever I want."

"Yes, yes…" Mizuto patted his daughter's head. "But until then, try to stay focused on your studies."

"But I am…" argued little Chitose. "Oh, but we need to hurry or we'll be late." she said as she looked at the clock. "Tadao-kun, Kyouichi-kun, let's go already."

* * *

They all took their school bags, and through the streets of the Human Village on a drizzly morning they trotted to the school. This at least made the outsider's heart start pumping a little faster and he wasn't feeling so sleepy and groggy anymore. As soon as he split up with Chitose and Tadao in the school's hallway, he walked up to the second floor and marched towards the library.

"Ah, finally, the club's president is here." sounded the voice of the foreigner, Daniel, who was sitting at the table with most of the club members.

"Sorry I'm late." Kyouichi apologized to everyone as he closed the door behind him.

It looked like the club started its discussion without him, as Midori was already standing at a small blackboard with chalk in her hand.

"Did I miss anything important?" he asked.

Midori shook her head. "I was just pointing out that all the material we've gathered about Yukari Yakumo so far, including the recent information, is… well… There are so many versions of stories about her, that many of them are contradicting each other."

"Yes." confirmed Hikaru and rubbed his chin while looking into his notepad. "It seems that the more information we've gathered, the less certain we are about her habits, residence and appearance."

Kyouichi sighed and didn't even sit down at the table as he walked up to the blackboard where Midori was standing. "Which is why I'm here to tell you, that the time has come for a change of plans." he said with resolve in his voice.

A mix of whispers and murmurs echoed throughout the room for a while.

"What do you mean a change of plans?" asked some of the club members simultaneously.

Kyouichi took a deep breath and retold a short version of his recent findings. "…And so, it seems to me, that Yukari is not going to help us after all."

"As if I didn't tell you so." muttered Yuujin, the ever-criticizing man among the outsiders.

"Like I mentioned earlier, our second and now, seemingly our only alternative, is going through the Hakurei Shrine's gateway." Kyouichi continued, pretending he didn't hear Yuujin's remark. "We've already agreed upon taking this option if we didn't find Yukari until autumn. However, we didn't set ourselves any concrete date when we'll leave and that's also one of the things I'd like to discuss with you."

He paused himself to take a better look at the people sitting in the room. "And before I begin, I can already see that some of the club members aren't here yet. Hikaru-san, can you tell me how many people are absent?"

Hikaru cleared his throat but before he said anything, Midori was the first to answer. "Nadeshima-san is ill, as far as I know, but have you heard about Asakura-san?"

"No, what about him?" wondered Kyouichi, because he didn't know all the members of his club too well.

"He was attacked by a youkai last Friday and got seriously injured. He had to be taken to Eientei." replied Midori with a serious tone.

"Seriously?" Kyouichi raised his eyebrow. "Tell me more. How did it happen?"

"I've only heard it from other people, but Asakura-san works with the woodcutters in the bamboo forest. Supposedly the group of workers got attacked by a fierce youkai. Even though they were all protected by Ryuuken, they couldn't prevent the workers from getting hurt. But fortunately, nobody got killed at least."

Kyouichi's lips parted and he whistled in amazement. "Whoa… I guess I'm not the only one to brag about something like that." he told himself as he rolled up his left sleeve and revealed the scars left by the teeth of the youkai of darkness.

Midori's eyes widened in surprise. "What's that? You were attacked too?! You never told us about that…"

"It wasn't all that serious really."

"What happened?" Midori inquired.

"Just some young youkai of darkness jumped on me and went "omnomnomnom" on my left forearm." replied the outsider jokingly. "But seriously… I hope Asakura-san will be fine."

"I'm sure he will." said Sayuri, who joined the conversation. "I've heard that the doctors at Eientei are really amazing and can save people with even the worst of injuries… Provided they still live, that is…"

"O-kay. But what about the other absent members?" wondered Kyouichi, who counted only 13 out of 18 people in the room, including himself.

"Ah, yes…" sounded Hikaru and frowned a little. "It seems that three members of our club have changed their minds and decided to stay in Gensokyo… They won't be coming with us."

Kyouichi again put on a surprised face. "Really? So there are people who are staying here after all… Well, it's their decision…"

"So, what did you want to talk about today?" asked Midori impatiently.

"Right… We're going to leave Gensokyo on our own, but for that, we'll need to buy a lot of supplies, because we don't know for how long we will be wandering before we find any sign of civilization. That's why I'd like to establish something like a club's fund for that purpose. Each week, every member will contribute a part of their earnings to this fund and with that money, we'll buy all the necessary traveling supplies like tents, food, spare clothes and medicine."

"Very well, Kyouichi-san." nodded Hikaru as he scribbled notes into his diary. "I suppose if we all paid let's say 2500 yen per week, we could save up enough money to buy what we need until autumn."

"But why the hell should we be waiting until autumn?!" protested Yuujin. "Why not leave sooner if we manage to scrounge up enough cash together?"

"A very good question, Ueda-san." nodded Kyouichi understandingly. "I too would like to set out on that journey without any unnecessary delays, but as you might have noticed already, the rain season has just started. I don't know about you, guys, but I certainly don't feel like hiking through the dangerous mountain terrain in this miserable weather. The second thing is, we probably won't manage to scrounge up enough money any sooner than autumn anyway. Remember that we'll still need to take some money with us to the outside world, not to mention that we should also pay something to Reimu-san for her kindness of taking us through the barrier. It seems to me that traveling in fall is our best choice."

"Looks like you have it all thought through…" acknowledged Yuujin reluctantly. "Except for one minor detail… How the hell do you plan us all to gather at the Hakurei Shrine PLUS carry all the traveling equipment that we'll need? The Ryuuken will turn us right back if we try to leave the village all at once. They have orders from the council not to let outsiders travel around Gensokyo without permission."

"The Ryuuken are the least of our worries, Ueda-san. We could sneak away by small groups or if that fails, we could bribe the guards to let us pass. Right now, we need to set ourselves the day when we will begin our exodus."

"And when exactly will be the day?"

Kyouichi took a longer moment to think about it before suggesting his idea. "How about the first day of Kannazuki (October)?"

A complete silence filled the school's small library until Hikaru replied: "I have nothing against it."

"I agree too." acknowledged Sayuri.

"Me as well." nodded Midori.

"First of Kannazuki? No problem." replied the other "transfer students".

"Excellent." smiled Kyouichi and turned to Hikaru. "Nagahashi-san, I'm putting you in charge of the club's fund. I don't know where we are going to put the money, though… I don't recall seeing anything like a bank here in Human Village."

"Of course, just leave it to me."

"Thank you very much. Now… all that's left for me to say is… that I wish you all good luck at your part-time jobs. Oh, and in case some of you still had the feeling like they have too much time on their hands, they can continue gathering whatever helpful information about Yukari like we did up to now. I didn't give up on looking for her entirely; I was just saying that our priorities should be focused on preparations for our expedition. That's all I wanted to say, thank you."

"Now that we've said everything important," spoke Daniel suddenly with a strange grin on his face, "I'd like to present the next topic… Has anyone read yesterday's Bunbunmaru news?" he snickered as he waved the printout of the said newspaper in his hand.

Kyouichi's jaw dropped and he slapped his head with his palm. "Oh for God's sake, people… Don't embarrass me more."

The entire library echoed with wild laughter, with Kyouichi being the only one who wasn't laughing. He knew that this sort of publicity was not going to make his life in Gensokyo any easier. But it was too late for him to make other people unsee what they already saw.

* * *

And thus started a series of jokes and rumors about Kyouichi wherever he showed up at school. When the club's meeting ended and the outsiders and other regular students gathered in the classroom on the first floor, the young ones already started pointing fingers at him and giggling. Some of the students have even started calling him Miko-Miko-Kyouichi or Reimu-kun. Even Keine-sensei looked at him with a strange, suspicious look the whole time. Kyouichi rarely felt so happy to be leaving the school after the final class as he did today.

He didn't wait for any of his friends. He just hurried up straight home to have lunch before his next shift at the bookstore.

After approximately 30 minutes, he was already entering the Starlight Glyph, hoping he could at least relax his mind while working. However, as he entered, he could see Daisuke as well as another person behind the counter as they were talking about something. What was their conversation about remained unknown, as they stopped talking as soon as Kyouichi showed up.

The person standing next to Shimizu-san was a tall young man with wide face and muscular stature, dressed up in black kimono pants and vest. He had dark-brown eyes and his hair was cut very short and it was hard to tell what color it was. He almost looked bald. He was a little shorter than Kyouichi, but he looked much stronger. The outsider guessed his age to be somewhere around mid twenties.

"Uh… Good afternoon, boss." he greeted bashfully.

"Ah, good afternoon to you too." bowed Daisuke and gestured towards Kyouichi. "And this is your new co-worker I mentioned to you earlier - Ishimaru Kyouichi-san."

"Nice to meet you." bowed the outsider once more. This time, to the other man.

The young man crossed his arms as he measured Kyouichi up with his eyes. "Hmph… This one here is your new assistant?" he disdainfully cocked his head at him. "He doesn't look like much…"

"Hiroto!" Daisuke looked at him scoldingly. "What did I tell you just now? Don't you know how to behave?"

"Oh… So you're Hiroto-san? Shimizu-san's usual assistant?" asked the outsider.

"Figured that out all by yourself, have you?" asked the muscular young male with a cocky tone. "Yes, I am Hiroto Yukiyama and if you want us to get along well, you'd do well not to get in my way."

"You two are certainly not going to get in each other's way here." retorted the owner of the shop. "That's because you'll be working cooperatively."

"Hmph… If I have no other choice…"

"But of course you do, Hiroto-kun." said Daisuke with a forced smile. "You can always look for work elsewhere if you don't find the working conditions in the bookstore to your liking."

"Didn't you want to become a Ryuuken, Hiroto-san?" wondered Kyouichi.

"I still do. And mark my words that I will become one!" replied Hiroto loudly and boastfully. "But until then, I'm going to help out here."

"Fine by me." shrugged the outsider. "So, what is there to do today?"

"You will now take your place at the counter and deal with the customers, Ishimaru." replied Daisuke and tapped the counter with his hand. "As for you, Hiroto, you'll be printing and transcribing in the back."

"Why do I have to get the menial tasks?" grumbled the older assistant with displeasure.

"It's not menial. It's just as important as any task here. Now… let me explain how this new kappan machine here works…" said Daisuke and led Hiroto into the small room in the back of the shop.

* * *

A couple of minutes have passed and a few people showed up in the shop. Kyouichi thought he'd get the chance to sell something again, but it seemed that these people have just come to browse.

"Alright, Ishimaru I'm going to the post office to order some new titles, so watch over the shop for me, okay?" requested Daisuke and not even waiting for a positive reply, he left the bookstore.

For a moment it was quiet, but after a couple of minutes, Hiroto walked out of the printing room stretching his arms like after some exhausting work and sat down right on the counter.

"So… What's up, Hiro-kun?" asked Kyouichi, trying to break the ice.

The man gave him a piercing glance and he furrowed his eyebrows. "If I'll like you, you may call me Hiro-kun… But guess what? I DON'T LIKE YOU!" he yelled loudly straight into Kyouichi's face, letting the outsider smell his bad breath.

"Do you have a problem with me?" asked Kyouichi with a calm voice.

"I don't like your mug… outsider." he said the last word with utter disgust in his voice as if it was the worst insult he could think of.

"You're not exactly my type either." retorted Kyouichi reservedly. "But why making yourself more enemies instead of friends? Yukiyama…"

"Ha! I'd rather be kissing a horse's backside than associating myself with a miserable outsider such as yourself!" he growled back and provokingly prodded Kyouichi's shoulder.

However, Kyouichi could remain perfectly calm in similar situations. Perhaps he was afraid of the youkai in Gensokyo, but people such as Hiroto didn't scare him at all.

"So you have something against outsiders?" he inquired nonchalantly.

"What an idiotic question!" laughed Hiroto amusedly. "Let me put this as politely as I can… You are the scum of Gensokyo! You and the rest of that pathetic rabble from the outside… You think you're all smarter than gods! You think you can change the whole world! You think you can just pop up here and turn Gensokyo into another one of your colonies!"

"What the hell is this guy on?" thought Kyouichi to himself as he watched Hiroto's nonsensical rambling.

"You bring your fantastic ideas and inventions and rules to Gensokyo and you're all expecting us to be kissing your boots for that? Ha! You mean NOTHING! You're weak and pitiful and unable to take care of your own selves! The money of all honest taxpayers is wasted on feeding you worthless bums! You take up other people's houses and you even take jobs away from the native villagers! Why does the elder even let you stay here?"

"I'm not too sure if your former master, Tanisake would be very happy to hear you say such things, Yukiyama…" remarked Kyouichi.

"Pffff… That old drunkard can go die in a hole! He is a perfect example of why I hate outsiders! Bah! Even saying the word makes my skin crawl! You are not going to dictate OUR lives! You are the lowest of the low! Even fairies here mean more than you! Gensokyo would be much better off without the likes of you!"

Kyouichi smirked and shrugged. "Well, good for you then, because we are all currently working on how to get home where we came from. You won't have to put up with "us miserable scum" for too long. When autumn comes, we're out of here. And once we make it home, then Gensokyo can rot for all I care! Oh, and if you meet Yukari Yakumo by any chance, please, do tell her that I send my regards and that she can teleport herself into another galaxy or into the deepest level of hell and stay there for at least an eternity, rather than forcefully taking people into this insane asylum of a world and letting half of them die!" he shouted as his voice turned gradually from calm to angry. He said words he wouldn't normally say, but Hiroto was really starting to get on his nerves. Hiroto didn't speak for a moment, and so, Kyouichi continued. "I don't plan on dictating anyone's life and I'm not happy about having to stay here any longer than necessary. Don't know how you would act if you found yourself stranded in Tokyo one day and you couldn't even explain how you got there…"

Hiroto annoyingly waved his hand. "Bah! I'm not curious about your problems. Why do I even waste my time talking to you?" he asked and went back into the printing room to continue whatever work he was in the middle of.

Kyouichi was almost proud of himself that he managed to talk his way out of this conflict without provoking Hiroto into beating the crap out of him. Suddenly the shop's door opened again and Kyouichi expected to see either Daisuke or some customer, but the person entering was Hieda no Akyuu with a small pile of books in her hands.

"A-Akyuu-chan?" asked surprised Kyouichi. "How nice to see you again."

The little chronicler smiled sweetly. "Hi, Kyouichi-san. Is Shimizu-san here?"

"Ehh… No, he's out at the moment. Is there anything you wanted from him?"

"I've just brought an update to the ninth volume of the chronicle, so it could be copied." replied Akyuu and heaved the books on top of the counter.

"Oh, why… yes, thank you very much, Akyuu-chan. I'll let the boss know that you brought it. And I'll return you all the books I borrowed from you soon."

The chronicler looked at him with curious eyes. "You've read them all?"

"No. I won't need them anymore… What's the point in learning various trivia about Yukari if she's not even in Gensokyo? Oh, no… I've already decided to leave Gensokyo with Reimu's help. Even if it's risky and more difficult."

Akyuu looked at him seriously and muttered: "Won't you wait until next spring at least?"

The outsider immediately shook his head in disagreement. "Forget it. Oh, wait… You can't. Well, just ignore it… I'm not waiting any longer than until Kannazuki. Then we're all leaving this place even if it started raining chainsaws."

"Chain… what?"

"That was just a metaphor… Anyway… I'd like to thank you for all the helpful information you provided to help us, Akyuu. I really appreciate it. I'll even pay you for the help you provided, but not before we all buy all the necessary supplies for traveling."

"Kyouichi-san…"

"I know that you won't forget about me, and I won't forget about you either… We can still enjoy a few months of time as friends, but then we'll part our ways for good."

Akyuu smiled again and nodded. "I know. But I guess I wasn't much of a help after all."

"Oh yes, you were." argued Kyouichi. "It's not your fault that your good old friend decided to go for a vacation somewhere outside of Gensokyo. But it doesn't matter to me anymore. Once again, thank you… And have a nice day."

"You too, Kyouichi-san." bowed the little chronicler and left the bookstore.

As soon as she did so, Hiroto's face popped out from the printing room. "Aww! That was sooo touching." he jeered with sarcastic tone. "Pretending to be nice and caring and shit…"

"I thought you didn't care about my problems." remarked the outsider and gestured to Hiroto to return back to his tasks.

"What did you just do?" asked the older assistant in incredulous manner. "Did you just shoo me off to return back to that room, outsider?!" he stepped forward with a threatening gaze.

"I just want you to do the same you want from me – to mind your own business."

"Oh, sure… That's just what I'm going to do." he grinned crookedly and glanced on the small pile of business documents that Kyouichi was writing. Then he picked up an ink flask from the counter and spilled its content over all the documents. "Oooops! Looks like you're going to have to start all over again. What can I tell you...? Accidents happen sometimes. But don't worry, outsider, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it one day…" he returned back to the printing room while laughing stupidly.

Kyouichi clenched his fists and teeth hard, trying his best not to attack the other guy. After taking several deep breaths, he managed to calm himself down and he started cleaning up the mess on the counter. Fortunately, Akyuu's update to the chronicle was unharmed. Another fortunate thing was that there weren't too many documents soaked by the ink. In the meantime, Daisuke returned from the post office and noticed Kyouichi washing an ink-soaked rag in a bucket of water.

"Did you spill some ink, Ishimaru?"

"Nope." he replied tersely and pointed his thumb backwards at the printing room, but Daisuke obviously didn't notice it. He brought two bags of fresh yakitori from one of the stands in the marketplace and a pleasant smell immediately spread across the shop. He gave one to Kyouichi and carried the other one into the printing room.

"Oh, by the way boss, Akyuu-san just brought some new material to be copied." Kyouichi informed his employer.

"Akyuu-san was here? Ah, there's the new material… Good, good. We can start making copies right away." smiled Daisuke as he rubbed his hands. He carried the pile of Akyuu's notes into the printing room and tasked his other assistant to make copies of them.

The tense atmosphere partially dissolved when Daisuke was there in the shop, but whenever he left, Hiroto started acting up again.


	26. The Ups and Downs of an Outsider's Life

At first, Kyouichi thought he'd be able to stay calm and endure all of Hiroto's provoking remarks and occasional bullying, but it only got worse with each passing day. It was just a matter of time when things would escalate to the point of open conflict between the two. For an entire week Kyouichi just shrugged off Hiroto's insults and his attempts to discredit him in front of Shimizu-san. In his mind he pitied Hiroto and laughed at his childish behavior, but by the end of the week, things really stared to get out of hand. It was no secret that Hiroto hated all outsiders just as much as Naota hated all the youkai. He kept constantly expressing his hatred to outsiders and in no uncertain terms. But when words were gradually replaced by provoking prods and even slaps, Kyouichi had just about enough.

"Will you just leave me the hell alone?!" he yelled at Hiroto as he pushed him away from himself. Of course, Daisuke was not in the shop at that moment.

Hiroto grinned like an idiot. "Oh, so you'd like to fight, outsider, eh? Then let's take it outside!" he cracked his knuckles. "Come on, outsider! You wouldn't want to dirty Shimizu-san's books with your blood, would you?"

"I don't want to fight. I just want you to get off my back."

"You don't want to fight? You don't want to fight?!" he repeated while pushing Kyouichi towards the door. "Then I hope you won't mind me taking a few whacks at your skull, four-eyes!"

Hiroto grabbed Kyouichi by the throat, opened the door and shoved him out on the street. It was still raining quite a bit and there were no people on the street to stop the upcoming fight.

"I heard you had your arm broken recently." remarked the outsider as he was getting up from the ground. "And now you're in a risk of getting fired… Not only that, but perhaps even arrested."

"Hahahahaha~!" Hiroto laughed madly. "There are at least two brawls in the one of the taverns in the village every week! Do you really think they arrest everyone who gives someone a punch in the face?" he asked and charged forward. Kyouichi attempted to block his punch but Hiroto was so strong that he knocked Kyouichi down even through his defense.

"Whew… at least he didn't break my nose…" exhaled the outsider with relief as he was standing up again.

"And besides…" continued Hiroto and kicked Kyouichi right in the ribs as he was standing up. "I never said I liked working in the bookstore."

Kyouichi held his hand over the place where he got kicked. This time Hiroto let him stand up.

"So, what about now? Do you still not want to return that pain back, outsider?" he taunted him. "Don't worry, I won't be cheating by using spells or weapons… Just you and me up close and personal…"

Kyouichi just stood there, trying to catch his breath again and Hiroto took it as a cue to hit him again.

"If you're not going to make a move, then I will!" he charged for another attack.

Kyouichi again just tried to evade. Hiroto's first punch missed, second one was blocked, but he surprised the outsider by a quick kick in the chest, again knocking him down.

"Come, on outsider! At least pretend to be defending yourself… Picking on such a wimp is no fun at all."

Kyouichi helplessly looked at the both ends of the street, hoping there'll be someone to help him, but there wasn't anybody. Hiroto was starting to lose his patience with him when he wasn't standing up. He walked up to him grabbed him by his hair and put him into a headlock.

Now, the young outsider was really afraid of him. Unable to put his arms into a block, he got assaulted by Hiroto's repeated knee strikes in the chest and solar plexus. One particularly unpleasant kick knocked the air out of his lungs. As soon as Hiroto released the headlock, he grabbed him under the shoulders, lifted him off the ground and tossed him forward; almost making him hit the building across the street. Kyouichi lay there on his back, pain shooting up in his head, ribs and stomach, his vision was getting blurry. "Stop… Somebody, make him stop…" he thought.

Suddenly, the door on the building he was lying in front of opened and bumped into his head. "Ow…!"

Somebody was just trying to go outside, but they couldn't open the door, since he was lying in the way.

"Ow... ow… ow…" he murmured in monotone as the person trying to open the door repeated his or her attempt. "Don't mind me… I'm just takin' a breather…" he uttered to whoever was at the other side of the door. By this time, Hiroto was already standing over him. He grabbed him by the collar of his kimono and picked him up. "What's the matter, you wuss? Had enough already?" he shook him back and forth violently.

Kyouichi was mentally preparing himself for another series of hits, when he heard the door behind him finally opened and closed. Hiroto lifted the outsider again with his powerful arms and was about to throw him again, but instead, he just dropped him down this time. Kyouichi landed on his feet for a change and gave Hiroto a confused look. Hiroto looked back with the same confused face and he tilted his head to the side.

"Seriously, man… Just stop it already…" wheezed Kyouichi beggingly.

Hiroto's eyes suddenly widened and his mouth opened in shock. He pointed his index finger at Kyouichi and let out a terrified scream.

"WAAAAAAAH~!"

Then, in a blink of an eye he turned away and sprinted towards the marketplace, flailing his arms in panic. "Please, don't kill me!" he called from the distance and the next second, he was gone. If this was an anime or a manga, Kyouichi would probably have a huge question mark flashing over his head right now.

"Huh….?" he stared in amazement in the direction of the marketplace. "What the beep was that all about?" he asked himself.

"Good afternoon~ ." sounded a greeting from behind his back.

He turned around to see Yuuka Kazami, who just left the flower shop. She was standing there with her parasol opened; now serving as an umbrella. In her left hand she held a basket full of flowers of different kinds. Despite the unpleasant rainy weather, she was still smiling like a sunflower.

"Oh… Yuuka-san. Good afternoon." he greeted her and bowed slowly, because the pain in his ribs still persisted.

"Wasn't that the son of a Ryuuken captain just now?" wondered the youkai lady.

"Oh, he's a son of a… yeah, a Ryuuken captain. His name's Hiroto Yukiyama." specified Kyouichi, who was still confusedly staring at the end of the street where Hiroto ran. "I swear… I have never seen someone run so fast…" he remarked admiringly. "It could even be a world record…"

"Ah, so his broken arm finally healed up…" said Yuuka thoughtfully. "Is he causing you trouble?"

"Trouble? Well… for the first few days it was bearable, but it seems that he doesn't like outsiders much…" shrugged Kyouichi and tried to dust off his clothes. "Then again, I don't think he likes anybody at all… But how do you know about his broken arm? Are you two friends or something?"

Yuuka giggled amusedly. "I met him just once about one month ago~ . I think he was headed for the Scarlet Devil Mansion…"

"Wait… A month ago? That could be on the day when he got his arm broken…" deduced the young outsider. "Did you meet him on that road?" he pointed west, towards the farmlands and the road that stretched all the way to the Forest of Magic.

"Yes~ ." nodded the young flower youkai. "At first I didn't notice him as he walked towards me, but then he suddenly charged at me. I thought he was a thief who wanted to steal my precious umbrella, so I grabbed his wrist as he tried to reach for it. I guess that's when his fragile little bone cracked~ ." she explained with unsettlingly sweet voice and smile.

"S-So you're the youkai he provoked into a fight, just to prove he was worthy of joining the Ryuuken?!" asked Kyouichi in disbelief. He felt a sudden wave of anger building up inside him. "What a bastard!"

"Oh, so he actually wanted to fight~ ? Really? I don't know why he didn't challenge me to a formal duel then…"

"But… wow… You broke his arm… just like that?" he wondered. "…Come to think of it… I've heard a rumor that Hiroto's arm was broken by a very dangerous and powerful youkai and that he can be happy that he still lives…" he thought in his mind, but as he looked at the cutely smiling Yuuka, he immediately shook his head. "Nah…" He did guess that Yuuka could be stronger than a human, but she didn't look the least bit like a dangerous youkai. "Even Marisa said that Yuuka was kind of cute, so she must be…"

"If he's giving other people trouble, maybe I could… talk some sense into him~ ." she suggested, nonchalantly spinning the umbrella in her hand.

"Oh, you don't need to bother, Yuuka-san. I'm going to quit working here anyway…" said Kyouichi and beckoned at the bookstore. "There are other ways to earn money. And with people who don't hate you for not being born in the same village as them."

"So you're not going to work in the bookstore? Because of Hiroto?"

"Yeah… He can stay here with Shimizu-san. I'll try my luck elsewhere."

"Maybe you could work in a flower shop~ ." Yuuka suggested and widened her smile.

"Hehe…" chuckled the outsider. "Maybe… Who knows? Oh, and speaking of flowers, I've got something here for you, Yuuka-san." he returned the smile and began searching his kimono.

"Something….for me…?" she looked at him curiously. "What could it be~ ?"

"I think you'll like it…" he replied without giving away the surprise. "Now, where did I put it?" he muttered as he was searching his pockets. "Aah… there you are… Okay, Yuuka-san, please close your eyes and open your hand."

Yuuka blinked a few times in surprise, and then she put down the basket with flowers gently on the ground and did as Kyouichi asked her. She felt a sensation of something light being placed on her hand.

"You can open your eyes now." said Kyouichi once he gave her a little present.

She curiously tilted her head as she observed the small package in her hand. "What's this?" she wondered.

"Exactly what it says on the pack." smiled Kyouichi, and waited for Yuuka's reaction.

The flower youkai looked more closely and muttered: "Hibiscus Arnottianus…" Oddly enough, it was when Yuuka became surprised or curious that she wasn't smiling as always.

"I remember you were looking for those…" said the outsider. "It really surprised me too when I found those seeds in Kourindou. Even though, they have lots of stuff from the outside, this really wasn't something I expected to find. (It almost makes me believe in that stuff about fate that Remilia was talking about.) I immediately remembered you when I saw this."

Yuuka's ruby-red eyes focused on the packet of hibiscus seeds. She tore open the small bag and took out a single seed. She stared at it curiously as she rolled it between her fingers. Then she clasped it inside her hand and as she opened it, a beautiful blooming white flower appeared. It was like seeing a magician's trick, only better. The flower just kept growing larger and larger before Kyouichi's eyes. But even the flower's beauty paled in comparison to Yuuka's following joyful smile. It wasn't her usual smile – it was something much more beautiful. Kyouichi couldn't think of any other word than "adorable" as he looked at her.

While Yuuka was mesmerized by the blooming hibiscus in her palm, Kyouichi noticed that some people showed up on the street. One of them he could recognize even from a distance.

"Yo, Naota-san!" he waved at the old man.

Naota noticed him and walked up to Kyouichi a little faster.

"Hey there, Naota-san. You're not going to believe what just happened to me…" he started as the old man was within earshot, but Naota ignored his words, grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him away towards the marketplace.

"W-What's going on?! Hey, what are you doing?"

Yuuka curiously looked at Kyouichi being dragged away by the old man.

"Just wait here a moment, Yuuka-san, okay? I think Naota-san here wants to talk to me in private about something…" he called at the flower youkai and waved his hand.

Yuuka just stood there and waved back.

* * *

"Alright, alright, I'm coming with you, Naota-san, you don't have to drag me… Geez…" said the young outsider as he freed his arm from the old man's grip. Just as they reached the far end of the street at the edge of the marketplace, Naota stopped and gave him a serious stare. Kyouichi could predict something wasn't right about Naota's look and just as the old carpenter swung his palm at him, he ducked and evaded the slap.

"Haha…" chuckled Kyouichi amusedly. "You know, I was kind of expecting you'd do something like that, Naota-san, but trust me, I didn't start that fight. It was Hiroto…"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" growled the retired carpenter. "More importantly, what the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"Uhh… I'm talking to you?"

"What did I tell you about not hanging around with youkai?!"

"That old story again? Look, Naota-san I know that you hate them all indiscriminately and I don't even know why… Gensokyo is their home after all, not ours. Every normal human here has at least one youkai friend…"

"That would probably not bother me as much, kid." said the old man and hushed his voice. "But why on Earth did you decide to mingle with one of the deadliest of youkai in Gensokyo?!"

Kyouichi raised his eyebrow disbelievingly. "Yuuka-san? Dangerous? What makes you say that?"

"Trust me, kid, I've heard many rumors about a horribly powerful youkai, supposedly even stronger than a dozen oni and that she kills people and other youkai just for fun… And THAT youkai over there…" he pointed at Yuuka, "…fits the descriptions very well."

"Oh, I see… You've heard rumors…" said the young man, hinting sarcasm. "I've heard quite a few of them myself. For instance, that excessive alcohol consumption can have negative effects on the brain in the long run."

"I'm just trying to keep you away from danger, kid. Stay away from that youkai if you know what's good for you…"

"But you and your rumors don't even make any sense!" argued Kyouichi. "Do you seriously think that the Ryuuken guards would let a murderous youkai walk around the Human Village so freely? Besides… just look at her." he turned his head at Yuuka, who was now making hibiscus flowers bloom on the ground in front of the flower shop. "She's just so… so… moe~!"

"What the hell does that even mean?!" bellowed the old man.

"You don't know what's moe? What kind of anime fan are you…? Oh, wait…" Kyouichi paused himself as he realized that Naota probably didn't even know what anime was. "Well, just look at how sweet she is… That's moe… Yes. A youkai moe~."

Since this popular slang word literally means "budding" it was really appropriate for a youkai with the power of plant manipulation.

"One thing you should learn about the youkai, kid – never judge them by their appearance." lectured the old outsider.

"I never did that in the first place… Now if you excuse me, I'm still on job." said Kyouichi and without even bowing to the old man, he walked back towards the bookstore. Yuuka was still standing there, as if she was waiting.

* * *

"What did that man want from you?" she wondered.

"Oh, nothing really… Anyway, do you like the hibiscus flowers?"

"Yes~ . It's been so long since I've seen them. Now I can make my garden even prettier~ ."

"Glad you like them." nodded the young outsider. "Think of it as a… as a parting gift or a memento or… whatever…"

The flower youkai bowed gently. "Thank you. Now that I think about it, I remember I told Yukari once that I was looking for hibiscus…"

"Well, I did find those seeds in Kourindou, so maybe she got them for you, but was too… uhh… preoccupied to bring them to you personally." speculated Kyouichi. "But did you know that she's not in Gensokyo anymore?"

Yuuka didn't change her expression. "This doesn't surprise me. She likes going outside… of Gensokyo I mean. I hope she shows up soon, though."

"Well, I'm not waiting for her any longer than autumn. Then, me and a bunch of other outsiders are leaving through the shrine."

"It would be really bothersome if Yukari didn't show up until then."

"We might not need her help anyway." Kyouichi muttered and remembered that he still has to return to the shop which was left unattended for almost 15 minutes now. "Alright, Yuuka-san, I think I should return back to the shop already. Until next time…" he bowed to her hurried back into the bookstore.

* * *

There was still nobody inside, which was good. He could at least have a moment of piece and quiet from both Hiroto and Daisuke. While he was sitting on the chair behind the counter and waiting for his boss to return, he was thinking about how to tell him that he no longer wants to work for him. He was a bit reluctant to part with this simple job, but also eager to try something different. After all, it was all the same to him, since one day, he'd leave Gensokyo anyway. Now that he thought about it and realized that he'd spend yet another 3 months there, he had a feeling that he should enjoy those three months to the fullest. He wanted to make many good memories of events that he experienced and people he met. His thoughts took him to an event in the near future – the Tanabata festival at the Hakurei Shrine. He was really looking forward to it. It was supposedly one of the few days in year when many people and youkai gather to drink, feast and celebrate and one of the few days when Reimu actually gets any donations. Apart from that, he still remembered that he wanted to visit the village of Kazemura and the day he and his Ryuuken acquaintance agreed upon was tomorrow. Brooding about being unable to return to Tokyo the easy way was pointless. Instead, Kyouichi decided to take things optimistically.

Almost an hour has passed before Daisuke returned to the bookstore together with Hiroto. Both of them had calm faces, as if nothing happened. Kyouichi nodded to his inner voice and stood up from the chair.

"Shimizu-san, I've been thinking this over for quite some time now and have come to a conclusion…"

"What conclusion are you talking about, Ishimaru?" wondered the storekeeper, surprised by Kyouichi's unusual formal tone. "And why are you all wet and dirty?"

"Oh, I'm surprised your reliable old assistant hasn't told you yet…" smirked the outsider and gave Hiroto a sharp stare. "The conclusion I was talking about was my decision about working in the Starlight Glyph. It wasn't a sudden decision, and for a few days I was hesitant about it. But not anymore… I've decided to terminate my job contract with you, Shimizu-san. For the better of me, you, and Yukiyama-san…"

Hiroto put on a grimace of surprise and amusement. "Awww~. Say it ain't so…" he drawled in sarcastic manner.

After a long moment of silence, Daisuke raised his head again to look Kyouichi in the eyes. "Are you really sure about that, Ishimaru?"

"Oh, absolutely." nodded Kyouichi and crossed his arms. "I would have left anyway once I'd get the chance to return to my real home. That chance hasn't come yet… or at least, not in a form as I expected, but we, the outsiders, are going to make our own chance. Or perhaps not make… this chance was already here all along and still is, but I was too blind to see it… Too focused on searching for the youkai of boundaries to realize that THIS is actually the easier way… The gateway of the Hakurei Shrine. All that is left to do is to make proper preparations for our long trip and then we set out."

"It was about time. Good riddance." murmured the arrogant son of a Ryuuken captain.

"Sorry for sounding so melodramatic, boss, I just got a little carried away…" apologized Kyouichi while chuckling weakly. "Oh, and don't worry, Hiroto-san, I'm not angry at you at all… Hopefully you'll make it to the militia one day, but remember that being a Ryuuken also means providing help and protection to outsiders…" he added and grinned provokingly. "Oh, and I almost forgot – Yuuka-san sends her regards."

The sudden change of expression on both Daisuke's and Hiroto's faces was simply priceless. Kyouichi could easily guess what made Hiroto become afraid of her, but why did Daisuke also tremble in fear? Was it because he was worried that Yuuka might associate him as a friend of the man who attacked her? Or perhaps he heard the same rumors as Naota did? That Kyouichi didn't know, but he couldn't hide his snickering as he thought about what will Hiroto and his boss do, if Yuuka ever comes to the bookstore again.

* * *

By the time Kyouichi's final shift at the Starlight Glyph ended, the rain outside stopped completely, but it was still cloudy. Daisuke paid him his week's wage, shook his hand and wished him good luck. He said that he'll need it.

"Thanks, Shimizu-san… And good luck with your business too…" smiled the outsider and with money in his pockets, he left the bookstore. Just as he stepped outside, he remembered that Marisa's father's shop is on the same street and that the man wanted to see him again. Having no other duties for today, Kyouichi decided to at least check out what kind of shop it was. It was a supposedly in Kirisame-san's house, so Kyouichi just knocked right on the door.

Nobody was coming, but the door opened by itself.

"Huh?" uttered Kyouichi surprisedly.

He peeked inside and saw Kirisame-san standing behind a table full of some unknown miscellaneous items. This time, Kyouichi couldn't brag that he knew what each of the objects was used for, unlike the goods at Kourindou.

"Oh...! Young outsider!" the man recognized him, but couldn't recall his name. "I thought you'd never come to visit me… Come in, come in." he beckoned him to step inside the little shop "Welcome to Kirisame-ya – my little second-hand shop!" He looked at Kyouichi with a little confused face. "Uh… Had a hard day?" he asked when he noticed his clothes soaked with rainwater and dirty with mud.

"It could be better, I suppose." shrugged the outsider. "So… Marisa told me that she came to see you about a week ago."

"Ah, yes, yes…" nodded the robed man. "My Marisa… It was really nice to have her visit me after so long. And I've heard that it was you who asked her to come here." Kirisame-san smiled and turned around to pick up something from a tall wooden shelf behind him. "I'd like you to have a little something for your trouble…" he turned back to the outsider and offered him a small object shaped like a magnifying glass with smooth black metallic frame and a very unusual glass. It was as if it could randomly change colors.

"What's that?" he asked before he dared to touch it.

"This is the so called magic detector. It works on the same principle as its more advanced version used by the Ryuuken warriors. It can detect the essence of magic within a fifty meter radius." Kirisame-san explained excitedly as if it was his own invention. Come to think of it, it probably was.

"Uhh… excuse me, Kirisame-san, but… what use will I have for it? I'm just an outsider."

"Oh, it can be very useful, young man. Especially for you. It can even detect youkai when they get near and even give you an approximate idea where they are."

"Now that really does sound useful." nodded Kyouichi. "Thank you very much…"

"No, mister… uh… outsider, I thank you for helping me arrange a reunion with my daughter. Hope this little device helps you stay away from danger. Or maybe it will help you find some lost magical item of even greater value… Who knows?"

"Hey, maybe I could check out those ruins at Kazemura with this thing…" thought Kyouichi aloud. "If the Ryuuken haven't done so already."

"Oh, just a little word of advice – if you get too close to the barrier, for instance at the Hakurei Shrine, the strong magical resonance will render the detector useless."

"O-kay, and how will I know that it detected something?"

"There are two ways to use it. First option is to use its default detection field which works by emitting low-intensity neutral mana particles and recalling them subsequently once they travel a distance of 50 meters. When the particles collide with any form of magic, they usually change their element into that of the other mana particles, and once they are channeled back into the detector, they project an image on the glass as a colorful flashing dot. To demonstrate how it works, I'm going to cast a simple illuminating spell…" the mage raised his palm and murmured a silent incantation. Suddenly, a small bright light appeared in his palm.

"Now take a look at the detector."

Kyouichi lowered his head and looked at the strange magnifying glass in his hand. He could see a small yellow dot appear just a little off the center of the glass.

Kirisame-san kept explaining. "Your position is always at the center of the glass, so if I'm standing in front of you, you'll see some magic being detected just a little closer to the upper edge of the glass. If there was something magical behind you, a dot would appear closer to the lower edge…"

"Wow, it's almost like sonar!" said Kyouichi in amazement.

"Eh…what?"

"Umm… never mind." he muttered while waving his hand. "What about it's second use?"

"Pretty much the obvious…" shrugged the father of Marisa. "To look directly through the glass like if you were using a monocle. That way you can see magical essence a bit further than 50 meters and in much greater detail, but that way you narrow your scanning field to just your field of vision."

Kyouichi was tempted to try it out, so he held the glass close to his right eye and looked through it. Not only he could see a bright yellow aura around the illuminating spell, but also a similar aura around Kirisame-san himself and a whole color spectrum around several objects placed on his table.

"This is cool…" he grinned like a kid who got a whole box of candy. "Now it almost looks like a kaleidoscope."

"That's because you're looking at my merchandise, which is mostly magical. Different colors represent different magic elements, although, not in all cases. But I'm not going to give you a long tiring lecture about different kinds of magic when I know that you won't be able to learn it. Suffice to say that any unusual color or movement that you'll see through the eye of this detector and not with your naked eyes is magic. Even if you'll look at people who were born in Gensokyo, you'll se their aura. It should be fairly obvious to you by now that it doesn't detect normal objects, animals and outsiders. Otherwise you'd see a bright dot in the middle of the glass in its default mode."

"I see… This will really come in handy. Thanks again, Kirisame-san." bowed the outsider thankfully. "Guess taking a look at your shop was really worth it…"

The magician waved his hand. "No problem… And try not to lose it."

"I'll do my best." he reassured him. "By the way… It's very clever how you managed to refurnish this room into a shop." he said on a side note as he admired the interior.

Kirisame-san chuckled dryly. "Yeah… Imagine that I've got a kitchen just behind that door." he gestured at the closed door by his left side. "Anyway, feel free to come visit my shop again sometime. Who knows? Maybe one day I'll invent magic scrolls that even outsiders could use."

Kyouichi could sense that Kirisame-san wasn't too serious about his last sentence, but even if he did come up with something like that, it would be probably when Kyouichi and most of the other outsiders would no longer be in Gensokyo.

"See you next time, Kirisame-san!" called the young outsider from the doorway as he was leaving the shop with magic items. "…Maybe…" he muttered once the door closed behind him.

* * *

He hid his new gift within the safety of his pocket and as he listened to his growling stomach, he marched back to his "home" – the Saitou residence. This day was somewhat sinusoidal for him. He got ridiculed at school, he got beat up by his colleague, he made one youkai happy, he quit his part-time job and he received a special gift. He truly couldn't complain about boredom today, but at the same time, he hoped he wouldn't have to experience too many days like this in his near future. However, he already had to prepare himself for tomorrow's long walk to a place near the northern edge of Gensokyo. As he heard from a few people who travel between the villages regularly, the trip from Human Village to Kazemura on foot could take up to six and a half hours.

After he satisfied his stomach with zoni soup and fried eel, which were today's dinner of the Saitou family, his body simply begged for a nice relaxing bath. As he was sitting in the ofuro filled with steamy hot water, he was contemplating about what sort of part-time job he should be looking for now. He didn't want to end up unemployed and penniless. However, he didn't even have any idea about what sort of job he would want to do. Although he could already make a pretty long list of what he didn't want to do.

After a half an hour, he shook himself awake upon realizing that he nodded off in his bath. He reminded himself to be more careful about that, since he could have easily ended up drowning himself. The water was already getting cold, and his body was thoroughly soaked. Kyouichi swiftly got out of the ofuro and dried himself up. Even though the two siblings, Chitose and Tadao were curious to hear about his little incident with Hiroto, Kyouichi was too tired to stay awake for much longer and he headed straight for his futon in the guest room. Before that, he asked Mizuto to wake him up before dawn, so he could be already standing ready outside to meet up with Lieutenant Takamori and set out to the mining village.

Despite what he expected after such an eventful day, Kyouichi had little trouble falling asleep. But his slumber didn't last nearly as long as he would like it to.


	27. The Village of Winds

"Hey, Kyouichi… Get up!" sounded Mizuto's voice in the middle of Kyouichi's dream. He was really disappointed, since he just had a dream where he could not only fly, but also use danmaku and Spell Cards. However, now wasn't the time to think about the dreams but to act in reality. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head, his spine and elbows gave out a crackling sound. He could still feel a bit of pain in his lower left ribs after his little run-in with Hiroto, but it was only subtle.

"You should hurry and get dressed if you don't want the caravan to leave without you." Mizuto warned him and before Kyouichi could even find his glasses, the fisherman already put a backpack on his lap.

"What's this…?" murmured the sleepy outsider.

"I've already packed you your food and water for the trip. I also packed in one of my raincoats. Even though it's just drizzling outside, staying in that drizzle for straight six hours will get you soaked to the skin. Besides, you never know when this little rain can turn into a downpour."

"Thanks, Mizuto…" uttered Kyouichi while yawning. "But what about breakfast?"

"No time, Kyou-kun. The caravan is already standing outside and will depart soon."

* * *

Kyouichi opened his eyes wide as if someone just splashed cold water into his face. "What?! Already?! Why didn't you wake me up sooner then?" He didn't bother to hear an answer. He just hastily put on his kimono and the dark-brown raincoat on top of it. Just like soldiers on a drill, he raced with time to dress up as quickly as possible and hurried out of the house with the backpack strapped on his shoulders. As Mizuto said, there already was a trading caravan waiting at the end of the northern edge of the Human Village. It consisted of four wagons with goods, each dragged by a pair of horses. Ten Ryuuken warriors stood ready by the sides of the convoy. The majority of the merchants were comfortably sitting on their wagons; some of them decided to travel on foot. Kyouichi covered his head with the hood of the raincoat and hurried to join the caravan before it would leave without him. As he caught up with the group of merchants, he eyed each of the Ryuuken guards in order to find the familiar face of Akiyoshi Takamori. He managed to recognize his frowzled hair pretty quickly.

"Takamori-san!" he called at him. "Lieutenant Takamori!"

"Oh, there you are, Kyouichi-san." nodded the swordsman as he recognized the hooded person calling his name. "We're just waiting for a few more merchants to join the caravan. Feel free to take a seat on that wagon over there." he pointed at the closest cargo wagon. "That one is empty and will be loaded with goods from Kazemura once we get there."

Kyouichi noticed that there were a few men already on board. Looking a little closer, Kyouichi recognized yet another familiar face.

"Ueda-san! Good morning to you." he greeted and bowed to the other outsider who was working now as a caravan driver.

"Huh? Ishimaru? What are you doing here?" asked Yuujin, unable to hide his surprise.

"Just a little tourism around Gensokyo…" smiled the young man in a raincoat. "You know… see some sights and make some memories before we all leave this place for good."

Yuujin frowned disapprovingly. "This isn't a travel agency, young man. It's a really risky job… You should turn back." he warned him.

"Oh really?" chuckled Kyouichi and tilted his head to the side. "And do you really think that our journey out of Gensokyo will be some kind of picnic? Besides, if it's so risky then why do YOU do this job in the first place?"

"Because we'll need the money to buy those traveling supplies that you mentioned and this job pays really well."

"You see? I'm also willing to take some risks in order to get back to Tokyo…"

"But you're just sightseeing." argued Yuujin. "You're not doing anything to help our cause by going to Kazemura without any serious business."

"Oh, but I do have business there." Kyouichi corrected him. "I made an agreement with one vampire, you see…" he smiled sheepishly explained it briefly.

* * *

"So if you bring her a report about suspicious activities in Kazemura, she'll pay you?" asked Yuujin after hearing about Kyouichi's agreement with Remilia.

"At least that's what she said…"

Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by the voice of one of the Ryuuken. "Everyone's ready~! We can set out~!"

With those words, the whole caravan set into motion, leaving the Human Village behind. As the weather was rather dull and foggy today as well, Kyouichi didn't see much of Gensokyo's landscape. He couldn't even imagine how thick the fog had to be near the Misty Lake right now. It wasn't a very good weather for traveling, but the caravans needed to make their trips regardless of the weather. Kyouichi gradually grew bored of just watching the road ahead, and so he took out his new magic detector out of his pocket and looked at it. He could see dim white dots representing the merchants who were born in Gensokyo and brighter white dots standing for the Ryuuken warriors. He spent quite some time just looking at the glass and occasionally, he could see other dots showing up near the edges. As he looked around, he could see several silhouettes of fairies flying overhead. Otherwise, the trip was kind of boring. Even though the fog had lifted, the drizzle persisted and even intensified as the caravan reached the three-way crossroad between Misty Lake and Kazemura to take a short break. In the meantime, Kyouichi unpacked some rice cakes from his backpack and filled his empty stomach. After several minutes, the wagons continued on their way to the mining village. They still weren't even halfway to their destination. Some of the merchants were killing time by telling some folktales, some were singing songs or just humming their tunes and some even took books with them to help them pass the time. The only people who had to always pay attention to their surroundings were the armed guards. However, after several hours of walking in the rain, even they became bored and began chatting with each other. Kyouichi even fell asleep for a short time and when he woke up, the caravan was still yet on its way.

"When will we get there?" he murmured under his nose as he looked around.

"Don't worry, we'll be there soon." Yuujin informed him and pointed forward. "The road leads through this coniferous forest and after some 20 to 30 minutes we'll see the village."

Only now Kyouichi noticed the range of mountains stretching on the horizon in front of him. They were quite tall, but still dwarfed by the Youkai Mountain, lying far in the west from the caravan's current position.

"Say, Ueda-san…" Kyouichi addressed the ex-trainman. "How often do the caravans travel between Kazemura and Human Village?"

"Twice a week." replied Yuujin tersely. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I should stay here overnight. Guess I'm not coming back with this particular caravan…"

"The next one is scheduled for Wednesday, Ishimaru, so I don't know if staying here and waiting for the next caravan is a good idea."

The younger outsider hummed thoughtfully as he considered his options. "If I want to go back with this caravan, then I only have a few hours to look around the village. However, Remilia said it would be better if I stayed here overnight. But that would also mean that I wouldn't be able to return sooner than Wednesday… Hmm… there's gotta be some other way how I could travel back to Human Village sooner."

"Well, it's up to you how you'll decide, but don't take longer than three hours. That's how long this caravan will stay in Kazemura."

"I can hardly make any investigation in such a short time." thought Kyouichi to himself. "You know what? You can go back without me…" he said to Yuujin after a moment of thinking. "I'll think of some other way how to get back to Human Village before the end of this weekend."

Yuujin shrugged. "It's your choice, Ishimaru. Just try not to get eaten. Kazemura's population consists mostly of youkai, you know."

"If they coexist and cooperate with the human minority, they can't be so bad, can they?" asked Kyouichi.

"I suppose not… I wasn't able to tell them apart from other humans. I don't even know what kind of youkai they are… Probably yama-bito, but I'm not sure…" murmured Yuujin thoughtfully.

Finally, the dense pine forest surrounding the beaten dirt path from both sides was crossed by the caravan and eventually thinned into an open valley where Kyouichi could already see the roofs of houses and other buildings.

"And that right there is the quarry of Kazemura…" announced Yuujin as he pointed forward.

The village was relatively small - just about two dozen houses and several other facilities. It was basically nestled in a valley and surrounded by mountains from all sides but the south, where the caravan was coming from. It still took about ten minutes for the whole group of merchants and warriors to reach the mining village itself.

"We're finally here…" exhaled Kyouichi as he got off the wagon.

* * *

After more than six hours of sitting in the same position, his limbs became stiff and standing up was a welcome relief. He immediately gazed upon the quarry pit further behind the living area of the village. It wasn't very deep – 3 meters at best, but it could take up an area of up to several thousand square meters. A single artificially made slope served as the one and only way to access the quarry and to enable the workers to carry away both the mined stone and excess soil on hand carts. However, with the rain being as persistent as it was, all the work at the quarry was halted and water started to pool in the pit. The "ruins" that were supposedly discovered over 3 months ago were mostly still buried underground. Their only indications were the unearthed rooftops of some ancient buildings and tips of some stone pillars or obelisks which were just barely jutting out from the ground.

"Well, these are the wondrous ruins of who-knows-what." announced Yuujin with strongly ironic tone. "Just breathtaking…" he murmured and yawned. "Come on, let's go get some lunch and hot tea at the local tavern."

"Yeah… just a moment…" said Kyouichi as he reached inside his pocket for the magic detector. This time he held it in front of his eye and looked at the whole quarry pit. "Hmm… I see nothing magical or out of ordinary…"

"Hey, Ishimaru, did you hear me?" called Yuujin just before he was about to enter one of the larger wooden houses with the rest of the merchants and warriors.

"I heard, I heard!" he confirmed and hurried inside the tavern as well. Just as he entered, the smell of roast meat filled his nostrils and the sounds of lively chatter and clinking of beer steins were the music for his ears. He ordered a nice big and juicy boar steak and a glass of local beer.

"So, tell me, Ishimaru, how are you going to carry out your little investigation?" Yuujin inquired. "Are you going to run from house to house and from person to person to ask them if they didn't notice anything suspicious lately?"

"Of course not." Kyouichi denyingly shook his head. "I shouldn't be drawing too much attention. I should just pretend to be a curious young merchant who likes to hear local gossip."

He barely got to finish his sentence when a stranger sitting at a nearby table looked at him quizzically and pointed his finger at him. "Hey, hey, I know you… Hahahahaha~! You're that weird outsider who likes to dress up like a shrine maiden!"

"…Oh man…" groaned Kyouichi in displeasure as he sunk his forehead into his palm. "So much for my incognito investigation…"

Not even Yuujin could suppress his laughter and that just attracted even more curious eyes to their table.

"Gee thanks, Aya, for making me a celebrity." mumbled the young outsider through his teeth.

However, this unwanted notoriety had its perks, oddly enough.

"Hey, bartender, a round for the miko-outsider~!" called the stranger who recognized Kyouichi as first.

The bartender – a semi-bald plump man with thick brown beard nodded and poured another glass of beer from the wooden barrel behind him. The stranger who just ordered Kyouichi a drink took a seat at the same table as him and chuckled as he eyed the outsider. He was nearly two meters tall with muscular figure, pale skin and wildly disheveled shoulder-length black hair. He also had quite an impressive beard. He was wearing a dirty white tunic-like robe without sleeves. He had a string of rope tied around the waist like a belt. As he sat next to Kyouichi, the outsider grimaced at the man's unpleasant sweaty odor.

"So, what brings an outsider to this forgotten part of Gensokyo?" asked the strange man with a crooked grin.

"Well, since I'm no longer anonymous, I suppose I can start asking openly…"

"Asking what?"

"Well, knowing your name would be a good start for instance…"

"Oh, yeah... Pardon my manners. I'm Wataru Matsuoda, but everyone calls me Chibi-kun. I'm one of the prospectors here." the man introduced himself and took a few gulps from his beer stein.

"Why Chibi-kun?" wondered Kyouichi and couldn't hide a smirk.

"Because I'm so short." said Wataru tersely.

"Short?! You're over two meters tall, man!"

The prospector sighed with contempt. "If I was a human I'd be considered taller than average, but as a yama-bito, I'm more of a dwarf."

"You're a youkai?"

"Yeah, and if you take a better look around you, you'll notice that most of the folks here are one head taller than me… Except for the bartender – he's a human. One of the few who live here." explained Wataru and made a hand gesture around himself to make Kyouichi see what he means. "Now, will you tell me why did you come to Kazemura?"

"I've heard about the recent fairy attack on the village, so I came in hope of finding out what caused it?"

The quarry worker curiously looked at Kyouichi and snorted. "Why would an outsider be trying to investigate such things? Shouldn't the Ryuuken or the local youkai hunters handle such problems?"

"Actually, I'm working for someone who also deals with similar incidents, so I just came to see if there isn't something strange going on around these parts."

"Aye? You helpin' the shrine maiden? She's been here 'bout two weeks ago to help repel the swarm of some really nasty fairies."

"Did you see the attack?"

The yama-bito laughed loudly. "Did I see the attack?! I was in the middle of it all! Yes… it was around noon. I was workin' in the quarry with everyone else, when all of a sudden I noticed that a large shadow quickly obscured the sun. I thought it was just a cloud, so I didn't pay it any mind. But then I heard some of the men shouting and pointing at the sky, so I turned around and looked up at the sky to see a swarm of fairies. They were everywhere. There must have been at least a thousand of them. I had no idea where they came from. Then, all of a sudden, the crazy little things start shootin' danmaku galore, attackin' everything – buildings, trees, rocks, people, youkai,…heck, some of them I swear I saw going after each other. Then the Ryuuken rushed in, firing their spells at them, but there were just too damn many of the fairies that it took them over 15 minutes to dispose of them. And that was just the first wave! The next one came 'bout a half an hour later. This time, the Ryuuken were prepared and even the Hakurei shrine maiden showed up and made it really easy for the Ryuuken."

"And what were you doing during the attack?" wondered Kyouichi.

"What do you think I was doin'? Every man, woman and child in the village returned the danmaku fire against the fairies. As soon as we reduced their numbers, the rest of them scattered and fled. I've never seen something like that before..."

"What do you think might have caused it?"

"I dunno… It was as if they all went crazy. It just makes no sense to me."

"Could somebody be controlling the fairies?"

The youkai miner shrugged. "Maybe. But if that were true, then why would some of them go attacking even their own kind? I truly have no idea what made them act so strange."

"Were there more attacks on the village or just this one?" Kyouichi kept asking.

"Aye, there were more since the start of this year. Usually, just around ten to twenty fairies made a fly-by, shot some danmaku at random targets and fled. This happened a few times in the evening… Nothin' unusual about that – fairies just like to play pranks and do funny stuff like that, but the thing that happened two weeks ago… I just can't explain it."

"You know, I heard rumors about similar attacks on other locations in Gensokyo and it seems that the clues point to Kazemura… or the area around it."

"Well, trust me…" said Wataru and finished his beer. "I don't know about anyone or anything in this settlement that could have caused such a thing. We're just a peaceful mining community and we're fond of our history. But there are some other individuals rumored to live somewhere around this part of Gensokyo who might know somethin' or even… be behind all this…"

"Really? Who?"

"There's supposedly a very old youkai of considerable knowledge and power who lives in solitude somewhere near these mountains, but I don't know where… I'd ask the bartender, he might know more…"

Kyouichi halted him. "Wait, Wataru-san, you're not talking about Yukari Yakumo, are you?"

"No, the one I'm talking about is a snake youkai. And now that you mention it, he might know the youkai of boundaries personally, but I really can't say. I've never seen the fella… Just heard the stories of humans who supposedly visited him. I've heard he conducts some kind of experiments in his hidden hut. Maybe he made something that drove the fairies insane."

"That's very interesting…" nodded the young outsider. "I'll be sure to ask the bartender, but first I'd still like to ask you about the ruins that were uncovered in the quarry."

"Aye, it was quite a discovery. It was shortly after the New Year. One of the workers broke a cart wheel over a rock jutting from the ground, so he took a pickaxe to get rid of the obstacle, but he figured that the "rock" had some ornaments on it, so he carefully uncovered the ground around it to figure that it was a part of some ancient stone pillar or something. A few days later, more of these were discovered and thus, we all decided to stop the stone mining and uncover the ruins. Now it will be three months since their discovery and it seems that we've found a roof of some building. We're proceeding slowly and carefully so not to damage the ruins."

"Was this the first archeological discovery in the quarry, or did you unearth anything else before?"

"This is the first time we've uncovered something in this area. This village is but a small mining settlement, that's slowly grown over the years into its current size. Our home territory lies further to the west, closer to the taller mountains. We've made plenty of minor archeological discoveries there, but none can compare to what we recently uncovered here. You see, we, the yama-bito, are very fascinated by all historical artifacts…"

"We haven't yet learned about the yama-bito at the village school…" said Kyouichi thoughtfully. "Could you tell me more about your people, please?"

"Sure." grinned the stone miner. "We're the mountain people, just as the name suggests. Not to be confused with yamabiko; that's a whole different sort of youkai… We're mostly much taller than average humans… except for some." he lowered his head shamefully. "Other than that, we're also stronger than humans and we're resistant to harsh cold. Otherwise we're quite similar to humans. We eat, sleep, drink, reproduce, age, get sick, bleed and die just like you people do. And it also might be worth mentioning that a human cannot become a yama-bito… We're mostly peaceful with other races, but that doesn't mean we don't know how to fight. We're not as brutally strong as the oni for instance, but we can still split a boulder with just one swing of a pickaxe. Some of us are pretty decent magic users too. And as I said, we're just crazy about all things related to history. We even have a little museum here in the village with a small archive, but we don't get many visitors from outside the village besides the human traders and warriors who escort 'em. However, with the discovery of these ruins, several other curious humans began visiting us recently. You're not the first one, but we haven't seen a human from the outside world here…"

"Oh yes, you have." said Yuujin and pointed his thumb at his chest. "I was also spirited away on the same day as Ishimaru, here… and tens of other people."

"Really, so you're one of those who got spirited away to Gensokyo by the end of Satsuki?" Wataru asked him.

"Yeah… But we've already got a plan to return back to our homes." replied the caravan driver.

"That so?" asked Wataru and gave him a suspicious look. "So you're an outsider who works as a merchant?"

"No, I just run the caravan wagon for the merchants." explained Yuujin.

"So you're both outsiders, eh? I guess you're not one of them then… You know I've been hearin' many rumors lately about the members of the Secret History Association coming to Kazemura, disguised as merchants. They are most curious about the ruins…"

"Secret History Association?" Kyouichi repeated.

"You haven't heard about them yet? They're some secret group of people whose goal is to look for knowledge about the origin of Gensokyo and the reason why youkai live here… Barely anyone knows their identity, though… All I know is that they operate in the Human Village."

"Hmmm…" Kyouichi hummed as two possible people came to his mind. "Maybe Keine-sensei or Akyuu-chan could be in that group." he thought, since both of them had something to do with history. "So you believe that this association sends spies to Kazemura?"

"Spies? Ahahaha~!" laughed the stone miner. "No, they're just trying to keep their identities hidden. We don't keep secrets from anyone. Our archive and museum is open to any visitor."

"I might take a look there later." said Kyouichi as he looked out of the window. As he expected, it was still raining. "But before that, I think I'll go and meet mister bartender over there."

"Aye, go right ahead, young one." Wataru encouraged him by a tap on his shoulder.

Kyouichi also finished his beer and took the empty glass with him as he was heading to the bar.

"Umm… Excuse me, sir…" he started bashfully and put the empty glass on the counter. "Would you mind if I asked you some questions?"

"Questions? If you want to know the secret recipe for my beer, then tough luck, stranger." said the barkeep sternly.

"No, I'm uh… just curious about the local rumors and gossip…"

"Oh… Sure, I guess there's no harm in that…" shrugged the plump man and took the glass to wash it. "Anything particular you'd like to hear about?"

"Well, I did talk to… eh… Chibi-kun here about the fairy attack on the village and I was wondering what might have caused it."

"Oh, I might have an idea who could have been behind this." nodded the bartender. "If you go further north along the mountain path just behind the quarry and keep following it for an hour, you'll reach a vast plain. And if you look to north-east, you'll see a mountain that has two peaks, resembling horns. Then if you go towards it, there's a small hill with a pond nearby. It's much closer than the two-peaked mountain. I'm just mentioning it as a sort of landmark. From the north-eastern side of that hill you'll see the entrance to an underground hut. That's where Xeng-Yao lives…"

"Who's that? And how do you know where he lives?"

"Xeng? He's a youkai alchemist. He's friendly, but he keeps to himself. As to how I know where he lives, well I found him by chance. That pond near his hill is one of my favorite spots to relax after a long day… if I'm in a mood for a little walk. Once when I was sitting at the pond, I heard some strange noises coming from behind me, but as I turned around, I didn't see anybody or anything. Curiosity got the better of me and instead of running, I followed the sounds and stumbled into a wooden door leading to a cave of some sort. I was hesitant to knock on it, but then all of a sudden the door opened and I saw this strange fellow dressed in a long green cape with piercing yellow eyes staring at me. I was just about to run, when he greeted me politely and welcomed me."

"So he's an alchemist?"

"Yeah, he invited me into his hut and told me about himself and what he was working on… I barely understood half of it, but it seems he brews potions and the like… It's him who gave me the recipe for that beer. Maybe that old half-snake made some potion that makes you go insane. Maybe he used it on fairies as test subjects… I don't know. But I'd go ask him."

Kyouichi was really curious to see if the youkai in question really had anything to do with the recent fairy attacks. However, he was reluctant to walk around Gensokyo alone.

"Hmm… if that Xeng-Yao guy is really the one responsible, I'll just inform Remilia. That's all that she wants from me after all…" thought the young outsider.

"Is there anything else you wanted to ask?" the bartender asked him.

"Actually, yes. Are there any dangerous youkai living in this area that I should look out for?"

The bartender scratched his beard. "Well, none that I'd know about, but I've heard rumors that Xeng-Yao himself was long time feared by the locals… I don't really know why, though. He's a sympathetic fella, if a bit weird… You don't need to fear him."

Kyouichi was relieved that this part of Gensokyo was considered relatively safe and he was eager to try and find the mysterious youkai alchemist on his own.

"I have a little favor to ask of you." he said as he turned to the bartender and put 500 yen on the counter. "If I don't return within three hours, let the Ryuuken know. I'm going to pay Xeng-san a visit."

The bartender just chuckled amusedly and gestured that he doesn't want to take his money. "First of all, stranger, it'll take you over one hour just to get to him, so it's most likely that you'll return later than in 3 hours if you want to actually ask him something and not just take a look at him. And second, he's not dangerous."

"If the walk's so long then I better get going already." muttered Kyouichi to himself as he stood up. "Well, if you don't want the money, then I'll take it back."

"Sure." smiled the man and let the outsider take his coins back.

* * *

Kyouichi took the money, bowed to the bartender and told Yuujin that he's going to continue his investigation outside. He stepped outside of the tavern, pulled the hood of the raincoat over his head and looked to the north at a narrow road entering a forest behind the quarry pit.

With one hand in his pocket clutching Reimu's blessed amulets and the other hand holding the magic detector, he set out on his way to find Xeng-Yao's hidden hut. First he had to get around the quarry pit. Then he kept on walking north along the path, always shifting his attention from his surroundings to his detector. There was no reading of any magical energy all the way as he walked through the forest. He therefore hastened his pace so that he'd get to his destination a little bit sooner.


	28. Need to buy a Potion?

Nearly an hour has passed since Kyouichi left Kazemura and just as the bartender said, he got out of the forest and saw vast grasslands with hills and valleys, almost like the landscape around Human Village. The only difference was the mountain range forming the horizon. Kyouichi wondered how far he could be from the northern edge of the Great Hakurei Border. He figured that Kazemura wasn't that close to the boundary as he originally thought, but it was a really long way from the human village. He looked to his left and saw the peculiar mountain with two peaks at approximately the same height. It could be still over ten kilometers away from his current location. He strayed from the road and headed in the direction of that unusually shaped mountain. He saw several small hills in front of him, so he wasn't sure which one of them was Xeng's hideout, but after a dozen minutes of walking, he saw a small pond. It could have something over 30 meters in diameter and looked pretty shallow, but due to the rain, the water became murky, and so it was hard to guess how deep it was exactly. Kyouichi wasn't even curious about the pond as he was curious about the nearest hill. It was overgrown with pines and it looked pretty ordinary. The outsider didn't hear any strange sounds except for the rain drumming on his raincoat. As he walked around the hill, though, he noticed a slope camouflaged by bushes leading to something that looked like a cave entrance with a built-in wooden door.

"This must be the place." he said to himself as he tore through the dense bushes.

He looked at his magic detector to see a large shining spot of magical energy directly ahead of him. Swallowing his fear, he took another step towards the door and knocked on it loudly. For ten seconds there was no response, but then the door opened and a tall, slim man dressed in a dark-green cape stepped outside and gave Kyouichi an intense glance. The outsider inadvertently took one step back out of caution. The man had bright yellow eyes contrasted by the dark dots of his pupils. His hair was black and semi-long and he had a thin moustache and long sideburns. His cape was trimmed by a leather sash with numerous leather bags with unknown content.

"Uh… hello…" greeted the mysterious man. "Human or youkai?" he asked right afterwards.

"Pardon?"

"Are you a human or a youkai?" he repeated more loudly and clearly.

"A human." replied Kyouichi timidly. "…from the outside world."

The man kept glaring at him for a few more seconds and then he stuck out his tongue, which was to Kyouichi's surprise forked like that of a snake, and flickered it rapidly as if he was detecting something.

"Hsss~. A human? How nice to have a visitor after a long while." he smiled. "Pleassse, come in. Don't be afraid…"

Kyouichi obliged and followed the man into his underground dwelling. At first glance it looked like an ordinary cave with torch stands fixed to its walls, but as they walked a little further, Kyouichi found himself in a cavern which could be around 15 meters wide and its ceiling could be approximately 5 meters above the floor. It looked like a natural cave with stalactites and stalagmites jutting from the floor and the ceiling. However, the cavern was neatly furnished with numerous tables, chairs wardrobes and bookshelves, just like a normal household. A little bit above the standard even. All the lighting was provided by torches and candles. There was also a big black cauldron placed over a fireside and its mysterious content was bubbling inside. Kyouichi had no idea what it was, but it most likely wasn't food. One of the tables was filled with laboratory apparatus such as vials, flasks, burners, distillation units, cooling pipes and Petri dishes. Another one had sacks and jars of numerous ingredients, most of which were completely unfamiliar to the outsider. The bookshelves were also filled with all sorts of intriguing items besides books. One of particular notice was a human skull used as a candle stand.

"Welcome to my little laboratory." said the man as he turned to Kyouichi. "I'm Xeng-Yao and I'm a very skilled alchemissst if I do have to say so myself… So nice to have ssomeone to talk to again…"

"Uhh…yes, I'm Kyouichi Ishimaru. Pleased to meet you, Xeng-san."

The alchemist hissed again as he flickered his forked tongue. "I can sssmell that you're afraid, human Kyouichi… Back in the day, I wouldn't blame you since I wasss a feared human-eating youkai, but those days are long since gone."

Kyouichi's heart skipped a beat as he heard those words. "D-Did you say "was"?"

"Yessss~." Xeng confirmed with a nonchalant tone. "I was feared jussst as much as… vampires or the oni… I ate many humansss in the passst. I'm not very proud of it…" he frowned.

"So now you're on a diet?"

"No, Kyouichi-sssan. I changed. I'm a whole new person now."

"What made you change your tastes?" wondered Kyouichi, who looked calm on the outside, but still trembled on the inside.

"It's a long ssstory, but if you'd like, I could tell you a ssshorter version." said Xeng and offered Kyouichi to sit on one of the chairs.

"Please, go ahead…" nodded the curious outsider as he sat down.

The youkai alchemist cleared his throat. "I was born in China over two thousand years ago. We were a nassty race of half-beassts who feasted on human flesh more than on anything elsssse. Well, mossst of my kind are probably ssstill like that even now… As I grew old and felt that my final days are drawing near, I decided to do a little traveling and jussst over a sea I found a land thriving with youkai as well as humansss. I sssettled here and more than hunting for humans, I began ssstudying how to cook, brew and distill all kinds of thingsss. I was over 900 yearss old by that time and over a century I spent living in the Foressst of Magic where I got mossst of my ingredientsss. It wasss convenient since the Human Village wasn't too far away. Occasionally, I'd catch me some losst human who happened to be passsing by. Then, after over a hundred yearss it all changed."

"What happened?"

"I wasss visited by the eldesst youkai sage of Gensokyo. She was recruiting ssstrong and dangerousss youkai for an army to conquer the lunar capital."

"Yukari?"

"Yesss. She promissed wealth, glory and even immortality if we joined her army of youkai. I was too old to fight, but inside, I craved to be a part of an event that would surely enter the history. Yukari-sama told us about the Lunarians' superior technology and magic and told us how stuck-up and arrogant their entire race is… It didn't take much of her persuasion for me to agree and join her army as a field medic and alchemissst. Then, on a night of a full moon, the invasion started. Yukari-sama opened a large gap on the sssurface of Misssty Lake and the army of over 5 thousand youkai poured in. I was among the lassst ones to enter. In the next moment, I wasss on the Moon, marching with the resst of the army to the very heart of their capital. There was already a full-blown combat underway in the streetsss. We've had the element of surprise and at first, it looked like the whole invasion would be a piece of cake. But then the lunar army retaliated at full force and began pushing us back from the city center. After a day, I was retasssked from tending the wounded to an infiltration misssion, hssss~. While the Lunariansss were busy dealing with the other invading youkai, I managed to ssslip in unnoticed into one of their top sssecret research centers…" Xeng explained and grinned mischievously while rubbing his hands. "…and you wouldn't believe what I found and learned there. Hs-s-s-s-sss~." he hissed abruptly, which was probably the way he was snickering.

"What did you find, Xeng-san?" wondered Kyouichi.

"For instance, I found out how to make ten times more effective magic potions then the ones I used to make, or how to make healing gel that could heal wounds almost instantly. But the mossst interesssting find was the formula for their legendary Hourai Elixir which grantsss immortality. I even found all the necessary ingredientsss there and stole as much as I could carry."

"Whoa! Really? You can make an elixir of immortality?" exclaimed the young outsider in amazement.

"Yessss~." smirked the alchemist. "Not only that, but after over a thoussand yearsss of experimenting with more than ample amount of ingredients, I managed to improve the formula and tested it on myself! And it WORKSSSS!"

"So, you're immortal now?"

"Precissssely."

"But what did you improve about the formula? Does it make you even more immortal now?" asked Kyouichi jestingly.

"No, Kyouichi-san… You see, normally the Hourai Elixir has but two benefitsss. It grants eternal life and prevents the user from contracting any form of illness. However, the recipient can still sssuffer pain from any injury and ssstill feel hunger and thirst or the lack of oxygen if they're underwater for too long. However, they cannot die no matter what. The effect of the elixir is irreversible and so far, there is no such thing as an antidote for it."

"Hmm… an eternity in a world full of pain and suffering…" muttered Kyouichi thoughtfully. "I'm not sure if I'd like such a life…"

"However…" Xeng-Yao continued, "My improved Hourai Elixir can even neutralize any painful sensation of the body. Plusss, its regenerating effects are considerably fassster. Watch…" he suddenly grabbed a sharp knife from the table and plunged it right into his palm, managing to stab a hole through not just his hand, but also the table. He didn't even blink. Kyouichi was in a loss for words and he only stared at him with his mouth wide open.

"Hehehe~! Still not convincing enough for you?" he asked and pulled out the knife from his palm and put it to his neck.

"Uh… please, Xeng-san, don't do anything stupid!" Kyouichi shouted at him, but the youkai didn't listen.

He grabbed the hair on his head in one hand and started cutting through his neck using the knife in the other hand. It was a gruesome sight as blood began pouring out of his neck, staining his clothes and floor. Any living being would be dead by now with such a deep wound, but the half-snake alchemist's hand kept moving back and forth even faster and with greater force as he was cutting through his spine and finally severing his head completely.

Kyouichi trembled in shock and he felt like he'd throw up any second now, but he managed to hold it in somehow. Xeng's headless body then stood up from the chair and started tossing around his head from one hand to another like a ball. It was utterly disgusting.

"Oh-my-God! Okay, I believe you, you're immortal, just cut it out already!" he begged him as he covered his eyes.

"Okay, okay…" muttered the alchemist's head. Then the body threw it in the fire.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Relax, Kyouichi-san." said the head with completely calm voice even as the fire was burning it to ash. "A new body part will grow if one is destroyed completely."

And just as he said that, the blood from the body's neck stopped flowing and flesh began rapidly growing and shaping into a new head. In less than a minute, Xeng was as good as new. Except for his cape, which was now more red than green.

"Ooooh. Look at all the mess I made… But at least you see that the elixir worksss."

"Is that how you managed to survive the First Lunar War?"

"Oh, no, no." said the youkai and shook his head. "I had no time to prepare the elixir in the field. I just copied its formula and stole the ingredients. However, right after that, the Lunarian soldiers found me and I thought I was a goner for sure. They shot me on sight and I fell down – blacked out. I thought I was dead, but then I woke up back on Earth. Yukari-sama was there too along with the entirety of our army. All of them were wounded, but none of them dead. The funny thing wass that I still had all the copied recipesss on me. Yukari-sama then came to me and apologized. She said the invasion was a faliure. I think I even saw a tear in her eye… But then I understood it all… Well, not immediatelly, but after a few years in retrossspect. She lossst the war on purpossse."

"So I guess you probably hate her, right?"

"Never!" shouted the snake youkai resolutely. "She opened my eyes. She helped me become a new and much better perssson. Mossst of the youkai who fought in the war ssstill believe that they could have won and blame Yukari-sama for treachery even to this day. And perhapsss they're right that we could have won. But I know why she did it. She did it all for us youkai, so that we'd be less aggressive towards the humansss of Earth. And I took it to heart… From that day onward, I never harmed a sssingle human and I intend to keep it that way. The secret of immortality too… I owe it all to Yukari-sssama."

"So uhh, you can make as much of your improved Hourai Elixir as you want?" inquired the outsider.

"I've got the know-how, yesss." hissed the alchemist while nodding. "But it's not easy. You alssso need to ussse a ssspecial binding ssspell and a time altering spell at the same time. However…" he smiled again with his mischievous grin and opened one of the wardrobes behind him to reveal hundreds of paper scrolls with blue and read seals on them. "I ssstole more than enough of the spell scrollsss to make hundredsss of dosesss of the immortality elixir. The problem is the ingredientsss themselvesss. With the lasssst experiment, which resssuletd in the improvement of the old formula, I ran out of ingredientsss. And mossst of them can be found only on Moon, so I sssadly cannot make any more… What a pity. I could have made a fortune with it…"

Kyouichi chuckled amusedly. "But… Did the youkai in Yukari's invading army even know that the Lunarians are immortal?"

"Nay, because they're not." Xeng corrected him. "They know how to make the elixir, but they are forbidden to use it for their own benefit."

"What? That doesn't make any sense! Why do they produce it in the first place?" Kyouichi couldn't understand the logic behind Xeng's claims.

"To use it as a sssort of bargaining chip and a meansss to manipulate others – usually humans to do anything to acquire it… So far there are only four more known recipientssss besides me, who drank of the elixir. Three of them live in Gensokyo. Two are Lunarians and one's a human. The last one is the legendary Chang'e. The Lunariansss are very, very long lived, though. I've heard once that the only known person who knows the recipe is Eirin Yagokoro and even she can only make it with the assistance of her mistresss. Who knows? It's been over a thousand years since I've been on the Moon or heard any newsss from there. Not that I care, though. Perhaps they no longer make the elixir and perhapsss they've found some way to make it even without Yagokoro…"

"Eirin Yagokoro, huh?" Kyouichi repeated the familiar sounding name. "I've seen quite a few books written by her…"

"Yessss~. She's an exile from the Moon along with her princesss… They live in Eientei in the Bamboo Foressst of the Lossst. Ha! Yagokoro thinksss she's a geniusss, as do all Lunariansss, but I've invented hundress of potionsss they'd be jealousss of…"

"Sounds like you don't have much respect fot them…" remarked the outsider.

"Ha! I've scraped thingsss off my boots that I ressspect more than Lunarians." hissed the youkai alchemist disdainfully. "But I guesss not all of them are ssso bad… If they had any idea of the fact that I ssstole much of their sssecret knowledge and made it even better, I'm sssure they'd sssend an army to kill me. Hahaha! But they wouldn't be able to…"

"Is that why you live in hiding?"

"Yesss. And apart from that, I have peace and quiet for my experimentsss. I've learned to like humansss as well as youkai and to whomever comesss to see me, I offer my wide ssselection of potionsss and sssimple recipesss."

"Actually, I wanted to ask you about your recent experiments."

"My recent experiment?" repeated Xeng. "You mean my ssspecial homemade moonshine? I call it: Vengeance of the Forest. It's really… potent. H-s-s-sss-s. Want a sssample?"

"A moonshine? No, I was just wondering if you don't know anything about the fairy attacks on Kazemura and other nearby locations."

"Fairy attacksss? Don't know anything about that. Honessst." replied Xeng while shrugging.

"You're not using any as test subjects for your potions, are you?" asked the outsider, while raising his eyebrow.

"What do you think I am? A sadissst? I never harmed a fairy. Not even when I used some fairy hair strandsss in the new Hourai Elixir formula. I tessst all my potionsss on myself, since they can't kill me even if the experiment goes wrong…"

"But if you can't feel any pain or anything, how do you know that your potions aren't harmful to anyone else?"

"The ssensation is different, when the potion isss poisonousss. I have developed my senssses well over the yearsss. I don't feel pain, but I feel other sensationsss jussst fine."

"So… you really don't know anything about the crazed fairies that began acting up in the recent days?" asked Kyouichi once more to make sure.

"I haven't been out much lately, so I don't really know…"

Kyouichi sighed heavily and scratched his chin. "What could be the cause then?"

"If you told me something more about it, maybe I'd be able to tell you more." suggested the alchemist and so, Kyouichi told him what little facts he knew about the fairy attacks.

"So you're saying that their attacks come from this area?" asked Xeng, who was now also curious about the cause of the attacks. "And those newly found ruinsss in Kazemura that you mentioned… It's just really odd… Maybe there's some sort of connection between them and the fairy attacksss."

"I have a special item here…" said Kyouichi and showed him the magic detector. "It can read any form of magical energy, or so I was told… But when I looked at those ruins it didn't show anything…"

The half-snake youkai looked absentmindedly at the ceiling of the cavern and shook his head after a longer while of thinking. "Maybe it was some youkai that can mind control other creatures or cause temporary madness… But I'm jusssst guessing."

"Oh, and I should also mention that Yukari is missing… Nobody knows where she is, but most of the people I asked haven't seen her for over half a year."

"So? I haven't seen her for a few centuriesss… But a few yearsss ago I heard sssome news about her making a sssecond lunar invasssion…"

"Don't you think there's a chance that she could be the one causing it?"

"Hmph… I don't know… I can just tell you that I haven't done anything to make the fairies act the way you just described."

Kyouichi nodded. "Well, that's good… Thanks for the information."

"Huh? Leaving already? I haven't even shown you the potionsss you can buy…"

"Well, I suppose I could at least take a look since I'm already here." shrugged the outsider and looked up at Xeng, who made a gesture towards one of the shelves with a line of flasks filled with liquids of all sorts of colors.

"Thisss here, for instance…" he pointed at a flask full of dark-blue liquid, "…is a potion that ressstores magical energy and adds a boossst to the spellsss."

"I'm an outsider, so I've no use for it."

"Oh, right, I forgot… Well, then… how about this one?" he took a vial of golden colored potion in his hand. "

"What is it?"

"It's the so called Lightning Potion. If you drink it, you'll be able to run five timesss as fassst and you won't feel any fatigue for the whole duration of its effect. However, it only lasssts about five minutesss. It costsss 1500 yen per vial if you're interesssted."

"Hmm… I don't know…" muttered Kyouichi as he glared suspiciously at the potion. "Do you have anything else?"

"But of courssse." hissed the alchemist and put took another bottle filled with a colorless liquid, which Kyouichi suspected to be normal water. "What human wouldn't want to try to become invisssible for an hour?" smiled Xeng mischievously. "Just imagine all the girlsss you could ssstalk with this. Hehehehe~. Only 2500 yen per bottle."

Kyouichi made a half-amused, half-shocked face at Xeng's last remark. "Uhh… I'm sure it's useful, but…" his sentence died halfway as the youkai raised a warning finger.

"Oh, yeah and it will only make your BODY invisible, so if you want to avoid being seen, you'd have to get naked. Including your glassessss… Not very ussseful if you'd want to use it outside on a cold winter day."

"Running around naked with my impaired eyesight? Why, no, thank you…" rejected the outsider while shaking his palm.

"Hmm. A discriminating cusssstomer, eh?" said the alchemist, still not giving up on his attempt to try and sell something to Kyouichi. "

"What else you might be intresssted in? Perhapsss a ssstandard healing potion for 500 yen? Or a ssstrong healing potion for a thousand?"

This time, Xeng finally managed to get Kyouichi's interest, since the outsider figured it might be a good idea to have some sort of injury treatment material for the planned journey out of Gensokyo.

"Okay, I'll take some." He said and prepared his money. "I'll take five standard ones and three strong ones."

The half-snake rubbed his hands excitedly. "Excellent~! You're not going to regret it, outsssider. I jussst hope you won't have to ussse them too soon."

Kyouichi paid for the potions, and his pockets became 5500 yen lighter. He packed the corked glass bottles carefully inside his backpack and slowly put it back on his shoulders.

"It'sss been nice to meet you, Kyouichi-san." bowed the alchemist, still wearing his blood-soaked cape. "I hope we'll ssssee each other again sometimes. I might even give you a dissscount."

"Yeah, maybe I'll come again." shrugged Kyouichi and proceeded to the cavern's exit. "Have a nice… eh… eternal life, Xeng-san."

"Yesss. I'll be right here if you'll need more potionsss. You could alssso spread the word to bring in more customersss. I'd be grateful."

"Okay, I'll advertise your business a bit." smiled Kyouichi as he opened the door. "Would you look at that… It stopped raining."

"Jussst don't tell the Lunariansss that I can make a better Hourai Elixir than them…" said Xeng as he was seeing his guest off. "Or you know what? Go ahead and tell them everything! Let them know that they are not superior to everyone from Earth. Let them be jealousss! I'm not afraid of any of them. And there's no way they could get the recipes from me. They're all safely in my head. Even if they tortured me, I'd just laugh right into their facessss!"

Kyouichi was a little startled when Xeng started to ramble like a madman, but the youkai calmed down almost immediately. "Try not to break the potion bottlesss, human. See you next time…" he said with a calm voice and then as the outsider turned his back to him, he closed the door of his cavern laboratory.

Kyouichi had to shield his eyes after he got out of the dark cave into a much brighter environment. The fact that the clouds were gradually dissipating and letting the warm summer sun shine upon Gensokyo only enhanced the contrast between Xeng's cavern and the outside.

Getting back was a little trickier then getting to the immortal youkai's hidden dwelling. While he could use the twin-peaked mountain as a landmark on his way there, Kyouichi had no such landmarks when he was trying to return to Kazemura and he had to rely more on his instinct and memory to follow the same path that he used to get here.


	29. The Word is Mightier than the Sword

Even with the rain gone, and the time being shortly after noon, the outsider was as careful as ever, always checking the magic detector so he wouldn't run into some nasty youkai. However, everything looked quiet and the sensor didn't pick up any disturbances.

"Okay, so where is that forest path that leads back to the quarry?" wondered Kyouichi, having problems to find the said path. He saw the dense pine forest ahead of him and the hulking Youkai Mountain far, far in the west. It was at least a 50 km distance.

"Okay, at least I know that that direction is the west…" he thought as he took a glance at the mountain. "And 90 degrees to my left is the south. That's where I need to get."

He felt kind of embarrassed for not being able to find the path back, but at least he had a vague idea of which direction he needed to go. He therefore entered the forest even without seeing any path and headed straight south. This haphazard walk through the forest reminded him very much of his first day in this secluded magical world and it was also his idea about the expedition that he and other outsiders were planning to undertake in autumn. He could already envision them wandering aimlessly for days through forests and mountains before they'll be able to find some sort of settlement. However, given the current circumstances, this seemed as the best course of action for all those who refused to settle down and start a new life in Gensokyo.

* * *

"I just hope nothing nasty lives in these woods…" he said to himself as he was walking for over 10 minutes in the forest, still having no idea if he was even going the right way to Kazemura. Then all of a sudden, he heard a young female voice… singing. It sounded somewhat familiar, but Kyouichi couldn't quite identify it. He immediately looked at his magic detector, but nothing showed up on the glass. Fifty meter radius wasn't a great distance, so Kyouichi decided to follow the voice, trying not to get noticed. He sneaked as slowly and quietly as he could, and after a few moments, the detector picked up a positive magic reading near the edge of the glass. He peeked from behind one of the trees, trying to see who was singing this unusually sounding song, but could see nobody. He knew that it was either a youkai or a human born in Gensokyo, but the voice really sounded familiar to him. As he took another step closer, a small fallen branch crackled under his feet, and as an immediate response, the voice stopped singing.

"Oh, crap…" cursed the outsider in his mind.

His body froze as he motionlessly listened to the quietness that settled itself in the forest. Nothing was happening for a good minute and the outsider figured that whoever was singing the song nearby was already gone. Even his magic detector showed nothing, so he resumed his walk southwards. For just that brief moment that he let his eyes off the detector, he again heard the voice right from behind him.

"Ahh~! What do we have here~? A human." said the girl's voice, clearly addressing the words to Kyouichi.

The surprised young man turned around and saw the small figure of the originator of that voice. "Mystia-san…?" he asked surprisedly as he identified the night-sparrow youkai.

"Hey, I know you~." grinned the winged girl maliciously. "You were there at the Hakurei Shrine, watching me fight against the shrine maiden… What's the matter, human? Have you lost your way~?"

"Ehh… yeah, a little." sighed the outsider in embarrassment.

"Well, don't worry human," smiled Mystia and stretched out her fingers, revealing long, sharp claw-like nails, "I can end all your problems right here and right now~."

Kyouichi got the hint that she meant to kill and eat him, and naturally, fear began to settle in his mind.

"C-Come on, Mystia-san…" he looked at her with begging eyes. "Can't we just talk about this?"

"I doubt you have anything interesting to say, besides begging for your life~." retorted the night sparrow. "But I suppose I could have a little conversation before lunch…"

Kyouichi swallowed his saliva and reached for Reimu's amulets inside his pocket, not drawing them out just yet.

"Look I'm sorry I disturbed your singing, but I was just curious who was singing that pretty song just now…"

Mystia's grin turned to an expression of surprise. "So… you think that my song was pretty?"

It seemed that flattery had some effect on this youkai girl, so Kyouichi tried his best to praise her singing voice. "Why, yes. Even though I've just heard the melody… I thought your voice sounded familiar to me… But this song didn't make me go night-blind unlike the one you sang at the shrine."

"Not all my songs cause night-blindness. I like singing normal songs too. I was just practicing here, because that mean miko won't let me sing at the shrine."

"Reimu? Well, sometimes she acts like that, doesn't she? But that day when you dueled with her, she was really tired…" Kyouichi said on Reimu's defense. "She didn't really mean what she said (Probably…). Don't worry. You will be able to sing at the summer festival at the shrine this year as well."

"Of course I will." said Mystia matter-of-factly. "What would the festival be without my live performance?"

"I don't know, I've never seen one yet."

"What?" asked the night-sparrow disbelievingly. "Not even once? Are you some kind of hermit or what?"

"Hermit? No, outsider. But I'd really like to go to this year's festival"

Mystia's eyes gleamed and the same malicious grin settled on her face. "Ah, I see~. Not just tasty, but also defenseless~." she drawled and licked her lips. "Should I eat you now, or do you want to entertain me for a little longer?"

"Crap… I should really learn how to lie." muttered the outsider as he just made clear that he's nothing more than a walking bento box for the likes of Mystia. "You know, Mystia-san, I've just met a youkai who used to eat humans on daily basis, but he quit. You see, you don't actually need to eat me right now or any time to come… There are tastier things than humans that you could eat instead."

"What youkai would do that? What could be possibly tastier than humans?" wondered the night sparrow.

"Hmm…" hummed Kyouichi as he tried to think of something to save his hide. He then put down his backpack and from a lunch box he took out one of Minako's delicious hand made onigiri that she packed for him. "How about some delicious… onigiri?" he grinned sheepishly as he presented the whole lunch box to Mystia. As he expected, the night-sparrow disdainfully waved her hand and snorted.

"Pffff! Human food? That can't even begin to compare to the taste of raw human meat. Have you ever tasted it?"

"Do I look like Hannibal Lecter?" asked the amused outsider. "Don't aswer that..."

"Who's that? A youkai?"

"Uhh… yeah, something like that… And by the way, have you even tasted Minako-san's onigiri? She makes the best ones I've ever eaten. Come on, don't be shy. Just a little bite…" he smiled and beckoned to the onigiri inside the box.

The night sparrow raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Oh, you think I'm some kind of idiot? They're surely poisoned! I take just a bite and then I faint or something…"

"Don't be silly, Mystia-san." Kyouichi reassured her and took a bite of the onigiri himself to show that they're not poisoned. "…hwere… wou fee? No poifon." he muttered with his mouth full. "Mmm-m. Delicious. I'd hurry and take some too or I might just eat them all at once…" Mystia watched him chew and swallow the bite he took with anticipation, as if she was expecting the human to drop on the ground any second and start trembling in convulsion with foam coming out of his mouth. But of course, no such thing happened.

"Please, Mystia-san, have some too…" said the outsider in calm and inviting tone, so to camouflage his internal adrenaline rush. "If you won't like them, nobody's forcing you. But if you'll like the taste, I'll share with you."

Mystia finally lowered her sharp talons and slowly descended to the ground, her eyes constantly fixed on the human. Once her feet touched down, the youkai girl took a few cautious steps towards the outsider with her mouth slightly open. For a couple of seconds she just stood there, glancing at him as he took his already second onigiri and started eating it. Mystia stretched out her hand shyly and slowly, and as soon as she grabbed the rice ball, she retracted her arm immediately.

"Hmph… I doubt it tastes better than my fried lamprey…" murmured the night sparrow and took a suspicious whiff before she dared to taste it. Then, she finally took a bite…

…

"…This is…" she uttered with a surprised face and her eyes wide open. "This isn't half bad…" she took another bite and savored the taste. "Mmm… This might actually go well with fried lamprey. Hey, maybe I'll try making some of these filled with lamprey bits."

"See, our food isn't as bad as you might think." smiled Kyouichi and offered her the last triangular rice ball filled with seasoned meat and tofu. "Hey, if you let me live, I'll be glad to come and see your performance at the festival and even have some of that… ehh… lamprey that you're supposedly selling."

Mystia looked like she didn't pay attention to his words, but as soon as she gobbled up the second onigiri and wiped the rice grains from her lips, she nodded.

"Very well, human. I'm letting you go… But just this time. Just because I took a liking to your food doesn't mean that I like humans in general. If I ever catch you alone next time, I won't be so merciful."

"That won't happen again…" Kyouichi reassured her and with a sigh of relief he let go of the amulets inside his pocket and put the empty lunch box back into his backpack.

"But it's a little odd…" he remarked by the way. "That you're doing your performances and selling your grilled lamprey to humans despite you not liking them very much…"

"They're well paying customers. I don't eat those… It would be bad for business…"

"Oh, I see… So eating me is perfectly fine, isn't it?"

"Nobody misses outsiders if they mysteriously disappear… Now go, before I change my mind."

"You don't have to say that twice." said Kyouichi and he trotted away from the scene, his potion bottles jingling inside the backpack. He could still feel his heart race from all the anxiety and nervousness.

* * *

"Man… I can't believe I managed to talk my way out of this one…" he said to himself while chuckling. There was basically nothing funny about that situation, but the outsider couldn't help himself but to laugh for the next minute as he ran through the forest, away from Mystia.

If someone saw him now, they'd think he's some sort of madman. But he was just that happy that he managed to save his life with nothing but words and a couple of Minako's onigiri.

"If this was an RPG, I'd probably level up right now…" he thought to himself when he finally slowed down from trot to walking. "Hehe… like Ishimaru Kyouichi – level 2 outsider, plus 10 hit points, new skill – youkai diplomacy…" he jested and snickered at his ridiculous thoughts.

"But seriously now… Where the hell is that quarry?"

He still couldn't find any trace of the forest path or any indication that the trees would thin up if he went further south. However, he didn't change his heading and kept on going for dozens of minutes. He expected that the forest land would slope slightly downhill as he'd go further south towards the valley where Kazemura was situated, but the case was exactly the opposite – it sloped slightly uphill.

"Okay, okay… Apparently, I'm getting myself lost… Honestly… what was I thinking? Going there by myself…" he scolded himself as he tried to look around to see any landmarks. But the forest was too dense to allow him any other sight but the trees. Turning back now would be quite pointless, especially since he'd risk the chance of running into Mystia again. He kept going where he intended – south. Finally after another 10 minutes he saw the trees thinning into a clearing. When he finally got out of the forest, he figured that the clearing was actually a tall hill, looming over the eastern side of Kazemura.

"Oh, so that's where it was…" he flicked his forehead as he finally realized that he turned south a bit too early. "Now… how to get down? Preferably without inflicting any major fractures upon my person…"

The hill was a steep one from both east and west sides and the outsider took quite some time looking down and trying to figure how to carefully climb down. Fortunately, it also had trees growing even on its steep sides, which he could grab onto while proceeding down. However, it was still quite risky.

"Oh, what the hell… I'm giving it a shot." he encouraged himself and slid down towards the nearest tree. Just as he was about to lose balance, he grabbed onto its trunk.

"Okay, that one was easy. Now, onto next one…" he sprung away from the tree trunk he was holding onto and made a direct slide towards another one.

"Ugh!" he exclaimed as his chest hit the hard wood before his arms managed to get a grip around it. "Whew~! I almost failed that one."

In the same manner he proceeded from one tree to another all the way down this over 300 meters tall hill. Once at the bottom, he could finally rest for a moment and catch his breath. He was finally back in the quarry village.

* * *

"I never thought I'd be so happy to see this little village again."

He had just about enough walking, and the only thing he thought about was to sit down somewhere. He figured that the merchants and the Ryuuken were all probably gone and on their way back to Human Village, but as he headed to the tavern, he could see a single wagon from the caravan and a bunch of people in black, white and gold garbs.

"What are they still doing here?" he asked but the question really didn't bother him very much, since this meant that he could return to Human Village sooner than expected. From the merchants, Kyouichi didn't recognize anyone, but from the guards, he noticed that Lieutenant Takamori was still there with three other armed men, waiting for something. Only as Kyouichi came closer, he could see that the wagon was missing its left hind wheel, which was probably the cause why it remained behind while the rest of the caravan moved on.

"Takamori-san? I'm glad you're still here…" said the outsider and glanced at the wagon.

"Kyouichi-san?! I thought you left with the rest of the caravan…"

"Oh… No, I had a… a little errand to run, so I stayed behind."

"Well, as you can see, the wagon wheel broke down and we're not moving on until the merchants return with a new one to replace it." explained the warrior and looked at the sky, shielding his eyes from the sun. "Shouldn't take more than half an hour, though. We should be back in Human Village before sundown anyway. You can still go to the tavern and have a beer or two if you don't feel like standing outside."

Kyouichi was really tempted to do exactly that, but then he recalled his agreement with Remilia.

"Oh, right… The report…" he mumbled to himself. "But what will I write? I didn't find or learn anything helpful. Come to think of it, I didn't even take a proper look at the ruins…"

Since the rain stopped some time ago, the quarry was already bustling with workers – humans and youkai working hard and diligently to remove the ground under which this archeological discovery was buried. He told the Ryuuken lieutenant that he's going to take a closer look at the ruins. The warrior's response was just an indifferent shrug without any words to accompany it. Kyouichi took it as a: "Whatever…" or something along those lines and slowly proceeded down the land slope to enter the large quarry pit. Just to make sure that he's not doing anything that others might not like, he asked one of the yama-bito workers if he could take a closer look at the archeological site. He was met with a positive reply and so, he headed towards the small poles with red flags which signified the excavation area.

The other workers eyed him curiously, but none of them sent him away or said that he's in the way of their work, so Kyouichi took his time to observe the unearthed tops of stone pillars carefully. There were some odd symbols or patterns etched on each of their sides, resembling runes, but it could be just a form of decorative ornamentation. If it was a language, however, it was not one of those that the young outsider could recognize, much less decipher. Again, he put down his backpack and out of it he pulled his school notepad and a pencil. He ripped out a few blank pages, pressed them against the carvings and with light strokes of the pencil he managed to make a copy of the symbols. Much more trustworthy than if he tried to copy them by eye. He repeated the process with each stone pillar. There were 6 of them in total plus the tip of a larger pyramid-shaped stone in the center.

He even marked the pages with numbers to tell which carvings came from which pillar. It didn't take him long to find out that the carvings on each of the pillars were unique and not repetitive. This excluded the theory of the carvings being just mere ornaments, but that's about as much as the inexperienced young outsider could learn from them. Just to make sure, he took out his magic detector one more time and scanned the surface of each of the pillars, the pyramid stone and even the uncovered rooftop of some yet unknown building. The device picked up no magical activity. Just to make sure that it worked properly, he put it in front of his eye and looked at the quarry workers. He saw some auras around each of them. They were faint, but he didn't pay it any mind. The detector was functioning properly. Finally, he made a simple sketch of the quarry pit's layout and drawn where the ruins were found.

"There… I don't know what else I could learn from these, but this will have to do for the report…"

* * *

He folded the papers and put them back inside the backpack, ready to return up to the caravan wagon. Once there, he saw that the merchants were already back at the wagon and hammering the new wheel onto the axel.

"So, how are the repairs coming along?" he asked, but didn't address anyone in particular.

"We'll be done in no time." replied the merchant with the hammer and gave the wheel a few final knocks, setting it in the right position. "Alright, people, let's load the rest of the goods so we can get back home."

In a few more minutes, the merchants were all set and sitting on the wagon along with Kyouichi. The driver took the reins and with a light swing, the pair of horses began slowly dragging the wagon back to Human Village.

Since the roads were still wet after the rain, the merchants with the assistance of the Ryuuken had to push the wagon when its wheels got stuck in the mud. This slowed down their progress by quite a bit. After they got out of the forest through which the road led, the dirt path was a bit more stable. Kyouichi could finally rest his back against the sacks filled with various goods from Kazemura and just rest until the wagon reaches the village. He closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. It was yet a long way back, so the outsider decided to take a little nap. In a matter of minutes, he was already snoozing.


	30. The End of the Road

He woke up after some time to the feeling that the wagon stopped. He had no idea how long he's been sleeping, but as he wiped his eyes, he could see that the wagon still wasn't in the Human Village. He curiously turned his face to one of the merchants sitting on the wagon, who looked back with the same confused face.

"Where are we?" asked Kyouichi and yawned. "Why have we stopped?"

The merchants were all quiet and all were curiously staring ahead. Kyouichi also peeked out of the wagon and saw that the four Ryuuken guards were all standing in ready stances with their hands on the hilts of their swords. Lieutenant Takamori held something in his palm and stared at it with uncertainty. Kyouichi guessed that it was a magic detector, although much more effective and precise than the one he was given by Kirisame-san. Everyone was disturbingly quiet. It looked like the Ryuuken were expecting some kind of ambush. And it was exactly so…

In another second, a humming sound could be heard from the distance and it was quickly getting louder and louder. Lieutenant Takamori immediately let his eyes off the detector and vigilantly looked from left to right. In the next second, he shouted: "Incomiiiiiing~!" and hit the deck. The other warriors did the same just in time to evade a truly massive barrage of bright red missile-shaped danmaku shots that came from a further thicket of trees, distanced approximately 150 meters from the wagon. Each of the shots exploded upon impact and scattered smaller red shrapnel. One of the Ryuuken was holding his thigh with a painful grimace on his face. One of the shrapnel shots hit him. Everyone else was still okay, but the merchants began panicking, and one after another they jumped out of the wagon to take whatever shelter possible. The horses were neighing in terror as they were standing on their hind legs and dangerously kicking with their front ones. They too were frightened by this sudden danmaku assault. Kyouichi was still on the wagon, trying to figure if it was better to stay where he was or to follow suit and jump out like the merchants. By now the Ryuuken were all back on their feet, including the one who got hit and clutching their weapons. Another humming sound came from between the trees, signaling another incoming salvo of red missiles. This time, the Ryuuken evaded the shots completely and even managed to deflect the shrapnel with their swords. Two of the stray shots, however, hit the wagon's cover, easily ripping a hole through and missing Kyouichi's head by mere centimeters. He didn't need another millisecond to decide what to do now.

"Okay, the merchants knew what they were doing. I'm outta here!" he shouted and abandoned the merchant wagon. As he got out, he already saw one of the Ryuuken drawing his Spell Card for a counterattack against their unseen foe.

"Sharpness Sign "Grandmaster's Shuriken"!" he shouted as he activated his spell. The card dispersed into several dozen purple stars which instantly turned into actual razor-sharp throwing stars and jetted off at an incredible speed towards the thicket of trees where the attacks were coming from. Each of the shuriken left behind a bright purple trail of light. This attack seemed quite fast and accurate. As it hit the tree thicket, some of the tree branches fell down from this counterattack. Now they could all see a single figure ascend above the tree line and flying towards the Ryuuken. The guards raised their swords and pointed their tips at the oncoming enemy. Without any words, incantations or declarations they shot bright-blue laser-like bolts right from the tips of their blades. However, this unknown enemy evaded most of them without much effort and the rest of them he deflected with his own weapons. Yes, the attacker was a male, dressed in dark-red and black clothes similar to a monk's robe. He was almost bald except for the back of his head, where he had a really long strand of black hair tied into a ponytail. In each of his hands he held a kama – a traditional sickle-like weapon which was more generally used as a farming implement. Although Kyouichi never saw this man before, he was almost certain that he's a youkai. A quick glance at him through his magic detector revealed a considerable magical presence in his body. Even more than any of the Ryuuken possessed. He was now hovering in midair only about 20 meters away from the ambushed wagon. For a moment, the warriors ceased their attacks and waited for what this man had to say to them.

"If you surrender one of the humans to me, I'm willing to let the rest of you pass." said the man with ice-cold voice and overconfident look in his dark eyes.

"Oh, it's just you, Otoya…" murmured Lieutenant Takamori with an unamused voice. "Look, I'm really not in a mood for this today. Why don't you just turn back now and try your luck later when the odds are a bit better for you?"

Apparently these two knew each other well, although Kyouichi wasn't too sure if they were exactly friendly with each other.

"Hahahahaha~!" laughed the floating man, whom Takamori addressed as Otoya. "I could take on twice as many of you pitiful Ryuuken whelps, Akiyoshi-kun. But for now, I'll settle with just kicking your butt in a formal duel."

The young Ryuuken snorted and smiled. "Fine, but since I don't have much time to enjoy beating the crap out of you, we'll just have a quick 2 Spell Card fight."

"Oh, come on, Akiyoshi-kun. Where are the times when we had 6 card matches? This will barely be enjoyable."

"Hey, maybe next time…" said Lieutenant Takamori and readied his sword, "…when you can prove that you are even worthy of such an honor as being wiped out by six of my Spell Cards."

"Hmph… Sometimes I wonder why I haven't cut that arrogant tongue off of your mouth yet." mumbled Otoya and descended to the ground.

Akiyoshi looked at his Ryuuken comrades and gestured for them to stand back. They grudgingly obeyed their superior's order and sheathed their swords. The young lieutenant took a few steps towards his opponent and smiled. "I hope you've got a spare change of clothes after I rip yours to shreds and stain them with your blood."

"I like your sense of humor, Akiyoshi-kun. Now, try not to fall too early and spoil my fun." replied Otoya calmly and made some flashy spins with the kama in his hands.

"A ground-based duel, huh?" thought Kyouichi who was hiding behind the wagon and peeking on the scene of this upcoming fight.

The two rivals were standing in fighting stances and glaring intensely into each other's eyes for almost one entire minute. Then, as if prompted by some unheard signal, they each lashed out with their weapons to strike their opponent down. Kyouichi inadvertently held his breath as he watched the showdown. Both Akiyoshi and Otoya were formidably skilled with their weapons. While the Ryuuken was performing fast slashes, Otoya managed to block them all effectively with his kama. Then they switched their roles and Akiyoshi was on the defensive, trying to parry his opponent's lightning-quick jabs and cuts accompanied by a series of kicks. It was like watching a martial-arts action movie, only better. Clinking metal sounds echoed throughout the field as their weapons clashed. Finally, Otoya hooked Akiyoshi's blade with one of his sickles and moved it out of the way for his second kama to strike the Ryuuken's vulnerable body.

"Aaaah!" yelled Lieutenant Takamori as the claw of the weapon dove into his shoulder. His scream was immediately silenced by a kick in the stomach that knocked him down. However, the young Ryuuken was far from being defeated. In an instant he sprung up from the ground, evading Otoya's axe kick that just left a small hole in the rain-soaked soil. He didn't waste a second to draw out his first Spell Card and declared it: "Warrior Sign "Seven Virtues of Bushido"!"

Suddenly, seven orbs of light, each of different color appeared above Akiyoshi and spread into a wide line. At first, this spell was very similar to Reimu's Fantasy Seal, but the light orbs that were summoned by Akiyoshi's card each began forming into some sort of symbol. In a few seconds, these symbols were molded into words: Rectitude, Courage, Benevolence, Respect, Honesty, Honor and Loyalty. Then, each of the words began blasting its own stream of danmaku in different patterns and directions. Even Kyouichi, who hasn't yet seen too many duels could tell that this card was a powerful one - very confusing and hard to dodge. Even someone as agile as Otoya had apparent problems. While he was dodging and parrying the shots for almost 15 seconds without getting hit, the danmaku streams were gradually becoming more and more intense as the spell was fading. Otoya tried some really impressive dodging maneuvers, rolls and even a backflip, all the while he deflected the shots coming directly at him with his weapons, but this was simply too much even for him. He was struck in midair during a star flip by several of the shots and fell down to the ground face down. A few additional shots landed on his back before the Spell Card ran out of steam.

"Had enough yet, Otoya?!" Akiyoshi taunted him.

Otoya's laughter came as an immediate response. "No, Akiyoshi-kun. Your attacks are just so boring that I managed to have a little nap while dodging that last spell of yours."

He sprung up like a frog and he was back on his feet. "I won't even need a single card to take you out."

"You won't even get to using them." retorted the Ryuuken and charged him with his sword. Again, a scene of two weapon masters trying to land a blow against their opponent repeated itself. This time, however, Akiyoshi used Otoya's aggressiveness against him. As the man with kama began one of his dazzling combos, Lieutenant Takamori just leapt out of the way each time Otoya got too close. He didn't even block his attacks; he just evaded them altogether, holding his sword in a ready-to-lunge position, making it difficult for Otoya to surprise him by kicks. After more than a minute of dodging, Akiyoshi found an opening in his opponent's combo and launched a counterattack. He slashed his chest, thigh, right arm and even managed to strike his head with the hilt of his katana, knocking Otoya off balance.

"Not bad…" he grinned at Akiyoshi from the ground. "But to beat a youkai, you'll have to do better than that."

Otoya stood up and dusted off his robe. "Well, I suppose I'll use one after all…" he said and raised his hand with a Spell Card already between his fingers. "Rage Sign "Berserk Torrent"!"

An ominously looking dark-red cloud appeared above the scene of battle, blocking out the sun. It was large enough to shade even the three other Ryuuken who were watching the duel from a safe distance and even Kyouichi, who was still hiding behind the merchant wagon.

"It's a small miracle those two horses haven't fled in terror along with this wagon…" mused the outsider as he noticed the red gaseous mass forming overhead.

Suddenly a bright red flash came from the above, and soon after, another one, all accompanied by the sounds of thunder. It looked like Otoya summoned some kind of localized magic storm. After the few initial lightning bolts and thunders, all hell broke loose. Down from the cloud like a hailstorm came a shower of small red diamond-shaped shots and occasionally a few large red ball-lightnings came flying chaotically and made dangerously distracting and unpredictable movements. Lieutenant Takamori had a really hard time trying to fend off all of the projectiles. Surprisingly, he was doing a really good job. Until the storm intensified and the red diamond-shaped shots turned into brightly shining energy spheres which were not just falling, but literally shooting down from the red cloud. Takamori was now in a state of panic. His arms tried to make coordinate movements to move his blade just in time to deflect the next shot coming at him. Then as he made a step backwards, he tripped and fell on his back. His sword deflected another of the incoming spheres, which changed its heading in a very dangerous way. Kyouichi was still cowering behind the wagon when he suddenly heard a silent humming sound getting quickly louder…

A loud crash…

A bright red flash…

Flying chunks of wood…

And a strong hit in the head were the last things Kyouichi experienced before he stopped perceiving the world.

 


	31. A Beautiful Day for a Disaster

Minazuki 28, Monday, Forest of Magic – a dense, humid forest taking up a large area near the center of Gensokyo. Its closest part is distanced from the Human Village by over 4 kilometers if one travels by the northern road and by more than 10 kilometers if one decides to take the western road. It is a place enshrouded by many mysteries and legends. People rarely ever venture there, although there are some who prefer the isolation that this forest provides and have settled to live here.

One such unusual human is Marisa Kirisame. A self-proclaimed ordinary magician, whose house is located on a small clearing somewhere deep inside this vast forest. The house is a western-style L-shaped 2 storey wooden construction with the second floor being the attic. Due to her hobby of collecting all sorts of things, often times even without understanding what most of them are, her home was considered simply as the messiest house in Gensokyo. Marisa was just reading one of her "borrowed" books while drinking a cup of tea when she heard someone knock on her door.

"Huh? Who could it be?" she wondered as she got up from her comfortable armchair and carefully stepped over all the various odds and ends littered all over her house.

"Oh, it's Reimu." she muttered as she peeked outside through a window to look at the person standing at her door.

"Hiya, Reimu~! Nice to have you visit, ze." she greeted her good old friend as she opened the door for her.

"Hello, Marisa. I've come to talk to you about something…" said Reimu with her face unusually serious.

"Oh… uhh… Sure. Come in." Marisa beckoned to her. "And try not to trip over my stuff…"

"Would you like some tea?" asked the witch as she tried to clear up the mess out of Reimu's way.

"Umm… okay I guess." shrugged the shrine maiden, knowing that Marisa couldn't ruin the tea unlike her tamagoyaki.

Marisa nodded and led the way into her kitchen. "Okay, just give me a minute... Ouch!" she exclaimed suddenly as she stepped on something sharp. "Damn it…" she muttered while rubbing her heel.

"Don't you ever clean up?"

"Uhh… Do what?" grinned the witch sheepishly and looked down to see what she stepped on. "Oh! Look, Reimu, mahjong tiles! We've been looking for those the last time at your shrine, right?"

"Yeah…" murmured Reimu absentmindedly.

"So what did you want to talk about, huh?"

"Right… I wanted to ask you a favor like last time… for the Tanabata festival."

Marisa put some water in a tea kettle to boil and nodded agreeingly. "But of course, Rei-Rei. I'll help you send out invitations. Hey, by the way I was just about to visit Alice, so we can ask her if she's going to do that doll show of hers this year as well…"

Reimu was relieved to hear that she could count on her friend's assistance and smiled. "Yes, let's visit her first. But I was just thinking… Maybe we should have something new at the festival this year."

"A new attraction?"

"Yeah… Something that will attract a lot of curious people to come to the shrine. Something that will be remembered for a long time to come… And not just by Akyuu-chan."

"I hear 'ya, ze. Maybe we'll think of something if there's more of us to discuss it."

"Maybe we should hold a Spell Card tournament or something." Reimu suggested.

"Hey, that could be pretty interesting." confirmed Marisa and served tea for her miko friend. "Maybe we should invite some new folks for such an event. Like…I don't know... Utsuho or Byakuren…"

Reimu's face quickly turned to a surprised one. "Eehh… I'd still like to have my shrine standing even after the tournament would end… Utsuho's just…"

"Overpowered?" asked Marisa in order to help Reimu find the right word.

"Yeah… That and a bit bridbrained too." commented Reimu as she drank the tea. "But Byakuren-san is a very good idea. She's also powerful and popular with the people from the village, to my dismay…" she finished the sentence with a bitter-sounding tone. Ever since the new temple was founded near the village, it got many followers which meant that the Hakurei Shrine got even less visitors than usual.

"And unlike Utsuho, she won't go blasting away your shrine by accident." added Marisa.

Suddenly, Reimu frowned in a spaced-out expression and looked outside the window, sighing heavily. "If only Yukari would come too… I'm starting to miss that old youkai."

"Maybe this time, she won't resist the temptation to show herself when she'll see all that fun, food and drinks. Maybe a Spell Card tournament is just what we need in order to lure her out."

"You know, I'm starting to have doubts…" spoke Reimu, resting her chin against her palm. "I mean… nobody and I mean really nobody has seen her or heard from her for such a long time… Not even her shikigami. It's like they literally disappeared from the face of the Earth."

"Well, if you got any good ideas on how to find her, let's hear 'em."

"That's the thing – I don't. She's not in Gensokyo, so I thought I'd ask Yuyuko and Satori to keep a lookout in their respective realms, but there are yet other places where she could be."

Marisa giggled. "Obviously! There's still Makai, Heaven, the Dragon Palace, Sanzu River and Higan and the outside world, of course… and the Moon…"

"No, I don't think she's THAT stupid to try and provoke the Lunarians after having her butt kicked by them twice…"

"Says who?" opposed Marisa. "Have you been there personally to see what happened to her during the first war? Or even the second…?"

"Well, no, but my intuition tells me that she's not on the Moon."

Marisa shrugged, not too sure what to think either. "Either way, there are still quite a few places besides the Moon where she could be right now. Including Mayohiga. Even if Satori said that she couldn't see her mental activity through the amulet in Gensokyo, we all know, or to be more exact, we DON'T know if Mayohiga can even be considered a part of Gensokyo…"

Reimu snickered amusedly. "You're right… Just imagine it: we're all looking for her like crazy while she's lazing around in her home, not even curious about what's going on in Gensokyo."

"I bet it's just as you say." Marisa said with optimism. "Now, how about we paid Alice a little visit?"

"Oh, sure, let's go." nodded the miko and finished the tea in her cup. "At least her home is always clean, unlike yours…"

"She doesn't need to store so many things under one roof."

"Oh, and you do? You don't even know what half of that junk is."

"That's why I'm studying to understand it." smiled the witch and stood up from her chair.

"You should just leave that up to Rinnosuke. And when do you plan on returning that mound of books you stole from Patchouli?"

"Hey! She's a youkai with a long lifespan. But me, I'm just a normal human. She can have them back when I die, ze."

"That's like saying: The sooner she kills me, the sooner she can have her books back."

"I meant after I die a natural death…" Marisa completed her own statement.

Reimu giggled again and followed her into the corridor. "Yeah, if you call her reaction to you stealing her books as natural, then your death by her hands will indeed be natural." she jested while walking over the doorstep of Marisa's house.

Marisa followed her outside and locked the door of her house by simply pointing her finger at it.

"Let's walk instead of flying." suggested the blonde and put on her trademark hat.

"What's the matter? You're trying to lose some weight?" Reimu tried to poke fun at her.

"Nope. Just feel like walking for a change…" replied the witch as she began walking down the path leading from her house.

* * *

During the short walk to Alice's house, the witch and the miko exchanged trivial news from their everyday lives, not paying much attention to anything else. Alice also lived in the forest just about 15 minutes walk from Marisa's house. Her home was European-styled as well, made of bricks as well as wood. It had only one floor, but it had a small tower-like extension which was almost twice as tall as the house itself. From a distance, it was somewhat similar to a church. A thin, white smoke rising from its chimney revealed that Alice was at home and probably cooking something. Marisa nonchalantly led the way to the house of anther one of her good friends. By a couple of knocks on the door, she summoned the attention of the house's tenant.

"Yo, Alice-chan~! It's me and Reimu~!"

As a response, they heard the door being unlocked from the other side and opened. But instead of Alice to welcome them, there was her doll, Shanghai, with a curious expression on her face, floating in midair and eyeing the visitors.

"Gee, Alice, can't you at least answer the door by yourself?" called Marisa into the house.

Shanghai smiled in response and made an inviting gesture. Reimu and Marisa shrugged and entered the white house with a dark-blue tile roof.

"Uhhh… Alice?" called the magician as she didn't see the dollmaker anywhere. Instead, a whole band of dolls in little maid uniforms were doing housework – dusting the shelves, washing the dishes, wiping the floor, two of them were stirring soup at the stove and two were even having a mock swordfight with butter knives. It was already well known to both Reimu and Marisa that the dolls weren't self-conscious, but each of them was controlled by Alice's magic strings. However, the girl in question wasn't even in the kitchen. Shanghai waved her hand again and flew into another room. The guests followed her into the living room where they found the manipulator of all the dolls sitting comfortably in her armchair, sewing miniature dresses for her dolls. Only when her guests entered the living room, she put down the needle and thread and looked at them.

"Hello, Marisa and Reimu. Please, have a seat. I'll bring you something to drink and the lunch should be ready any moment now." she said with a nice smile and with an elegant movement of her hand, she summoned a pair of dolls. One was carrying a plate with home-baked biscuits and the other one brought two glasses with apple juice. Reimu amusedly watched the dolls serving her and whispered to Marisa: "I wish I had some trick like that to help me with my chores at the shrine."

"But she still has to control each of them individually." remarked Marisa and helped herself to one of the biscuits. "Sort of makes me think that it's actually even harder work to manipulate each of them in order to do some chores, ze…"

Alice just smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "Dolls are my biggest hobby and controlling them to act so lifelike makes my house seem like a livelier place."

"Say, Alice," Marisa addressed her and beckoned at the shrine maiden, "Reimu here is making plans for the upcoming festival and…"

"…And I'd like to ask you if you'd be willing to do a doll performance this year too." Reimu finished Marisa's sentence. "But of course you could think of some new show with your dolls."

"Oh… Right… The festival's here soon…" murmured Alice absentmindedly. "I really lost my track of time."

Reimu gave Marisa a sidelong glance and looked back at Alice. "So… is that a yes?"

"Umm… yes, of course, I'll come to the festival to perform. I'll have to think of what kind of show to do…"

"Well, you still have more than a week, so take your time to think about it." said Reimu and adjusted her position in one of Alice's comfy armchairs. "Anyway, do you have any interesting news, Alice?"

"News? Well, no, nothing interesting has ha…."

Her sentence got interrupted by a sudden and urgently sounding knocking on the door of her house. The blonde dollmaker looked surprisedly at Marisa and Reimu. "Was someone else coming with you to visit me?"

Marisa just shrugged. "Nope."

Curious about who could be knocking on her door, Alice stood up from the armchair and went to take a look for herself. Just as she opened the door, her eyes looked down at the person, or to be more accurate, persons who were desperately looking back at her. They were small girls – half Alice's size. Their wings that were not directly connected with their bodies were an infallible sign that they were fairies. They were all already familiar to Alice. One of them had short golden hair with short braids on sides, blue eyes and was wearing a red and white dress, remarkably similar to Reimu's outfit. The second one – a brown-eyed blonde had her hair styled in intriguing spiral-like curls on both sides of her head. She was wearing a white one-piece dress with black ribbons tied to the front side. Her skirt's hem was also adorned by yellow symbols of lunar phases from crescent to full moon and then a sun symbol. She was also wearing a mob cap, very much like the vampire Remilia Scarlet, but hers was white with black ribbons to match the dress. The last of the fairy trio had gray eyes and long black straight hair styled in hime-cut and decorated by a blue ribbon. She was wearing a blue dress with white sleeves and yellow star patterns on the front side of her skirt.

Their names were: Sunny Milk, Luna Child and Star Sapphire and they were more commonly known as the Three Mischievous Fairies. Usually not the type to show up in front of other humans, but they always liked to play various pranks on them, however, with miserable success rate.

Alice gave them all a once-over and raised a brow. "What are you three doing here?"

"Umm… Alice-san…" started Sunny tentatively. Her voice was shaky and her face bore a frightened expression. "Something terrible happened~!" she cried out and flailed her arms.

"Umm… maybe I should do the talking." said the black haired Star and gently pushed her fairy friend aside to assume her place. "Alice-san…" she started calmly.

"What is it?"

"Please help us~!" she panicked and without even asking the dollmaker for permission, she bolted right into her house.

"Can we please, come in, Alice-san?" asked the curly-haired Luna staring at the youkai girl with pleading eyes. "W-We can explain everything, just…please~!"

Alice took pity of the frightened little fairies and nodded. "Please, come inside."

Both Sunny and Luna leapt up and hugged their savior tightly. "Thank you, Alice-san~!"

The dollmaker looked at them confusedly, shrugged and took the fairies inside. Just as the two fairies let go of Alice, they noticed Marisa and Reimu who also entered the kitchen to see who came to visit Alice.

"Oh no, Sunny, I told you this was a bad idea…" whispered Luna to her friend. "The miko is here too…"

The sunlight fairy just shook her head and opposed. "That's actually a good thing that she's here too. And even that thieving witch…"

"Oh would you look at that, Reimu…" smirked Marisa as she also recognized Alice's guests. "The three troublemakers in the flesh…"

Reimu also looked at them with suspicious eyes. "What's up? Did one of your pranks backfire on you again?"

Alice showed the two humans her palm in order to silence them so she could ask the fairies what was the matter.

"O-Our home…" stuttered Sunny and wiped a tear from her eye. "Attacked by an army of other fairies… Burning… We had to run."

"Your home? Where is that?" asked Alice calmly, trying to soothe them.

"We used to…live here in thi … in the Forest of Magic." replied Sunny through her sobs. "But we recently relocated to a tree near where the miko lives. Now it's burning… everything is burning~!"

Reimu immediately widened her eyes. "A fire?! Near my shrine?!"

"Doesn't that have anything to do with your crazy little fairy war against Cirno?" Marisa joined the interrogation.

"We've already reconciled with Cirno-chan~!" cried Sunny and wiped her tears into Alice's dress. "And even if we didn't, she's not the one to send other fairies to fight her enemies. She's the one who likes to do everything by herself."

"Hmm… true." admitted the witch. "Cirno's not likely to start fires, but rather freezes things…"

"That attack sounds more like the one in Kazemura." Reimu thought aloud. "But if there's a forest fire near my shrine, we need to go there and put it out this instant!"

"We… we tried to find the miko and ask her for help, but she wasn't there." continued Sunny, looking a little more calm than a few moments ago. "And now…" she stopped her sentence halfway.

"And now what?" wondered Alice, making several of her dolls gather around the poor fairy and pat her soothingly on the head.

Suddenly, Star Sapphire crawled timidly from under the table and gulped. "Now… I can feel those fairies followed us! They're coming!" she panicked and crawled back into hiding.

"Wait, what?" asked Alice, not too sure what the fairy meant, but her question was answered in a few moments.

* * *

Star was joined under the table by her other two fairy friends when suddenly, a loud crash and a sound of breaking glass came from the living room of Alice's house. Before she and her two human guests could react to it, another couple of similar sounds came from the bedroom and even in the kitchen, the windows were forcefully broken and random fairies began swarming the interior, wreaking havoc upon Alice's household.

"Kyaaaaaah~!" screamed the frightened fairies under the table. Marisa, Alice and Reimu weren't exactly calm either. At first they just shielded their heads with their arms from the fragments of broken glass from the windows and for a few seconds just stared in panic at the chaos that erupted everywhere around them. Marisa blasted a few of the fairies with rapid-fire blue shots coming from her palms, managing to leave a few holes in the walls of Alice's kitchen. The fairies that got hit immediately disappeared in a bright flash of light. But dozens of them came pouring in through the broken windows, ready to take over the place with their sheer numbers. They fired their danmaku at everything and everyone. Even Marisa got a few shots.

"Ow…! Damn you, little…" she cursed as she was hit in the palm, trying to shake off the pain.

Alice didn't hesitate to defend her home. She mobilized her own platoon of dolls, armed with miniature shields and lances and used them to fight off the crazed attackers. Several of her dolls fell a victim to the berserk fairies, but she managed to align the ones with shields into square formations and successfully barricaded all of her broken windows. With her other hand, she ordered the lancer dolls to hunt down all the fairies that were now trapped inside her house, but still threatening everyone and everything inside. However, now that all her windows were covered up by her doll shield maidens, it was completely dark inside. Only the chaotic fairy danmaku lightened up the place. Marisa hurriedly conjured up a light-providing white energy orb in her palm and made it levitate just a few centimeters below the ceiling. Now Alice's lancer dolls could effectively charge the fairies and impale them with their miniature weapons. The mortally wounded fairies immediately burst in a white flash and left only white smoke. However, a second wave immediately rushed in from the living room and the bedroom, setting several pieces of Alice's furniture ablaze.

"My house!" screamed Alice in shock. The fairies now began taking out the dolls with shields by shooting them from behind. It wasn't too long before Alice's barricades have fallen, allowing more fairy reinforcements to pour into her house. With a snap of her fingers, she summoned Shanghai to her aid and the little doll unleashed a bright-red laser-like beam out of her hands, instantly burning every fairy it touched. However, this also helped the fire inside her house to spread faster. "Oh…. This isn't good." she groaned and ordered Shanghai to take her time to aim and shoot the beam only briefly, so not to start any more fires. The fairies' retribution was swift. With their fresh reinforcements pouring in through the broken and unguarded windows, they overwhelmed Alice and sent her to the ground by a series of shots, hitting her various body parts.

"Alice!" screamed frightened Marisa as she saw one of her best friends hit the floor. The very moment she did so, all of her other dolls followed suit and lay motionlessly on the ground.

Reimu, in the meantime, took out her gohei wand and like with a sword, she slashed the annoying attackers with it, effectively making them disappear. Those that were out of her reach, she disposed of with her blessed ofuda which she used as a sort of thrown weapon.

Marisa furiously clenched her teeth and out of her pocket she took out a small wooden octagonal object with eight trigrams printed in a circle on its front side. Reimu knew all too well what it was. It was Marisa's miniature magic furnace known as mini Hakkero which she used to unleash some of her most powerful spells. The witch put the mini furnace in front of her mouth and was about to mutter her spell when Reimu put her hand on her shoulder.

"No, Marisa! You'll wreck Alice's home completely!"

"Don't you see what's going on?!" asked the witch and ducked immediately to evade several shots from the fairies. "Let me do it, Reimu! It might be our only way!"

The miko just resolutely shook her head, drawing out her own Spell Card. "No! Cover me while I take care of this with less collateral damage!"

She then made a break for it, smashing few of the fairies out of her way with her trusty gohei and running into the living room. Marisa put away her Hakkero and supported Reimu's effort with conventional shots, taking down as many fairies as she could.

Meanwhile Alice groaned on the floor and stirred about.

"Hey, Alice, you okay?" asked the witch, throwing a brief glance at her youkai friend before continuing her fire support.

Reimu, despite the assistance provided by Marisa, was now completely surrounded by a cloud of fairies and bombarded from every side. But this is exactly what she wanted to do in order to achieve her plan. Before she collapsed from the repeated hits of enemy danmaku, she activated her Spell Card: "Divine Arts "Demon Binding Circle"!"

The card flared up in a bright yellow light and the energy connected with Reimu's raised hand. A wide spinning octagon of similar light and color showed on the floor around her. The next second she crouched and touched the floor with her charged-up palm, immediately becoming bathed in an extremely bright pillar of orange light erupting upwards from the place where she had touched the floor and slowly broadening until it was as wide as the octagonal pattern on the floor. Since it took up nearly the entire living room, all the fairies inside were obliterated and vaporized instantaneously. Once the light died out, however, Reimu's figure slumped down on the floor like a rag. She had halted the fairy invasion, but didn't stop it. Now she was lying on the floor in a burning living room of Alice's decimated house.

"No! Reimu!" yelled Marisa and bolted from the floor to aid her friend in need.

Alice opened her eyes, slowly looking left then right, still finding it hard to even understand what was going on. But something like an inner voice or perhaps instinct drove her to stand up now and she obeyed.

"Oh… ouch…" she rubbed the back of her head, and fixed her headband. "Marisa?! Reimu?! Where are you?!"

The answer to her question was Marisa dragging her unconscious friend's body out of the blazing living room. Smoke was quickly filling up the other rooms in the house and not even all the broken windows were enough to keep the air inside breathable for much longer.

"Alice!" exclaimed Marisa with relief as she saw that her youkai friend was already up and standing. "We need to get out of here! Now!"

The witch then threw one of Reimu's arms around her neck and with her free hand she opened the main door and carried the shrine maiden out. Alice, however, knew that she couldn't leave her house just yet.

"The three fairies!" she shouted and quickly looked under her kitchen table where she last saw them take shelter.

They were still there, although what she saw was quite a shock for her. Luna's body was lying motionlessly on the floor, while Sunny was sitting atop of struggling Star and strangling her with all the might she could find in her thin fairy arms. Her expression was manic and her grin twisted.

"Unngh…. Sunny-chan!" uttered Star with her last breath. "H-How… urk… could you…?"

In another moment, Star's face turned blue, her eyes closed and she stopped resisting. Sunny was still clutching her throat in an iron grip, smiling psychotically, even when her friend no longer showed any vital signs. Alice gasped in terror, but didn't lose her cool. She knew she didn't want to, but the situation didn't give her any other choice.

"I'm sorry, Sunny-chan…"

She pointed her finger at Sunny's head, closed her eyes and sent out a strong bright-green shot that punched a hole right through the fairy's temple, making her body limply fall on the floor with a silent thud.

A long moment of silence…

Only the sound of burning fires and cracking wood broke the deafening silence that settled itself in Alice's ears. She was still sitting there, horrified by what just happened and at what she just did. She tentatively stretched out her shaky hand to check any of the other two fairies' pulse. With disappointment she found out that they were all dead. Despite this, she pulled their bodies from under the table. With a snap, she summoned the last remaining dolls that were not destroyed in the onslaught and with their help she carried the fairies out of the burning house. Like a captain of a sinking ship, she was the last person to leave the place.

* * *

On the small clearing in front of her home, she saw Marisa kneeling over Reimu, trying to bring her back to life by heart massage and artificial respiration. Her attempts, however, were constantly thwarted by the unending hordes of insane fairies.

"That's it!" she exclaimed angrily and stood up. She wiped her lips with the back of her hand, pulled out her Hakkero, whispered her spell into it and pointed it at the largest cluster of fairies. "Love Sign "Master Spark"!"

The mini Hakkero started emitting a loud humming sound just a second before it unleashed an enormously wide white beam of magical energy with its edges flaring up in all other colors of the visible light spectrum. The sheer force of the spell produced a resonance powerful enough to make the nearby trees shake violently like during an earthquake. Needless to say that any fairy unfortunate enough to find itself in its way was met with a quick death, which to Marisa seemed too merciful. The witch instantly took out an entire flock of the little youkai with her initiate blast and while the spell lasted, she aimed her Hakkero to other directions, trying to bring down as many fairies as she could.

"Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrggh!" she yelled in fury as she turned the beam slowly, burning down fairies by dozens. "Die, die, die!"

And the fairies obeyed. Most of them, anyway... However, there was still quite a number of them even when Master Spark fizzed out. Alice hurried to assist Marisa in her effort, knowing that she couldn't help the Three Mischievous Fairies anymore. She still had enough dolls to muster up one final counterattack. She arranged them into a wide-spread X formation and each of the dolls began firing red or blue shots to decimate the remnant of the fairy legion. Marisa again resumed her attempts to resuscitate Reimu.

"Come on, Reimu! Don't leave me now!" she urged her while massaging her heart. "You can't die! What kind of a dumb epitaph would it be: "Killed by fairies"?" she tried to jest, but anxiety was wrenching her throat and altering her voice. Reimu still didn't respond, but at least Marisa could still feel her pulse. Finally, after a long nerve-wrecking while, Reimu started coughing and opened her eyes. Marisa let out a joyful gasp.

"Reimu!" she embraced the shrine maiden before she even figured out where she was.

"M-Marisa…?" muttered confused Reimu, wondering why was Marisa holding her like that.

"I'm so glad…" whispered the witch into her ear as she let go of her. "Now…" she stood up and crossed her arms, "get the hell up and let's finish off the rest of those fairies, ze!"

Reimu nodded silently and slowly got up on her feet. Then she and Marisa teamed up with Alice to crush the fairy offensive once and for all.

When the last squadrons of fairies regrouped into a formation, ready to shower Alice with their danmaku, she drew out her own Spell Card.

"Puppeteer Sign "Maiden's Bunraku"!"

The card turned into a large, semi-transparent purple orb that was launched against the fairies, but exploded halfway, bursting into several dolls which instantly stopped and fired multiple red beams. In the same direction the dolls fired short streams of smaller blue orbs, which followed the same trajectory as the previously fired beams, further reducing the numbers of the remaining fairies. The rest of Alice's dolls scattered small red shots, the movement of which resembled falling snow. However, it wasn't falling but slowly charging towards the last of the fairies. The process was repeated a few times and then Alice's spell ran out, leaving no fairies for Reimu and Marisa to shoot down.

* * *

"It's over…" muttered Marisa while panting.

"Yeah…" confirmed the wounded shrine maiden and stared blankly at Alice's burning house as well as the nearby trees which were also engulfed in flames.

"That was quite a something, ze… But we can't sit down and rest just yet!"

Marisa was right. Something had to be done about this spreading forest fire, but none of the girls' spells were ideal for such a task. They needed to get help. Alice looked down on the unmoving bodies of the three fairies that have fled to her house in hope to save themselves from the savage fairies, but she couldn't protect them in the end.

"Hey, Alice…" said Marisa as she put her hand on her shoulder. "No use crying over spilled milk… You know that they'll be revived soon, right?"

"Then…" said the youkai dollmaker with a trembling voice, "Why aren't they waking up yet?"

"It takes a while even for the fairies to respawn." Marisa comforted her. "They'll be fine in no time, but other people and youkai may be in danger. We need to put out this fire and see if we can still manage to save your house."

"But how do you plan to put it out when it got out of control already?" wondered Alice. "You know I don't have extinguishing spells or anything…"

"Neither do I."

"We'll need to get help of someone who can use water-based spells." said Reimu pragmatically and looked up at the small patch of sky that was visible from the small clearing. "Damn! It rains a whole week nonstop, but when you actually need the rain, it's always sunny…"

"Hmm… Nitori could help us, she has water magic." reasoned the witch. "And Patchouli, of course! She's an elementalist… and even lives closer from here than Nitorin… But then again, she's quite angry with me now…"

"We have no time!" urged Reimu. "Let's get going already!" she ordered and took flight, ascending quickly above the treetops. What she saw from above, however, took her breath away…

"Uh… This is NOT good…"

"What's not good, Reimu?" asked Marisa who followed her upwards along with Alice.

"That." she made a hand gesture along the whole panorama in front of her.

Besides the fire burning below them and spreading quickly, there were several other places especially in the northeastern part of Gensokyo from where dense black smoke was rising and orange flames were lashing.

"Oh, shit!" cursed Marisa as she gazed upon other separate fire sources in the distance. "Looks like we weren't the only ones attacked. We need to get moving!"

"I'll go find Nitori!" volunteered Reimu to take one of the tasks. "It also might not be a bad idea to get Cirno."

Marisa nodded and took a deep breath. "Fine, I'll go and ask Patchouli. Alice, you try to find the ice fairy. Let's move! Go, go, go!"

Each of them jetted at top speed towards their separate destinations. While they were all flying together for a while, Alice separated from the formation right above Misty Lake to look for Cirno, the ice fairy who was known to supposedly reside somewhere in the vicinity. Marisa headed straight for the mansion and Reimu continued northwest towards the base of the Youkai Mountain to find Nitori Kawashiro – a young kappa inventor, engineer and mechanic. The only kappa she was actually familiar with.


	32. State of Emergency

Soon Reimu reached the forest under the huge mountain, through which she was flying before only once. It was during another incident which entered the annals of Gensokyo history under the title "Mountain of Faith" in Akyuu's chronicle. It took place in autumn 3 years ago – in 122. During this period Reimu was visited by a stranger who claimed to represent the god of the mountains and ordered her to shut down Hakurei Shrine for good. Of course, Reimu was against it, and so, she went to undertake a little investigation, heading for the tallest mountain in Gensokyo in order to confront this mountain deity. On her way to the top, she met several minor kami and eventually, the kappa Nitori. She had a little run-in with Aya and finally, near the mountain's summit, she discovered another shrine – Moriya Shrine, where another shrine maiden served the bidding of her shrine's goddess. The conflict ensued as soon as the other miko explained that her task was to gather all of Gensokyo's faith for her mountain goddess. Of course, Reimu had to settle things with danmaku. Finally, after fighting through all that opposition, Reimu confronted the goddess herself above the lake near the Moriya Shrine, surrounded by tall pillars. The goddess intended to gather the faith in order to prevent overall decline of faith in all of Gensokyo's kami, which could even lead to them losing all their powers and throwing Gensokyo into a state of chaos. It was a tough battle for the young human miko, but she managed to beat the goddess in a Spell Card duel. Fortunately, as with all incidents, it all ended well. Kanako Yasaka, the goddess of the rain and wind was officially accepted by the tengu and kappa as the goddess of the Youkai Mountain and she pursued her monopolizing of faith no longer. No doubt she still gathers enough of it from the locals living on and near the mountain.

After a while of reminiscing, Reimu found a river near the foot of the mountain and slowed down her flight in order to be better able to look for the kappa.

"Nitori~! Oi, Nitoriiiii~!" she called out loud. As soon as she did that, she saw some movement with the corner of her eye. "What was that?" she tried to follow the movement but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. She then slowly descended and landed on the ground, taking a slow look around. Before her eyes she saw a brisk mountain stream being fed by a waterfall and continuing further southeast, flowing into the Misty Lake.

"No kappa in sight…" sighed the shrine maiden and decided to at least take a sip of the fresh mountain water and wash her face. Just as she knelt at the side of the stream and took some water into her palms a voice from behind startled her into almost falling into the river.

"Reimu-san?"

"Waaaah! Who?! What?!" asked the confused and frightened miko looking left and right, but unable to see anyone.

"Oh… please, wait a second." said the voice that could belong to young girl around the age of 15 to 18. Reimu could already tell who the girl was…

"Nitori? Where are you? I can hear you but…"

In the next second a girl's figure appeared out of thin air just a couple of steps in front of the confused miko.

"Ta-daaah~!" she called theatrically, striking a flashy pose. She was a little shorter than Reimu. Her hair was blue with a short pigtail on one side, and her eyes were of same color. She was wearing a blue dress that looked like it was made of some waterproof material and had many pockets around the hem of her skirt, where she had various tools, with which she applied her trade. She also had a large dark-green backpack for larger tools with its straps intersecting on her chest and holding a golden key like some sort of charm. Her head was covered by a green colored hat and on her feet she had a pair of blue knee-high rubber boots. She was now looking curiously at Reimu who didn't quite understand why was the otherwise shy kappa acting so flashy.

"Bet you didn't see me at all with my new Optic Camouflage mk2™!" said the kappa girl and smiled proudly.

"Uhh… well… just a little…" said Reimu tentatively, but quickly recalled that there was an emergency to solve and she didn't have time to praise Nitori's new invention. "Listen, Nitori, I need you to go with me somewhere!"

"Huh? Wait, what?"

"Gensokyo is threatened by numerous forest fires! We need your water magic! Come on, let's go!"

"B-But… But…" the kappa protested as Reimu was already dragging her by her hand and taking off into the sky.

"Wait up, Reimu-san!" called the kappa girl while pointing her finger at the summit of the Youkai Mountain. "If that's really true, wouldn't it be also worth our time to ask the goddess of the wind and rain to help us with this?"

Reimu stopped her flight and rolled her eyes down to look at Nitori who was tightly holding her hand and dangling in midair. The shrine maiden had dragged her away so suddenly that Nitori didn't even trigger her own flying ability.

"Hey…" Reimu raised an eyebrow at her. "You're quite heavy to carry around, you know…"

Only then Nitori slowly let go of the shrine maiden's hand and ascended so that their faces would be on the same level.

"But that wasn't a bad idea, by the way…" Reimu admitted and also focused her attention at the top of the mountain. "But we mustn't waste time. If she'll take too long to decide whether to help us or not, we're going to put out the fires without her."

Nitori nodded to those words and flew by Reimu's side all the long way to the upper part of this imposing mountain. Even though they were flying as fast as the aerodynamics allowed them, their flight took quite some time and the girls didn't remain unnoticed for too long.

* * *

"Hold it right there!" another female voice halted them. They didn't obey and continued on their way to Moriya Shrine. However, when a stream of brightly shining red and blue spheres zoomed past their shoulders from behind, they figured it might be a better idea to take care of their source first.

They stopped and as they turned around they saw a familiar girl flying towards them. It was Momiji Inubashiri – a white wolf tengu whose purpose was to guard the Youkai Mountain from any and all intruders. She was about Nitori's height and age in appearance. Her hair was short and white. She was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt and a black and red skirt. A red tokin was placed on her head to signify her identity with the tengu race. In her right hand she held a large scimitar-like sword and a white round shield with a red aralia leaf print. Her duty was to detain pretty much everyone who wasn't a tengu or a local resident of the mountain. Fortunately, she was well acquainted with Nitori.

"Hey, Momi-chan, this is an emergency!" called Nitori at the girl. "We need to get to Moriya Shrine. Let us pass, please!"

The wolf tengu tilted her head to the side. "Nitori? Oh… and you…" she frowned as she looked at Reimu whom she was also well acquainted with, although not in the friendliest way.

"We've no time to chat!" said the shrine maiden urgently. "Either get out of our way or get ready to go down like the last time!"

"Oh, wait, wait, wait, Reimu-san!" Nitori halted her before she said anything that could provoke an unnecessary fight. "Let me talk to her."

"Well, hurry up then!"

"Uhh, Momiji-chan, please forgive Reimu, she's just under a lot of stress, hehehehe~." giggled the kappa timidly.

"That gives her no excuse to trespass again into our territory." retorted Momiji and pointed the tip of her sword at the shrine maiden. "And the same goes for you, Nitori. You may be my friend, but my orders are strict and clear: no trespassers; period! If you want to go to the shrine, you need to ask lord Tenma for permission."

"You're a tengu, damn it!" shouted Reimu angrily and pointed at the smoke pillars on the northeastern horizon. "Don't you see it?! The forests are burning! If that's still not a good enough reason for you to let us pass to get help, then you're more stupid than you look. Besides, there's another human living near the top of your mountain and you let her stay, so what's your problem with me?"

"We've already dispatched several of our tengu agents to take care of the fires with their wind powers." said Momiji flatly. "There's no need to further concern yourself with it, shrine maiden. Just turn back and don't return without permission."

"Oh, gods…" uttered Reimu and slapped her own forehead. "You really ARE a dimwit! The wind powers of the tengu are just going to help the fires spread! What we need is water! Lots of it! Nitori here is already willing to help, but it would be even better if Kanako Yasaka would make it rain again." Her look turned from serious to very serious as her eyes narrowed and she drew out her gohei and pointed it at the wolf tengu. "Now… I'm giving you one last chance to stand down and let us pass. Otherwise, you know what the second option is…"

Momiji sighed with disappointment. "Then you really leave me no other choice."

She grudgingly tightened the grip around the hilt of her sword and with a swift swing she sent another barrage of shining blue and red spheres at the shrine maiden and the kappa. She was determined to follow her duty as was expected of her kind.

Reimu quickly dived backwards, distancing herself from the dense mass of shots and waiting until the cluster spread out a little to allow her to weave through safely. Time was running and Reimu really didn't have any time to waste with pointless Spell Card duels. However, it was already too late to resume negotiations.

Nitori immediately decreased her altitude and the wave of Momiji's shots flew over her head. She instantly reached inside her breast pocket to find a small metal box with a single button which she now pushed. In a flash of rainbow light, she faded out of Reimu's as well as Momiji's vision. The kappa just activated her cloaking field. What she did after that remained unknown for a while.

Just as Reimu found an opening in the dense cluster of enemy projectiles, she was surprised by the charging wolf tengu who came flying towards her, ready to slash her with her sword. Reimu instinctively set her body into horizontal position to evade the sharp blade. From this position she made a mid-air flip, not letting her eyes off her opponent. While she was floating upside-down for a single moment, she unleashed a stream of amulets at Momiji, who was just finishing her slash. But even when she was seemingly vulnerable, Reimu's amulets were stopped by Momiji's lightning-quick shield arm. The wolf tengu quickly recovered and repeated her slashes with greater force and speed. Reimu nearly didn't dodge the last of the attacks which cut off a part of her shirt, but didn't injure her body.

"Whoa! That one was close…" thought the shrine maiden, ready to take out her Spell Card to quickly end this little dispute. However, Momiji didn't want to allow it and charged at her face with her shield. In the last second, Reimu managed to notice this and block her face with her arms. A loud clang sounded as the shield met with Reimu's arms, which were already wounded from the previous battle against the fairies.

"Ow! Ouch, ouch, ouch!" grimaced the shrine maiden in pain as she dropped her Spell Card. "Oh, damn it!"

Momiji took the advantage of Reimu's momentary incapacitation and pointed her sword at her chest, which started glowing brightly red. "You should have listened to me, shrine maiden! Now it's payback time!"

Reimu's eyes widened in a frightened expression just as Momiji was about to unleash her finishing barrage to strike her down. But instead, a bright blue flash appeared behind the white wolf tengu girl and her head made a sudden kink from the impact that she received.

Momiji's vision swam and the grip on her sword loosened up, making her drop the weapon. The next second, she started falling down as well. However, just before she hit the ground, her fall suddenly stopped and the girl's unconscious body descended slowly and softly to the ground.

"What the…?!" wondered the confused shrine maiden as she watched the scene.

All was explained as a brief rainbow flash appeared and revealed Nitori holding the defeated tengu in her arms and putting her slowly on the ground.

"I'm very sorry, Momiji-chan, but Reimu-san is doing the right thing…" she whispered an apology to her wolf tengu friend. Once she put her down, she bowed to her and took off into the sky again to catch up with the shrine maiden.

Reimu smiled sweetly at the kappa. "Nice job, Nitori. Thank you…"

"I believe this is yours, Reimu." Nitori said and stretched out her palm with Reimu's dropped Spell Card.

"Thanks again, Nitori. You've saved me this time… I didn't expect you to go up against your friend like that."

"Sometimes even among the best of friends, conflicts can't be avoided." stated the kappa and looked closely at Reimu's wounded body. "But what on Earth did happen to you? Don't tell me that Momi-chan hurt you so much."

"That's a bit complicated to explain. Right now, we need to go to Moriya Shrine."

* * *

Nitori nodded and once more, flew in a side-by-side formation with Reimu to the plateau where they already saw the roof of a distant shrine and the glittering surface of the nearby lake, which was supposedly a part of Lake Suwa spirited away from the outside world along with the shrine. It was surrounded by tall hexagonal stone pillars decorated by shide – the zigzag paper streamers like the ones on Reimu's gohei wand and usually found hanging at Shinto shrines. The two of them landed right in front of the second of the two known shrines in Gensokyo. Since they didn't see anybody outside, Reimu and Nitori briefly knocked on the door and entered the shrine to see if the person they were looking for was inside. All of the three known residents were inside the living quarters, sitting at a table and having lunch.

The second shrine maiden in Gensokyo was about Reimu's age and height. Her hair was long, light-green and adorned by a snake-shaped hair accessory wrapped around her hair on one side and a small hair clip shaped like a frog's head. Apparently these were from the outside world. Since she was a shrine maiden, her outfit was very similar to Reimu's in style, but her color theme was blue-white instead. The blue parts of her clothes were also patterned with light-blue polka dots and stripes. Her shirt sleeves were also detached like Reimu's. She was surprisedly glancing with her dark-blue eyes at Reimu who just let herself into her shrine along with her kappa companion.

"Hakurei Reimu…" she stated coldly after giving the uninvited guest a once-over.

Reimu responded in the same manner, saying the other miko's name. "Kochiya Sanae…"

"What's the meaning of this rude incursion?" asked Sanae, still calmly. The other two persons sitting with her at the table also gave Reimu and Nitori questioning looks.

"There's a forest fire in Gensokyo~!" called Nitori from behind Reimu's back, waving her arms to get their attention. "I saw it! And it's not just one fire either!"

Reimu continued the thread of thought: "That's why we're here! To ask for your help, Kanako-sama…"

The person Reimu addressed was a tall young-looking woman with shoulder-length hair, the color of which was somewhere between blue and purple. Her eyes were dark-red. She was wearing a red shirt with long white sleeves. A palm-sized round mirror was hanging on her necklace over her chest. She also had a long dark-red skirt with brighter red flower patterns along the hem. Behind her back, floating by itself, was a thick shimenawa rope circle with hanging shide paper strips. On her head she had a circlet made of smaller shimenawa and decorated by bright-red leaves. She was the goddess Reimu was looking for. As she heard that Reimu needs her help, she couldn't hide her surprise.

"My help?" she asked and pointed at herself with her thumb. "To put out forest fires you say? Well, that's quite a serious problem, isn't it, Sanae?"

The green-haired shrine maiden rolled her eyes at the goddess in silence.

The third and the smallest girl in the shrine spoke after a while of silence. "Go with them, Kana-chan." she spoke with a childish voice. "Now is your time to return the favor to all the people for all the faith they have for you."

Despite her appearance, she was also a goddess. In fact, even older than Kanako. Her name was Suwako Moriya – the shrine's goddess of earth and one of the oldest gods living in Gensokyo. She looked like a young human girl with semi-long blonde hair and gray eyes. She was dressed in a simple purplish dress with wide white sleeves and frog print design on the front side. On her head she had a light-brown wide-brimmed hat with two frog eyes on top. The fact that its frog eyes were moving and blinking on their own gave the impression that it had a mind of its own.

Reimu still freshly remembered the Spell Card duel she had with her. Not because of any serious conflict, but just as a game. However, it was certainly one of Reimu's hardest earned victories.

"Are you going with me then, Suwako?" asked the other goddess while she was slowly standing up. "Earth can serve to put out fires just as well as water, if not even better."

Suwako's hat rolled its eyes in sync with the little goddess wearing it as she thought about Kanako's suggestion. "Hmm… Causing earthquakes and landslides in order to put out forest fires would bring more destruction than the fires themselves. This seems more like your cup of tea, Kana-chan."

"Very well." shrugged the tall goddess and bowed to her faithful shrine maiden, Sanae, and her fellow goddess, Suwako, and walked towards Reimu and Nitori. "Let's have a round two of the summer rain season…"

Reimu showed her thankful smile, bowed to the kami and led the way out of Moriya Shrine. Kanako followed her and once outside, she ascended into the air to take a good look around. She saw the spreading forest fires, but her face didn't show any signs of panic.

"Okay… Let's get started, shall we?" she said more to herself than to Reimu and Nitori.

"Then don't linger and come with us!" Reimu prompted her and waved her arm in a "follow me" gesture.

"There's no need." smiled the rain and wind goddess calmly "I'll just make it rain from here all over Gensokyo. The rest, however, will be up to you, and your kappa friend."

"Fortunately, we're not alone in this." said Reimu, hoping that Marisa and Alice managed to get someone who'd be able to deal with the spreading fires.

Kanako simply raised her arms above her head and without any chants or Spell Cards she made gray clouds appear in the clear blue summer sky. After just one minute, the clouds grew and covered up all the visible sky. Then Kanako gently waved her fingers as if she was playing an invisible piano and lowered both of her arms slowly.

A single drop of water fell down on Reimu's forehead. Then another one. And another… A cool rain started falling from the sky. Not too strong to make flying difficult, but not too light either. Kanako elegantly descended back to the ground.

"Well, I hope this helps… I wish you best of luck, Reimu and uhh… Miss kappa."

"Of course you helped! Thank you very much, Kanako-sama." thanked the shrine maiden turned to Nitori. "Let's fly and put out the one closest to my shrine first!"

"Okay~!" called the kappa and glided behind her, prepping her most effective water-based Spell Cards as she flew.

* * *

Marisa decided to take a more civilized approach and instead of breaking into the library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion through one of its windows, she landed in front of the huge manor and knocked on the main door. The door unlocked itself and slowly opened up before her. Sakuya, the head maid was already standing in the foyer with a very surprised expression, widened eyes and mouth agape.

"Umm… Hi, Sakuya. I uhh… I just came to visit Patchouli and… apologize. And ask a little favor from her too…"

For a witch that never cared much about trivialities such as good manners or feelings of other people and as someone who never in the history of the mansion's existence entered through its main door, Marisa was acting way out of her character. This was just too great a shock for poor confused Sakuya, who was standing as if frozen in time with the same bewildered expression.

"Uh… could I please come in, Sakuya? It's quite an urgent matter, you know."

Sakuya suddenly snapped out of her confused state and tentatively walked up to Marisa and put her palm on the blonde's forehead to make sure she wasn't sick or something.

"Hehehehe, I'm feeling fine, thank you." giggled the witch and entered the mansion's foyer.

The maid then placed her palm over her own forehead to make sure she wasn't the one who was sick and just hallucinating.

"You should take a vacation, Sakuya. You don't look so well…" Marisa smiled at her. "So, does that mean I can see Patchouli?"

"Uhh… You know the way, don't you?" muttered Sakuya and teleported somewhere away.

Of course, Marisa knew her way around the mansion, but she never was too used to taking the corridor and the descending staircase to enter its great library. Furthermore she was feeling kind of anxious to face Patchouli again after she was so forcefully driven out of her library. What was worse, Patchouli's radical and forceful action was quite well justified and even Marisa had to admit that. She mentally prepared herself as she walked towards the massive door of the library along the long darkened hallway. Just in case, she'd need it for immediate self-defense, the witch grabbed her mini Hakkero and put her tentative hand on the door's handle.

"Well, here goes nothing…" she whispered and opened the library door.

She saw the purple-haired librarian leaning over one of her tables over some book, but she was really surprised to see the younger Scarlet sister sitting there next to her and reading as well.

"Umm… Hello?" she sounded and closed the door behind her.

Both Patchouli and Flandre turned their curious and surprised faces at her.

"Ma-Marisa…?" stuttered Patchouli and stared disbelievingly.

Flandre's eyes sparkled with joy as she saw her. "Marisa-neechan~!" she exclaimed and hurried to welcome her by a sweet embrace. However, since she was incomparably stronger than any human, poor Marisa was knocked off her feet and landed on the carpet.

"Hey, Flan… Easy now!"

"Marisaaa~! Have you come to play?"

"Not now, Flan-chan, I need to talk to Patchouli…" uttered the witch, futilely trying to stand up.

"Aww, come on~! Just a little game of danmaku~…" Flandre insisted pleadingly. "Patchouli-sensei's lessons are sooo boring~."

"Like I said…" Marisa struggled to get herself from under the vampire's grip, "I don't have time to play… Now please, let me go already."

Only now did the little vampire realize that she was inadvertently incapacitating Marisa and released her from her embrace. Patchouli also stood up from her table and slowly walked to the witch who was now already back on her feet and dusting off her black and white clothes.

"Did you say you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Ah, yes… Patchouli," she looked straight into her purple eyes and took a deep breath, "I… I'm sorry for the last time for borrowing so many books at once… And for spilling your tea on you, but that was an accident."

Patchouli was in a loss for words for quite a while. She had experienced quite a lot of things in her over 1 century long life, but Marisa apologizing to her for stealing books would be a first. Furthermore, she thought that Marisa would never show up again after their last library incident, but here she was – standing in front of her and apologizing.

"Marisa… I'm… I'm also sorry for using Royal Flare on you…"

"No… It's fine. I kind of deserved that one, ze…"

"And I thought you were mad at me…" muttered the librarian and lowered her head.

"Ha! Ditto." smiled the witch and stretched out her right palm. "Friends?"

Patchouli nodded and took Marisa's hand to shake it. "Friends."

Flandre watched this scene curiously and a bright smile settled on her childish face. "Yaaay~! I want to make some friends too~!"

"But that's not all I've come here for…" said Marisa after a while.

Patchouli frowned and crossed her arms. "Oh… I should have known. You want to ask me some favor, right? More books?"

"No, no, no…" the witch shook her head with a sheepish grin. "The favor is that I need you to come with me now. There are several forest fires burning throughout Gensokyo, so I thought your water magic would be helpful."

"What? There's a forest fire and you tell me that so nonchalantly?!"

"I wasn't even sure if you wouldn't blast me with another Royal Flare if I showed up the way I usually do…"

"But this is different. It's an emergency. We should get going and probably ask someone else for assistance too."

"Heh… Never thought convincing you would be so easy." said Marisa. "Don't worry, Reimu and Alice went to get some help as well. The fires were started by some crazy fairies. Poor Alice… her house is now burning. We should put out that fire first."

"That sounds like fun~!" rejoiced little Flandre. "I would like to go with you and watch Patchouli-sensei put out fires, but it's raining outside…" she pouted disappointedly and pointed at one of library's windows. "Rain makes me and Onee-chan weak and sleepy…"

"What? Rain?" uttered the witch as she looked through the window. "I've never been so happy to see rain… Now we have a better chance. Are you ready to go, Patchy?"

"I'm ready." nodded the youkai sorceress and called for the head maid. "Sakuya~!"

"Yes, Patchouli-sama?" asked Sakuya who was suddenly standing between her and Marisa. "Do you want me to take care of this nuisance here?" she pointed her thumb back at the witch.

Marisa frowned at her remark. "Oi, oi…"

"No, Sakuya. I need to go out for a while and I want you to keep an eye on Flandre while I'm gone."

Sakuya threw a sidelong glance at the younger Scarlet sister and the vampire girl smiled sweetly back at her.

"Understood." she replied positively, but with an expression that said: "Why me?"

"Yaaay~! Sakuya~! Make me a triple chocolate, strawberry and vanilla parfait with extra whipped cream on top. And… and caramel pudding and… and that tiramisu that Patchouli-sensei likes and…"

"But Remilia-sama says I shouldn't stuff you with too much sweets." protested the maid, but Flandre continued stating her list of demands for another five minutes. Marisa and Patchouli were already on their way to Forest of Magic.

* * *

While Reimu and Marisa flew to their separate destinations to get some help, Alice was scouring the shoreline of Misty Lake, searching for Cirno, the ice fairy whose dwelling was rumored to be somewhere in that area. However, Alice knew well that all fairy dwellings were impossible to locate by humans. Even though Alice was a youkai, it didn't make her search any easier. Besides, fairies didn't necessarily linger around their dwellings, but enjoyed playing and exploring. She wasn't even hoping to find the ice fairy. After the third lap around the entire lake, she dismissed her effort, because she just got a better idea.

"This is pointless. But hey, I know who could help us with the fires. Although I've never talked to them personally…"

Alice didn't linger at the lake for another second. She took off to her new destination – the Temple of Myouren. In just 15 minutes, Alice made it to the outskirts of Human Village and to the one and only Buddhist temple in Gensokyo. Upon entering the temple, the puppeteer saw that the prayer hall was empty, so she entered the door behind the large Buddha statue.

"Uhh… Is anybody here?" she called into the dark narrow corridor, but got no response. She therefore proceeded further and repeated her call. Then she suddenly heard silent rapid footsteps as if somebody on the floor above just ran off somewhere. Then Alice could hear a childlike voice, dampened by the walls of the temple shout: "Byakuren-sama~! Hurry, hurry, somebody broke into the temple!"

Her heart skipped a beat as she stood there confusedly, knowing that the voice was most certainly referring to her. However, Alice believed that she'd be able to give a good explanation to whoever will show up and ask for one particular person's help to put out the forest fires. Although Alice never visited this place on her own, she heard about it and its inhabitants from Reimu and Marisa and also thanks to Aya's newspaper.

As she was trying to imagine the person whom she only knew by name, a sudden ray of light appeared at the end of the narrow wooden corridor, revealing stairs leading up to a trapdoor that was just opened. In the next moment a single foot wearing a black boot with white strip of cloth tied around it stepped down on the topmost of the wooden stairs, soon followed by another. The person who appeared a moment later was none other than the temple's owner, Byakuren Hijiri. Alice figured that out just by the description of her she had heard from her human magician friend.

"Who dares to desecrate the holy walls of the Temple of Myouren with acts of thievery?" she asked as she glanced upon Alice, standing more than five meters away from her in a poorly lightened corridor.

"Thievery? No, you're mistaken…" said Alice denyingly and walked up towards Byakuren. "I'm not like Marisa."

Byakuren eyed her carefully and suddenly stretched out her palm forward. Alice's immediate reflex was to crouch and cover her face as she expected to be attacked… But she wasn't.

"You…" muttered the monk, "You're a youkai…"

"Huh…? Yeah, I am…" said the blonde puppeteer as she stood up timidly. "I'm Alice. Alice Margatroid. I heard about you from a friend of mine…"

"And what are you doing here, Alice Margatroid? It must be something urgent, I assume…"

"Why yes, it IS urgent!" said Alice loudly. "Gensokyo's forests are burning and so is my house. I've heard that a person by the name of Minamitsu Murasa, who supposedly has some water manipulating abilities, lives here in this temple."

Byakuren widened her eyes, looking surprised and concerned. A forest fire in Gensokyo was certainly not a matter to be taken lightly. Indeed, Alice's info was correct: Minamitsu was one of the youkai who lived here at the temple. Byakuren confirmed that with a nod and hurried back up the stairs, asking Alice to follow. As the dollmaker climbed up the steep stairs to the second floor, she was immediately reminded that the temple was originally a ship. A flying ship in particular. She now found herself on its main deck, where she saw Byakuren leading the way to the captain's quarters. Byakuren tersely introduced herself to Alice as she led the way. There was also another, smaller girl on the main deck – a mouse youkai dressed in a brownish-black one piece dress with light-pink sleeves and a gray capelet. Her hair was gray and short, with a pair of round mouse-like ears sticking out. Her eyes were dark-red and staring intensely at the newcomer to the Myouren Temple. The mouse youkai also had a small necklace with a single blue crystal pendant. She even had a long gray tail, which was more catlike than mouselike and with that tail she was holding a mini basket with a normal non-youkai mouse inside. She seemed to be playing some sort of game with some mysteriously-looking metallic L-shaped rods. Alice had little next to no idea what they were supposed to be, but then again, she wasn't even that curious. The mouse youkai surely wasn't the person she was looking for. She just silently followed Byakuren's steps, which led to the front side of the deck. The youkai monk opened up the captain's quarters without even knocking and let herself in, holding the door opened for Alice.

"Please, come in, come in."

The blonde dollmaker followed her host inside. It was quite a large room with one large table with a map of some ocean and unknown islands. By the looks of it, the map was ancient. There were also various navigating instruments such as sextants and compasses placed on the main table and even an old brass spyglass. The rest of the room's furniture consisted of several wardrobes and storage chests and a single bed for the captain. The captain as Alice assumed was the girl sitting at the table with the map and writing something into a logbook.

She was rather pale with short black hair and teal eyes. She was wearing a white and teal sailor uniform, complete with a white hat and a red neckerchief. She looked preoccupied at the moment, but she did notice Byakuren and Alice enter her quarters and it didn't take her long to greet them both accordingly.

"Good afternoon, Byakuren-sama. And miss…"

"Alice Margatroid."

"It's time to mobilize the crew, Murasa." announced Byakuren and gestured towards her guest.. "Alice-san says there are fires spreading over Gensokyo's forests and our help is needed."

Minamitsu glanced at Byakuren with a puzzled expression. "Are we taking off with this ship?"

"No, of course not. We're going by ourselves. We'll offer a helping hand to anyone who needs it."

"Oh… Understood." nodded the captain of the Palanquin Ship and from the table she grabbed a simple wooden ladle. She then took off from the ground and floated just several centimeters above ground out of her quarters. Alice and Byakuren followed her outside and watched as Minamitsu floated up to one of the ship's masts and yanked a piece of rope hanging down to sound an alarm bell. In less than ten seconds the young mouse youkai showed up along with three other girls – all of them youkai.

One of them was a tall blonde whose short hair had also black stripes. Her eyes were golden-yellow. Her dress was burgundy-orange with white sleeves and collar and a tiger-pattern around the hips and abdomen. She also wore a pair of white frilly pants under the dress. There was a large white cloth circle attached to her back. Her head was decorated by an orange lotus-shaped ornament. In one of her hands she held a long spear with black shaft and diamond-shaped tip.

The second girl was wearing a white dress with dark-blue trim and a headdress similar to that worn by nuns, revealing only little of her short purple wavy hair. Her eyes were dark-purple and staring at the ship captain. In her hand she held a plate-sized golden ring and Alice could only guess what it was used for. However, Alice's attention was more captivated by the pink-reddish cloud swirling around the girl that appeared to have a face of an old man with a beard.

The third youkai girl was the strangest-looking of the lot. Even her arrival to the scene was unusual, since she appeared as a blue energy sphere that swirled around the mast and then materialized into the shape of this young girl. She had short black disheveled hair and dark-red eyes. She was wearing a tight short sleeved black dress with a short skirt, a narrow blue and white vertical trim in the middle and a small red bow tied below the collar. On the lower left side of her skirt she had a dark-red tomoe design, remotely resembling yin-yang pattern. She was also wearing black thigh-length stockings and bright-red shoes with red bows. The most eye-catching part about her was the wings. From the right side of her back stretched three large red metallic-looking blade-like wings with sharp tips, and from the left side jutted three dark-blue curved tails with arrow-shaped tips. In her right hand she held a long trident with a blue snake wrapped around its shaft and her forearm. On her left arm she had a black wristband. To Alice, this girl looked kind of dangerous, but her face and expression were rather friendly in contrast.

"My dear friends," started Byakuren once her "crew" assembled, "we have an emergency situation here." she told them with calm, but loud enough voice to be clear. Her hand then gestured to Alice as she continued her mission briefing. "This young youkai is Alice-san and she says that numerous fires are spreading over the forests of Gensokyo. While I know that nearly none of us, with the exception of Captain Murasa here, know how to deal with forest fires, I'm asking the rest of you to go with me and help those who are in immediate danger to escape. In other words: your mission is evacuation. Now let's not waste any more time. Alice-san, please lead the way."

Alice nodded and levitated upwards. "If you just fly up a little, you'll be able to see them all. They're to the north and northeast from here. I think the closest one is in the Forest of Magic."

As she said that, she could feel something cold and wet touch her nose. She looked up for a moment and caught a raindrop right in the eye, making her grimace and blink rapidly. It started raining.

"Looks like gods are with us." remarked Byakuren who followed the puppeteer in flight towards the Forest of Magic. "We're lucky it's still summer rain season…"

Alice sighed in her mind with a bit of relief, although she knew that her house and everything inside was now probably beyond any hope of rescuing. However, she had no time to despair, for she and Byakuren's team could still save Marisa's house and a major part of the forest itself.

"Okay, it seems there are fires burning in four different locations. We better split up." suggested Byakuren and turned to her teammates. "Murasa, you go with Alice. Ichirin, you'll try to prevent the Hakurei Shrine from burning down…"

The nun-like girl with her cloud companion nodded and split up from the group.

"Shou, Nazrin, you'll take the largest one over there. Me and Nue will try and help anyone who might be near the one in the far northeast." said the monk girl, giving further instructions to the tiger youkai and the mouse youkai. "If you put out the first fire, Murasa, don't waste time and proceed right to next one, okay?"

"Yes, Hijiri-sama." acknowledged the captain and then she split away from the group and followed Alice to the nearest fire.

* * *

"Thank you for helping me, Minamitsu-san." called Alice at Captain Murasa through the wind's howling as they flew at top speeds in a dramatic race with time.

"Don't thank me." said Minamitsu reservedly. "I'm just repaying Hijiri-sama a favor. It's her you should give a proper thanks to."

Alice shrugged at the girl's rather indifferent attitude, but she was grateful for her assistance. Whatever her reasons for helping others may be…

In less than ten minutes, the two girls reached the burning trees in the Forest of Magic and the clearing where Alice's house was standing. Captain Murasa prepared her wooden ladle and descended lower above the blazing roof of Alice's once beautiful home.

"Just stand back Alice-san. Leave everything to me. Perhaps we can still save your home… partially."

She then turned her ladle bottom side up and began pouring water in a steady unending stream down on the fires. By the looks of it, Alice figured that Minamitsu's ladle was a bottomless one, similarly like Suika's gourd had infinite sake. Although, if Suika would decide to put out the fires with her more concentrated version of this rice alcohol, she'd probably just fuel the fires to burn even more. However, the ladle in Minamitsu's hand actually had no bottom at all, so it should be physically impossible to contain any water. However, she just kept pouring more and more water out of it as if it could create water out of nothing. Murasa saw that this would probably take a while to put out completely, so she thought she'd speed up the extinguishing process a bit. She drew out a Spell Card and called: "Flood "Venus of the Bilge"!"

Then she dropped the card into her wooden ladle. A bright blue flash from it indicated that the spell was activated and Murasa once again turned it upside down over Alice's house. Hundreds of light-blue shining spheres spread out from the ladle and spread equally to form a dense layer hanging in air for a while, before they all fell down. Each of the spheres splashed as if it turned into a barrelful of water upon touching the ground. The fire was put out in a matter of seconds, but now, Alice's house was flooded. Captain Murasa didn't linger though. She suddenly turned green. Not just body, but her whole figure with clothes became green and blurry and she suddenly disappeared to appear several tens of meters above the burning trees of the Forest of Magic to stop the fires completely.

"What the hell is she?!" wondered Alice as she watched the captain repeatedly teleport herself in this strange blurry greenish form and pour water down on the fires. "What did Marisa say she was again…? Oh… I remember – she's a ship ghost." she muttered to herself as she recalled that bit of information. "A restless spirit of a shipwreck victim…"

Even though it was just as Alice said, she wasn't scared. On the contrary, she was relieved that Minamitsu managed to effectively put out one of the four forest fires with relative ease.

Once the ghost was done with her job, she appeared once more in front of Alice and smiled.

"Well, that takes care of that… I still have three to go. You don't have to go with me, Alice-san, but if you want, I won't hold you back."

Alice looked down upon the flooded clearing and immediately recalled that the three fairies that she tried to protect were still there, lying lifelessly on the ground.

"I think I'm not going to go with you, Murasa-san, but I'd still like to thank you." she said once she looked back at Minamitsu's face.

"Helping others is a rather… refreshing change from sinking ships in the past…" remarked the ghostly ship captain with a smile. Then she turned away and floated quickly towards the second fire source.

* * *

Alice landed on the clearing and with sorrow in her heart she looked at the remains of her house and at the bodies of the Three Mischievous Fairies, partially covered in muddy water.

"Why…? Why aren't they waking up yet? Shouldn't the fairies be immortal? And what on Earth would make Sunny kill her two friends in cold blood with her bare hands?" she asked in her mind as she put her hand on one of the fairies' necks in hope to feel some pulse.

"This can't be…" she blurted out with trembling voice. "What horrible thing has befallen all the fairies in Gensokyo? It's been over half an hour. Please, wake up already…"

The fairies usually didn't take long to resurrect, but for some unexplainable reason, these three were still not recovering. Alice was kneeling there by their bodies, asking herself hundreds of questions, the answers to which she couldn't come up with. She blamed herself for not being able to protect someone in need of her help. Despite being a youkai, her heart was just as sensitive and fragile as any human's. If not even more so… She began sobbing and couldn't stop. She just hoped nobody would come and see her like this.

…

She didn't know how long she was sitting there. Cold rain was showering every square centimeter of her body, but she ignored it completely. She was unable to think of what to do next when a silent voice inside her head said: "Don't cry… Alice…"

"That's easy for you to say…" she murmured a reply to her inner voice, still unable to stop her tears from rolling down her cheeks.

"Don't cry, Alice-chan…" the voice repeated itself, still sounding weak and distant.

Alice didn't respond. She just silently wiped her eyes with a handkerchief, when she felt something pull her by the skirt. Surprised by this, she opened her eyes wide to see Star Sapphire holding a fold of her dress in her shaky hand.

"Don't… cry…" she murmured once more.

Alice now figured that the voice wasn't that of her inner self, but of one of the three fairies.

"S-Star-chan?" she stuttered unclearly, but in her heart she rejoiced that the fairies still did resurrect as was expected of them.

"Huh? What…? What happened?" asked Luna as she stirred about a little and opened her eyes.

"Alice-san? Is that you?" sounded the weak voice of Sunny who was lying between the two other fairies.

"Sunny-chan, Luna-chan~!" exclaimed Alice happily and helped them stand up. "I'm so glad… I was worried you wouldn't revive yourselves."

The three little youkai were still very weak and barely able to stand on their own, but they each expressed their gratitude to Alice for trying her best to protect them.

"So, are the evil fairies all gone now?" asked Luna timidly, still trembling from the memory of the recent event.

"Yes. Me Marisa and Reimu had to wipe them all out…" the puppeteer acknowledged and looked at her ruined house. "But they've caused a lot of damage and even started several forest fires."

"Oh no…" moaned Star with worried face. "Our home… I bet it's completely destroyed now…"

"If I still had a home to take you in, believe me I would, my dear fairies… But…Sunny-chan…"

"Yes? What is it?" asked the sunlight fairy with a confused look.

"Don't play like you don't know. What's gotten into you?! How could you do something so horrible to your best friends?!" inquired Alice scoldingly.

The fairy looked genuinely puzzled and she looked left and right at her friends, asking them without words what was Alice referring to.

"I… What are you talking about Alice-san? Did I do something?"

"You don't remember?" asked Luna and Sapphire at the same time.

"You…" Alice paused herself for a second, "…strangled them both. You were crazed… Just like the rest of those other fairies."

"What?! No! It can't be…" rejected Sunny Milk vigorously. "That's a lie! I couldn't possibly have done something so monstrous to Luna-chan and Star-chan… Right…?" she bashfully glanced at her friends again.

Both fairies were silent.

"W-Why are you so quiet? Tell me that it isn't true! Tell me… Tell me…" she started disbelievingly shaking her head in denial. "Oh no… No! Impossible! Unthinkable…!" she shouted and burst into tears.

"So Sunny-chan got possessed by something?" wondered Star who took pity of her crying friend and comforted her by a lovely embrace. "I figured it wasn't really you… But I was scarred…"

"You must all hate me now~!" cried poor Sunny into Star's shoulder.

"That's not true!" opposed the black-haired fairy. "We don't know what exactly happened, but the same thing could have happened to just any of us…"

"That's right." Luna seconded and joined the embrace by throwing her arms around the other fairies' shoulders. "It wasn't your fault, Sunny. We still love you~!"

Sunny was just as confused as she was happy at that moment. "Forgive me…"

"We already have." Star smiled at her reassuringly. "But… I'm getting really cold, standing in this water…"

"Oh… That's right…" Luna realized the fact that she was standing knee deep in water and wondered where it came from. "Why is there so much water on this clearing?"

Alice gave a quick recounting of the recent events and added that she was very happy that the three fairies were now alright.

"We… We thank you so very much, Alice-chan~!" said Sunny and with the other two of her fairy friends, she floated up and kissed the blonde puppeteer sweetly on her cheek.

Alice smiled and embraced all three of them. "Now I just hope Marisa and Reimu had at least as much luck finding some help as I had…"

* * *

The shrine maiden and the young kappa finally reached the vicinity of the Hakurei Shrine. Despite the rain provided by the goddess Kanako, the fire has spread over an area nearly as large as the Scarlet Island. Just a few hundred meters away from that inferno stood the still unharmed Shinto shrine of the last living descendant of the Hakurei clan.

"Looks like we don't have much time." said Reimu as she was nearing the huge pillars of fire along with Nitori. That's when she saw that some really unusually colored smoke was rising from the flames.

"What's that?" she wondered as she tried to take a better look, but the immense heat made it impossible for her to get any closer to the fires than she already was. Furthermore, if she'd fly too high, she'd suffocate in the smoke cloud. Then the pink-colored smoke began swirling as if it had a mind of its own and began circling very fast around the entire burning area, like some sort of magical hurricane. For a split second, Reimu caught a glimpse of an old man's face in that smoke…

"Wait a minute… That's Unzan, isn't it? That means Ichirin must be here as well."

And it was just as the young shrine maiden assumed. She saw a girl's figure floating further from the fire and manipulating the cloud-like youkai to prevent the fires from spreading any further.

"Okay, Nitori. Do your stuff." Reimu gave the kappa permission to unleash her spells and the blue-haired girl obliged.

"Water Sign "Kappa's Great Illusionary Waterfall"!"

Reimu gasped as she saw that Nitori wasn't taking things easy and utilized one of her most powerful spells right from the start. The card, as its name suggested, created a thick glimmering veil of blue water shots and turned the raindrops into even more projectiles. Once there was enough of magic water spheres gathered, the kappa let them all fall down at once. It really looked like a giant magical waterfall that poured down and mercilessly doused the flames with a loud hissing sound. The shrine maiden observed the bullet pattern and quietly thought to herself that if she were to face this Spell Card in a duel, she'd hardly be able to find even a small opening in time to avoid being flushed by the tremendous force of falling water.

"Hey, Nitori~!" she called at her from a distance. "When I told you to put out the fires I didn't mean that you could flood the entire Gensokyo~!"

"Don't worry, Reimu~!" shouted Nitori back. "I've got it all under control~!"

And all the water that has fallen to the ground got instantly turned into danmaku again and levitated back up to keep the waterfall's stream steady and dense. The forest fire didn't stand a chance.

Once the last little orange tongue died out and the last piece of kindling wood stopped emitting smoke, Nitori and Ichirin landed down in the large clearing that was created after the trees were burned and subsequently flushed down. Ichirin looked a bit surprised to see what the little kappa was capable of. Nitori, on the other hand, breathed heavily as the spell put a lot of stain on her, exhausting both her spirit and body.

"I…*huff, huff* I can't… *huff, huff* go with you any more… *huff, huff* need to rest a while…"

"Pull yourself together, Nitori! We still need to put out more fires!" Reimu tried to encourage her to stand up.

That's when Ichirin walked up to her with the cloud youkai Unzan now shrunken to a much smaller size, hovering beside her and silently staring at the two other girls.

"Don't worry, Byakuren-sama sent out her entire team to help with the fires and to rescue anyone who ended up trapped by them. Me and Unzan will now go and help to put out the rest of them…" she said and took off, but stopped shortly afterwards to turn around. "And in the name of Byakuren-sama, I thank you both for assisting me."

* * *

With that said, she flew up into the sky to continue her task. Reimu was now faced with a dilemma. On one hand she felt it was her duty as a shrine maiden to help any people in need and go along with Ichirin to help with the rescuing, but on the other hand, she was reluctant to leave the exhausted kappa alone in the middle of a burned-down forest. Furthermore, she herself was injured badly enough, and she wasn't too sure if she'd be able to manage another fast flight. Therefore, the shrine maiden decided to stay with Nitori, helped her stand up and supporting each other's tired bodies, they slowly walked towards the shrine.

"At least… my effort wasn't completely useless…" uttered the kappa weakly as she dragged her feet over the scorched earth.

"Of course it wasn't, Nitori. You helped a lot. I… I almost wonder why we didn't become friends much sooner."

"Hehehe…" Nitori giggled quietly. "The first time we met I was a bit scared of you, Reimu-san."

"Yeah, but then you went on the offensive." remarked the shrine maiden as she recollected their first encounter.

"I just wanted to scare you away from even greater danger that lurked further on top of the Youkai Mountain."

"Your intention was good, but if I listened to you back then all of Gensokyo's faith would have been taken by Kanako and I'd be forced to close down my shrine."

"I know, I know… But… when you come to think about it… Didn't you meet most of your friends in some sort of conflict?"

Reimu smiled and snorted to acknowledge Nitori's claim. "That's right… And to think a good part of the incidents I resolved were actually a misunderstanding on my part… Like the one with Byakuren for instance… I guess not all youkai need to be hunted down without mercy…"

They finally reached the end of the forest and entered the shrine yard. With sighs of relief they both sat down inside the shrine at Reimu's kotatsu. Suika was somewhere away, so Reimu reluctantly stood up again to make some tea…

"You're hurt, Reimu… You should go see Doctor Eirin."

"I will… But first, I'm going to rest a little."

The water boiled in a couple of minutes and Reimu poured it into two cups, putting a tea bag into each of them.

"Say, Reimu-san…" sounded Nitori as she was blowing at her tea in order to cool it down a little. "Do you think that Kanako-sama's rain will be enough to stop the rest of the fires?"

"Perhaps not by itself, but I asked Marisa and Alice to get help of Patchouli and Cirno. Even though the latter of the two is a rather questionable solution to the problem… I hope that Marisa managed to convince that sorceress to get out of her library since she doesn't do that very often."

* * *

When the human and youkai magicians flew out into the falling rain from the Scarlet Devil Mansion, they quickly noticed that the fire over the Forest of Magic was put out already.

"Well, that's one less problem to deal with." remarked Marisa and changed her course to the next fire source – burning far to the east from the lake, near the road to Kazemura. They both flew as fast as they could, and yet, it took them over 10 minutes to get to their destination. Once they were near the fire, they saw that it was really huge, enveloping a vast area of the local woods. It was raining, but the rain did little in the way of stopping the blaze.

"Mukyu~. I should have taken an umbrella…" murmured Patchouli feeling her nightgown getting wet, but she instantly got an idea how to deal with this inconvenience. She made an intricate hand movement and with a silent incantation she made a thin water bubble around her body which kept her safe from the rain.

"Ha! Who needs an umbrella when you have magic like that?" said Marisa with a smirk. "But… This fire may be too much for you to handle by yourself, Patchy…"

"I… I'll try my best anyway." replied the librarian and drew out a card.

"Just make sure you don't use one of your fire spells by accident."

"What kind of idiot do you take me for? Water Sign "Princess Undine"!"

Patchouli shot out several straight-line streams of blue water spheres into over a dozen different directions, making even Marisa quickly make an evasion maneuver so she wouldn't get hit.

"Whoa, Patchouli! I'm not on fire, you know…" she shouted at her friend, but she was already in the spell-induced trance and didn't respond to her.

Aside from the misdirected streams of water, Patchouli released long narrow ice shots, leaving only a narrow gap in-between them. Marisa found a safe spot in the air and watched the card's effect for a while before she shouted: "You could have picked something more effective. You're not having a danmaku battle! You're trying to extinguish a freaking huge fire, ze!"

Patchouli's spell faded and it looked like it didn't do anything at all.

"Come on, don't you have something more effective in that deck of yours?"

"Well… umm… I do… But it's still just experimental. Not tested yet…"

"Then I don't know what better opportunity for testing out your new Spell Card are you waiting for. Cast, cast, cast!"

Patchouli sighed, tentatively drew out her new water-based Spell Card and stared at its picture for a while. There was a wave-shaped pattern of small and large blue water projectiles drawn on its front side. The elemental sorceress raised her hand with the card and declared her new spell: "Tidal Sign "Airborne Tsunami"!"

The card disappeared in a flash of bright blue light and even Patchouli herself began glowing in the same colored light, which gradually faded and concentrated in her fingertip as a bright blue shining sphere. She pointed her finger in the direction of the fire and released thousands of bubble-like blue spheres of various sizes in a large horizontal layer. There were so many of the shots that it resembled a flood spreading across the air towards the fire. Then Patchouli raised her arms slightly upwards and lowered them again to create a huge curve in the brutal water stream and even intensified the stream below the "surface" of this spell, making it impossible for any potential opponent to evade the barrage by staying below the wave. The only option was either to find split-second openings in the walls of the waves themselves or to fly over them at the risk of getting hit by randomly scattered magical droplets of water. It was truly overwhelming. Definitely one of Patchouli's most powerful spells. Even though she didn't have the energy to keep it up for too long, the tsunami managed to put out the major part of this large forest fire with ease.

"Wow… Patchouli…" uttered the blonde witch who stared at the whole scene from behind her back. "When did you learn something so powerful?"

"Not too long ago."

"But as you can see, we've only put out one half of the fire."

The purple-haired youkai girl raised a brow. "We?"

"Well, you did it, hehehe~." giggled Marisa as she corrected her statement. "But what do you expect me to do? Use my Master Spark against it? Only you can do it. Cast that wave one more time!"

"Wait a second. You know haw exhausting it was to maintain that last spell? It'll take a little while for me to recharge my magic power."

Marisa didn't put any effort in order to hide her displeasure. "Oh, great. Now what are we supposed to do? Sit by and wait till the whole forest burns to ash?! I should have known that an asthmatic and anemic youkai with poor health like you wouldn't be much of a help…"

Patchouli lowered her head in self-disappointment and despite the fact that she found Marisa's last remark offending, to say the least; she didn't have any arguments to oppose her.

"Geez… At least I should have taken an umbrella. This hat doesn't provide too much protection from the rain." Marisa said another complaint.

Then, all of s sudden, both magicians were startled by an unknown girly voice shouting from behind them.

"Surprise~!"

"Whoa!"

"What the…?!"

Both Marisa and Patchouli exclaimed as they turned around in shock. For a while they silently stared with their mouths slightly open at the person who sneaked up on them from behind.

"Who are you?" Patchouli was the first to break the silence. However, Marisa already knew this person, unlike the librarian who rarely ever went outside of the mansion.

"K-Kogasa-chan?!"

"Tehehe~!" the girl giggled innocently and stuck out her tongue. "I surprised you both."

She was a pretty and young youkai girl with shoulder-long turquoise hair. She was wearing a same colored vest on top of a plain white shirt and a medium-length light-blue skirt. On her feet she had a pair of geta. One of the features that made it clear to anyone that she was a youkai were her dichromatic eyes – one turquoise and the other one dark-red. The second feature, and more obvious even from a greater distance was the purple umbrella that she was holding. It's not that umbrellas were something uncommon in Gensokyo that was exclusive to youkai, but this girl's umbrella had a one large red eye and a really long red tongue sticking out of its crooked mouth. Furthermore, it even had a mini geta sandal on its "foot" at the base of its shaft. She was a karakasa – an umbrella that aged at least a hundred years and became a youkai. The purple umbrella she carried was an independent part of her own self. Or perhaps it was something like remains of her "shell" after she transformed into human shape.

"You know her?" Patchouli asked Marisa, curiously eyeing the girl hovering in front of her.

"Kogasa-chan~!" Marisa repeated the girl's name with a happy expression. "I've never been so glad to see an umbrella… uh… I mean an umbrella youkai… That was a very pleasant surprise from you." she added and surprised the youkai by a spontaneous embrace.

"Um… Marisa? Are you feeling alright?" asked Patchouli with concern for her friend's mental condition. Even Kogasa herself was very confused by the witch's unexpected affection towards her.

"You know some water spells too, don't you?" Marisa asked her as soon as she let her go.

"Why, yes, I do…" the youkai girl replied. "Surprising, isn't it?"

Marisa knew that a youkai such as Kogasa wasn't really dangerous to humans, since instead of human flesh or blood, she fed on people's emotions. In Kogasa's case that emotion was surprise and perhaps a little bit of fear. The blonde magician took that piece of knowledge into good use.

"Do you know what would surprise us even more, Kogasa-chan?"

The girl's eyes widened and her slightly opened mouth made a little "o" shape on her face.

"What? What?" she demanded an answer. "What will make you even more surprised?"

"If you'd manage to put out this forest fire with your magic."

"Really? Ha! Just you two watch with surprise as I douse these flames with my beautiful danmaku~!"

Kogasa took out her card and flew towards the fire; just close enough to stay away from the choking pillar of smoke. Then she unleashed her magic: "Surprising Rain "Guerrilla Typhoon"!"

Not a second later a brutally dense magic rainstorm started pouring diagonally down out of thin air. What's more, it even turned normal raindrops into replicas of the magic water bullets that showered a very large area. The flames were not dying easily, but Kogasa was determined to keep her spell up for as long as it was necessary.

One whole minute has passed, which was already above the standard limit of this spell's duration and the youkai girl stared to lose her strength.

"Kogasa-chan~! Don't give up~!" Marisa supported her from afar. "You can do it~!"

The flames were gradually disappearing in white clouds of smoke, but so was the effect of Kogasa's Spell Card. She gritted her teeth, as her hovering was starting to become shaky and uncontrolled. She was giving it her all and pushed her effort beyond extreme. For the final few seconds, her rain barrage became so dense that it was literally a wall of magic water shots without any possible opening for a human to squeeze through. This put a finishing blow to the local forest fire for good. However, just as the spell ran out, Kogasa started falling down fast.

"Oh no! She fainted from the strain!" Marisa shouted and hurried as fast as she could to the girl, but she was too far. Kogasa would surely fall and break all her bones in the next second. Just before she hit the ground, Marisa closed her eyes so that she wouldn't see the gruesome scene…

She wasn't sure if it was due to the sound of the rain drumming on her hat or due to the sound of her heart pumping loudly from the shock, but she didn't hear any thud that would indicate Kogasa's fall. She tentatively opened one of her eyes and saw something really surprising…

There was another girl dressed in black with red and blue wings, holding the umbrella youkai in her arms, hovering just a meter above the ground. Just as Marisa processed her train of thought to realize what just happened, Patchouli caught up to her to see what happened to Kogasa.

"Nue~!" exclaimed Marisa joyfully at the black-haired girl who just saved Kogasa from the fall.

The girl looked up at the witch and winked with a smile. "You are the friend of that miko… Marisa Kirisame, am I right?"

"Oh, you remember~! Yes, that's my name, ze."

Patchouli gave Marisa a surprised glance and whispered: "It's almost suspicious how you're acquainted with everyone we meet…"

The witch shrugged and retorted: "If you ever went outside, you'd make a lot of interesting new friends as well, Patchy."

"So she's a friend of yours?"

"Well, not much, but at least she's not my enemy… I'll introduce you to her."

"Wait, you don't have to…" objected the sorceress, but was ignored completely.

"Nue-san, this is another friend of mine. Her name's Patchouli Knowledge and she just managed to put out one half of this huge forest fire."

"Really?" Nue kept smiling and just nodded to greet the Scarlet Devil Mansion's librarian. "I'm Nue. Nue Houjuu. Pleased to meet you, Patchouli. I'd even shake hands with you, but…" she beckoned with her head at the girl she held with both of her arms. "Looks like the poor karakasa overdid it with her spell…"

Marisa floated towards the unconscious Kogasa and noticed that she was still breathing slowly, as if she was just sleeping. "Looks like it, but… I'm amazed. She actually finished off this damn fire. We owe her a big one now, don't we?"

"That we do." acknowledged Nue and brushed away a strand of hair from Kogasa's eyes using her tail-like left wing. "I ought to take her to the temple…"

"Wouldn't Eientei be a better idea?" Patchouli suggested more suitable alternative.

"Eientei, huh?" repeated Nue and looked a bit spaced-out for a moment. "Perhaps that's a better choice, but… I've never been to that place yet, so I don't know the way."

"I could show you," Marisa volunteered to guide her, "but what about that last fire?"

Her question was answered by another female voice coming from above. "We just managed to put it out. Thanks to Captain Murasa, Ichirin and Unzan."

The witch and the librarian both looked upwards to see Byakuren Hijiri slowly descending to the ground along with the rest of her company: Shou Toramaru – the tiger youkai, Nazrin – the mouse youkai, Minamitsu Murasa – the ghostly captain of the Palanquin Ship and Ichirin Kumoi the youkai with ability to manipulate the cloud spirit Unzan.

"Byakuren-sama." Marisa greeted her by bowing and whispered to Patchouli: "This one is the monk who runs that new temple near Human Village."

"Oh…" muttered the librarian as she recalled what Marisa told her about this person. "It's a pleasure to meet you… Byakuren-sama."

A simple glance was enough for the Buddhist monk to tell that Patchouli was a youkai, but she never made any differences between humans or youkai. She treated them all equally and charitably.

"Likewise, Patchouli-san." bowed the monk and gave her a friendly tap on the shoulder. "Looks like all the fires have been stopped… Nazrin, Shou, did you have to rescue anyone?" she asked her friends.

"No, Byakuren-sama." Shou replied and shook her head lightly. "All of these fires were fortunately in mostly uninhabited areas and the youkai who dwelled near them all managed to escape without the need for our assistance. However, we had to drive a few tengu away who tried to put out the fires with their fans. They'd just help the fire to spread faster that way."

"That's good news." Nodded Byakuren and lowered her face to look at Kogasa in Nue's arms. "I'm fairly sure she'll recover just fine, but in any case, it might be better if someone more specialized in health care took a look at her as well. Marisa-san, would you be as kind as to go with Nue and show her the way to Eientei?"

"No problem, ze. But first I'd like to see if Reimu and Alice are alright."

"Very well, then. Let us go together. I'd also like to ask her a few questions…"

* * *

With that said, all of the girls headed off to Hakurei Shrine, this time flying at a slower pace, content that they managed to avert a major threat to Gensokyo's forests. Even Patchouli, who felt like she was no longer needed there, followed them. The rain invoked by Kanako was gradually weakening and by the time the girls reached the shrine, it stopped completely. They landed in front of the shrine's entrance and Marisa took a peek inside.

"Oh… Reimu, you're here. And even Nitori~! Hi there~!"

"Marisa. How did you do?" Reimu asked her and slowly stood up from the table, using her arms to support her weight. "Did you manage to find any help?"

"Actually…" the witch smiled and slid the shrine's door fully open to reveal all the other girls standing in the front yard of the shrine. Reimu's as well as Nitori's faces looked surprisedly at the group that has come with Marisa.

"Good afternoon, Reimu-san." Byakuren greeted her warmly and bowed to the Hakurei shrine maiden. "Can we come in for a while?"

"Uhh… yes, sure, come in…" she invited them, but her surprised expression still persisted.

The group of girls wiped their feet and with respect, they entered the shrine.

"It's a little messy at the moment, but I don't have the energy to clean up now…"

"Reimu-san…" Byakuren looked at the shrine maiden's wounds and torn-up clothes. "Oh my… Are you alright? We should take you to that Eientei place right away…" she said with concern.

Reimu just brushed her off. "I've been through worse… But I was planning on visiting Eientei anyway. Need to restock up on my medicine… Did you manage to do something about those fires?"

Byakuren nodded and gestured at the girls standing behind her, especially at Minamitsu, Patchouli and Kogasa, who was still unconsciously lying in Nue's arms. "These are the heroines who managed to put an end to that inferno."

"Oh, Patchouli… I thought I'd never see you at my shrine again." said Reimu and then glanced at Marisa. "How did you convince her, Marisa? Did you promise to return all of her books you borrowed?"

"Would you believe it was much easier than that?" smiled the witch and flicked the edge of her hat. "Patchouli didn't hesitate to help when she heard about the fires. And by the time we left the mansion, the fire at the Forest of Magic was put out already."

"Oh, that's right! What about Alice?" Reimu wondered. "Does anyone know where she is?"

"Alice-san… Yes, she was the one who came to us and informed us about the fires. Last time I saw her was flying to the Forest of Magic along with Murasa." answered Byakuren and turned to her ghostly captain friend.

"And the last time I saw her was on the clearing where I put out the fires." Murasa completed the information. "I'd say she's still there."

"So Alice went to ask you for help instead of Cirno…" muttered the shrine maiden. "She's smarter than I thought… We should see her if she's okay. Her house most likely isn't, though."

"I haven't taken my broom with me today. Are you still able to fly?" Marisa asked with concern.

"I don't know, but I'll try…" said Reimu and helped Nitori to stand up. "Oh, and this is another heroine of the day – Kawashiro Nitori, to those who don't know this kappa yet…"

Nitori blushed and denyingly shook her head. "That's not true… If it weren't for Reimu-san… and even Kanako-sama, we'd still be in trouble."

"I guess that every one of us did our part here." said Byakuren wisely and offered a helping hand to the injured shrine maiden. "We'll help you fly if you're too tired. Now, we'll stop at Alice-san's place and see if she's okay. After that, we're going straight to Eientei. I need to know where it's located in order to be better able to help those in need… Perhaps even establish some sort of cooperation between our institutes."

"Okay, then. Let's go…" said Marisa and was the first to take her feet off the ground.

Reimu tried to fly as well, but she couldn't maintain her altitude and so, Byakuren took her by the hand and carried a part of her weight.

"Reimu-san…?"

"Hm? What?"

"Do you know what started all those fires?"

"Yes. Fairies." Reimu replied tersely, still trying to recollect the earlier event that happened in Kazemura. Today's attack was remarkably similar – hundreds of fairies frantically attacking a certain area and everything and anyone within it. This definitely wasn't their natural behavior and the young shrine maiden doubted that the cause for their behavior was of natural origin either. Another thing that the miko found unusual about these attacks was the fact that they all happened mostly in the northeastern part of Gensokyo.

"There's definitely something weird going on in the northeast… Kazemura or otherwise… But northeast nonetheless."

"But the Forest of Magic was now also attacked. And that is pretty much in central Gensokyo." Marisa pointed out. "And your shrine too is just as close to the northern edge of the border as it to the southern one."

Patchouli also reminded everyone that the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which lies in the northwestern part of Gensokyo, was also attacked a few times, but all the attacks came from the east.

"We definitely need to focus our attention at the northeast. The idea that someone might be manipulating the fairies really bothers me." Reimu affirmed her previous claim.

"It'd be troublesome indeed." said Byakuren.

Reimu chuckled at Byakuren's understatement. "Troublesome? Just imagine that somebody would gain the power to manipulate all the fairies in Gensokyo and coordinate them to do their bidding… It would mean that that someone would have a nearly unstoppable army consisting of millions of immortal creatures. That wouldn't be troublesome; that would be catastrophic."

"But how are we going to find out the source of the fairies' madness?" wondered Marisa who was helping Nitori to stay up in the air as they were nearing Alice's home.

"Hmm…" Patchouli hummed thoughtfully. "Perhaps… No, no, no… That's stupid." She dismissed her idea before she even put it into words.

Marisa raised her eyebrow as she looked at her. "Your ideas were never stupid. Well, maybe if you'd drink too much sake, but I never saw you drunk either so… Just go ahead and tell us!"

"Well…" she started rather tentatively and shrugged. "My guess is as good as any, but… Maybe if we managed to somehow capture one of the fairies in that enraged state, we could learn more from it…"

"Well, that's a bummer, ze. Me, Reimu and Alice fried them all when they attacked us…"

Just as Marisa said that, the group had reached the flooded clearing around Alice's house which was now in very bad shape. They didn't land, just descended and floated a few centimeters above the water's surface.

* * *

"Geez. What a mess…" stated Marisa tersely, but accurately assessed the state of both the clearing and the house in front of her.

Captain Minamitsu Murasa gave out a semi-guilty giggle, as she was the one who caused the flood for the greater good.

"Alice~! Are you in there~?" called the witch before she floated into her house through the doorway that was missing a door. She found her there, standing at the kitchen table and putting those things that weren't destroyed in the fire on a pile. The Three Mischievous Fairies were all helping her with that. As Marisa entered, followed by Reimu and Patchouli, Alice turned her pleasantly surprised face at them.

"Ah… Marisa, Reimu… and even Patchouli… It's good to see you again. Is everything under control now?"

"If you're referring to the incidents, then hardly…" replied the shrine maiden negatively. "But if you meant the fires, then yes, at least those have been taken care of."

"Oh, by the way, I see that the three fairies have risen from the dead." remarked Marisa on a side note. "What did I tell ya?"

Alice smiled weakly as she glanced at them. "You were right… But it took them unusually long to resurrect. Even now they feel very weak. I tried to convince them that they don't have to help me gather my still useable things, but they insisted."

"But how did they die in the first place? Did they suffocate from the smoke?"

"No, Marisa. One of them started to act just as all those aggressive ones and killed the other two. I was forced to use deadly danmaku on her."

"So the symptoms are partially contagious…" muttered Patchouli to herself. "Which one of the three was it?"

Alice quietly pointed at Sunny Milk. "That one… But after her rebirth, she didn't remember anything at all."

"Just like those fairy maids of ours… Maybe it's some kind of virus. We should have them looked at by Eirin-sama." suggested the librarian.

"Yes, I was planning to go with them as soon as I gather my things…" said Alice and her voice suddenly became shaky with sorrow that she felt. "As you might have noticed, this house is no longer inhabitable…"

"Alice…" Marisa whispered her friend's name. "Don't worry… You can stay in my house for as long as it will be necessary!" she tried to cheer her up. "Heck, you can even move in permanently if you like!"

"That's very nice of you, Marisa." nodded the dollmaker, trying to suppress her sobs. "But your house is so messy that I don't think I'd be able to live there for too long."

"No worries, Alice! Look at Reimu. Her shrine was destroyed and rebuilt twice already. Your house is much smaller and it wasn't even completely leveled. It should get rebuilt in no time!"

It was those words of support that stopped Alice from shedding more tears.

"You're right. Houses can be rebuilt but human lives can't… We're lucky that nobody died today. At least not permanently…"

"Hey, Alice, just leave your things here as they are and let's all go to Eientei."

The puppeteer looked spaced-out for a moment, but then she nodded. "I guess we really should… Okay, fairies, we're going to take you to Eirin-sama."

Alice then chose three of her remaining dolls and made them take the weakened fairies in their arms and carry them. She floated out of her house and immediately noticed Byakuren and the rest of her "crew" waiting on the clearing. She took their looks as a reassuring sign that all of Gensokyo's forest fires were successfully stopped. Once all the girls left her ruined house, Byakuren again took Reimu by the hand and helped her fly.

"So, I believe we have nowhere else to stop but Eientei now."

Marisa confirmed Byakuren's guess by a nod. "Right you are, Byakuren-sama. Now just stay close and follow my lead. The bamboo forest is not that difficult to navigate through, but for a first-timer it can be very confusing."

* * *

As she said that, she took the lead and flew towards the southern edge of the Forest of Magic, following the aerial path towards Kourindou and proceeding further to the southwest. Byakuren watched and absorbed the landscape with her eyes, trying to memorize every detail on the way to this new location that she was eager to visit for some time. Now, she finally had that chance.

The group made flight above the grasslands and fields before they reached the vast Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Marisa kept her altitude above the treeline, so it would be easier for her to spot one of the small distant clearings where the legendary Eientei was situated. Looking below her, the Buddhist monk Byakuren noticed that the bamboo trees in this forest were growing diagonally, which could even further disorientate those who would venture into it.

"Now which one of those clearings was it again?" asked Marisa as she scratched her head in flight.

"That one over there, if my memory still serves…" Reimu pointed at the southernmost one.

"No." Alice disagreed with her and pointed at the westernmost one. "It's that one."

"Really? And I thought it was the other one." said Marisa and gestured towards the northernmost one.

"Uh… I hate to interrupt..." sounded Byakuren with a sheepish smile, "But do you girls even know where to go?"

"Of course we do!" said the shrine maiden, the witch and the puppeteer at the same time. "There!" and each of them pointed at a different direction.

Byakuren giggled and shook her head. "I see… I guess we're just going to check out each of those clearings.

"Not to worry, Byakuren-sama~. Nazrin will find anything for you~!" said the mouse youkai cheerfully and took off her crystal amulet to use it as a sort of dowsing pendulum.

"I really appreciate your help, Nazrin, but we're not looking for any treasures now…" replied the monk and Nazrin pouted in disappointment.

"I might have a better idea, Byakuren-sama." said Ichirin all of a sudden. "I could just ask Unzan to search the forest for us."

"That's a great idea, Ichirin-san." Byakuren praised her and nodded to give her the signal that she could start right away.

Ichirin then turned to the mysterious cloud spirit and repeated her request. Without a word, the cloud-man expanded in size and descended to the forest's floor. Since he was gaseous, the bamboo posed no obstacle for him and he could scour the forest quickly. After less than five minutes, the cloud returned to Ichirin and whispered something into her ear.

"Oh, he's back!" called Marisa when she saw him. "What did you find Unzan?"

The cloud spirit looked timidly at the witch and resumed whispering the information to Ichirin.

"Oh, come on~! Why can't he just tell us directly?"

Ichirin smiled and looked at Marisa. "You'll have to excuse Unzan. It's not that he can't speak, he's just very shy, you know…"

"So what did he tell you then, spokesperson?"

"He said that there's a huge Japanese-styled mansion hidden right over… there…" she and the cloud simultaneously pointed at a seemingly random bamboo thicket.

Marisa raised a suspicious eyebrow. "That's not a clearing. That's a thicket. How could a large mansion possibly stand there? Unless it has bamboo growing out of its roof that is…"

"Let's just take a look then." said Reimu who had no reason not to trust Byakuren or any of her friends. Although this wasn't her first trip to Eientei, Reimu sometimes still had difficulties finding it, and apparently, she wasn't alone.

The girls descended and weaved through the dense wall of bamboo and after a while, they caught a glimpse of the huge mansion standing among the leaning trees that blocked out the sky and sunlight. From above, it would be really difficult to spot the mansion's roof. That is not to say that it would be any easier to find the place if one decided to travel to it on foot.

* * *

Unzan really made the girls' search for Eientei shorter and easier. Now, when they were already standing on firm ground, they took a brief while to admire this building's impressive architecture. It was at least as large as the Scarlet Devil Mansion. It appeared to be very old, but at the same time, untouched by the tooth of time. The whole place gave away an impression that time has stopped flowing here. It was so peaceful and quiet; one could even think that the mansion was abandoned. However, as the girls entered its main hallway, they could all see that it was bustling with activity. Dozens of fairies were flying from door to door of this incredibly long hallway, carrying all sorts of stuff ranging from plates with food to clippers with papers and various bags with medicine. However, upon closer look, one would notice that these fairies had rabbit ears. Marisa and Reimu led the way along the corridor and surprisingly, both of them knew where to go. The doors in the hallway were not marked by any numbers to identify the rooms, but the girls still remembered from their last visit which door leads to the office of Eirin Yagokoro. After walking quite a distance, Reimu reached the 32nd door by her left and knocked on it.

A female voice from behind it responded almost immediately. "Yes~. I'll be right there~."

The girls took at as a cue to open the door and enter; and so they did. They found themselves in a not very large room furnished with shelves full of books, medicine bottles and bags, with two tables; one for administrative work and another one for medical equipment. A single round window let some faint sunlight into the room.

Reimu and Marisa were expecting to see Eirin there. However, the person standing at the work desk was not her. She was a tall, slender girl with a very long light-purple hair, reaching almost down to her ankles, and brightly red eyes. She was wearing a simple white shirt with a red necktie and a dark-blue short skirt. Two long rumpled rabbit ears jutting from under her hair indicated that she was not a human. She gave the girls who entered the office a once over-and with a formal tone she greeted them.

"Good afternoon… If you're looking for Eirin-sama, she's currently in the Intensive Care Ward on the third floor."

Uh… and where exactly on the third floor?" asked the slightly confused magician.

"Don't worry; I'll take you there right away… Just as soon as I fill in these documents here." said the rabbit girl and pointed at several sheets of pre-printed paper forms.

"Oh... I didn't know you're now doing administrative work, Reisen." said Marisa who just noticed a small ID card clipped to the girl's shirt with her picture and basic information – Reisen Udongein Inaba – assistant administrator – Eientei.

The rabbit girl sighed as if she was about to complain. "I really wasn't until recently… With so many patients, Eirin-sama is far too busy to bother with anything else. I was hastily named as her assistant in administrative tasks, but… I'm not even sure if I'm doing a good job about it… I sell medicine and study to become a nurse, but this… this isn't really my cup of tea."

"I feel your pain, Reisen." said the witch with a small hint of compassion as she tapped Reisen's shoulder. "But did you just say you've had many patients recently?"

Reisen didn't answer immediately as she thoughtfully pouted over one of the papers she was in the middle of filling up. She then scratched her head and resignedly put the writing brush back on the table with another heavy sigh.

"I think I'll just take you to her right now. I need a break anyway…" she stood up and answered Marisa's question. "Yes, we're currently taking care of over 50 patients. Five of them require intensive care, over 15 are recovering from physical trauma, more than 10 are awaiting a surgery and well over 30 are being treated from various minor diseases."

She walked right past Marisa and Reimu and opened the door of Eirin's office, waving her hand at the girls to tell them to follow her. Just when she left the room, she saw the rest of the group waiting there and chatting. As her eyes looked at the unconscious Kogasa, Reisen made an ironic grin.

"Oh look, another poor soul for Eirin-sama to take care of. Just in case she was getting bored up there… Follow me, okay?"

She then walked briskly towards the end of the corridor until she reached an intersection and a wide wooden stairway.

* * *

"This way." she gestured towards the stairs and took them by two as she walked all the way to the third floor of this immensely huge building. Once the girls have overcome the second flight of stairs, they kept following the rabbit girl along another seemingly endless corridor. Reisen suddenly stopped at one of the many sliding doors and gently knocked on it to announce her arrival. The rest of the girls silently followed her inside. They were now in a large room with several beds separated by folding screens. Out of ten beds in the room, half of them were occupied by people who were in critical condition and required nonstop observation. There were three male and two female patients. Standing over one of the patients with an infusion bottle in her hand was a tall young-looking woman. Her silver hair was also admirably long, reaching slightly below her waist. It was tied into a single thick braid in the back. She was wearing a short-sleeved dress with its upper part having a dark-red right half and a dark-blue left half. The skirt part of the dress had inverse colors on its respective halves, making her whole dress resemble four large chessboard squares. In addition, the dress was also decorated by tiny silver glittering dots arranged in order to represent constellations. Near the lower edge of her dress, there were trigrams. To complete her look, she was wearing a dark-blue nurse-like hat with a dark-red cross.

"Sorry to interrupt your work, Oshisho-sama." said Reisen as she bowed to her teacher. "It seems there's another patient who needs to be taken in. As for the rest of these girls… I'm not sure what business they might have here."

The woman understandingly nodded as she placed the infusion bottle onto a stand so that its content would slowly flow into the patient's system. Then she turned to the rabbit girl and briefly glanced at Reimu and Marisa with her dark-gray eyes.

"You may call them in, Reisen."

The assistant did as she said and called in Byakuren with the rest of her team and Alice with the fairies.

"Sorry to intrude." said Byakuren as she bowed to the woman. "My name's Byakuren Hijiri. Are you Eirin-sama?"

The silver-haired woman nodded. "Eirin Yagokoro. Pleased to meet you, Byakuren-san. I believe this is your first visit to Eientei."

"Yes, I'd like you to take care of this youkai girl here." she beckoned at Kogasa. "She fainted after overexhausting herself while she was casting a spell."

Eirin didn't hesitate and together with Nue, they put the youkai girl gently on another vacant bed. Then the doctor checked her vital signs and stated her preliminary prognosis.

"By the looks of it, she should be fine in a few hours, but you did well to bring her here regardless. Just as you said, Byakuren-san, this girl exhausted her energy completely. How unwise these young youkai… taking danmaku fights so seriously…"

"This wasn't a danmaku fight. This young karakasa might just have saved many lives today."

Eirin quizzically looked at the monk. "Really? Would you mind explaining the details to me?" she asked while she walked up to her next patient, ready to change her bandages.

Byakuren cleared her throat and retold the happenings of today's afternoon as simply and clearly as she could. The other girls completed the information by telling their own experiences as they had to deal with their separate problems. Eirin was so enthralled by their shocking information that she even forgot that she was in the middle of changing the bandages of one of her patients. As the girls explained the fairy attacks and their beyond-strange behavior, Alice asked Eirin if she could take a better look at the three fairies if she finds some time.

"Why of course I will." said the Lunarian doctor and smiled warmly at the little fairies, who were now feeling a little better, but still weak. "However, they don't require intensive care, so Reisen; will you please take these patients to the Rehabilitation Ward?"

"Yes, Eirin-sama." replied Reisen as she bowed and then she led the fairies out of the room.

"Who would have thought something like that was going on just a few hours ago…" muttered Eirin and resumed her bandaging. "Now it seems I'm also going to have to deal with psychological trauma as well…"

"We thought that the fairies contracted some kind of virus, but once they revived, they no longer showed the symptoms and a suffered a minor amnesia." explained Patchouli. "But if it was a virus, then the effects would persist. And I've never heard of a virus that affects the host's memory."

"Indeed, that doesn't sound like a virus." confirmed Doctor Yagokoro. "And now that you mention it, one of these patients was also recently attacked by her pet fairy. She showed the same symptoms as you have just described to me."

"Wait a minute… Who would keep a pet fairy?" wondered Marisa as she looked at the red-haired girl lying in the bed.

"Her name's Kurohana… Kurohana Ai – the girl who runs the newly established fairy post office in Human Village. Several of her postal fairies returned to her with their minds driven insane. All of them were neutralized by the local militia and subsequently taken here to Eientei for further observation. As for Kurohana-san, she was badly burned by numerous danmaku shots over 40 percent of her body. My medicine will heal her completely, but it'll take time. Right now, she needs to rest. I gave her a sleeping drug so that she wouldn't have to go through a lot of pain."

"Looks like you're really busy here, Eirin-san." stated Reimu as she slowly looked at all the patients from left to right. However, as she read the name tags, she suddenly found one of the names oddly familiar.

"Wait a sec…" she turned her head back to one of the beds to read the name once more. "Ishimaru? What? Hey, Marisa, isn't that Kyouichi-san over there?"

"Where?" the witch turned her head to the bed which Reimu was pointing at. "Oh… The name tag says it's him, but…"

Patchouli and Alice were also familiar with this name and stepped a bit closer to the bed.

"You know this young man?" asked Eirin curiously as she walked to his bed. The patient's face was completely bandaged and so was the upper part of his torso. "He's an outsider, just like the one lying over there... However, he was brought in more recently… Along with this man." she pointed at the third male patient with short brown disheveled hair. "That one is one of the militiamen from the village…"

Reimu still found it hard to believe to see the young outsider there in such a state. "What happened to him? Was he also attacked by fairies?"

"This one? No… Ishimaru-san received a direct hit with a powerful danmaku projectile right in the face. And from quite a strong youkai, or so I was told. What's more, I've been told that he was trying to hide behind some wagon or something and as a result, his upper part of the body was peppered with burning wooden splinters. It took us quite some time to remove them all."

"And… will he recover?" asked Marisa.

"He still hasn't woken up from the hit, but I assume it won't be long before he does. As for his face, it will take at least a week to heal up, but in the end, he shouldn't have any scars. If he was taken to the village hospital instead, that would be a different story."

"What did I tell you about being careful?" Reimu muttered at him scoldingly.

"I don't think he hears you, Reimu." said Marisa as she walked up closer to take a better look. "Come on. Leave him be. He needs to rest now… Besides, why don't you tell Eirin-sensei that you need treatment as well?"

"Huh? You're hurt, Reimu-asn? I'm sorry, I didn't notice right away… With so much work to do, I really don't know which patient I should tend to first."

"Don't worry, Eirin, I can understand that. Besides, the wounds aren't that serious."

"Every wound when untreated can become serious, young shrine maiden. Now go behind that folding screen, take off your clothes and let me patch you up, okay?"

Reimu nodded and slowly backed away from Kyouichi's bed. "Hope you recover soon…" she wished in her mind and went behind one of the corner folding screens to get treated. In the meantime, Eirin prepared her bag with medicine and bandages and looked at the other girls. "Before I proceed with treating Reimu-san's wounds, is anyone else of you hurt, feeling sick or suffered some serious shock, trauma, etcetera?"

The girls exchanged their looks for a while and shrugged, showing that none of them suffered anything. Alice and Marisa might have had some minor wounds and Nitori did feel a little weak, but they felt like they shouldn't bother the already busy Eirin with their petty discomforts.

"Good." nodded the doctor and disappeared behind the screen where Reimu was already waiting. "Don't worry, Reimu-san, this won't hurt a bit…"

"Kyaaaaaaaaah~!" echoed Reimu's scream over all of Eientei. All the other girls burst into laughter.

"Don't worry, Reimu!" shouted Marisa to cheer her friend up. "I'll avenge your death, hahahahaha~!"

Byakuren was probably the only one who wasn't laughing… and Patchouli as well, since she really couldn't due to her asthma. While she was here, she was pondering to ask Eirin again if she didn't have any special medicine for youkai to treat this disease. She did write several requests to Eientei in the past, but there was no effective cure for her yet. Eirin explained that treating the same illness of a human and a youkai patient are two different things, and that Patchouli couldn't use the medicine for humans, because it would be toxic for her.

"And… done…" said Eirin's voice from behind the screen.

"You said it wouldn't hurt a bit~." pouted the shrine maiden as she was putting on her ripped-up clothes again.

"Sorry, sorry~." Eirin apologized with a wry smile. "But if I told you that it would hurt like hell, you'd probably start flying all over the room. Who would be catching you then?"

"At least I would have been mentally prepared. Geez…" said the shrine maiden as she came out from behind the folding screen. "Lunarians have the best known medicine and yet they still can't make disinfection painless…"

"Nothing is perfect, you know." stated Eirin as she packed her leftover disinfectant and bandages back into her leather handbag.

"Not even your famous Hourai Elixir?" asked the blonde magician curiously.

"Especially that." confirmed the Lunarian with emphasis.

"But doesn't it work just perfectly? And its effect is irreversible, right?"

"Immortality can be a greater punishment than you may think. My mistress was aware of its consequence and thus, I agreed to make it for her to use. Only with her unique ability – to manipulate eternity was I able to concoct the forbidden potion. What resulted afterwards is all well known to all of you… As an exile, a traitor and Kaguya-sama's caretaker, I made a decision to always stay by her side. I was already impure in the eyes of the lunar people, so drinking my own invention wouldn't change anything to worse…"

"But immortality is exactly what that elixir is supposed to do." opposed Marisa stubbornly. "Wouldn't you call THAT perfect?"

"Perhaps there has been no success yet in attempt to reverse its effect, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. Besides, the recipient still feels pain from injuries or lack of food, water and oxygen if they don't eat, drink or breathe…"

* * *

As Eirin kept explaining all the negative aspects of eternal life, she led the other girls out of the room and asked them to follow her. Her steps were now headed to the rehabilitation ward, where she was now planning to take a look at the fairies who were brought in. She walked along the maze of incredibly long corridors when she finally stopped at another sliding door and entered the room. Reisen was still there, putting the three fairies into separate beds.

"Reisen, will you please go back to the intensive care ward and watch the patients for me? If something happens, please tell me right away."

"As you say, Eirin-sama." replied the girl with rabbit ears and apparently tired of walking the long corridors, she floated up into the air and took her leave.

The three fairies were now peacefully resting in their beds, but Eirin had to wake them up in order to check them up. She measured their temperature, listened to their breathing and pulse with a stethoscope and even took their blood sample. She then again opened her doctor's bag and took out a few bottles with some unknown chemicals and added a few drops of them into each of the blood samples and watched the reaction.

"Hmm… These fairies are physically healthy, but…"

"Is there something else wrong with them?" asked Alice who was out of all the girls probably the most worried about their well-being.

"It seems something weakened their innate magic powers. Similarly like that karakasa girl, they are fatigued… Whatever caused all the other fairies to go mad, it was of magic origin."

Reimu suddenly snapped her fingers as an idea just crossed her mind. "Wait a second, isn't Reisen able to cause lunacy just with her look?"

"You suspect Reisen?" asked Eirin and giggled amusedly. "Don't be silly, Reimu-san. She's been here the whole time, busy with tons of work just like me. Besides, it's just ridiculous. She wouldn't do something like that. You have my word on it."

Marisa had to agree with the Lunarian. "She's right, Reimu. Why would Reisen want to amass an army of fairies to wreak havoc all over Gensokyo? It doesn't make any sense. Besides, you said yourself that the attacks are coming from the northeast. That's exactly the opposite side of Gensokyo as Eientei."

"I swear, I'll get to the bottom of this…" the shrine maiden has set herself a straight goal. "But how?"

"It would really help us if any of those fairies actually remembered what was happening during their rage." Patchouli pointed out.

"I may be an expert doctor and pharmacist," said Eirin with all modesty, "but dealing with mental issues is something I'm still just an amateur at… I could try and ask Reisen to invoke hypnosis on our fairy patients, but I'm afraid it wouldn't help us much to uncover the fragments of their memories from the time they were enraged…"

"Just one of these three was enraged." Alice corrected the doctor.

"Hey, I know…" Reimu got a sudden idea. "What if we asked Satori to come up here and read their minds? Maybe she'd be able to see something in their minds that could lead us to the source of this…"

A serious silence spread over the room. Marisa was thoughtfully scratching her chin and the other girls were just exchanging their confused looks.

"Reimu…" said Marisa after a long thoughtful pause. "You are a GENIUS~!"

"Hey~! That was mean~! I was just… Wait… What?" the miko suddenly realized that Marisa actually didn't insult her.

"Of course…" the witch nodded agreeingly. "Satori would be perfect for this. We should pay her a visit again…"

Patchouli's eyes widened at the mention of that name. "Oh my… I almost forgot. I gave Ishimaru-san an amulet earlier which he was supposed to…"

"You mean the one that enables communication with Yukari?" asked Reimu as she pulled out the small bimetallic medallion out of her pocket. "We showed it to Satori as you suggested, but she couldn't read anything. Supposedly the boundary youkai is not currently in Gensokyo…"

Eirin also turned her attention to the conversation as she remembered something from not too long ago. "Now that you mention it, about two weeks ago we were visited by that tengu journalist, Aya. She told us to keep a lookout for Yukari and report to her if we see her. She supposedly went missing or so Aya said…"

"Yukari will have to wait." said Reimu as she was pocketing the amulet. "Right now, these raging fairies are our main problem."

"Well, it's still only afternoon. Feel like taking another trip to the Palace of the Earth Spirits?"

"No, Marisa…" Reimu exhaled heavily. "Not today… I'd be shot down by the first youkai we'd encounter down there. I need some time to strengthen up."

"What if I went down there in your stead?" Byakuren unexpectedly volunteered her help.

"Huh? Byakuren-san? But… you're a youkai. You cannot even enter the underground."

"Reimu-san, I was sealed away in Hokkai for well over a millennium and some of my friends as well. The former hell really shouldn't be a problem for me to enter. Besides, where did you gather that rumor about youkai being unable to enter underground?"

"Yukari herself said it…"

Marisa just snickered at Reimu's naivety. "And Yukari of course never ever told a single lie, right?" she asked with blatant sarcasm in her voice. "I say we give Byakuren a chance. If she won't be able to enter the underground, she'll just return and tell us. Then we can go there tomorrow."

"Hmm… If you insist." shrugged the shrine maiden indifferently. "But… Do you even know where to go, Byakuren-san?"

"I will do my best." smiled the Buddhist monk. "If I get lost, I'll just ask someone the way…"

"As you wish then. You know where the entrance to the underground is?"

Byakuren smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of her head. "Ehehe~. Well, not yet… But Nue-chan here knows, right?"

The odd-winged girl looked like she was just shaken out of a daydream, but then she slowly nodded.

"Good." Byakuren patted her on the head. "I say we can head out there right away."

After a brief moment of silence that again settled in the room, Eirin spoke again: "Well, if you have business, don't let me keep you…"

"Okay, my friends, let us see if we can go to the Palace of the Earth Spirits." ordered Byakuren and with a polite gesture, she took her leave of the room and followed the corridors back until she and her company found the exit. Only Reimu, Marisa, Alice, Patchouli, Nitori, Eirin and the three fairies remained in the rehabilitation ward.

"I think we should go too…" Reimu suggested, feeling that she no longer has any other business at Eientei, now that her wounds have been treated.

Eirin, however, thought otherwise. "And I think you should stay here at least overnight. All five of you. We still have plenty of rooms to spare. We can talk some more in the evening when I actually have time."

The girls hummed as they were considering this offer. Reimu wasn't really feeling like flying all the way to her shrine and thus, she agreed. The rest of the girls were rather indifferent about it, and since they saw the shrine maiden nod to Eirin's hospitality, they agreed to stay as well.

"Good." smiled the Lunarian doctor at them. "Would you like to have your beds in one room, or would you like to sleep separately?"

"Haha~!" Marisa chuckled amusedly. "We even have the luxury of picking how we'd like to be accommodated. It's like one of those things they have in the outside world… How are they called again?"

"You mean hotels?" asked Patchouli to help Marisa find the word she was looking for.

"Yeah, those... I sort of get the feeling that Eientei is like a hotel. It even has its own museum. Do you still hold that Lunarian exhibit, Eirin?"

"Why, yes, down on the first floor… But if you'd also like to hear a presentation to it, you'd have to ask my mistress in advance."

"Hmm… Maybe some other time, when that fairy incident gets resolved." said the witch as she waved her hand.

"As you wish. Now will you tell me if you'd like separate rooms or just one?"

"We're not sick; we shouldn't isolate ourselves from each other." said Alice and glanced at the other three girls to see if they share her opinion as well. Since they were silent, Eirin took it as a "yes" and nodded. "Alright then, follow me, please."

* * *

Again, the silver-haired doctor led them through the hallways that were so long that one couldn't even see their end. Patchouli was really thinking if this building didn't use a similar magic as the Scarlet Devil Mansion to increase the size of its interior.

"Those fairies sure are busy, aren't they?" commented Nitori as she watched the small humanoid creatures with rabbit ears and tails flying around and running their menial errands.

"Those aren't fairies, those are rabbits." Eirin led her out of her fallacy. "Both Earth and Moon rabbits live here at Eientei. The younger ones really do look like fairies, but as they grow a little, they are pretty much human-sized, like Reisen."

"Rabbits, fairies, it's almost the same thing…" shrugged Reimu who was now beginning to wonder where was Eirin leading them. "Say, Eirin-san, do we still have a long way ahead of us? I'm getting tired already. Not to mention hungry…"

"No worries, we'll be there soon." the doctor reassured her with a smile.

"You said that five minutes ago."

"But this time we're really here…" Eirin slid open a door near the end of the corridor. "A room with five vacant, clean and comfortable beds. If you'd like to take a bath, there's a bathhouse on the first floor as well as the dining hall. But you don't need to bother going down for food. The rabbits will bring it all the way to your room."

"Uh… Thanks for your hospitality, Eirin-sama." Alice bowed to the Lunarian with respect. "But why is our room so far away from others?"

"Oh, that's just a precaution, Margatroid-san. We certainly wouldn't want you to contact any disease from our patients here."

"I guess that makes sense."

"Not only that, but since some of the patients require regular check-ups, the staff, my person included, often walks the halls even in late-night hours. It would only disturb you from the rest that you all apparently need."

"Okay, I understand now." Alice nodded knowingly. "But I guess I could go for a nice hot bath right now…"

"Yeah, tell me about it." said Marisa as she put down her black pointy hat and wiped off sweat from her forehead.

"I'd rather eat something first." Reimu stated her priority in unison with her stomach's growling.

"Me too…" Nitori and Patchouli seconded the miko's opinion.

Eirin nodded understandingly. "Very well, just wait here. I'll send some food to you in a couple of minutes." With those words, she took her leave of the room and left the girls alone.

True to her word, Eirin sent several of the little rabbits with food to the girls' room. The girls were too hungry to even bother with any eating manners. Without any table in the room, they just sat into a circle on the ground and ate the food with plates in their hands, just like during the hanami event at Reimu's shrine.

"Ahh… Not exactly home cooking, but still good enough to fill the stomach." Marisa huffed as she finished her meal.

"What are you talking about?" Reimu raised her eyebrow. "Everything is better than your home cooking, Marisa."

"Oh, come on, Reimu… Don't start with that again." the witch pouted and poked Reimu's shoulder with a chopstick. "Just because I accidentally burnt one tamagoyaki, doesn't mean I can't cook at all."

"Well, I'm not saying that you can't. You can at least make tea… and your soups aren't bad either."

"Ha~! I bet I'm a better cook than Patchouli, here." smirked the blonde magician and gave a friendly palm smack on Patchouli's back.

The purple-haired sorceress blinked a few times, surprised by Marisa's statement. "M-Mukyuuu~…"

"She's so used to the luxury of being served by Sakuya, that she doesn't even know how to hold a ladle, ze." continued the witch with verbally chipping away at Patchouli's ego.

Once all the girls ate their meals, they put the plates on a stack and as soon as the rabbits showed up to take them back to the kitchen, the girls followed them downstairs.

* * *

"Quite a labyrinth, this Eientei, isn't it?" stated Alice who visited this place regularly, but usually just the small pharmacy outside the main building.

"It sure is." Reimu confirmed her statement. "It makes me wonder how can all the rabbits and the rest of its residents keep a track of which door leads to which room."

"Perhaps you too would become familiar with Eientei's rooms and corridors if you lived here for a few decades." Patchouli replied and made a turn to the right to follow the rabbits headed down to the first floor.

In a couple of minutes they were already walking in the more familiar main corridor where Eirin's office was located.

"Okay, so now we know where Eientei's main kitchen is." said Reimu as she thoughtfully looked at the hundreds of sliding doors on the corridor. "But where is this bathhouse that Eirin mentioned?"

"We could use the trial and error method…" Marisa mused as she rubbed her chin. "Or… We could just ask Reisen."

"Fine, I'm voting for the second option." said Alice and directed her steps towards Eirin's office, where the lunar rabbit was tasked to assist with the paperwork. After a double knock on the office's door, she heard Reisen's voice calling her in. However, Alice didn't want or need to enter, so from the doorstep she asked the Moon rabbit the directions to the bathhouse.

"Ahh… You know what? I've already done plenty of work for today. Seriously… Eirin-sama can't really expect me to bite through this pile of documents all in a single day. I'll show you the way to the bathhouse then."

Reisen apparently was only just getting used to her new assignments, so it stood to reason that she wouldn't be as competent as was expected of her. Putting aside the papers and writing brush, she stood up from the table, did a few simple stretching exercises and nodded.

"Okay, then, Alice-san. Follow me. Eientei is not that confusing once you get to know it a little better."

* * *

She led the group of girls just several tens of meters further down the main hallway and opened a sliding door to reveal a large room with a large traditional wooden bath placed in the floor. A white cloud of steam enveloped the room in a semi-transparent veil. Several candle stands with lit aromatic candles provided lighting as well as setting a relaxing mood. There were several wooden stools, a large mirror on one wall and a table full of various bathing oils, soaps and shampoo. There were also several wooden chests in the corner for the bathers to put away their clothes.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Reisen asked them and entered the room. "Come on in."

"You're having a bath with us?" asked Alice, as she curiously watched the lunar rabbit taking off her business wear.

"Yes. Do you have any problem with that?"

"Ehh… No, no. Of course not. I was just… surprised that's all."

"Surprised? By what?" wondered Reisen who was now only in her underwear.

"Well, just that… Isn't Eirin-sama going to scold you for dodging your work like that?"

"Dodging work?!" repeated the Moon rabbit with an irritated tone. "Listen. Just for your information, I haven't even been sleeping for over 30 straight hours, because I was struggling with a mound of documents as tall as my ears are long. I'm at my limit. I want a nice hot bath. Now, hurry up inside and close that door."

Alice was a little startled by the slightly angered Reisen and without any more words, she and all the other girls entered the bathroom and closed the sliding door.

"Besides…" the rabbit girl continued, "even Eirin-sama does the paperwork at a slower and more relaxed pace. She has no reason to complain."

"Okay, okay, Reisen. You have a right to relax, of course." Marisa tried to calm her down as she began undressing herself as well. "As do all of us here…"

"I can't wait to get in the ofuro~." said Reimu wishfully as she quickly threw away her garments and without any care she put her torn-up miko outfit into one of the storage chests.

While all the girls were undressing, Nitori just shyly sat on one of the wooden stools, watching them and blushing.

"What's up, Nitorin?" asked the blonde magician, who noticed her passivity. "We're all girls here; you don't need to be so shy."

Reisen and Reimu were already comfortably sitting, bathed in pleasantly warm water with expression of relief and bliss on their faces. Alice was having a bit of a difficulty with the ribbons on her dress, while Marisa enviously glared at Patchouli's beautiful curves.

"Hey, Patchy… I didn't know you were so… well endowed."

"H-Hey…" Patchouli gave her a scornful look as she was covering her breasts with her arm. "Don't stare at me like that. It's embarrassing."

Marisa rolled her eyes down to her own chest and with a sigh she shrugged. "Well, I'm still just growing, so I guess I should be patient… By the way, Nitori, if you're not going to undress, I'm going to throw you into the water with your clothes on."

"Gyaah! You wouldn't dare!" called the startled kappa.

"Oh, really? Wouldn't I?" grinned the witch maliciously and stood up in front of Nitori with her body shamelessly exposed. "Do you really want to see how I wouldn't dare?"

"Eh… now wait a minute, Marisa-san. You don't need to give me an ultimatum…"

"Oh, yes I do. You've got ten seconds to undress."

"Hey, you really don't think that I can put this waterproof dress down that fast…"

"Six seconds…"

"Alright, alright, I'm undressing already! See…?" Nitori hurriedly unbuttoned her blue outfit and put away her boots and her hat.

"Your undergarments too." the witch reminded her just in case.

"Geez… At least don't stare at me like an old pervert."

"But I wanna see if I have bigger breasts than you~."

"Leave her alone, Marisa, and get in the water already." Reimu called at her friend with a lazy voice. "You're almost worse than Aya…"

"Fine, fine." the witch consented and slowly dipped her feet in the water. "I was just trying to help Nitori here to fight away her shyness."

"Yeah, right…" muttered the shrine maiden and exhaled into the water, making bubbles as air escaped her nose.

Once even Nitori was inside the ofuro, Reisen's curiosity made her ask the girls why they were all at Eientei.

"You're not the only one who's had a hard day." Reimu gave an uncertain reply, because she really wasn't in the mood for talking much. As a testament to her tired state, the young miko yawned and rested her back against the ofuro's wall.

"Oi, Reimu, be careful not to fall asleep in here." Marisa gave her a warning, but wasn't too sure if her friend even heard her.

"So you girls had some incident to resolve?" inquired the Moon rabbit as she shifted her look to the witch in hope of getting some more detailed answers.

"Yeah, you could say that. Festival preparations, swarms of berserk fairies, putting out forest fires, rescuing a few lives… You know… the usual stuff." said Marisa in an ironically nonchalant manner. "Oh and on top of that, looking for a certain missing person."

"You mean persons." Reimu corrected her. "Don't forget that nobody has even seen Ran or Chen lately, so I'm guessing wherever Yukari is right now, her two shikigami are there too…"

"Ahh… Speculations, speculations…" sighed Patchouli with disdain, since she was a person who preferred facts over hypotheses. "Seriously… Out of all the youkai I have studied, Yukari has to be the biggest enigma to me… There are endless possibilities. Endless ways for us to try and guess what could she be doing and where could she be right now, and they are all equally plausible. She's like a living Pandora's box."

"Hehe~!" Marisa gave out a silent chuckle. "Yup, that describes our Yukarin pretty well."

"But seriously, today's events were really something…" Reimu kept muttering to herself. "If THAT wasn't enough to get Yukari's attention, then I don't know what will."

"Maybe the crazed fairies are just a result of her absence." Alice presented her theory. "Without some kind of authority figure… some grand overseer, such as Yukari-sama, Gensokyo is gradually falling into chaos. And since there isn't even someone as a placeholder, like Ran to help keep the balance, the youkai are becoming restless. Perhaps even more than during the Imperishable Night… Today we've seen raging fairies; tomorrow we may see raging oni… I still agree that we should ask Satori-san for help once more."

After quite a while of silence, Marisa spoke. "So, you're saying that things will get even worse?"

"It's just a theory." shrugged the puppeteer. "Why are all of you looking so serious now?"

"Because that can actually happen, Alice." answered Patchouli.

"And you're a youkai too, Alice." Marisa added. "I really wouldn't want to go up against you if you went crazy like those fairies…"

"Perhaps humans will become affected too…" Reimu joined in brewing the theory.

"Oh, will you all stop with the apocalyptic visions already?" Reisen snapped them all out of the field of speculation. "Seriously… Spreading rumors like that would really throw Gensokyo into a state of panic and chaos. Is that what you really want?"

"Reisen-san is right." Nitori seconded her idea. "Let's give this topic a rest for today, okay?"

"As you say, Nitorin. But we all have to admit that the situation is serious regardless. We really should do something about it." concluded Marisa and flicked the water, making a few drops splash at Reimu's face.

"Yeah, we're going to have to make a thorough investigation in the northeastern Gensokyo."

"Wait a second… Remilia asked Ishimaru-san to carry out a little investigation for her in the village of Kazermura." recalled Patchouli suddenly. "He was supposed to go there sometime around today…"

"Ishimaru-san? The unconscious one?" Reisen raised an inquiring eyebrow.

"Yes. He was supposed to go there and just look and ask around a bit. Like a curious tourist from the Human Village. If he's hospitalized, I'm going to have to tell Remi that his investigation will be delayed indefinitely…"

"I think he's already been there." said Reisen thoughtfully.

"How do you know?" Patchouli wondered.

"I remember him because he was brought in simultaneously with that injured Ryuuken by three other militiamen… They said something about a caravan on its way to Human Village and something about an ambush and a battle. I think one of them said "Kazemura" too, but I'm not sure…"

"So maybe he was already on his way back… Maybe he learned something…"

"Yeah, but he was critically hit in the head. Eirin-sama didn't exclude the possibility of brain damage and she doesn't know when he might wake up."

"So he went with the caravan?" Reimu curiously passed her question to the Moon rabbit.

"I think so."

"And wasn't anyone else injured?"

"No just those two I mentioned. Takamori and Ishimaru…"

"That's some rotten luck he has…" remarked the shrine maiden on Kyouichi's address. "And who's the second outsider in the intensive care ward?"

"The second one? Oh, you must mean Asakura-san. He was found and brought in by Fujiwara-san. Supposedly attacked by some youkai while he was cutting bamboo in the forest. Apparently even when he was protected by a group of Ryuuken, he and several other woodcutters sustained serious injuries. He's been here for a week and should get discharged soon. His wounds should be almost completely healed by now. But seriously... We've had quite a lot of outsiders here as of late. Even Kaguya-sama doesn't find them interesting anymore. Once she used to summon every outsider that stepped into Eientei and ask them about various things from the outside world, but now, she just waves her hand in rejection when she hears that there are people from the outside visiting… Well, those two we currently have aren't in a state for a conversation anyway…"

"But you said that the other one will be discharged soon." Reimu pointed out.

"Yes, but to speed up the process of healing, Eirin-sama keeps him drugged, and so he sleeps most of the day."

"I see…" Reimu muttered and nodded understandingly.

"But if even Kaguya is getting bored by the visitors, why won't she come out and help us a bit?" the Hakurei shrine maiden suggested.

"What the princess does in her leisure is her choice alone… You could still talk to her about it. No doubt she'll be excited to hear that something interesting is going on in Gensokyo again."

"Hey, what if we asked her to participate in that tournament that you're planning for the festival, Reimu?" Marisa suddenly brought up a different topic.

"Now that you mention it, yeah we could…"

"What tournament?" Reisen wanted to know.

"Oh, we're planning to hold a little Spell Card tournament as one of the festival's attractions." explained the mko. "Everyone can participate. Naturally, you are also invited to the festival… Will you and Eirin come this year too?"

"Hmm… If we won't have any more urgent cases here, then we just might… But I'm not going to put my hopes up too high..."

"You're planning to hold a festival, despite the serious events we've all experienced today?" Nitori questioned Reimu's intentions.

"Yes, Nitori, I am. I'm not going to let a bunch of nutcase fairies jeopardize the Tanabata festival…"

"Yes, since it's the only time you ever get some donations, ze…" Marisa provokingly remarked.

Reimu gave her a threatening look and then she splashed some water into her face.

"Kyaah!" exclaimed the blonde in surprise. "So a splash war, huh? Defend yourself, ha!"

Marisa returned a bigger splash to her friend, but she also managed to hit Reisen and Alice with the wave.

"Now you've done it, Marisa." said Alice as she wiped her eyes. "Eat watery death!" she exclaimed semi-cheerfully and together with Reisen she whipped up a big wave that struck Marisa, Nitori and Patcouli in their faces.

"Mukyu!" uttered the youkai elemental sorceress in discomfort.

Nitori, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy having water splashed at her, as her expression was quite cheerful.

"Just you wait, Alice-san…" said Patchouli with a raised finger. Small blue sparks slowly gathering to a single point above it.

"Hey, hey, hey, wait a second~!" called Alice with her arms in blocking position. "No spells allowed!"

"Just kidding." Patchouli smiled and used her free hand for a well-aimed splash attack that hit its mark perfectly.

A full-blown splash fight ensued that lasted for several minutes. Squeals and giggles echoed in the bathing room as the girls splashed water at each other, friend or foe. They made quite a mess, but at least for a while they forgot about all their worries and mundane problems.

* * *

The rest of the day, the group, short of Reisen, spent their time resting in their room on the third floor. Since the shrine maiden and the magician had planned yet another visit to the Palace of the Earth Spirits for tomorrow's day, they needed to have a good, peaceful and undisturbed rest. Eientei, despite going through some busy days, could provide just the peace and quiet that the tired girls needed after a hard day.

As the evening fell upon Gensokyo, a gentle knock on the girls' room sounded and Eirin Yagokoro entered.

"As promised, I've made myself some time to have some talk with you, girls. However, if you're too tired, I'll just let you rest."

"We've had plenty of rest since afternoon." said Reimu as she propped herself against the headboard. "We don't mind you at all, Eirin-san."

The Lunarian pharmacist smiled and found a place to sit down on a small chair, which she took from the corner of the room. She slowly and carefully eyed all the girls in the room as she slowly turned her head from left to right. "Well, this is certainly a rare sight…" she remarked as she folded one leg over the other. "It's not everyday that I get to see all of you in one place."

"Today has been quite hard for all of us." explained Marisa with gesticulation. "Especially for Alice. Her house will need some serious rebuilding. And before that, we need to do something about that flooded clearing…"

Eirin nodded understandingly. "If you'll allow me, I'll take a closer look at all of you and treat all your minor injuries… We can still talk even as I check you up."

"Mm… Okay." shrugged Alice as Eirin stood up from her chair and walked to her bed. "But I don't think that I was hurt too seriously."

Eirin just smiled and began Alice's check-up. The puppeteer glanced back into her eyes and tentatively forwarded a question.

"Umm… Eirin-sama? About those three fairies that we brought in here…"

"Yes?"

"How are they?"

"You needn't worry about them. They are already fine and healthy, but I've decided to keep them for the night just in case…"

"Hey, Reimu…" Marisa suddenly interrupted the conversation. "Do you think it will be of any use if Byakuren drags Satori here and lets her take a look at those three fairies?"

"I don't know… I think that we should capture at least one of those crazy ones and let Satori take a look…"

"Satori-san?" Eirin repeated the name and curiously looked at Reimu and Marisa.

"Oh, right, you don't know her yet." Marisa recalled. "Well, she lives in the underground. A quiet and a little shy girl, almost like Patchouli… She's not very popular down there, though…"

"Well, at least youkai beasts are fond of her…" said Reimu. "She can read minds of just about anyone and anything that has any mind. In theory, if she was to look at a fairy in an enraged state, she could possibly see the source of this insanity…"

"That's why it might not be a bad idea to capture more enraged fairies than just one…" Patchouli made a suggestion.

"That's easier said than done, Patchy." Marisa turned to the librarian. "Average fairies usually take just a few shots before they die. Besides, we're most likely to encounter an entire swarm again. Not just one lone crazed fairy… It will be quite a chore trying to catch fairies while blasting away the other ones and dodging myriad shots."

"Hmm… I think I might be able to help you with that." said Eirin while she was tending Alice's minor wounds.

"You can?"

"Why of course I can." confirmed the Lunarian with a wry smile. "I could spare a couple of syringes with a special sedative that is too weak for humans or other youkai, but it should put a fairy to sleep in no time. It has no side effects."

"Still… We'll have to be chasing the fairies and catching them in order to give them the sedative…" muttered the witch as she thoughtfully rubbed her chin.

"And hold them down so they wouldn't have a chance of slipping away…" Reimu added.

"Well, either that or you could try throwing the syringes at them." suggested Eirin once she was finished with treating Alice.

"All of us are quite capable danmaku shooters." said the shrine maiden after considering Eirin's idea. "But I'm not too confident about my throwing arm…"

"Me neither…" Marisa looked down in self-disappointment and listened to the silence that settled in the room afterwards. Then, all of a sudden, Reimu, Marisa, Alice and Patchouli exclaimed at the same time.

"Sakuya!"

"Of course. Nobody can throw knives better than the Scarlet Devil Mansion's head maid. Throwing syringes with sedatives is in essence the same thing, right?" stated the ordinary magician and watched as the other girls nodded.

"So, I guess we'll be stopping at the mansion tomorrow. Good. At least I can get changed into clean clothes." said Patchouli and wishfully looked outside the window.

"You mean clean nightgown?" Marisa poked fun at Patchouli's daily outfit.

"I like my clothes comfortable." shrugged the youkai sorceress who found nothing weird about her light-purple attire. "By the way, Eirin-san, I was just wondering if you haven't developed anything to suppress my asthma…"

Eirin regretfully shook her head. "I'm sorry, Patchouli-san… You've seen for yourself that I've been very busy lately with tending my numerous patients. Research is something that I need a lot of time for. Time, peace and quiet…"

"It's okay, Eirin-san, I understand. Just thought I'd ask since I'm already here…"

"Perhaps one day I will invent a suitable medicine for you… But I do not yet know when."

"So I guess you won't have the time to come to the summer festival this year…" said Reimu as she shifted her look to the Lunarian.

"I doubt it… If more patients keep flowing in as they are, I'll be busy for at least another month."

"Looks like you could use some more doctors here…" Marisa expressed her opinion.

"Ha. Wouldn't that be great?" smiled Eirin back at her. "It's true I'm slowly passing down my knowledge to Reisen, but she's not yet ready to work as a full-time nurse. Having more qualified doctors certainly wouldn't hurt… But I guess none of you girls have any knowledge or experience in the field of medicine."

Patchouli cleared her throat to say that Eirin's guess is not entirely correct. "Well…"

Eirin tilted her face to the side and surprisedly blinked at the sorceress. "Or am I wrong?"

Marisa giggled and nodded. "Well, Patchouli does have the knowledge. She even has it in her name, hehe… But…"

"…I don't have too much experience…" Patchouli finished Marisa's sentence.

"Well, that's certainly better than nothing." nodded Eirin approvingly. "Picking up the skill doesn't take half as much time as it takes to pick up the know-how… So, Patchouli-san, would you be interested in offering a helping hand to my patients? Of course, you'll be accordingly compensated for your help."

Patchouli smiled warmly and nodded to the offer. "I'm always eager to learn new things."

"Then congratulations, Patchouli-san. You have now officially become my colleague. You can start tomorrow. I'll show you everything you need to know. Then you can work by yourself and ask Reisen for any assistance you may need. How long do you wish to keep helping us is entirely up to you."

Reimu thoughtfully hummed and gave Eirin another idea.

"How about you hired some extra help from the Human Village? At least as a temporary solution…"

"True, there are a handful of experienced doctors who work in that little hospital, but… I'm not too sure if they'd abandon the village if I asked them for assistance. After all, the reason that hospital was founded is the fact that Eientei is quite a bit of road away from the village. Not to mention hard to find…"

"You could at least try to ask them." shrugged the shrine maiden.

"Hmm… I suppose you're right. There's no harm in asking." muttered Doctor Yagokoro to herself.

"Perhaps with the extra help, you could even treat and cure all of your patients before the festival." said Reimu. "If we're planning a danmaku tournament, we definitely need a doctor too…"

"You're really serious about that?" asked Eirin as she gave the shrine maiden a curious look.

"Why not? After all, everyone likes watching these duels. And it's not like we're going to actually hurt anyone… too seriously…"

"Well, one thing I have to admit, Reimu-san, I admire your determination." replied the smiling doctor. "I'll try to do my best too and get all my patients to perfect condition. I'm thankful for your assistance, Patchouli-san."

"I haven't done anything yet…"

Eirin giggled. "True, but you are going to get really busy tomorrow. You'd do best not to push yourself too hard. I'm well aware of your health condition and I certainly wouldn't recommend you working longer than six hours a day."

"We'll see…" said Patchouli as she mentally prepared herself for her new assignment.

"I guess I should really let you all rest for now. You all have yet another busy day ahead of you…"

"Say, Eirin-san…" spoke Nitori who was just shyly and silently listening to the girls' conversation most of the time.

"Yes?"

"Don't you feel tired at all?"

Eirin's lips again bent into a light smile as the woman gently nodded. "Yes… Yes I do. Even Lunarians get tired, you know…" she then took out a small box out from the pocket of her dichromatic uniform and shook it gently with her hand, making its content rattle quietly.

"This medicine here helps me stay awake and active, but it's not healthy at all to keep oneself drugged for the sake of work. However, in exceptional cases when we get so many patients…"

"…I see…" nodded the kappa who got her question answered.

"Very well, enough chit-chat." said Eirin enthusiastically, but with a bit of reluctance to stand up from the chair. "Time for my night shift… If you need anything, just talk to one of the rabbits. They're smarter than they look and are making regular patrols around Eientei's corridors."

"Keep up the good work then, Eirin." said Marisa to the Lunarian who was already standing at the door.

Eirin's only reply was a silent nod before she left the room and closed its sliding door.

The girls all lay back in their beds and talked about everything that happened today and their plans for tomorrow before they grew tired and decided to call it a day.


	33. Fairy Hunt

As the second to last day of Minazuki dawned, the girls slowly and reluctantly got out of their comfy beds to see plates with breakfast already placed at each of their night tables.

"Heh, this really is a hotel." chuckled Marisa as she grabbed her pair of chopsticks, ready to dig into the meal.

"I didn't even notice when the rabbits entered our room." remarked the shrine maiden as she was wiping her eyes.

"By the way…" sounded Alice, "Are we going to the mansion first or are we going to the underground?"

"I doubt Byakuren has had any luck entering the underground to bring Satori here." reasoned Marisa with her mouth full. "But yes, we should first go get Sakuya, then see Satori and then try to catch us some fairies."

"Wait a sec, what about those sedative syringes Eirin was supposed to give us?" wondered Reimu.

"Umm… You mean these things?" asked Nitori who picked up an opened box from her night table to reveal six syringes lined next to each other it a protective casing.

"Guess Eirin hasn't forgotten…" nodded the shrine maiden as she looked behind her at Nitori.

Only now she noticed that Patchouli's bed was empty and cleaned up. "Oh and Patchouli must be already helping her now…"

"Hey, we should get her some fresh clothes when we stop at the mansion." recalled the witch and finished her breakfast.

"I'm sure she'd appreciate that." Alice nodded to the idea and started putting her bed into order as well. "By the way, Reimu-san, do you feel better today? Can you fly on your own?"

Reimu smiled at Alice and nodded. "I'm almost as good as healthy. I can fly without help, thank you."

Once all the girls have eaten their breakfast and got ready to leave, they left a brief thankful message for Eirin in their room. They didn't bother to leave normally, though. They opened one of the room's windows, and as they floated out of Eientei, Nitori closed the window behind them. Reimu really did feel much better than yesterday and she could fly just fine. Even though her wounds were still bandaged, they didn't hurt her anymore. Whatever powders Eirin used to treat her seemed to work marvelously. The girls took off into the sky, dodging the leaning bamboo trees on their way up until they were hovering above the huge forest. Once they had all obstacles which blocked their view out of their way, they changed their heading towards the Misty Lake which wasn't too hard to see even from a greater distance.

Reimu silently prayed that today she would finally get to the bottom of the fairy incident.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Human Village, the people – natives and outsiders alike all slowly began crowding the streets as they were on their way to their work or to school. One of these humans was Midori Iwakami - a 16 year old girl who was spirited away together with dozens of other outsiders into this fantasy world over a month ago. One of the lucky ones who actually made it to Human Village before any dangerous youkai found them. Like many of her peers, she too was slowly getting used to the new life in this new environment. She was currently living in a house with a retired master craftsman, Naota Tanisake who is incidentally an outsider just like her. Despite the old man's opinionated influence, Midori still managed to make several good friends with some of the youkai living in the village. Because she was a cheerful young person full of energy, she didn't have any problems with establishing new contacts and making new acquaintances. It was therefore no wonder she was picked as the vice-president of the so called Transfer Students' Club – the club that grouped together all those outsiders in Gensokyo who had a strong desire to find a way back to the place they once called their home.

Perhaps she could even make it to the leading role in the club, because the only reason this role was given to her friend, Kyouichi, was because the young man had gathered more knowledge about the world of Gensokyo by the time the club was officially established. However, Ishimaru didn't have half of Midori's leadership skills or experience in organizing a team.

Today was the time for yet another meeting of the Transfer Students' Club and so, Midori was on her way to the fairly new building of the Human Village – the Kamishirasawa Affiliated Academy. She was worried that she'd be a bit late today as she hurried up the stairs to the second floor of the school building. As she finally made it to the library door and opened it, she saw that less people have come for today's meeting than the last time.

"Umm… Good morning to you all." she greeted them with a rather tentative smile. "I see that some of our members like to sleep in…"

The man named as chief secretary – Hikaru Nagahashi looked at the girl with a concerned look and nodded to greet her. "I don't know if I should tell you now or wait until the club prez deigns to arrive here, but…"

"What's up, Hikaru-san?"

"Another two members of our club have decided to settle in Gensokyo permanently…" replied the paranormal researcher after a brief look into his ever-present diary.

"What? Another two? That makes our current club member count just…"

"Yes, thirteen people." confirmed Nagahashi-san with a nod after he checked the data in his notepad.

Midori was surprised and a little disappointed with the development of the situation. "Hmm… They could at least show up one last time and tell us why… If things keep going like this, there'll be just six of us who actually want to return home… Kyouichi won't be too happy to hear this."

"Speaking of him, where is that lazy bum?" wondered one of the other club members. "He's always late for the meetings…"

"Hmm… Has anyone seen Ishimaru-san recently?"

The remaining club members exchanged their looks as they shrugged their shoulders.

"As a matter of fact, I've been with him recently…" came a surprising reply from behind Midori. The voice belonged to Yuujin Ueda. Not the most sympathetic man in other people's eyes, but with a strong and unwavering desire to return home to Tokyo. Therefore, his loyalty to the club's cause was unquestioned.

"So… uh… Do you know where he is?" asked Midori curiously.

"Eientei, as far as I know." replied the man tersely and took a seat on one of the vacant chairs in the room.

"Eientei?!" Midori widened her surprised eyes. "Did something happen to him?"

Yuujin shook his head to gesture that he doesn't know the details. "Look, I've just heard this from some of the Ryuuken. He was on the last wagon of the caravan that was bound for the Human Village, but they got ambushed. Ishimaru was injured in the process… That's all I know."

"Wait isn't Asakura-san hospitalized there as well?"

"Yep. That guy should be discharged sometime this week. As for Ishimaru, I've no idea how long he is going to spend there… Hopefully he wakes up before autumn comes or else we're leaving without him." said Yuujin coldly.

"How can you say something like that?" Midori scornfully looked at him. "After all he's done for the club…"

"Oh, really?" smirked the trainman as he crossed his arms. "And what has he done so far, hm? He told us to search for some nonexistent youkai all over Gensokyo and gave us a bunch of meaningless tasks that bore no positive results."

"He did what he believed was the best for us. Even if we didn't manage to find Yukari so far doesn't mean she doesn't exist."

"Umm… I have brought something that might help us a little…" sounded a shy girl's voice from among the outsiders. The girl was a little younger than Midori with slightly curly brown hair. She was holding a sheet of paper in her hands as she shyly stood up from her chair.

"What have you brought us, Nadeshima-san?" Midori encouraged her to come closer.

"Well… I've found this old drawing on one of the classroom's bulletin boards…" said the girl as she turned the paper to reveal a crudely drawn picture of a landscape and two human-shaped figures standing next to each other. One was a short girl with black hair with two pigtails, the other one was a tall girl with long blonde hair drawn with a yellow pastel, dressed in long white dress, wearing a white hat of some sort with a red ribbon and holding a parasol in her hand. Both characters were smiling brightly. In the lower right corner of the picture there was the picture's name penciled in a child's handwriting – "Me and Yukari-chama".

"That's… ehh… very cute." said Midori as she snickered at the picture in her hand. "But I doubt this going to help us much…"

"Yeah, we might as well take this picture and stick it on the library's door next to the other one…" jested Daniel - the foreigner among the outsiders as he pointed at the picture hanging on the door of the school's library. The picture he pointed at was the front page of the Bunbunmaru News with the photo of Kyouichi in a shrine maiden's outfit, futilely trying to block off the lens of Aya's camera with his palms. Everyone had a brief laugh before the club's discussion continued.

"But seriously… We don't even know which one of these two is Yukari." remarked Dan as he hovered his index finger over the two crudely drawn characters.

"Probably the bigger one, since this is a kid's drawing…" reasoned Midori pragmatically.

"Actually, I think this is a useful finding." Sayuri popped her head between Midori and Daniel to take a closer look at the picture. "For instance, I had no idea that Yukari-sama is a blonde… She looks sort of foreign. Her dress looks European… Victorian era perhaps…?"

"Keep in mind, Hayashi-san, that you're judging that based on a stick-figure drawing made by a seven to ten year old girl with wild fantasy and minimal sense for details." Yuujin reminded her. "Besides… How old is this drawing anyway? As far as I know, some folks in the village refer to her simply as "that old gap hag"."

Midori leaned over the picture and focused her eyes on the faded penciled words before the picture's title.

"Hmm… If my eyes are still good, it says… Nagatsuki 14th… 123."

"Two years ago in September?" asked Sayuri, tilting her head to one side.

"So it seems." nodded the vice-president. "However, I exceptionally have to agree with Yuujin here; this won't lead us any closer to the youkai of boundaries."

"Ishimaru was foolish to consider her as an option in the first place. He hasn't really done much for the good of this club besides keeping us busy with silly and pointless tasks."

"Now that's going a bit too far, Ueda…" Midori objected as she gave the man a scornful look. "Kyouichi has done more for this club than you did and I won't let you badmouth him in his absence."

"Just for your information, dear vice president," Yuujin drawled Midori's club title with a sarcastic tone, "I am working hard every single day so that we could all buy the necessary traveling supplies and ditch this crazy place… And out of all the club's members, my job's payment is the highest and so is my contribution to the club's fund."

Hikaru briefly looked into his notepad and leaned to Midori, whispering into her ear: "I almost hate to admit this, but he speaks the truth…"

Midori sent him an angry frown. "That still gives him no right to talk about Kyouichi like that. Seriously… Saying jokes about him is one thing, but this is just plain mean. Wasn't it his idea to found this club in the first place? Wasn't it his idea to plan our difficult journey back home? And lastly; wasn't it you, Ueda-san, who gave him your vote during our election?"

"Hmph…" snorted the ex-trainman while crossing his arms. "Aren't you a bit too fond of Ishimaru-san?"

"What the heck are you talking about?"

"Oh, don't play dumb, Iwakami. Everyone in this school keeps whispering about you two being a bit closer friends than you're letting on."

Midori disbelievingly shook her head. "That's just ridiculous… I'll use your own words: Keep in mind, Ueda-san, that you're making that judgement based on rumors spread by 12 to 13 year old children with wild fantasy and too much free time on their hands… Honestly… I never held you in high regard, Ueda, but now you've succeeded to fall even lower in my eyes."

"I'm just saying aloud what everybody thinks and nobody is willing to tell you straight."

Midori smirked and repeated her denying headshake, anger building up inside her chest. "You better shut up already, before I…"

"Before you do WHAT, Iwakami?" Yuujin cut off her threat with a cocky tone. "Expel me from the club?"

"You wouldn't believe how gladly I would do that."

Yuujin burst into laughter and impertinently pointed his finger at Midori while he was at it. "Ahahahaha~! That's right… You would… provided you had any authority here, brat."

"I am the club's vice-president." spoke Midori with still calm, but threateningly sounding voice. "Just keep trying my patience. I dare you."

"Please stop already~! Both of you~!" Sayuri finally stepped between the arguing outsiders, since she couldn't take it anymore. "We're all on the same boat here, we need to act as a team, otherwise we'll never make it back home~! Our club's already falling apart, we can't have internal disputes over trivial matters~!"

"This woman speaks some sense." Daniel joined this conflict of opinions, seconding Sayuri's idea. "Both of you, calm down and take your seats." he ordered both involved parties.

Midori and Yuujin stared daggers at each other for yet another while before they silently obliged and sat down as far away from each other as the small library allowed.

"I think we should let speak someone else for now." said the foreigner, nodding his head at Professor Nagahashi. "Hikaru-san?"

The man in suit silently nodded and stood up from the chair. "Now that we've wasted enough time with petty bickering, wouldn't it be a good enough time to start a constructive on-topic discussion?"

The silence of everyone present in the room encouraged this experienced man to continue.

"We all know what this club's plan is… However, as more members have decided to abandon our cause and settle here, it seems we will either have to work harder or postpone our expedition."

"No way! I'm not waiting here any longer than autumn!" Yuujin immediately protested.

"In that case, we're going to have to increase our weekly contribution to our fund."

"But wait, Hikaru-san." sounded Sayuri as she raised her hand to express her objection. "Doesn't that also mean that with less club members we'll need less supplies?"

"That is indeed true, Sayuri-san, but we better have some sort of reserve just in case. Therefore, we'd better stick with our original plan and buy the same amount of supplies as we would buy for 18 people… Furthermore, due to the recent forest fires that you all could have seen even from the village, the prices of certain supplies and goods have increased."

"But I don't know if I'll be able to contribute to the club's fund any more money per week. I'm already doing my best at work and giving it my all… I would also like to return home as soon as possible, but... how do I earn more money?"

"Furthermore, who's going to pay for those members who are sick or injured?" asked Daniel. "Asakura-san is two weeks late with his contribution and our prez also has to pay for this week…"

"That is indeed a problem, isn't it?" confirmed Hikaru as he started walking from one end of the room to the other. "Asakura-san and Ishimaru-san are probably going to have to pay for their hospitalization at Eientei… Hmm… I've been thinking…"

"Yes?" Sayuri curiously raised her eyebrows?

"Perhaps we could ask for a loan from someone…"

"A loan? Are you crazy?!" asked Yuujin as he tapped his forehead with his finger. "That will just make our financial situation even worse!"

"Well, not quite." Hikaru disagreed with him and put on a mischievous smile. "You see, we could ask for the loan, buy the supplies and get out of Gensokyo, never paying back… Who's going to know that we're planning to leave Gensokyo? Nobody but us…"

Yuujin's and everyone else's mouths opened and eyes widened in surprise.

"Hikaru-san…" said Midori after a while of silence. "That's a very lowly and dishonorable idea coming from you… I like it!"

"Of course, we'll use this only as our last resort." Hikaru reassured everyone. "Just letting you know that there is such an option…"

Hikaru's idea stared another polemic discussion among the club members that lasted over one hour. Despite the negative development of the situation in the Transfer Students' Club, hope still remained in the hearts of those outsiders who were working hard to make their bold plan become reality.

* * *

Not longer than 15 minutes after they left Eientei, the group of four girls has arrived at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Marisa waved to Meiling the gate guard as she flew over the iron bar gate. Meiling noticed the girls and waved back.

"Well, what do you know? She's actually awake for a change." Reimu poked fun at Meiling's habit of sleeping on duty. "Guess she's so used to your regular visits that she doesn't even bother halting you…"

Soon after the girls landed in front of the main entrance of the mansion, Marisa again boldly stepped forth and knocked on the door. After a brief moment they opened wide, revealing the chief maid who was already waiting in the main foyer. Her look was again filled with surprise and confusion.

"Emm… and what are all of you doing here? And where's Patchouli-sama?"

"Gee, is that a way you should greet guests?" asked Marisa provokingly. "We've come for you this time…"

Sakuya was thrown into an even deeper state of confusion. "W-What? For me? What do you mean?" she instinctively put her hand on the thigh band with her throwing knives.

"Whoa, whoa, easy now, Sakuya!" the witch noticed that and tried to calm her down a bit. "We're just asking you to come with us. We... uhh… sort of need your help with something…"

"Yes," Reimu joined the conversation as she stepped a bit closer towards the maid. "And we've also come to take some of Patchouli's clothes while we're here."

That certainly sounded very weird and suspicious to Sakuya's ears and the maid threateningly drew out three knives, which she held between her fingers. "What the hell do you want Patchouli-sama's clothes for, you perverts?!"

Alice just dismissively shook her head over Reimu's and Marisa's inability to explain crucial facts before asking somebody a favor, which more than once led to a misunderstanding and a subsequent danmaku showdown.

"Can't you two first tell her that Patchouli is still in Eientei working as a voluntary nurse or whatever?"

The other girls shifted their looks at her and blinked a couple of times as they processed Alice's words.

"What? Eientei? And Patchouli-sama is now working there? Are you serious?" asked the head maid, still clutching the throwing knives in her hand.

"Well, yes, we are." confirmed the shrine maiden. "As you might have noticed, there's an incident going on in Gensokyo and we could use your help, Sakuya."

"B-But what does that have to do with you taking Patchouli-sama's clothes?" the maid couldn't understand.

"Oh, that… Well, since she offered to help around in Eientei for a few days, we thought it'd be nice if she had some extra clean clothes she could change into after a day of work…"

"I still find it hard to believe that Patchouli-sama would be willing to do any other work than reading and writing books…" muttered Sakuya to herself as she lowered her hand and deftly placed the throwing knives back on her thigh band. "But if what you say is true, than I will bring some of her spare clothes right away…"

Two rapid popping sounds echoed throughout the mansion's main foyer as Sakuya disappeared and reappeared with a small pile of neatly folded purplish clothes that belonged to Patchouli.

"Uh… thanks…" said Marisa as she received the garments. "Now, we need you to come with us."

"Didn't you just need the clothes?"

"No, Sakuya." sounded Reimu. "Aren't you listening? We need your help in order to resolve one particularly troubling incident."

"But you know that I no longer do this kind of work."

"Well then it's time for you to make a comeback." Marisa encouraged her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"That task we need your help with is rather simple and should be no problem for you." added the shrine maiden, "we'll explain everything later, just come with us already…"

"But I can't just leave without telling my lady… And secondly, who's going to watch over young lady Flandre if even Patchouli-sama is gone?"

"Just let the crazy girl stay in her basement." said Reimu as she waved her hand. "She seems to like it in there for some weird reason… And as for Remilia, you've got five minutes to convince her to let you come with us, otherwise we'll be the ones to do the talking." she waved her gohei wand and beckoned at Marisa who gently tossed her Hakkero in her palm and nodded to Reimu's words.

Sakuya wasn't afraid of Marisa, Reimu or their semi-threatening suggestion, but she was briefly caught up in a reverie, reminiscing the times when she used to lead a more liberal way of life and sometimes even teaming up with the miko and the witch in order to resolve a bunch of incidents. That was all before she decided to settle down to devote all her time to serving her vampire mistress, leaving the incident resolving to Reimu, Marisa and Sanae. As she recalled those memories, she couldn't help but to feel that deep inside her heart she missed all the fun of Spell Card dueling.

"Umm… why is she standing so motionlessly with that blank expression on her face?" wondered Marisa as she waved her palm in front of Sakuya's eyes.

"Maybe she froze in time. I heard it happens sometimes to those who can manipulate time…" shrugged Reimu as she tentatively poked the maid gently with her gohei.

"Kyaah!" Sakuya was immediately brought back to reality. "Right… I'll ask my lady if I'm allowed to leave…"

Right after she finished her sentence, she teleported herself away into Remilia's quarters.

* * *

"My lady…" she bowed tentatively as she appeared in front of the eternally young vampire.

"Ah, Sakuya~. It seems we're going to have a lovely sunny day after a week of rain…" remarked Remilia calmly. She was sitting in a chair next to a small round table, enjoying a cup of her favorite red tea.

"Yes, so it seems…" answered the maid as she took a brief look out of the room's window.

"It's good to have a little break from this tiring rain…"

"Umm… my lady? I've come to ask you something."

Remilia surprisedly rolled her eyes up at the tall maid to look into her face. "Whatever questions you would like answered, my dear Sakuya, please ask away…"

"Kirisame-san and Hakurei-san have come to ask me to help them with resolving an incident and…"

"You'd like to go with them, right?" the vampire completed Sakuya's unsaid question.

"Do I have your permission, Remilia-sama?"

Remilia took another sip of her tea, savoring the taste before putting down the cup on the plate and elegantly interlocking her hands. "Sakuya… If it's regarding shopping for daily supplies or resolving incidents, you know that you needn't ask me for permission to leave."

"Really?"

"Of course. Don't you remember that I sent you to Kazemura in order to have you find out what's going on with the fairies? Despite the fact that you are my maid, I never said that I will obstruct your personal freedom in any way."

"Remilia-sama…"

"I don't doubt your loyalty, Sakuya. It was your decision to settle down and let leave youkai hunting behind… But you are more than capable of resolving incidents. And now, when even the Hakurei shrine maiden has come to ask you for assistance, don't you feel the urge to go out there and do what needs to be done?"

"I… I do, my mistress…"

"Excellent…" smiled Remilia and stood up from her chair. She walked up to her maid and looked up at her as she grabbed her by the hand. "You know that your success makes me feel proud, don't you?"

Sakuya couldn't think of any words to reply with.

"Naturally you have my permission to go."

"Thank you, mistress." Sakuya bowed and took a step back.

"But only under one condition…" added the lady of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"Yes, Remilia-sama?"

"Please return to me safely…"

"Of course I will, my lady." smiled the chief maid, ready to teleport herself back to the main foyer, when Remilia once again grabbed her by the hand. "Wait a minute…"

"What is it, Remilia-sama?" Sakuya raised a curious eyebrow.

"I just thought that since Reimu and Marisa have come all the way here I should at least say hello…"

Sakuya smiled and nodded as she snapped her fingers and instantly sent both Remilia and herself back to the main foyer where Reimu, Marisa, Alice and Nitori were impatiently waiting…

* * *

"Aah~. If it isn't her noble highness herself…" commented the witch upon Remilia's and Sakuya's simultaneous arrival.

"Yes, good day to you as well, my short-tempered, ill-mannered friend with tendencies for "borrowing" other people's things…" retorted Remilia as she greeted the guests. "So what have we here today? Two humans, one youkai magician and a kappa…"

"We've just come to uhh… "borrow" Sakuya for a while…" explained Marisa with an innocent smile.

"I know that…" she brushed her off and gestured to the maid. "Sakuya told me…"

"Well, what do you have to say then?" asked Reimu impatiently.

"She doesn't have my permission to leave." replied the vampire tersely.

"What?!" asked all the present girls at once.

"In that case, we're going to make you give her permission." said the shrine maiden, drawing a Spell Card out of her sleeve. Even Sakuya herself was surprised by her lady's sudden change of mind.

"She doesn't have permission…" Remilia repeated the beginning of an unfinished sentence. "…she has an ORDER to go and help you." she finished with a smile.

"O-Oh…" uttered Reimu as she slowly withdrew the card. She almost felt a bit of disappointment that she didn't get the chance to duel against Remilia.

"Your order is my wish, Remilia-sama." said the maid and bowed once more.

"Go out there and make me proud… And if you still won't resolve that incident by evening, I could also join up with you when the sunlight won't be so strong."

"Very well, mistress." said the maid and walked over the doorstep, outside of the mansion. The other girls followed suit and took off into the air.

"Okay then, I'll be back… And don't forget to serve lunch to lady Flandre while I'm gone…" called the chief maid before she distanced herself far enough for her voice to become inaudible.

"Fortunately, I can always just ask Patchy to cook something when Sakuya's out…" thought Remilia as she closed the main door of the mansion. Her next steps were therefore headed for the great library where she hoped to find her friend. However, as she got there and couldn't see the bookworm sorceress anywhere, she became very surprised. Upon closer inspection of Patchouli's favorite reading desk, she found a sheet of paper with a brief message that seemed to be recently written in Sakuya's handwriting…

" _Dear lady Remilia,_

_I think I forgot to mention that Patchouli-sama is currently out on a voluntary mission to help Eirin-sama at Eientei. She should be back before the end of this week. I'll be back as soon as I fulfill your order._

_Your loyal and faithful maid – Izayoi Sakuya"_

"W-What?" asked the confused vampire as she read the message. "So even Patchouli has gone out? Uuuu~. Sakuyaaaa~! Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"

Remilia bit her lip in a desperate expression. "Uuu~… What do I do? Umm…" she thought hard about what to prepare for herself and her little sister for lunch. It's true that vampires fed mostly on human blood, but they also felt hunger for "normal" meals.

"Koakumaaa~! Meiliiiing~! I need your help~!"

* * *

"So, where are we headed off to?" asked Sakuya as she followed the other four girls in their flight towards south.

"Back to Eientei… obviously~!" replied Marisa with a hint of annoyance in her voice, since she was the one to carry Patchouli's clothes.

"And afterwards?" the maid inquired further.

This time, Reimu decided to give Sakuya some briefing. "After that we might take a very brief look at the Temple of Myouren to see if Byakuren managed to get to the underground and bring Satori along. Then we'll head off northeast. Not yet sure where exactly, but we're to catch several of the crazed fairies and bring them to Eientei..."

"And what exactly do you need ME for?"

"You'll be the main fairy catcher…" said the shrine maiden and showed Sakuya the small box with sedative syringes that Eirin provided. "If we find any of those insane fairies, we're most likely to encounter an entire swarm. Catching them without any tranquilizer would be very hard, so we'll need your throwing skills and your time altering as well…"

"Hard? Catching fairies?" asked the maid in disbelief.

"Trust me, Sakuya-san." sounded Alice. "When enraged, they can be very dangerous… Haven't you heard about those forest fires that broke out yesterday?"

"Why yes… the ones Marisa asked Patchouli-sama to help extinguish…"

"Well those fires were all started by swarms of those mad fairies. My house burned down too…"

"Oh, that's right!" Marisa suddenly realized something. "Since we're already here, please give me a minute to check if MY house is still standing, ze…"

She then put Patchouli's clothes into Alice's hands. The surprised puppeteer almost dropped them as she watched Marisa separate from the group and head towards the clearing where she hoped to see her house standing unharmed…

By the time the girls made it to the area where the Bamboo Forest of the Lost was spreading below them, Marisa regrouped into the formation.

* * *

"It's still there, good as ever…" she announced with relief.

"And messy as ever…" added Alice who knew all too well what sort of lifestyle her human friend lives.

After a couple more minutes of flight the girls began to descend below the treeline, so they would have it a bit easier to spot the well-hidden building of Eientei.

"It was this way, right?" asked Reimu who was again uncertain whether they were flying the right way.

"I think it was…" said Alice. Frankly, she was just as uncertain as Reimu.

"To be exact it's THAT way." said Nitori who pointed at a direction and took the leading position in the formation.

"Nitorin? How do you know that so certainly?" wondered Marisa. "Do you really have such a good memory?"

The little kappa inventor giggled and shook her head. "No, no… I just planted a little device on the building that in combination with this device…" she pointed at a strange metallic box she had affixed to her wrist by an elastic band, "…will show me the exact position of Eientei."

"Good job, you sneaky little kappa, you…" Marisa gave her a praising tap on the shoulder and followed Nitori's lead until the silhouette of a gigantic Japanese mansion appeared further beyond the dense bamboo.

* * *

"Looks like your little gizmo worked, Nitori. We're here…"

The girls landed and entered the impressive building, headed straight for Eirin's office.

Avoiding the busy rabbits in the main corridor, the girls reached the office and after a few knocks on the door they entered. They were not surprised to see Reisen again instead of Doctor Yagokoro.

"Uh… Hello again…" the rabbit girl greeted them from behind the table. "Need anything from Eirin-sama or me perhaps?"

"We've brought some clean clothes for Patchouli here…" said Alice, as she put the pile of clothes on one of the chairs.

"For me?" sounded Patchouli's voice from behind a folding screen as the sorceress popped out her curious head to look. "Oh, Sakuya. Never thought I'd see you here…"

"T-That's my line…" muttered the maid confusedly. "What are you doing, hiding behind that screen anyway?"

"I came to pick up some medicines for the patients upstairs." replied Patchouli and stepped out from behind the folding screen, revealing her new attire.

Sakuya's jaw dropped as she saw her in a white doctor's uniform. Marisa and Alice also couldn't hide their amusement.

"She looks so… so… cuuuute~!" cooed the witch and clasped her hands together.

Patchouli looked down at her uniform and shrugged indifferently. "It's a uniform… Whit a bit shorter skirt… But thank you for bringing me my comfy clothes, Sakuya."

"Eh… no problem…" said the maid who probably never saw Patchouli wearing any other clothing than her usual one.

"By the way, Patchy, how's the work here?" wondered Marisa. "Is it hard? And do you even know what you're doing?"

"So far, I'm just following Eirin's instructions. Doing what she tells me to and trying my best not to mess anything up… It sure is different from library work."

"Yeah, I can imagine… Good luck then." Marisa stepped aside so that Patchouli could pass and leave the office with the medicines she picked up.

"Wait a minute." Reimu halted the sorceress as she was about to close the door behind her.

"What is it?"

"Do you know if Byakuren has come back in the meantime?"

"That monk? No she hasn't shown up yet." she shook her head and finally left the office.

Reimu turned to the remaining girls in the room and nodded. "Well then, our next stop is the temple of Myouren. My guess is that Byakuren couldn't go underground. If that's so, we'll have one more thing to do."

"Then what are we still waiting for?" asked Marisa and opened the office's door. "Let's' get going."

Nitori exhaled heavily. "All this flying is making me tired and it's only noon…"

* * *

Once the girls have reached the outer premises of the Human Village, they landed on the deck of the Palanquin Ship and immediately started looking all over it for any of its crew members.

After ten minutes of fruitless searching, the girls have regrouped again; this time in front of the entrance to the praying room…

"Found anyone?" asked Reimu as she was catching her breath.

"Nope…" Marisa shook her head and looked at the other three girls who also gestured a negative reply.

"It seems this whole temple/ship is empty…" commented Alice and rested her back against the wall.

"I wonder what navigation mechanism this ship used before it was converted into a place of worship." muttered the kappa as she stepped back to take a look at the whole ship.

"You can ask Byakuren about that stuff… when we find her…" said Reimu, looking at the both ends of the road connecting the Human Village and the Forest of Magic. "But where could she be? Where could all of her youkai band be?"

Sakuya was still a bit confused about this incident she was supposed to help resolve and had no idea what Byakuren had to do with it. However, she didn't bother asking any more questions, since she thought that everything would become clear later on…

"Well, the last place that we know Byakuren went to is the entrance to the underground…" reasoned Alice. "Maybe she's still there."

"I say we head there too." Marisa agreed with her and initiated her hovering mode. "Maybe Byakuren got trapped in the underground…"

"Oh great…" pouted Reimu and took flight towards the Youkai Mountain. "The last thing we need is to undertake a rescue mission."

"Hey, Reimu~! Wait up~!" called Marisa after her friend who was already too far away to hear her… "Come on, girls, we need to catch up with her." she said to the rest of the team and followed the tiny red-white dot in the sky.

They managed to catch up with the hurrying shrine maiden somewhere above the Forest of Magic.

* * *

"Say, Reimu-san…" sounded Sakuya timidly. "Are we really going to the underground now?"

"That's right. We'll need Satori-san to look at those fairies we catch and tell us what is causing their madness."

"But wait a sec, Reimu." Marisa grabbed her by the collar to halt her flight. "Isn't there another entrance to the underground near your shrine? You know… the one that was made by that geyser…"

Reimu stopped dead in her tracks, blinking a few times as if she was hit by a brick. "You're right~! Geez… I'm so spaced-out today… I would already like to have this problem resolved, and in all my haste I forgot something so obvious."

"Let's split up then." suggested Sakuya. "I'll go with Reimu; the three of you can go on to the other entrance near the mountain…"

With that said, the girls split up and each group headed towards their two separate destinations.

* * *

"Okay, Sakuya, you're a human, so you shouldn't have any problems with entering the underground, but you need to stay close and follow my lead, okay?" Reimu explained with a bossy tone. "And be prepared to fight and dodge. There are lots of evil sprits down there."

"And who are those strange individuals over there?" asked the maid as she pointed at the distant figures hovering near the Hakurei Shrine.

"Hmmm? So I'm gone for just a day and my shrine got overrun by a bunch of youkai? Something has to be done…"

Reimu accelerated her flight and drew out her Spell Card, ready to give the unsuspecting group of youkai a surprise attack. Sakuya flew by her side with knives already in both her hands. As Reimu was about to declare the spell, she got close enough to identify all the figures…

"Wait, Sakuya~!" she shouted at her companion who was about to unleash her throwing knives upon her targets. "That's her!"

"Who?"

"That's Byakuren-san. Heeey, Byakureeeen~! Over heeeere~!" Reimu shouted and waved her hand in the air to get the attention.

The group flying towards the shrine was indeed Byakuren and her youkai followers. What's more, there was also Satori among them. As they noticed Reimu and Sakuya, they speeded up a little to meet up with them.

"S-Satori-san?! You've brought her? You actually went down to the underground?" Reimu couldn't believe her eyes.

Byakuren politely bowed and smiled at the shrine maiden. "I'm sorry it took so long, but yes, we've found her and asked her for help… And Satori-sama was kind enough to come to the surface again."

"B-But you're all youkai!" stuttered Reimu in confusion. "How did you manage to even enter the underground?"

"Through that hole in the ground, of course…" shrugged the Buddhist monk and pointed with her thumb somewhere behind her.

"But youkai from the surface should not be even able to…"

"Guess that was nothing but a rumor then."

Reimu took a deep breath and exhaled through her clenched teeth. "Yukari… That lazy, lying old youkai… She just made that up!"

"Umm, are you feeling alright Reimu-san?" Sakuya looked at her with a worried face.

"Yeah, yeah… I'm fine…" the shrine maiden brushed her off. "It just makes me mad when I'm being lied to."

"I have no problems with that." sounded Satori's voice suddenly.

"Yes, of course you don't. You can tell immediately if the person talking to you is lying or not."

"That's right. Although I cannot tell the truth from a lie when the person presenting something as a truth is not even aware of the fact that he or she has been lied to about it…" said the young satori. "But you can rest assured that neither I, nor any of the here-present youkai are lying to you…"

"Anyway, I'm glad we're finally back on the surface…" said Byakuren and took a few deep breaths of fresh air to emphasize her happiness of seeing the sky again. "We truly got a bit lost down there yesterday…"

Reimu couldn't help but to silently admire the youkai monk for keeping her promise and returning from the underground with the mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits. Furthermore, she managed to convince her to come to the surface without using any danmaku.

"Very well," sounded Satori again, her third eye focused on the miko. "Since they managed to drag her all the way here, it would be good to meet up with Marisa and others and tell them that they no longer need to go to the underground…

"Hey~!" called out the confused shrine maiden. "Are you reading my thoughts again?"

"…Maybe…" said Satori with an innocent smile and made a wink. "I'm not saying that your idea is bad, just… How are we going to catch up with your friends? They must be already at the mountain by now…"

"Well…" said Sakuya and grabbed her silver pocket watch, which was always clipped to the skirt of her maid outfit by a chain. "I could make our flight to the mountain a little shorter, but I can only use this ability once per day… Maybe I should save it for catching fairies."

"Ahhh…" Reimu nervously exhaled and turned her back to Byakuren and the rest of the youkai. "Let's fly already! Maybe we'll still catch them on the surface if we hurry!" she tried to delude herself with optimistic thinking. Byakuren, Sakuya and Satori briefly exchanged their surprised looks and went after the shrine maiden.

* * *

"Say, Marisa, are you sure the entrance is this way?" Alice asked her human friend once they reached the northern foot of the Youkai Mountain.

"What do you mean? We're at the damn mountain, aren't we?" retorted the agitated witch. "The second entrance is somewhere in the mountain, ze…"

"Yes… "SOMEWHERE" is a very specific term…" remarked Alice sarcastically.

"Will you be quiet for a minute?! Can't you see I'm trying to concentrate?"

"On what? Blasting a hole in the mountain with a Master Spark?"

"On remembering where exactly that goddamn entrance was!"

"Too bad I never was in the underground…" said Nitori with a hint of regret. "I'd surely plant a tracking device near its entrance like I did at Eientei."

"Well…" said Marisa after a while of flying back and forth and scanning the mountain's wall. "I know for certain that one way to get to the underground is through the summit, but…"

"I don't think the local tengu populace would be too happy to see us flying over their heads." Nitori completed what Marisa hasn't finished saying. "Besides, that "entrance" you're talking about is actually the industrial part of the Youkai Mountain. That's where the hybrid geothermal nuclear reactor chamber is… I've heard it's really, really hot down there."

"Then we have to find another way in, ze!"

"We've been looking around for over a dozen minutes… Let's try looking further over there now…" suggested Alice and flew on ahead to search for some other hole in the mountain.

"No, Alice… I'm quite certain the entrance is somewhere around here." Marisa insisted on staying and thoroughly scanning the immediate surroundings. "And I think I already see it~!" she exclaimed thriumphally and dove between the tall pine trees.

"And I think we've been spotted by someone…" said Nitori as soon as Marisa began to descend to the ground.

"Huh?" sounded the witch's voice from below and soon after, her head popped out from among the treetops to take a look. "Who's spying on us? Some nosy tengu?"

"I… can't see exactly, but whoever it is, he or she is now flying off somewhere else…" replied the kappa as she tried to focus her aqua-colored eyes on the distant figure.

"If it's a tengu scout, it could mean trouble… Let me take a closer look…" said Marisa and rocketed towards the mysterious lonesome figure.

"Aha… so you're a girl too, aren't you?" thought the witch as she approached the person and got close enough to identify her gender. "I wonder who that….?"

Alice watched as Marisa flew towards the unknown person who appeared to be no longer interested in them and was now flying somewhere towards east.

"Ah… Marisa… I just hope you won't pick any unnecessary fight like you have a tendency to…"

Both the youkai puppeteer and the kappa followed the witch, since they were also curious to know who could be watching them and then just nonchalantly fly away. The fact that she was actually flying away from the mountain held a strong indication that she was not one of the tengu scouts.

"Hey, you~!" Marisa tried to halt the stranger. "Wait up!"

The girl giggled as she briefly turned her face at the witch and continued flying away from her. Even this brief moment when she showed her face was enough to ring Marisa's bell…

"Hey, I know you! You're Koishi! Hey, stop for a moment, will ya?!"

"Oi, Marisa…" uttered Alice as she caught up to her in flight. "Who's that girl you're chasing?"

"That's Koishi~! This is actually a lucky encounter, because she's one of the Komeiji sisters…"

"Komeiji?" repeated Alice, looking surprised.

"Yes, and that means she's also a satori… obviously… Heeey~! Koishi, stop running away from us~!"

The girl simply ignored Marisa's call and her only response was another cheerful giggle.

"Oi, Komeiji~! Are you listening?! I said stop, dammit!"

Marisa lowered her head to increase her aerodynamics and hence, her speed. Finally she caught up with the fleeing satori and grabbed the back of her shirt. "Gotcha~!"

Koishi let out another excited giggle and finally stopped in midair. "Tehehe~! Yay, you tagged me… Now I'm it."

Marisa took a while to catch her breath before she looked Koishi in the eyes. "Sorry, Koishi, but I don't want to play tag right now…"

After a few seconds, Marisa was joined by her friends, both of which took a good look at the girl who was getting away from them for nearly one whole minute. She was a rather short girl with short and slightly wavy gray hair and dark-green eyes. She was wearing an ocher shirt with diamond-shaped blue buttons, a dark-green collar and frilly black sleeve hems. Her knee-length skirt was of a lighter shade of green and decorated by a faint flowery pattern. She also had a small black hat with a yellow ribbon around it. As a satori that she was, she also had a third eye placed over her heart. However, unlike her older sister, hers was dark-blue with two long cords wrapped around her torso and linked to each of her ankles, their color gradually shifting from dark-blue to light-violet. Also, unlike her sister, her third eye was closed. She deliberately sealed it off herself a long time ago, in order to save herself from the hatred of other youkai and humans who despised her sister for her innate ability of reading minds. However, upon doing so, Koishi later awakened an even greater power within herself – the ability to see and manipulate the subconscious. She could no longer read other people's minds and became more carefree and whimsical, enjoying her aimless journeys and exploring the surface world, returning home to the Palace of the Earth Spirits only on rare occasions…

"We have a favor to ask from you…" said Marisa, faking a humble tone. "Could you come with us for a while?"

"Ooooh…" Koishi curiously looked at Marisa's two friends. "I haven't met you yet~! Koishi Komeiji, pleased to meet you~!" she smiled cheerfully and stretched out her right hand.

"Uh… Alice Margatroid…" said the blonde puppeteer bashfully and shook Koishi's hand.

"Eheheheee~! You touched me… Now you're it, Alice-san~! …just kidding~!" giggled Koishi and quickly released Alice's palm, flying right over to Nitori. "Oh, you're a kappa aren't you?"

"Y-Yes… Nitori Kawashiro… That's my name…" replied Nitori and also briefly shook hands with the strange satori.

"Pleased to meet you, Nitori-san~ Oh, and Marisa-san too, but we already know each other, right?" she asked as she turned her head to the witch.

"Okay, we're all friends now; will you come with us already?" Marisa repeated her demand.

"By the way, how are you, Marisa?" Koishi nonchalantly continued her idle conversation. "It's been a while since we've seen each other… You still hang around with that shrine maiden?"

"Yes, but listen…" said the witch, but again failed to interrupt the whimsical satori.

"She's an interesting person, isn't she? Like you, she's met so many different people and youkai and became as powerful as she is… Hey, girls, have you met many people and youkai too?" she asked, shifting her gaze from Alice to Nitori and back.

"Umm…"

"Well…"

"Because I've also become a little stronger since the last time we've met, Marisa…"

Marisa took a breath, exhaling heavily. "Look, Koishi, we really have no time for this chit-chat. We need you to come with us… Like now!"

"How about a little game first?"

"No time for that… Come, on, follow us!"

"And if I say no?" asked Koishi teasingly.

"Oi, Marisa, why don't we just beat her up and drag her to Eientei?" suggested Alice, who was growing tired of this pointless conversation.

"That's the spirit, Alice-san~!" Koishi cheerfully clapped her hands and smiled sweetly. "A little game of danmaku is all I need to make my day…"

"Umm… Alice," Marisa murmured to her friend. "That's easier said than done, you know…"

"Come on! What are you talking about?" the youkai puppeteer didn't understand why would Marisa negotiate with someone who won't listen to reason. "We've got her outnumbered three to one. Let's get this over with, already!"

"Yes, let's~!" sang the cheerful voice of Koishi.

"I know that she may not look like it, but Koishi's actually quite a mighty satori… If we were to fight her, we'd have to give it our all…"

"But you see for yourself that she won't come with us willingly." argued Alice. "That's when Spell Cards come to play."

"Spell Cards, Spell Cards~!" rejoiced Koishi, her childlike face showing an expression of excitement and thrill. "I'm curious to see your interesting Spell Cards, Alice and Nitori-chan… Uh… I hope I can address you with "chan"…" she murmured nonchalantly.

"Looks like, she's raring to battle." commented Nitori as she was mentally getting ready for a danmaku fight.

"And all of you can attack me at once~!" added the younger Komeiji sister. "I'll show you my lovely spells as well~!"

"Is she really serious?" asked Alice, who doubted that this girl could take on three opponents simultaneously.

As if to answer her question, Koishi quickly flew several meters backwards, crossing her arms in front of her chest and making a large red circle with a hexagram in the middle appear behind her.

"It seems she is." Nitori replied to Alice and also distanced herself a bit from Koishi.

Alice saw that a bright-red glow appeared in the center of Koishi's circle and she could already tell this wasn't going to be an easy one-sided pounding of one poor satori…

"Okay, Marisa, you battled her before, right? Do you have any strategy, or some advice?"

"Ehh… yes, dodge."

"Gee, that's really helpful!" pouted the dollmaker at the human magician.

"No, I mean really… DODGE~!" Marisa shouted this time and pushed Alice away from herself, just in time to retract her arm before a fast and dense current of numerous red bullets shot between them.

"Whoa~!" exclaimed Alice as she saw what Koishi was capable of. She was shooting very dense continuous currents into all directions, slowly spinning clockwise, making a spiral pattern and leaving very little room for error. Alice and Nitori slowly and carefully followed the curves in the streams of danmaku and when they suddenly changed direction, they dove into the small gap that was left between them for a brief moment. Once they got the hang of this pattern, they began returning the fire. Alice made Shanghai shoot a straightforward red beam at her target and Nitori attacked with a spreading stream of blue bubble-like shots. Marisa utilized her conventional green magic missiles that were a bit slower, but packed more power.

"Concentrate your fire~!" she ordered like an experienced war veteran and as she slowed down her own movement, her shots became larger and changed their color to blue. That was her so called magic napalm, because of the blue smoke-like effect the projectiles left once they hit any solid object. Even though all three of the girls were relentlessly firing their magic against Koishi, the young satori seemed unfazed by this. Magic shots kept landing on her body one after another, but she just kept on smiling and kept up her initial attack for over a half a minute.

"Ah… Finally, she stopped." exhaled Nitori when the red spiral streams disappeared.

It wasn't long before Koishi pulled out her first Spell Card.

"Symbol "Danmaku Paranoia"!"

Marisa immediately recalled what this spell does and shouted at her friends. "Everyone, regroup to me! Now!"

Alice was close enough to hear the call and assumed a position right next to Marisa without asking any questions. Nitori, however, was a bit further and didn't hear what the witch shouted at her.

"Nitori~! Get here on the double!"

Only now did the kappa notice, but couldn't quite understand Marisa's intention. "But why? We'll only become easy targets like that…"

Before Nitori could realize what was going on, it was too late for her. Koishi unleashed a symmetrical barrage of large blue glowing orbs and Marisa and Alice became surrounded in a purple ring made of smaller projectiles that burst outwards. Poor kappa tried to dodge the chaotic shots, but she couldn't have her eyes focused on two different directions. She got hit by one of the larger orbs from the side. Only now she figured that the only safe zone was inside that purple ring, which Marisa and Alice were seemingly trapped in. Right now, Nitori had no other choice but to endure the hits which were quite a bit painful. Marisa and Alice could see that Nitori was in trouble and so, they focused their fire in order to break Koishi's spell as quickly as possible. After less then 10 seconds of their joint attack, a loud pop echoed over the mountainside.

"Hey, are you alright, Nitori?" Marisa asked as she could finally see her kappa friend more clearly with all the distracting danmaku gone. She was holding her right hip and looked like she was in a lot of pain. However, she didn't feel like giving up.

"I… I'm fine…" she replied, drawing out a Spell Card of her own. "Drown "Trauma in the Glimmering Depths"!"

A dense mass of blue wave-like intersecting bullet currents appeared around Koishi, while Nitori shot out a wide fan of large blue orbs. It was one of her hardest-to-dodge Spell Cards.

"Well I don't know…" murmured Marisa to Alice as she watched the spectacle. "The last time I checked, Koishi was pretty much immune to my Spell Cards…"

"Immune?" Alice raised her eyebrows.

"Well, yeah… Only the most powerful of youkai know a technique to make themselves basically immune to their opponent's Spell Cards… at least during their own spells I think…. And Koishi falls into that category."

"I didn't know she was that powerful…"

"Yeah… She's somewhere up there along with individuals such as Flandre, or Mokou, or Nue… But since we didn't say how hard we would like to battle against each other, perhaps she won't use that ability…"

While Koishi disappeared in the swarm of blue shots, all that could be heard from her was her playful laughter.

"Yaaay~! Nitori-chan~! That's a beautiful Spell Card… Ahahaha~!"

Nitori only wondered what her opponent could be doing right now. Apparently, Koishi was more or less mesmerized by the wave patterns that resembled several surfaces of water.

"Well, whatever is going on, it doesn't look like Nitori's spell has much effect on her." noted the witch and began firing her conventional straightforward magic missiles into the dense clusters of Nitori's blue orbs, hoping to hit Koishi with at least a few shots. Alice joined her and started aiming Shanghai's beam at random directions within the area of Nitori's spell.

"I really like how it looks like I'm underwater~!" rejoiced Koishi as she flew up and again down into the barrage, like a fish jumping up from the surface and diving.

"Are we even hitting her?" Marisa wondered, continuing her blind barrage.

"Don't know… But at least we're trying…" replied Alice and tired to aim for the center of the blue cloud of bullets. "Hey, Nitori, could you stop your Spell Card for a moment? I can't see our enemy…"

Of course, Nitori couldn't oblige her ally's request, since she was currently in a trance, when all her effort and attention was focused on fueling her spell until she ran out of energy. Although she managed to keep the barrage up for quite a long time, once it was over, Koishi emerged unscathed.

"Hey, hey, girls~!" Koishi called at them and waved her hand as if to let them know she's alright. "How about I showed you another one? This one is really pretty if I do have to say so myself…"

Drawing another card out and flashing it to her opponents, she declared: "Instinct "Release of the Id"!"

The card disappeared and a bright pinkish glow appeared in Koishi's hand, gradually becoming stronger as she charged her power for the spell. Alice instinctively backed further away from her opponent in hope of giving herself some more maneuvering space. However, since she wasn't familiar with Koishi's spells yet, she didn't know what to expect and all she could do was improvise. The same thing could be said about Nitori, who was quite surprised to see that her spell only managed to entertain the light-hearted satori girl. Her next course of action was assuming a position slightly above and behind Marisa. The pain from the last spell's danmaku was still persistent and was taking a toll on the kappa's flying speed and overall concentration. She therefore figured that staying close to Marisa was going to keep her safe… And finally, Koishi's spell started off another amazing spectacle. While she put on a face full of joy, her hands released a multitude of pink heart-shaped danmaku projectiles in a several intersecting streams which formed a symmetrical pattern.

"This looks pretty easy…" remarked Nitori as she briefly observed the heart-shots' trajectories.

"Yeah, just don't back away too far…" Marisa added a warning, throwing a lightning-quick glance at both her sides. "…where's Alice?"

"Huh? Alice?" Nitori repeated the puppeteer's name as she also took a split second to look around herself. She spotted the girl, hovering further away from Koishi, firing her doll's danmaku directly at her mark. "Ah, there she is…" said the kappa and pointed her thumb behind her back.

"Damn…!" uttered the Magician while she leapt through a gap between the shots to save herself from being trapped. Nitori followed her movement and managed to slip through as well.

"That idiot… What is she doing back there?!" she muttered to herself, forgetting that Alice never fought against Koishi before. "Hey, Alice~! Come o'er here! Now!" she shouted.

Alice didn't heed her friend's warning and remained in her current position, unaware that the heart-shaped danmaku that was missing her was forming a dense cluster behind her that gradually turned into an impassible wall of magic. She kept herself focused on defeating Koishi's Spell Card and just when she thought she had her, she felt an unpleasant sensation on her back.

"Aaaaah~! Ouch! What the…?!" she turned around to see what hit her and with a shock she discovered a huge pink wall made of hearts. "Oh, crap…!"

Just as she backed away from the wall in panic, she ran directly into one of the bullet streams, receiving yet another three unpleasant hits. "Kyaaah, aaah, umpf…!"

Marisa and Nitori finally managed to break the spell, but poor Alice was already falling to the ground.

"Alice~!" Marisa shouted as she watched the girl's body land in one of the trees below. Fortunately, one of the tree branches was strong enough to hold her and she didn't hit the ground.

"Uh-oh… Girl down~!" called Nitori who could only watch as Alice grabbed onto a tree branch with all her effort.

Marisa turned her face at the satori, drawing out her mini Hakkero. "Nitori, focus your fire on her, I'll prevent her from attacking for a while!"

"Roger~!" nodded the kappa and began sending a narrow blue stream of wave-shaped magic shots at the opponent who was in terms of raw magical power way out of their league.

Despite her whimsical and carefree attitude, Koishi was no idiot. She began making some rapid dodging maneuvers, making her opponents' work even harder. Furthermore, she returned fire with her dazzling non-declared danmaku.

Marisa quickly drew the Hakkero closer to her lips and muttered her favorite spell into its opening. Then she pointed the mini furnace against Koishi and loudly declared: "Love Sign "Master Spark"!"

The Hakkero started emitting a very distinctive low humming sound and not a second later, released a huge magical beam of white light with terrifying destructive potential.

"Now, Nitori~!" Marisa called at her companion. "She may be immune to Spell Cards, but not to normal attacks. Shower her with your danmaku~!"

"I know…" replied the kappa as she tried to find her target which disappeared somewhere in the bright flash of the Master Spark. "…But now I can't see her!"

"Don't fret over details, Nitori, just keep firin' and everything's gonna be fine, ze~!"

The kappa just giggled dryly at Marisa's simplistic attitude. "Honestly, Marisa… I expected you to have some kind of strategy up your sleeve, but the way I see it, you're just surviving this fight, not fighting it…"

"Hehehe~!" the witch giggled at the witty remark. "Reimu? Is that you? Please, get out of Nitori's body, will ya?"

"I'm serious… You've no idea what to do…"

"Don't be silly. Can't you see how well my strategy works? I'm keeping her in check, while you're dealing the damage."

"Oh, am I really?" wondered Nitori as she blasted danmaku where she estimated Koishi's position.

Not before long, Marisa's spell lost its spark and revealed the satori who was hiding somewhere below its danger zone.

"Ehehe~!" Koishi giggled lightly. "…Just as expected from Marisa-san… All power, but not too much accuracy..."

"It would be nicer if you weren't cheating with your spell-dodging ability, you know…"

"I didn't use it during this spell." she revealed. "I just wanted to have the thrilling feeling of danger that you humans have when you face more powerful opponents than yourselves. Besides I'm already familiar with Master Spark. It's quite a pretty spell, but not too hard to evade."

"Say, Koishi, why don't we just call this a draw so you'd finally come with us already?" Marisa tried to negotiate. "You already managed to down Alice."

"But both of you are still afloat, aren't you?" replied Koishi with a question. "And I can still keep playing too…"

"Look, you'll be of no use to us when we knock you out of your senses."

"Tehehee~! I like your courage, Marisa, but can you back those words up with some solid performance? Let's find out…"

A third Spell Card appeared in Koishi's hand. Marisa briefly turned her face at Nitori and shrugged. "Well, it was worth a try to ask…"

"Tell me, Marisa, but frankly…" said Nitori, giving a questioning glance to the witch. "Do we even stand a chance?"

"Of course we do, ze~! We've beaten two of her cards already; we're winning."

Nitori bent her lips into a bitter smile as she looked down at Alice who was still holding onto a tree branch, unable to continue the fight.

"Winning? Well, I don't know…"

"Suppression "Super-ego"!" Koishi just declared her third spell of this battle.

"Alright, Nitori, I remember this as well. It's basically the same as the one we faced now, just reversed." Marisa gave a brief explanation of the upcoming spell.

"Reversed, eh? Then I have an idea…" said Nitori, who was still hovering behind Marisa and turned her back to the enemy. Now, Marisa and Nitori were hovering close to each other, each facing an opposite direction.

"I'll be watching your back and warn you from incoming shots; you'll be shooting your standard shots right at her…"

"Hey, not a bad idea, Nitorin~." smiled Marisa and nodded. "This time we'll beat her spell without getting hit, ze~!"

Just as Marisa said, once activated, the spell began drawing blue heart-shaped shots from a wide radius and gathering them towards Koishi's hands.

Marisa didn't wait and opened fire, her every shot landing precisely on her target.

"Umm… Go to the left… No, I mean to the right!" called Nitori from behind as she tried to warn her from danger.

"Make up your mind then! Is it left or right?"

"Right! Move to your right, quickly!"

Marisa made a fast maneuver to her right side, simultaneously with Nitori who moved to her left. Both girls managed to slip through the stream of blue hearts just in time to avoid being hit. Marisa didn't stop her fire for even a second. Her magic napalm bombarded Koishi and was weakening her spell with every successful shot.

"Now ascend a little… slowly…" signaled Nitori as she herself began slowly gaining altitude, staying away from danger. Marisa didn't even look back and relied entirely on her guidance.

"And now descend while moving to your left…"

"You're doing great Nitori~!" Marisa praised the kappa. "Without your help this card would be quite a bother~!"

"Whatever… Just keep shooting!"

"And just what do you think I'm doing right now?!"

"Down!"

"What?"

"Move down, Marisa!"

"Oh…"

Marisa managed to evade one of the blue hearts that just grazed her by the tip of her black hat.

"Uh-oh…" sounded Nitori's voice again. "The shots are speeding up! You better break that spell soon…"

"I'm trying my best here!" replied the witch and gritted her teeth, trying to give her shots some little extra punch with a little extra focus.

"Prepare to dodge in rapid succession…." the kappa issued another warning.

"I'm… almost… done… here…"

"Left! Up! Down! Right! …Move forward a little and again up…!" Nitori almost messed up as she herself had her mind busy with dodging the ever faster danmaku.

Another loud popping sound, resembling breaking glass was like music to her ears. It meant that Marisa finally managed to defeat Koishi's Spell Card.

"Woohohooo~!" exclaimed the witch joyfully. "We did it~! We've scored a clean Spell Card! Nice job, Nitorin!"

The young kappa engineer gave out a sigh of relief, but as she turned her face again at Koishi, she noticed her holding another card.

"Hey, you're good~!" Koishi called at the girls. "You managed to stay unhit this time. Precise and skillful dodging maneuvers are always worth watching… They're just as fascinating as the beautiful colorful danmaku patterns themselves… Now… my last Spell Card for this game. Just do like you did now and you'll win without a problem~." she said almost as if she was rooting for them. "Now… take a good look at this danmaku and tell me what do you see~!"

"Did she just say this is going to be her last Spell Card?" asked Nitori.

"So it seems..." shrugged Marisa and corrected her hat. "Guess she's being easy on us. At least we won't have to deal with ten spells, ze…"

Koishi was already raising her hand into the air and declaring: "Subconscious "Rorschach in Danmaku"!"

First, bright strings made of white light started spreading from the center of Koishi's third eye, bending and twining and making symmetrical ellipsoid patterns. Then each of the patterns changed its color to blue, teal or purple, spreading itself wider and wider until each string broke into dozens of small bullets which continued in a fairly predictable path. However, Koishi began drawing the patterns ever faster. Marisa and Nitori were having serious difficulties with dodging them all. It wasn't long before the sky was littered with hundreds and later thousands of tricolor magic shots.

"W-W-What the hell is this?!" stuttered the panicking kappa as she was desperately trying to make heads or tails of this complex pattern. Even her eyes were barely able to process the amount of dangerous projectiles flying in the air.

Marisa didn't look any more relaxed. Several of the shots have grazed so close by her that they made a few tears and holes into her clothing.

"This isn't what it looked like the last time I faced it, ze…" she uttered while trying to stay alive. She even tried to fire back at her opponent, but due to the overwhelming number of Koishi's shots, she was unable to see where she was shooting at…

Each second seemed like an eternity. Marisa's heart was pumping rapidly and she even began losing the feel of her limbs. So strong was her adrenaline rush…

"Come on…" she said to herself. "Stay focused… This is the last Spell Card… I almost have her… Just don't screw it up now…"

After more than ten seconds, Marisa still managed to evade every shot. Big droplets of sweat began forming on her forehead, but a good feeling of an upcoming victory was settling in her heart.

"Alright, Nitori, just a little longer and she's ours~!" she shouted at her ally, even though she lost track of her position in all that bullet hell. "…Nitori~?" she took a split second to look around. The blue-haired kappa was nowhere to be seen. Now the self-proclaimed ordinary magician started to panic. "Nitoriiii~?! Where are you~?!"

"Down here…!" came a weak call from down below.

The witch dodged another series of shots and in the little time that she had before another wave, she looked down. There she saw Nitori lying on her back on another large tree branch, apparently after being hit too many times to continue the battle.

"Oh, crap!" she cursed upon realizing that she's now alone in this fight.

Normally, losing a danmaku duel was nothing anyone in Gensokyo would fret about, but right now, Marisa really didn't want to lose. She knew that Koishi wouldn't come with them and help them with resolving the fairy incident if she would lose to her… She felt an unnatural urge to win this duel. She took a deep breath and entered focus mode. She tried to aim her shots where the bullet clusters where the thickest, assuming that Koishi, who was their source, would be somewhere in the middle of them…

Shots were becoming harder to dodge with each passing second. Marisa knew that using Spell Cards against Koishi wasn't going to win this fight, but at least she'd buy herself some time to take a breather from dodging.

"Okay… The situation's quite crappy already… Time to use this…" she thought to herself as she reached inside her pocket for a Spell Card.

"Here goes… Magic Sign "Milky Wa…" Ungh~!" her spell declaration was interrupted by a bright purple shot that went unnoticed by her eyes and found its way to the left side of Marisa's jaw…

"Nooooooo~!" she gave out her last shout as she fell backwards, stretching out her hand to the sky. She was shot down… beaten… defeated…

* * *

Just like the two of her friends, she also got caught by one of the many tree branches. As she was looking into the blue summer sky in a semi-delirious state, she noticed that all the chaotic, but still symmetrical danmaku patterns have suddenly disappeared. Koishi was still hovering above the trees as the sole victor of a handicap match. The young satori took a while to realize that she just eliminated all her opposition. Even though this was just a game, she felt a bit guilty for making her last spell a bit harder than usual. She descended lower to make sure her defeated opponents weren't seriously hurt.

"Umm… I'm sorry, girls… Are you alright?"

"Ehehehe~…" Marisa uttered a weak laughter, showing a thumbs up gesture. "Koishi-chan… That was a good battle… ze…"

"And your dodging was quite impressive too, Marisa-san~." replied Koishi with a smile.

"Ahh… So comfy…" sighed Alice who was still resting on another branch of the same tree, indifferent to the fact that she was just beaten.

"I feel kind of sleepy now…" murmured Nitori and yawned.

"Hey don't worry, girls, I'll help you…" said Koishi and volunteered to carefully bring her defeated opponents to the ground. She grabbed onto Alice's hand and helped her sit up. Then while supporting her weight, she descended with her and rested her against the tree trunk.

"T-Thank you…" nodded the puppeteer who rarely ever saw such compassion from someone who has just beaten her in a danmaku battle.

"For someone who's never battled me before, you did really well, Alice-chan… Now wait a bit, while I bring down the rest of your friends, okay?"

…

"Aww… It was so nice up there… Why are you bringing me down?" protested Nitori with a sleepy voice as Koishi carried her weakened body and propping her against the tree trunk next to Alice.

"I can't leave you up there… You could fall and hurt yourself." explained the satori as she was already ascending up again to pick up Marisa.

The witch also found her horizontal position on a tree branch quite comfortable as the warm sun was lulling her to sleep. However, some unknown object has suddenly blocked out the sunlight…

* * *

"Who the…?" she focused her eyes and noticed nine human-shaped figures hovering above the trees. "Oh… It's Reimu… and company…" she referred to the group of other girls, which included Sakuya, Satori, Byakuren and her complete crew…

"Oh, look~!" Reimu pointed at the blonde magician. "A Marisa-bearing tree…"

"Yeah, ha, ha, Reimu, very funny..." groaned Marisa with a semi-painful expression. "Oh… wait a sec… Is that… Satori?"

"Yeah." nodded the shrine maiden, throwing a brief glance at the purple-haired girl. "Would you believe that Byakuren managed to go into the underground? Along with all of her youkai followers… Oh, by the way, what the heck happened to you? And where's Alice and Nitori?"

Marisa turned her head slowly from left to right and shrugged. "Beats me… They were here just a few moments ago… But how did you even manage to find me?"

"We followed the lights." Sakuya gave a simple and clear explanation.

"Oh, yeah… About that… Hehehe~… I think I've found a good candidate for our little tournament, Reimu…" uttered the witch just as Koishi ascended above the trees.

Reimu's eyes widened in surprise as she saw the familiar figure and face of Koishi. "T-Th-That's… That's your sister, Satori-san… Right?"

Both Satori and Koishi opened their mouths in a long silent stare at each other's faces.

"Koishi…"

"Satori-neechan?"

Apparently, it's been quite a while since the two have last seen each other.

"Koishi-chan~!" exclaimed Satori and flew towards her younger sister.

"Satoriiii~!" rejoiced the younger Komeiji sister and hurried to embrace her older sibling.

The two sisters threw their arms around each other and smiled.

"Koishi… I'm so glad to see you again…" whispered Satori into her sister's ear.

She loved her very much, but ever since Koishi decided to seal off her third eye, not even Satori could see what she was thinking about. As Koishi became more carefree, she left the underground and set out on her own adventure, exploring Gensokyo and meeting many different people.

"I missed you so much since you left…" Satori continued, tightening her embrace around her beloved sister.

The lid of Koishi's third eye shifted a bit, as if it was about to open up. "Don't you think that I've forgotten about you, Satori-neechan~." she said with a sweet voice and planted a kiss on Satori's cheek. "Chuuu~ ."

"What a cute family reunion…" commented Sakuya with a daydreamy face as the two Komeiji sisters very much reminded her of her mistress and her younger sister.

"By the way, Onee-chan, how's Okuu? Is she still causing trouble? And Orin…? Do you play with her every day?" Koishi began asking her sister about their pets.

"They're both doing well, but now is not the best time for us to talk, Koishi." replied the older sister. "There's something serious going on… I'd like you to come with me."

"Oooh… An adventure? Together with Onee-chan? Yaaay~! Where are we going?"

"Uh… Well…" Satori paused herself, taking a look at Reimu and reading her thoughts. "I believe our next destination lies to the east of here… Near some Kazemura… place…"

"Kazemura?" Koishi repeated the name of the mining village. "Hey, I've been there a few times… Lots of big youkai live there… And some humans too… But… what are we going there for, Onee-chan?"

Satori took another quick glance at Reimu who just opened her mouth to give an explanation of the situation, but Satori beat her to it.

"We're going to… Catch some fairies?"

"Oi, Satori…" Reimu gave her an annoyed look. "Please stop taking words out of my lips."

"Hey, girls…" sounded Marisa who was still lying on a tree branch after having lost a danmaku fight. "A little help here…?"

"Oh, sorry, I completely forgot about you there, Marisa-san~." said Koishi and hurried to assist the beaten magician down from the tall tree.

"So… you two had a little opinion dispute, I take it?" asked the shrine maiden, watching Koishi as she took Marisa into her arms.

"Actually, there were four of us involved… And it wasn't even much of an opinion dispute as it was just a little game…"

"So, where are Alice and Nitori?"

"I've seated them down at this tree so they'd rest up…" answered the younger Komeiji and disappeared below the treetops as she descended with Marisa in her arms.

Reimu sighed and put on a half-confused and half-concerned face. "Great… Now our team is three members short…"

"Don't worry, Reimu-san." Byakuren put a comforting palm on her shoulder. "We can take your friends back to Eientei, since we already know where it is."

"If it's just about catching a few fairies, then we really don't need a team of 13 people, do we?" said Sakuya.

"Perhaps not… But it'd be better if there's more of us for the task." replied Reimu as she began to descend to take a look at Alice and Nitori. The other girls were also quite curious, so they followed her down. Once the shrine maiden's feet touched the ground, she saw the kappa and the youkai dollmaker resting their backs against a large tree trunk. They both looked okay, if a little tired.

"Just what exactly were you doing?"

"Oh, we just met Koishi-san here…" said Alice, beckoning at the younger of the Komeijis. "Then Marisa said that she might help us just as much as Satori-san, so we asked her to come with us."

"But she wanted to play a danmaku game first, so we all had a little battle…" added Nitori. "She's really powerful, you know…"

"Do you think you'll be able to fly?"

"Uh… yeah… I think." answered Alice as she touched the places where she got hit to check if they still hurt her. The pain was slowly going away, but she still needed to regain her strength.

"I think I'm okay too…" said Nitori, trying to move all her limbs. "But please… Just give us a few more minutes, okay?"

"What about you, Marisa."

"Um… well… my back still kinda hurts after falling on that branch… Don't know if I'll be able to go with you guys…"

Reimu frowned as she looked at her friend. "That's a pity… Never mind then… Byakuren or one of her friends can take you home or to Eientei."

"No problem…" confirmed the youkai monk.

As Koishi heard that Marisa could be hurt more seriously, she started to feel guilty for overcharging her last spell that earned her victory.

"I… I'm really sorry, Marisa-san. I didn't mean to hurt you… I just… Just wanted to play with you for a while…"

Satori took pity of her younger sister as she walked up to her, trying to comfort her.

"Don't blame yourself, Koishi… That sometimes happens in danmaku battles… I know you wouldn't hurt Marisa intentionally… You just…" she turned her head to the witch and stopped herself in the middle of her sentence. She turned her attention away from her sister with her third eye focused on Marisa and stepped forth to her. Satori's slightly surprised expression was quickly followed by an ominous smile.

"Uh-oh…" Marisa quickly realized that her little pain faking was going to be exposed.

"You're not really hurt."

"S-She's not?" asked both Koishi and Reimu.

"W-What are you talking about?" asked the witch, denyingly shaking her head. "I'm really hurt here… (Crap… She found out… Damn you, Satori! Damn you!)"

"I think she's just wants to slack off." said Satori, revealing Marisa's intentions.

"Just what exactly is she thinking about right now?" Reimu addressed the question to the mind-reading youkai girl.

Satori tilted her head slightly to the side, and scanned the witch's thoughts, citing them exactly as she saw them: "Damn you, Satori! Why can't you just put some sock over that third eye of yours, or at least be quiet about things that are none of your business?! Oh, great… Now she's saying exactly what I'm thinking… Reimu and Sakuya and the rest of these girls can go catch those damn fairies even without my help. I could have just stayed at home, reading one of my borrowed books, but NOOO~… Some nosy satori just has to ruin everything... ze…"

A long, dull silence came about and was interrupted again by Satori.

"What exactly is this "ze" anyway?"

"So…" Reimu spoke after hearing out Marisa's train of thought, tapping her gohei wand against her palm. "You'd like to avoid responsibility, eh…?"

"Don't listen to her, Reimu… She just made that up so she could discredit me… Ehehehe~."

"Normally, if this was some ordinary day without any incidents going on, I'd have some understanding for you…" said Reimu with a menacingly calm voice as she kept slapping her gohei against her palm. "…But not today…"

"Ehh… Reimu? What are you going to do with that thing?" asked the witch with a bit shaky voice.

Reimu's answer was swift and merciless. She grabbed the witch by the collar and pulled her up from sitting to standing position. She then immediately swung her gohei and a stinging hit landed on Marisa's backside.

"Kyaaaaah~!"

"You can rest just as soon as we catch at least three living fairies; not before!"

"Alright, alright! I'm going with you!" Marisa consented, rubbing the fresh source of pain on her butt. "Geez, Reimu… I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff."

"Ehehe~." Nitori gave out a frightened giggle as she saw what Reimu just did to Marisa. "Reimu-san is scary."

Afraid that she might end up similarly, the young kappa hastily stood up and dusted off her clothes. Alice also didn't want to look like a weakling and hurried back up on her feet.

Reimu smiled sweetly. "Good… Now that we're all ready, we should go over our plan once more."

Sakuya, the Komeiji sisters and Byakuren's crew were still not entirely briefed about Reimu's plan or reason to catch fairies in the northeastern part of Gensokyo, and so, the shrine maiden made a recap.

"So, Sakuya… You'll take these and throw them at the fairies to tranquilize them…" she said as she passed the box with sedative syringes to the maid.

"Alice and Nitori will then take the tranquilized fairies… at least three of them and head back to Eientei. Satori and Koishi will then examine their minds to figure out what's making them act so aggressively… The rest of us will have our hands full with fighting against the other fairies, because these little youkai are never lonesome… Any questions?"

Nobody asked anything.

"Then let's get this over with… With a bit of luck, we'll figure out the source of this incident before sundown."

Reimu then took flight and was quickly followed by the other twelve girls. Right after ascending above the trees, they set their course towards the east, keeping their eyes opened for any signs of fairies.

 


	34. Thirteen

After just about five minutes of flight Sakuya called out: "Oh, I see one!"

"Wait, Sakuya, don't…" Reimu tried to tell her not to waste the sedatives on some random fairies that weren't even crazed, but she was too late. Sakuya was lightning-quick and surgically precise with her throwing. She flung one syringe at the distant fairy figure and in just a few seconds, the little youkai was falling down in a spiral motion.

"Your precision is admirable, Sakuya, but I think I forgot to tell you that we're hunting only the crazed and aggressive fairies…"

"Ehehehe~…" the maid let out an innocent giggle. "Sorry…"

"Ah… Never mind." said Reimu tapping Sakuya's shoulder. "At least we know that the sedatives work. But now we only have five syringes. We shouldn't waste them like that."

"Wait, shouldn't we at least take a look at that poor fairy that Sakuya-san just shot down?" suggested Alice.

"Hmm… I suppose we should…" shrugged Reimu and propelled herself towards the estimated crash site of the tranquilized fairy. "Where did she fall?"

"Oh, there she is…" said Nazrin as she found the little youkai lying on the ground with a syringe jutting out of her shoulder. The rest of the girls flocked around her and formed a circle.

"Well I'll be…" said Marisa with an amused smile. "It's Cirno. Nice shot, Sakuya."

"Cirno, huh? Doesn't she usually hang around the Misty Lake?" wondered Reimu, watching the ice fairy's chest slowly heaving up and down.

"Well, we're not that far away from the lake after all…" Alice pointed out, since the lake was indeed just a few kilometers away from the girls' current position.

"I wonder if she was also affected by this strange madness…" murmured the shrine maiden. "She's one of the toughest fairies I've seen so far, but still…"

"Are we just going to leave her lying like that?" asked Alice whose soft heart felt compassion even for fairies.

"No problem, I can take her…" said Byakuren, pulling out the syringe from Cirno's arm. "Aww… She looks cute when she's sleeping…"

Byakuren picked the fairy up from the ground and her gentle motherly expression quickly changed into a shocked one.

"Aaah~! She's… s-so c-cold~!" she exclaimed, quickly putting the fairy back on the ground.

"Hehehe~!" Marisa couldn't hide her amusement. "Well, duh… She IS an ice fairy after all. On hot summer days like this, being near an ice fairy feels really refreshing, doesn't it?"

"But she's too cold to the touch…" added Byakuren and thoughtfully glanced at her crew. "Murasa, you can't feel cold. Why don't you pick her up?"

The ghostly girl looked back at her with a questioning expression. "Do we really have to take her with us, Byakuren-sama? You've heard the shrine maiden. We're supposed to take only the enraged fairies."

"But we don't know if she was or wasn't enraged." argued the monk. "We should take her anyway… It's better to err on the side of caution, right?"

"Yes, let's take her to Eientei." agreed Reimu. "Perhaps we can even learn why some fairies are immune to this lunacy… if they indeed are."

Minamitsu let out a sigh of reluctance. "Alright, I'll take her then."

"Let's keep flying, then. It's still a fair distance to Kazemura…"

With one fairy specimen acquired, the girls continued en route to the remote mining village where a small population of yama-bito and an even smaller population of humans lived peacefully. Even at their top speed, they didn't reach the village sooner than 20 minutes.

* * *

"Oh, so that little settlement is Kazemura, right?" asked Nitori who never ventured into this part of Gensokyo before.

"I bet there's some treasure in those mountains just waiting to be found…" murmured Nazrin whose heart was pounding with excitement.

"But I doubt they have any books worth borrowing." remarked Marisa as she looked at the simple wooden cottages, unaware of the fact that the yama-bito are culturally highly developed race of youkai with special interest in all things historical. Their literature too was highly valued not just among historians, but among their common folk as well.

"Okay, everyone, we should concentrate on the task at hand." Byakuren shook the other girls out of their reveries.

"But where or how are we supposed to find the crazed fairies?" asked Sakuya. "I've been to this village several times already, trying to investigate the source of their attacks, but I wasn't able to find anything."

"Oh, I might have an idea." said Shou, the tiger-youkai as a thought crossed her mind.

"Shou-san?"

"We'll split up and search a wide area. If any of us finds anything…" she pointed her index finger at the sky and launched a small, but brightly shining red danmaku shot which jetted upwards with a high-pitched whistle, leaving a long, bright tail of light and exploded into hundreds of smaller red sparks like a firework. "Then we'll signal the others."

"Oh… That's a good plan." agreed Sakuya. "But I don't have any explosive throwing knives which I could use as a signal."

"That won't matter if you'll be with someone who can use flashier danmaku. Nobody said that we should split up to individuals, Miss maid."

"Call me Sakuya, please."

"I think we should split into pairs or trios, since our count is an odd number."

After a while of deciding of who should team up with who, the girls split up, ready to make a wide-area sweep in search for crazed fairies. In the end, Ichirin wasn't teamed up with anyone, because she already had Unzan as a companion, who was very useful especially for searching assignments.

* * *

"Aww… I wanted to be teamed up with Alice~." pouted Marisa as she followed Reimu over the dense forests in the mountainous area near the mining village.

"No. She's too soft on you and you have a bad influence on her." retorted the shrine maiden coldly. "You'd probably talk her into sneaking into Kazemura to slack off…"

"Since when did you turn into a satori, Reimu?" asked the witch with an amused voice. "But I really find this strange about you…"

"What?"

"That you're usually the one who's lazy, except when some incident stirs up. Then you're all hyper all of a sudden."

"I'm a shrine maiden, Marisa, in case you haven't noticed this little detail yet. And a Hakurei shrine maiden to boot… It's my job to resolve incidents. If I was lazy during times like these, Gensokyo would be in all sorts of trouble."

"Okay, okay." Marisa admitted. "I suppose you're right… But how are we supposed to find the fairies? You know that they can hide their dwellings with magic so that no human can ever find them…"

"I know about that, Marisa. However, we're not looking for their dwellings, but the fairies themselves."

"For being the most common youkai in Gensokyo, they're sure hard to find in these woods."

Suddenly, Reimu stopped in midair and raised her left hand to give a silent halt signal to Marisa.

"What is it, Reimu?"

"Shhhh~!" the shrine maiden hushed her as she focused her ears to the subtle sounds of the forest. Except for the sounds of blowing wind and an occasional crackling of some thin branches, all was quiet. Then, all of a sudden a loud fluttering sound came from the more distant trees.

"Ambush~!" called Marisa, immediately grabbing onto her mini Hakkero. However, as no fairies showed up, she began looking at all directions with a confused expression.

"Yeah, a bird ambush…" chuckled Reimu, pointing forward towards the large flock of birds that took flight simultaneously.

"Something apparently got them startled… Let's head to where they took off from."

Just as Marisa was about to make a move, she noticed a bright purple flash in the sky with the corner of her eye. "Look, a flare!"

"Looks like somebody had more luck than us." commented Reimu as she turned to the shining purple danmaku orb. "Time to go~!"

"Hey, wait up a bit!" called Marisa before she jetted after her friend to catch up with her.

* * *

Since Marisa didn't have her broom with her, she wasn't much faster than the shrine maiden, but she still had no problem keeping up with her. Both girls followed the flare that was already beginning to fade, wondering who fired it. After no longer than two minutes, they already saw several distant figures quickly flying towards them. As they drew closer, Reimu and Marisa recognized them as Satori, Koishi, Sakuya and Minamitsu. It seemed they were fleeing from something.

"Satori, were you the one who launched the signal danmaku?" asked Reimu as the girls got within earshot. The young youkai seemed somewhat frightened and the other girls' expressions were rather startled as well. "What's going on? What are you fleeing from?"

"That…" replied Captain Murasa, pointing a thumb over her shoulder.

Marisa and Reimu hovered up a little so they could see over the other girls' heads. What they saw in the distance made them open their mouths wide. It appeared as a huge black cloud rising from the distant forest, but upon closer look, the cloud was actually an incredibly huge swarm of fairies that was apparently chasing the girls who fled from them.

"Now THAT is a lot of fairies…" said the blonde witch with a hint of respect in her usually confident voice.

"Where did they all come from?" wondered the shrine maiden.

"We can try to figure that out later, Reimu… How can we stop this huge swarm?"

"Well, for one thing, there's thirteen of us instead of just three like at Alice's house."

"Yes, but where are the other girls?" asked Marisa, turning her head around as she looked for the rest of their allies. "So far it's just you, me, Sakuya, the Komeijis and Captain Murasa.

"Then fire another signal shot." suggested Sakuya, we better be facing those fairies in full strength. This looks too much even for the six of us."

Without much hesitation, Satori launched another upward bright purple shot into the sky. Its explosion was a loud and clear signal to the other girls to immediately regroup and prepare for battle.

"Spread out, everyone!" Reimu ordered the other girls to assume a wide formation.

The fairies were still far away, but it wouldn't take them longer than a minute to reach the girls.

"Spell Cards at the ready~!" called the miko as she drew out one of her own cards. The other girls nodded and prepared their spells to counter the first wave of the fairy swarm. Just about two kilometers now separated the girls from the overwhelming army, consisting of over a hundred thousand little youkai. Marisa's grip tightened around her mini Hakkero. Sakuya took out three syringes out of the box, ready to hit three separate targets. Even if she wasn't as accurate as she used to be, she would have no problem landing a hit against such an incredible number of hostiles.

"Reimu-san?" asked the maid before the fairies got within range. "I'm not planning to run even if we tranquilize the necessary number of fairies."

Reimu remained silent, swallowing her saliva in a nervous manner. She had never faced so many enemies before and despite her seemingly unwavering self-confidence, she couldn't help but to feel uneasy about the upcoming skirmish. However, Sakuya was right. No matter the odds, they couldn't just leave this fairy swarm run rampant and cause even more severe attacks on Gensokyo's villages and forests. They had to be stopped here and now.

"Come on, Reimu, just stay calm…" she encouraged herself in her mind. Only Satori could hear her. "Compared to my battle with Yukari, this is nothing… I can't afford to show fear in the eyes of any enemy. I should be an example worth following. I better not show any weakness here in front of my allies."

As she thought this to herself and watched the black cloud of fairies grow ever larger and drawing ever closer, she could feel someone put a gentle hand on her shoulder. As she turned around she saw Satori, looking back with her usual serious face.

"Don't worry, Reimu-san… We're here to back each other up."

"…Satori?"

"If you could read my mind, you'd see a certain level of fear as well." admitted the older of the Komeiji sisters. "But even so, I am not going to back away… Like you, I also need to be an example worth following…" she smiled and glanced at her little sister. "This really isn't the right time to show our fears and weaknesses. This is a time to show our danmaku."

"I'm with Satori." Marisa agreed, placing her Hakkero in front of her lips. "We need to show these little pests some Master Sparks, ze!"

"And some knives." added Sakuya.

"And hearts~!" said Koishi.

"And anchors…" Murasa concluded with a sly grin.

The fairies were close; only five hundred meters away from the six girls who were determined to stop them. The first wave already began sending their first unguided shots against the heroines, missing them by several meters.

"Not yet…!" called Reimu at her allies, so they wouldn't activate their spells prematurely. "Not yet…!"

The swarm was almost upon them, but the girls all wanted their spells to be as effective as possible. In order to take down as many fairies as they could, they needed them to come even closer and once they were close enough, an incredible display of lights and colors started.

"Now!"

Marisa went for her old faithful Master Spark, which took out several hundred fairies at once, cutting through the huge mass like a hot knife through butter. Satori unleashed a card she called Recollection "Terrifying Hypnotism". The constant circular outburst of yellow projectiles combined with thin red beams shooting to all directions and complemented by semi-homing streams of large violet bubble-like orbs managed to keep the swarm at bay for at least a while. The girls wanted to avoid getting surrounded and so, they flew backwards while showering the fairy swarm with normal danmaku. The not-too-intelligent fairies fell for their diversion and began pursuing the girls who now split up, each heading to a different direction. Thus, they managed to separate the swarm into six smaller, but still overwhelming clusters. As Satori's spell ended, she was already being backed up by her sister who launched the same card as she used in today's game against Alice, Marisa and Nitori. She technically covered a part of the sky with a pattern made of pink hearts. Any fairy that came into contact with one of the projectiles went down like a swatted fly. Reimu used her "Spread" version of her "Fantasy Seal" when the cluster that went after her nearly got her surrounded. It didn't take out as many fairies as she'd like, but at least she managed to stay unharmed. She then continued bombarding the hostile youkai with her homing amulets.

"Harbor Sign "Eternally Anchored Ghost Ship"!" sounded Captain Murasa's voice, declaring one of her strongest Spell Cards.

In a bright flash of bluish light, 12 ghostly anchors appeared around her and with the speed of cannonballs they simultaneously shot out to their respective directions. The effect was devastating for the nearest fairies, which were instantly knocked down from the sky. Those that were missed by the anchors were quickly shot down by the trail of blue danmaku, which each of the anchors left behind. As the deadly anchors were slowly returning to their originator, the blue trail of bullets continued outward, hitting even more of the crazed fairies.

Sakuya figured it would be a good time to tranquilize some of these little youkai, so without hesitation, she threw three syringes at once. Each shot managed to perfectly find its mark. In a matter of seconds, three fairies were slowly descending to the ground, too weak to continue the fight. Sakuya hurried up and caught them in midair. However, with her hands full, she could hardly fight back.

The fairies took notice of this and didn't hesitate either to exploit Sakuya's momentary weakness.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all~!" exclaimed the maid while fleeing from a large cluster of fairies and an even larger cluster of their danmaku. The extra weight she now carried slowed her flight down by quite a bit and it was no surprise that the fairies managed to catch up to her and bombard her without mercy. Surprisingly, though, their primary target was not Sakuya, but the fairies she had tranquilized. All three of them were literally assassinated by their own kind and left nothing but a small white cloud of glittering smoke as they died.

"What the…?!" Sakuya couldn't understand what just happened. It was just as if the fairies were killed on purpose. As if that mindless swarm knew that they should kill the captives so they wouldn't get betrayed by them. Sakuya now only had two more sedative syringes and not a tiniest room for error. Despite their obvious madness, these fairies now behaved in a strangely coordinated and organized manner, as if they had a single collective mind. This was definitely different from the few times when they attacked the Scarlet Devil Mansion a couple of months ago. The maid drew out her throwing knives instead of her last two syringes and rained death upon the legions of fairies. Every time she ran out of knives, she just stopped time for a while and picked up her knives back to use them again and again. When fully focused on her task, even the super-dense danmaku waves couldn't hit her.

For several minutes, the girls were putting up a solid fight against the overpowering odds, but the tide of battle was slowly turning towards the inevitable. They were growing tired and they were starting to run out of Spell Cards. Satori, Minamitsu and Marisa even got hit a couple of times and their fighting ability was thus slightly impaired. Even though they brought down thousands of fairies already, it still seemed like the swarm didn't get any smaller.

"Not good…" murmured Reimu desperately. "This is my last Spell Card. If I use this, then all I can do afterwards is use ordinary danmaku."

By this time the swarm of fairies managed to surround all six of the heroines, sending barrages at them from every side.

"I think you ought to use it and cut us a way out of this situation." Marisa suggested, cursing herself for even considering the idea of running away from a fight.

"Actually, I might have one crazy idea…" said Reimu as she watched the fairies quickly closing in on her and her allies. "When I use this spell, get ready to fly full speed towards Kazemura."

"You want to lure the fairies to the village?" asked Sakuya in disbelief. "A swarm of this size could level it in a matter of minutes!"

"But there's always a regular crew of Ryuuken stationed there. It's our best bet."

"You were right, Reimu." nodded Marisa as she blasted her beam-like shots everywhere. "That really IS a crazy idea… I say we battle them right here."

"Fine, but if we all die here, I'll know who to blame for it…" shrugged the shrine maiden while raising her last Spell Card above her head.

"I don't feel like moving to Yuyuko's place just yet." Marisa expressed her determination to survive this battle.

"Then you better do your best once this thing runs out of power…" Reimu told her while gently waving the card in her fingers. "Fantasy Heaven!"

"Now let's see if those dumb fairies can stand up to this!" Marisa commented with an evil looking grin. She knew all of Reimu's spells, but this was one of those she has seen just a few times. Reimu rarely ever used it because it was simply too powerful. As the card disappeared in Reimu's hand, she closed her eyes and her whole body became transparent – almost as if she was just a phantom. At first, many colorful lights appeared around Reimu's phantom form, just like during her more common Fantasy Seal. However, what followed afterwards could only be described as total and utter annihilation of any hostile target within a hundred meter radius. If one could imagine a long-lasting explosion of magic, emitting countless bright projectiles of different colors, each of which homed in on its target, then one should have no problem imagining the amazing effect of this spell. What's more, Reimu was rendered completely invulnerable to any form of harm, as any shot the fairies would hit her with just normally passed through her transparent body. No matter how hard the swarm tried to get closer to attack the girls, they stood no chance to avoid the homing colorful danmaku which instantly turned them into dust. While Reimu was fueling her spell, the other girls didn't linger and with their combined effort, they wreaked havoc upon the persistent little youkai with non-declared danmaku patterns. The swarm was significantly weakened, but as Reimu was starting to slowly shift back into material form, there were still enough fairies to overwhelm the six heroines. And when the moment came and Fantasy Heaven ended, the real hell began for the three humans, two youkai and one ghost who were still surrounded and attacked from all directions. Even with their maximum effort, they failed to blast a way through the ranks of enraged fairies and had no way to lure them towards Kazemura as Reimu suggested.

"Oh, crap!" cursed the blonde witch as her arm received a stinging shot from the side, which she had no chance to evade. "We're screwed!"

"No, we're not, this is fun~!" rejoiced Koishi who was having a good time evading the chaotic and random patterns of magic bullets. Even when she got hit enough times that would make a normal human hit the ground, she just giggled and fired her own danmaku back. However, her attacks were not very accurate.

Minamitsu was the only one of the group who didn't need to worry about dying, but the magic shots fired by the fairies left a painful sensation each time they hit her ethereal form. She kept on returning fire bravely, despite making a painful grimace.

"If this keeps up… I won't… be able to… fight… anymore."

Even when all the girls have used up all their Spell Cards, Sakuya still had one "ace in the hole" she decided to use in this dire situation.

"Everyone, listen up!" she demanded attention in the middle of a raging battle. "I can make the time for us to move faster for about ten seconds. When I say "go", we must break through their ranks and get as far away from them as possible. Then we can assault them at long range while driving the swarm in circles. We're faster than them so we can outmaneuver them easily."

"Sakuya…" Marisa threw an angry-looking glance at the maid. "Why didn't you say so sooner, dammit?! Get us out of this mess!"

The silver-haired maid took a deep breath as she clutched her silver pocket watch with her left hand. Then she made a slow movement with her right arm, as if she was drawing an invisible circle around herself. Once she made one full turn, she suddenly snapped her fingers and exclaimed: "Go!"

It was as if the time was slowed down to such extent that the danmaku fired by the fairies was now moving at only 10 cm/s. It wasn't just the magic shots. The whole world seemingly slowed down except for the six girls who heard Sakuya's signal, and without any hesitation flew directly at the dense cluster of fairies, easily avoiding every obstacle in their way while enjoying the sweet feeling of blasting their enemies in slow motion. It was during these few seconds that Sakuya took her last two syringes and injected two random fairies with the sedative. Before the flow of time returned back to normal, all six of the girls were quite far away from the zone of immediate danger. Sakuya now carried two stunned fairies in her arms.

"Wooohooohohooo~!" Marisa exclaimed with excitement. "This was the coolest experience since the first time I flew on my broom! Man... I think I should redirect my studies towards temporal magic."

"I never studied magic too much." shrugged the Scarlet Devil Mansion's head maid with a modest expression.

"Then you're like Reimu… Born with talent, but hates training, ze… Am I the only hard-working one around here?"

"Maybe you should try working as a maid at the mansion for a week or two and then try saying that again with a straight face…"

"Uhm… I hate to interrupt you two," said Reimu and pointed at the distant swarm, "but we still have a few million fairies to deal with."

"Don't exaggerate." Marisa brushed her off with almost nonchalant tone. "There's not that many of 'em… Looks like they still haven't figured out where the hell did their targets disappear to, hehe~."

"But now I won't be much of a help with these two in my arms." said Sakuya, beckoning at the two fairies she was now carrying.

"Oh… Then we better start barraging them now, while they're still far away." suggested the witch and took the honor of being the first one to start the long-ranged attack against the fairies, firing her standard magic missiles. As soon as her projectiles traveled the necessary distance and dissolved a couple of fairies into magic dust, the entire swarm was again set into motion, flying towards the source of this attack.

"Don't just stand there; let's give them hell, ze!"

Any girl who didn't have her hands preoccupied with carrying tranquilized fairies has joined Marisa's attack. The most successful was, of course, the Hakurei shrine maiden with her homing amulets that were strong enough to bring down one fairy per shot and precise enough to score one hit per shot.

"How many damn fairies do you think are there?!" Marisa asked the other girls just to keep the battle atmosphere a bit less tense.

"We've got most of them with Spell Cards, but I'd say still over ten thousand…" estimated Sakuya who had to throw her knives ballistically to hit her targets over such a long distance.

"Whoa… Where did you put those two fairies, Sakuya?" asked the surprised witch after she realized that the maid was already raining sharp metal upon the incoming swarm.

"Down below us… I just couldn't stand the idea of being the useless one around here." she replied with a smile.

"By the way, weren't you also carrying Cirno, Murasa-san?" Reimu pointed out once she realized it.

"Yes, I was… I put her down on a meadow near that Kazemura village before we split up to search for fairies. Looks like we've found more than we bargained for…"

"Let's just hope none of our specimens will get killed before we're done with this fight."

And finally, the remnant of the huge fairy swarm was again close enough to be dangerous for the girls. Perhaps they managed to lower the fairy count down to 8 or 9 thousand, but here they were again, still numerous enough to shoot the girls down… or worse.

"Scatter~! Don't let them surround us!" yelled the miko as she propelled herself full-speed backwards while not stopping her amulet barrage.

It was in this moment when a sudden and massive colorful salvo arrived from somewhere above and made short work of the nearest fairies that were about to catch up with the fleeing girls.

"What the…?!" Marisa opened her eyes and mouth wide in surprise. As she looked up at the sky while shielding her eyes from the sun, she noticed seven distant humanoid silhouettes blasting their magic at their enemies.

"It's the second half of our search party~!" she exclaimed, feeling a sudden wave of relief. "Damn… What took them so long?!"

Now the fairy swarm was being heavily assaulted from two sides, their numbers were diminishing rapidly. Surprised by this unexpected turn of events, the desperate swarm split up into two roughly equal groups. The first group kept pursuing Reimu and company, while the other fairy horde changed their target to the girls led by Byakuren. It seemed that the Buddhist monk and some of her team members still had a few spare Spell Cards, which under her orders, they effectively used to maximum effect. Five thousand fairies have been crushed in only one and a half minute.

Meanwhile, Reimu's team had to rely more on their flying and dodging skills. They led their pursuers in circles while causing heavy casualties. In essence, they had the situation already under control. They just needed a bit more time to neutralize the fairy threat than Byakuren's team.

"Don't worry, we're here already~!" Byakuren called at Reimu's team as she came to her aid in dealing the final decisive blow against the final remnant of the once great fairy army.

When there were just a few hundred of little winged youkai left, they began to scatter and flee to all directions, as if their sense of self-preservation had kicked in only now.

"They're fleeing~!" called Alice as she was shooting the retreating fairies from behind with a beam emitted by her doll.

"Oh, no, you won't…" Reimu released more of her homing amulets which finished off every single fairy before they could get away.

* * *

Finally… The battle was over and a deep silence has settled over the pine forests near Kazemura. The magic dust the fairies left behind after their death covered the treetops like a thin layer of silver snow. Everyone was exhausted, but still alive and in most cases unharmed.

"AHAHAHAHAHAAAA~!" Marisa bellowed in a manic laughter that echoed all over the highlands. "How do you like that, you idiotic fairies, huh?!"

"Speaking of which… Where's Cirno and the other two that we managed to tranquilize?" asked Reimu, looking at everyone present.

"Oh, just wait here a moment." said Sakuya as she disappeared and reappeared with two of the mentioned fairies in her arms.

"Good…" Reimu nodded, barely giving any praise as she turned her look to the ghostly girl, Minamitsu Murasa. "Do you still remember where you stashed the ice fairy?"

"Sure. Just follow me…" she replied tersely, leading the way back to the mining village.

"By the way, Byakuren, what took you five minutes to come to our aid after Satori launched two signal shots?" Reimu raised a question at the monk girl.

"I'm sorry, Reimu-san." she bowed apologizingly in the middle of flight. "We too were ambushed by a very large group of fairies over the forest west of the village. We've come to assist you as soon as we could."

"I see…"

"Don't worry, we didn't let any of them get away." added the monk after seeing Reimu's frowning face.

Reimu briefly glanced at her and mustered a weak smile. "Good job… You did really well… All of you girls did a great job. Now let us take the fairies back to Eientei."

"I put the ice fairy down on that meadow." sounded Minamitsu who pointed forward at a nearby grass field a couple of hundred meters away from Kazemura.

"Oi, Reimu…" Marisa spoke to the shrine maiden. "You better hold onto your clothes, because they look like they're about fall apart any moment, ze."

It was no wonder since she was still wearing the same miko dress since yesterday, which already got torn up during the battle at Alice's house. A few new tears and holes were added during today's battle as well. Reimu now looked more like a homeless beggar than a shrine maiden, but Marisa's clothes weren't in any better condition either.

"Take a look at yourself first, Marisa…"

"Oh… uhh… That's just… the latest fashion trend in Gensokyo, haha~!"

"Yeah, right…"

"Ah… There's that ice fairy, see?" Murasa gestured towards the little bluish figure curled up on the grass, sleeping like a baby.

"You're the only one who can carry her without getting frostbitten, Murasa-san, so please pick her up." Byakuren asked her in a respectful manner, even though she was basically her superior.

"I know, Hijiri-sama, you don't have to tell me…" replied the ghost as she lifted the sleeping fairy from the ground and floated up again, continuing her flight with the other girls to Eientei.

"You've helped us a lot, Byakuren." Reimu again expressed her thanks. "You don't need to go with us all the way to Eientei. You can return to your temple if you wish…"

Byakuren looked at her confusedly. "So… after such a long and hard battle you're telling me I'm no longer needed?"

"No, that's not what I meant…"

"You've done your part so now you can just go home? Is that what you meant to say?"

"No, Byakuren, you've got it all wrong…" Reimu shook her head denyingly, but got interrupted again.

"Do you really expect me to leave my work half-done and go to sleep with my mind at ease? Do you seriously think I'd be able to rest while knowing that entire Gensokyo is in danger? If that's the case, then you truly know nothing about me yet, Reimu of the Hakurei clan…" said the monk with intimidatingly determined and serious voice. "This incident concerns us all. I will accompany you and help you until it gets resolved and I won't take "no" for an answer."

"Okay…" said the shrine maiden with a weak chuckle. "I see you're just as fired-up as I am… But now I'm also hungry and tired… I could eat even Marisa's tamagoyaki."

Alice covered her mouth with her palm as she chuckled at Reimu's remark.

"Really? Why don't you come over to my place then? I can make some for you…"

"How about we just returned to Eientei already?" asked Alice. "Aren't you curious what will Satori-san find out when she reads the fairies' minds?"

"I already tried taking a look, but I can't see their thoughts clearly…" said Satori as she examined the sleeping fairies. "A sleeping mind is somewhat harder to read for me…"

"Let me take a look then, onee-chan~." Koishi volunteered her assistance and took a look at the fairies' subconscious. "Hmm… It seems the two small ones are having a dream about a danmaku battle… And the blue-haired one is having some nightmare… A giant toad has swallowed her… Oh no~! I don't like seeing people having bad dreams!"

"That won't help us in tracking the culprit behind this incident." frowned the disappointed miko. "We ought to wait until they wake up."

"Knowing Eirin-sama, I'm sure she has some drug to neutralize the effect of the sedatives and wake the fairies up." thought Alice aloud.

* * *

After a long flight on a hot summer day, the girls have finally reached the bamboo forest. The only relief from the hot sun was the pleasant cool air around Cirno, so the girls took turns at flying in close formation with Minamitsu who was carrying the ice fairy.

"A few more flights like this and I think I might actually memorize Eientei's exact location in this damn forest." jested Marisa as she followed Nitori, who was leading the way to the well-hidden mansion, guided by her tracking device.

"You know what they say; practice makes perfect." replied Alice as her stomach made a growl. "…I hope we'll get something to eat; I'm starving."

"Tell me about it. I could eat a whole chicken, ze."

"Ahh~. Here we are at last." Nitori exhaled as soon as she spotted Eientei. "This way, this way~!" she waved her hand and landed on the ground.

"Oh, thank goodness…" muttered Sakuya. "My arms are dead from carrying these two…"


	35. The Source of Madness

"My… You don't look too well…" stated Eirin as soon as all the girls have gathered on the third floor corridor of Eientei. "But you've brought some fairies as I see… Follow me then. We'll need to strap them down in case they'll still be aggressive when they wake up."

The Lunarian doctor walked into a nearby room equipped with beds with leather restraints. Once the fairies were all strapped to their beds, Eirin took out a small flask filled with some colorless liquid and filled three syringes with it.

"This ought to wake them up in a few minutes." she explained as she injected the little youkai with the drug. "I'm quite curious to see this unnatural behavior of the fairies… By the way did you have any luck in looking for this Satori-san you mentioned earlier?"

"I'm right here." murmured the quiet girl as she gently waved her hand above her head so that Eirin would notice her more easily.

"Oh…" the Lunarian blinked a few times in surprise. "My apologies then, Satori-san. My name is Eirin Yagokoro, pleased to meet you."

"Satori Komeiji."

"And I'm Koishi~!" the little sister introduced herself with a cheerful tone. "Satori's my big sister."

"So… you're the one who can…"

"…read people's thoughts, yes." the young satori finished Eirin's sentence. "And I can see you have doubts about it, Eirin-san."

"Well, I'm aware that Gensokyo is full of youkai with various abilities, but I'd just like to be sure… I'm also quite curious to see how your power works… Mind if I…"

"Give me a test?" Satori read the doctor's intention. "Please, go ahead."

Eirin was already quite impressed that Satori could guess what she had planned for her, but she was curious and proceeded with giving her a little test.

"Okay, Satori-san. Tell me what number I'm..."

"Four." came an answer before the question was even finished.

"…thinking about…"

"You still think that was a coincidence, don't you?"

"Hmm… how about we try again?"

"Seven hundred and forty-eight." said the mind-reading girl with a stoically calm voice.

"And now?"

"One thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine… Is that a year of a certain event?"

Doctor Yagokoro smiled in amusement and admiration as she thought up another number for Satori to guess. "How about now?"

"Minus five billion, nine hundred and twenty two million, seven hundred and thrity-one thousand, two hundred and ninety-three… point zero, zero, zero, seven, two, one, one, five."

Eirin was astonished. She turned her amazed look at the other girls in the room only to see a shrug from Reimu and Marisa.

"Well, Eirin-san… Are you satisfied? Can we get back to the important stuff?" asked the impatient shrine maiden. "You can play mind games with Satori later."

"Just one final number." Eirin insisted on continuing the test, trying to trick Satori by not thinking about any number.

"Kaguya Houraisan… But that's not a number, Eirin-san, is it? No… That's… a name… of your mistress. A moon princess… Interesting…"

"Satori-san… I… You've left me speechless." stuttered the Lunarian after Satori again answered correctly. "You've passed with flying colors."

"Obviously! She's a satori, ze." Marisa couldn't forgive herself not giving a remark about everything.

"I believe we can all consider your observation of the fairies' minds as trustworthy, Satori-san." said Eirin, throwing a brief look at the beds to see if the little creatures haven't woken up yet.

"Can't we just slap them over a few times so they'd wake up faster?" asked Reimu who was growing tired of waiting.

"Now that wasn't very nice of you, Reimu." Alice looked at her scoldingly. "The fairies have feelings too."

"Nobody ever gave me donations for being nice to youkai. I still think they should all be hunted down without exception."

Marisa cleared her throat loudly to give a hint to her miko friend that saying such things in a room full of powerful youkai could be hazardous to her health. Even Ichirin's cloud companion threateningly shook his fist. The unpleasant looks of the youkai girls who frowned at Reimu's last remark were suddenly shifted to the beds, because the fairies were slowly waking up from their narcosis.

"Oh, they're waking up…" Alice took a few steps closer to the beds.

The two fairies that were captured during the recent battle began stirring in their beds. One of them had a bright-red dress and orange pointy wings, the other one had light-brown dress and branch-like wings. As soon as they opened their eyes, they tried to stand up, but of course, they were tightly secured by the leather straps. Eirin cautiously approached them to take a closer look at them. As soon as the fairies saw someone approach them they both began struggling violently in attempt to set themselves free.

"Well, well, well… What do we have here?" murmured the Lunarian as she watched their reaction. "It seems they're still pretty feisty…"

After the two fairies were fully awake, the third one began to come back to her senses as well.

"Mmnnmf… Let me go, you stupid frog!" she spoke, still half-asleep, trying to move, but without success.

"Did she just call me a stupid frog?" asked the surprised doctor.

"No, Eirin-san." replied Koishi, gently tapping her finger against Cirno's forehead. "She's just having a bad dream.

"Oh… I see. Well, then we better help her wake up."

"Leave it to me~!" exclaimed Nazrin, the mouse youkai, quickly grabbing a small vase from one of the night tables. She took out the flowers and trotted to Cirno's bed, ready to pour the water over her.

Before Byakuren noticed her and realized what the mischievous mouse girl planned to do, she was too late to stop her. "No, Nazrin! Waaait~!"

Nazrin had already splashed Cirno with all the water in the vase. As soon as the water made contact with the fairy's body, however, it formed a layer of ice over her face. Now poor Cirno couldn't breathe and was struggling even harder to free her hands from the straps.

"It just occurred to me…" spoke Marisa in a nonchalant manner, even as Eirin and Alice were trying to remove the ice from Cirno's face. "…but how does Cirno drink if everything she touches turns into ice?"

"Do fairies even need to eat or drink?" Reimu asked another question with the same level of indifference to the dramatic situation in the room.

"Hmm… Good question. I think I'll ask Patchy about that if I see her, ze."

In the meantime, Alice finally managed to melt the ice by a weak version of her standard attack. Cirno could finally breathe freely. She was now awake and very confused.

"Huh? What…? Where…? What happened? Where am I? Who are you all? And where's the giant toad?"

"Good morning, Cirno-san." Eirin greeted her warmly. "I understand your confusion, but please calm down."

"You know me? I don't remember you at all…"

"We told her your name, you idiot!" answered Reimu. "You are now inside Eientei and that lady is Eirin-sensei…"

"Uh-oh… It's the evil miko…" murmured the ice fairy in a barely audible voice.

Eirin nodded with a smile and continued explaining. "I'll get right to the point… If you look to your right you may see two other fairies who are, as you can see, not very… cooperative."

"Wait a second." Cirno halted her, as she needed a bit more time to process her thoughts. "What's Eientei?"

"The house of eternity. It is the permanent residence of princess Kaguya here on Earth. It is also a place which I and countless moon and Earth rabbits call their home. A couple of centuries after its establishment, I've decided to provide medical care to Gensokyo's inhabitants, so now you could think of Eientei as a sort of hospital for both humans and youkai."

Captain Murasa giggled and raised her hand. "That's discrimination! Hehehe~!"

"Well, it's true that we've had a ghost here a couple of years ago, but she didn't come here for medical treatment… Anyway, this is where you are right now, Cirno-san."

"Why am I here?" Cirno inquired, taking a confused look at the two other fairies who were still acting aggressively.

"Thank Sakuya for that, ze." said Marisa as she pointed her thumb at the maid.

"There's a disease spreading among the fairies." the immortal Lunarian went on with her explanation. "Or perhaps I shouldn't call it a disease, because the cause isn't bacterial or viral, but magical. In other words, something or someone is affecting the minds of Gensokyo's fairies and driving them insane. We know for certain that this behavior disorder spreads like a disease, but we don't yet know how or why. Another interesting fact is that it doesn't affect all fairies and that's what I'm also trying to do a research on."

"Wait… You think I'm sick too?" asked the ice fairy. "You think I'm crazy or something?"

Marisa laughed heartily. "No, we don't THINK you're crazy. We all know you are."

"I still can't believe she kicked your butt in a danmaku fight…" Reimu whispered to the witch.

The magician gave her a sharp glance with a frown. "…shut up. If this goes public, my reputation will be screwed."

She was lucky that Satori wasn't looking at her at the moment.

"Don't worry, Cirno-san." Eirin comforted the fairy. "The fact that you're talking with us instead of trying to freeze everything in the room is already a proof that you have not been affected by this craze."

"Actually, that was her first idea when she woke up." Satori informed her. "To freeze us all…"

"See? I told you I'm okay…" said Cirno in an almost boastful tone. "I won't get driven mad like the other fairies, because I'm the strongest!"

"I suppose we can let her go then, right?" Alice suggested, looking at Eirin's face to see if she'll approve of this idea.

The Lunarian took a while to think before she made a single nod. "I suppose…"

While the puppeteer was unstrapping Cirno, the ice fairy took a slow look at everyone in the room.

"Wooow… So many people…"

"Most of them are youkai actually…" Marisa corrected her.

"Are you girls having a party or something?" Cirno asked with a carefree tone.

"Hehe…" Reimu laughed weakly. "You've almost guessed it. We're currently in the middle of resolving the incident that causes the fairies to go insane. The real party starts in eight days at my shrine – the long-awaited Tanabata festival."

"Yaay~! Festivals are fun~!" rejoiced the ice fairy. "Cirno wants to come too!"

"Don't look forward to it just yet." Eirin brought her back to reality. "I need to keep you her for a couple of days for observation."

"But… But you said I'm healthy! Why can't I go home?"

"Because you may be immune to the madness and if you really are, I'd like to learn why so that we could perhaps develop some sort of countermeasure."

"That won't be necessary if we can find the culprit behind this and stop them." argued Reimu, confident that she'd be able to resolve this incident on this very day. "All we need now is to know what is driving the fairies mad. That's why we've brought Satori here."

"By the way, Cirno…" Alice spoke to the fairy as she was unstrapping her left arm from the bed. "Have you come into contact with some of those crazed fairies recently?"

Cirno shook her head. "No, I haven't seen any crazy fairies. But maybe Dai-chan has… I've been playing with her for the last couple of days. Maybe she has seen some of them…"

"Daiyousei?" Reimu raised her eyebrows. "Your fairy friend?"

"Yes… But I haven't seen her today, so I went to look for her a bit further from the lake."

"There were several big forest fires in Gensokyo yesterday… You sure you haven't noticed anything suspicious?" Alice continued the interrogation as she finally set Cirno free from her restraints.

"Of course I've seen the fires~! But ice fairies and fire don't go well together, so I hid myself home."

"I was looking for you yesterday for over fifteen minutes. I was hoping to find you so you'd help put those fires out with your powers…" pouted the blonde puppeteer. "Where exactly is that home of yours?"

"Ha~! As if I'd tell you! That's a secret!"

"Not anymore." said Satori quietly with an expressionless face. "She lives on the southwestern shore of Misty Lake in a burrow covered by willow trees and magically camouflaged. A place that maintains the same cool temperature all year around, making it an ideal shelter for an ice fairy… She has a single bed made of dried-up leaves and she furnishes her household with her self-made ice-sculpted furniture in winter."

Cirno gazed frightenedly at the mistress of the underground palace, wondering how could she know such confidential information. "W-who… are you?!"

Satori smiled and bowed gently. "Satori Komeiji, pleased to make your acquaintance."

"That's my onee-chan~." added Koishi with pride in her voice

"Getting back on-topic…" Eirin again became the center of attention as she spoke, "…could you please try to recall the recent couple of days, Cirno-san?"

"Sure, I remember…"

"Good." the Lunarian didn't let her finish. "Now can you tell us, Satori-san, what do you see?"

The purple-haired girl nodded and looked carefully with her third eye at the fairy who was recollecting the fragments of the recent happenings.

"…."

"Well?" asked the doctor after seeing that Satori was quiet for a while.

"I see nothing out of the ordinary." spoke the satori after a long pause. "Even that fairy friend of hers seemed to behave normally… for a fairy that is…"

"So perhaps Cirno's not immune; she just hasn't come into contact with any of the crazed fairies…" Reimu stated her opinion.

"Well then, let's get to the thing that we've all gathered here for…" said Eirin and gestured towards the two other fairies who showed obvious symptoms of this magically-induced insanity. "What do you see in the minds of our other two subjects, Satori-san?"

Satori's third eye shifted its pupil to one of the captured fairies and scanned her mind thoroughly. As she peered into the fairy's confused and enraged mind, Satori's own mind became blurry and an unpleasant throbbing pain spiked up inside her head.

"Aaaah…" she moaned as she grabbed her aching head. "Uuuunf…" She began breathing hard as droplets of sweat appeared on her forehead.

"Oh my… Onee-chan, are you alright?!" called Koishi, hurrying to her sister's side.

"Satori-san!" exclaimed Eirin at the same time, making it just in time to grab the girl, before she lost balance. "Turn away! Don't look into their minds, please!"

But Satori didn't oblige. She just grabbed Eirin and Koishi tightly by their arms to support herself and kept staring at the crazed fairy. "…s-s-something t-t-o write…." she uttered as if she was in some kind of trance. "…round circles… sharp edges…spirals and loops….words…. names….numbers… Aaaah! It hurts!"

"What was that, Satori-san?"

"She's losing it." commented Marisa. "We better get her out of this room…"

"I think she wants us to give her something to write on…" speculated Byakuren who was just close enough to hear the satori's nearly incomprehensible muttering.

"…a faraway land… lies closer then one step away… See with the eyes of your enemy… Yaah~! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! KILL!"

Satori's manic scream really scared the hell out of the other girls in the room, Eirin included. Even the Earth and Moon rabbits that were flying on the third floor's corridor stopped for a moment in shock and then hurried away from the room where the screams were coming from. Eirin was just about to take the poor satori out of the room, but the short girl pushed her away with surprising strength.

"…Hurry!" she screamed with her eyes wide open and her hand trembling uncontrollably. "…pen, brush, pencil, chalk, charcoal… anything!" she demanded.

As Byakuren helped Eirin stand back up on her feet, she took her notepad with a pen and passed it slowly to Satori.

"Hey, what are you doing?" the Lunarian protested. "I'm going to need those notes…"

Satori ripped the notepad out of Byakuren's hands and crudely grabbed the pen with her shaky hand. Not even looking at what she was drawing or writing, she began making intricate and complicated pictograms of some sort. When her hand came to the edge of Eirin's notepad, she began writing on the floor. It looked like she was writing a text, because she drew all the pictograms in a single line. After about thirty seconds, she dropped her pen and turned her face down. She was breathing hard like after a marathon, but she was finally regaining control over her senses.

"Onee-chan, onee-chan… Are you okay?! Say something!"

"…hah… hah… haaah… What happened? And why am I sitting on the floor?" she asked with a confused look.

Koishi quickly stepped in front of her sister to block her view of the crazy fairies. "You dove into their minds and then you drew something, look…" she pointed down at Eirin's notepad and the floor where Satori wrote the strange pictograms in her trance.

"Oh… I see…" she muttered while grabbing onto her sister's hand and slowly standing up. Her mind was still hazy, but she still vaguely remembered what she saw.

"So what did you see?" Reimu impatiently demanded an answer. "Do you know what or who is behind this? Is it Yukari?"

Satori glanced back at the shrine maiden to once again see the mental image of Yukari Yakumo as Reimu remembered her and then shook her head. "No I didn't see her. But these symbols… They were the most prominent thing flashing up in the minds of these poor insane fairies…"

"Really?" asked Marisa with a smirk. "I thought the most prominent was the "kill, kill, kill" part."

"This isn't a laughing matter, Kirisame-san." Eirin gave her a scolding gaze before lowering her head down to observe Satori's writing. "Have any of you ever seen such symbols?"

"Nope…" shrugged the witch, and looked at the other girls to see any of them have any clue about the weird symbols. None of them appeared to know what the symbols meant, though.

"I think we better call Patchouli here. She's a bookworm; she knows all sorts of languages. If anyone can decipher these letters, it's her."

Eirin nodded and without a moment of hesitation, she left the room, not saying a word. All the girls exchanged their confused looks and formed a circle around the place where Satori drew the pictograms.

"What if we interrogated those two fairies?" suggested Reimu, throwing a menacing glance at the mentioned fairies. "Perhaps they'll reveal who their master is after a little torture…"

"Reimu-san… You're scaring me, you know…" sounded Sakuya, taking one step back away from the miko out of caution.

"How can you be so cruel?" asked Alice, looking Reimu straight in the eyes.

"Hmpf… I think the question is: How can YOU be so soft, Alice? Especially after what those annoying, and now even dangerous pests have done to your house…"

"Seriously, Reimu-san…" Byakuren joined the conversation. "I don't think torture is the best way to go…"

The shrine maiden exhaled and shook her head. "Sheesh… you guys… Couldn't you tell I was just kidding? Besides, I doubt these wild fairies can even speak."

* * *

In the meantime, Eirin returned to the room, followed by Patchouli who was still dressed in white doctors' uniform. She stopped for a moment to give all the girls in the room a once-over and then walked up to the writing on the floor.

"This is it…" said Eirin tersely, tapping her foot gently against the floor to direct Patchouli's attention to the line of unknown symbols.

The youkai sorceress widened her eyes in surprise as she witnessed the signs. "Now this… is quite surprising…" she muttered as she made an underline of the text with her finger.

"Ha! I knew it!" said Marisa, beckoning at Patchouli. "You recognize these symbols, right? So what's so surprising about them, Patchy?"

"The thing that I can't understand them." replied the librarian surprisingly.

"Oh… Wait… What?"

"I've never seen such language before, so I presume that this may be a code of some sort."

The fact that not even the notorious know-it-all could read what Satori saw in the minds of the crazed fairies was just as surprising as it was disappointing.

"Oh, great." grumbled Reimu. "Now what?"

"I do have quite a number of books in my library written in unknown languages left for translation, but I haven't gotten to studying them closer. Perhaps if I focused my time on researching these symbols, I'd be able to learn something… But then again, my research could also end up in failure. It's a 50 – 50 chance."

"I'm almost afraid to ask you this, Patchouli…" said Reimu with a concerned tone. "But how long would this research of yours take?"

The purple-haired sorceress hummed, lost in thought. "Well… As soon as I do my job here, which could take up to five days, I could get to translate those foreign books… And since there are over two hundred books that I planned to translate, I'd say it could take over a year and a half."

"A YEAR AND A HALF?!" exclaimed the shocked shrine maiden so loudly that her voice could be heard even from the floor below.

"Ah…" Patchouli suddenly raised her index finger again as she got an idea. "…I just recalled I also have quite a collection of books dealing with cryptography… However, my theory is that these symbols that Satori-san has scribbled here are an ancient arcane incantation. A spell that alters the mind… I better look into some of my eldest grimoires in my library too…"

"Still… This will take so long…" Reimu lamented as she crossed her arms. "This isn't how I thought it would go…"

"Don't worry, Reimu." Marisa stepped close to the miko to comfort her. "If it's Patchouli, I'm sure she will find something. For now, we've no choice but to trust her. She will do her best, right, Patchy?"

The sorceress nodded, but a strange look of anxiety and uncertainty settled on her face. She felt that too much responsibility now rested on her shoulders and she was worried that this burden is a bit too much for her to carry. On one hand she felt the need of assisting Eirin at Eientei, and on the other hand she felt a pressing urge to find an answer to the source of this new and serious incident.

"I'll do my best… But I don't know myself… What should I do first?"

"Whatever you consider as appropriate, Patchouli-san." replied Eirin, giving her a freedom of choice.

"Look, Patchy, we've handled a lot of fairies today…" said Marisa with an unusually serious tone. "Even if we haven't stopped the source, it will take a lot of time before the crazy fairies will dare to make another attack. If you want to help Eirin and her patients, then do so…"

"But Marisa…" sounded Reimu to make a counter-argument. "We've battled hundreds of fairies yesterday… And today… today we've faced an army of them… There were so many… I don't even want to think what awaits us tomorrow."

"We've all managed to stop them, even if there was so many of them. If need be, we can handle even more, ze… I'm sure we can think of something to stop this…"

Reimu rubbed her forehead with her fingertips and nodded. "Yeah… We'll think of something…"

"Now, how about we let Eirin-sensei and Patchouli do their work and finally get something to eat?"

Eirin smiled lightly and gestured towards the door. "Please, be our guests… The dining hall is on the fist floor and if you lose your way by any chance, you know where to find Reisen, right? She'll point you wherever you may need to go."

"You've heard the lady. Let's go get some grub, ze." said the witch with a more lighthearted attitude as she opened the sliding door and waited for the other girls to go with her. Slowly, the room has become much less crowded as the group of hungry humans and youkai left and headed down the corridor, hoping to find Eientei's dining hall.

* * *

"Hmph… This isn't like one of those usual incidents that we could get resolved within one day, is it?" said Reimu quietly, as if she was just saying her thoughts aloud. "And there I was, thinking that the mass spiriting-away of the people from outside world was serious… This is one of those times when we could all use a little help from Yukari… Just a little hint… Why isn't she here? Why…?"

"Get a hold of yourself, Reimu!" Marisa gave her friend a moderate palm-smack on her shoulder. "I'm serious… The last thing I want to see is you depressed."

"Marisa."

"Sure, it would be nice if that youkai helped us out for once… But it seems that ever since the Imperishable Night, she's become completely indifferent to almost all happenings in Gensokyo. And recently to all the happenings in Gensokyo… But we can do this even without her. We can protect our Gensokyo by ourselves and we've just proved it again today and yesterday. So don't lose faith in yourself, Reimu… It doesn't suit you at all…"

"Who says I'm losing faith? I'm just annoyed that's all. And now you're starting to sound annoying too…"

"Hehehe~! Now you sound more like yourself again! Now… where did Eirin say this dining hall was again?"

By now the girls have just walked down the stairs to the first floor and wondered which door led to their desired destination. It didn't take a genius to figure out, as they could see some of the rabbits exiting one door with plates of food in their hands, making deliveries to all the rooms with patients.

"Oh, look, look…" Nazrin pointed at one of the doors. "See those rabbits leaving that room? They've got food! Let's go there! I'd like to have a cheese dish, please~!"

"Nice observation, Nazrin." Shou praised her mouse youkai friend and together with the rest of the band, took steps towards that door. Once they reached the door and opened it, they saw a large room furnished with many large tables, all of which were cluttered up with food ingredients or cooking utensils. Several separate fireplaces were heating cauldrons with soup and sauce, while many smaller stoves were preparing all kinds of different foods. Dozens of busy youkai rabbits dressed in little white cooks' uniforms were doing all the necessary tasks to prepare enough food to feed all of Eientei's residents as well as patients.

"Wait… This is no dining hall, it's a kitchen." said Reimu after a while of looking around. "Let's try the next door."

However, some of the girls have already entered, as if they couldn't wait to get their meal.

"Hey, are you listening?! This is the kitchen~! Helooo~!" called the shrine maiden, waving her arms to get some attention, but without much success.

"I can see that, Miss Obvious." Marisa returned a sarcastic reply.

"Then why are you still hanging around there, dummy? Want to steal something? Or are you just THAT hungry?"

"Just checking the place up a bit, ze… What's wrong with being curious?"

"…So that's how it looks like in Eientei's kitchen, huh?" muttered Sakuya who also got carried away by her curiosity and entered the room to take a better look around.

"Oh, great… Now you too?" Reimu looked questioningly at the maid.

"I see…" Sakuya continued admiring the kitchen, not paying any attention to Reimu's protests. "It's a bit smaller than our kitchen, though."

Marisa was more curious about the various foods that were being prepared there. "Hey look, Sakuya, these rabbits are making some omuraisu…" Then she walked up to one of the cauldrons and took a whiff. "And this delicious smell can be nothing other than miso soup…"

Now even the maid was curious how the rabbits cooked the meals. After a while of looking at what ingredients and inappropriate methods the rabbits used, Sakuya opened her mouth in a funny-looking shocked expression. "What are they doing?!" she called while flailing her arms.

"Uhh… Cooking?" asked the witch, not certain as to what Sakuya meant by her question.

"This… this is a disgrace to cooking!" she exclaimed while pointing at a group of Moon rabbits who were preparing curry sause. They all looked startled by this unexpected visit and subsequent criticism. Two of the rabbits even bumped into each other as both of them had their eyes focused on the maid who was scolding them.

"This is all wrong…" she hurried to the table to show the rabbits how to cook properly. "This meat isn't even cut-up properly… And you put too much oil into the sauce… And oversalted it too… And you…" she pointed at one particular rabbit cook. "Don't stir it so fast; you'll spill the sauce all over the place."

"Umm…. Sakuya?" Marisa tried to calm her down, but her attempt went unnoticed.

"Here… Let me show you how it's done…"

Sakuya was determined to take the matters into her own hands and show these inexperienced rabbits the true art of cooking.

"Oi, Sakuya… Come on! Let's go find this dining hall already." the witch tried to persuade her. "I don't mind if our meal won't be top-notch."

Only now the maid snapped out of her reverie and looked at her. "Huh? No way! You go on without me… I have an incident to resolve here…" she said with a cold-blooded look in her eyes as she reached and grabbed one of her throwing knives. She raised it above her head as if she was about to throw it or declare a spell, but instead, she used it to slice an onion into tiny bits. Her skill was truly a marvel to behold. The onion was chopped perfectly in less than two seconds. Marisa immediately thought that Sakuya was demonstrating her time-manipulating powers.

"Heh… Good luck then…" chuckled the blonde witch, slowly walking out of the kitchen. "But don't take too long with cooking, because we're all hungry."

"The meal will be done shortly." replied Sakuya, who already began preparing a new meal. All the rabbits in the kitchen stopped working and gathered in circle around her, watching the real master at work.

"Come on, Marisa. If she wants to stay here, I don't care…" Reimu called at her friend and waited until she walked out of the kitchen. "Okay… I believe we've missed the dining hall just by one door, but…"

As the shrine maiden looked left and right, she suddenly realized that the other girls were no longer there on the corridor.

"Whoa! Where did everybody go?" she wondered. However, Alice was at least polite enough to leave Shanghai wait for the other girls. The magically-controlled doll made "follow me" hand gesture and through a door that was slightly ajar, she flew into a room. The witch and the miko followed the doll and upon opening the door widely, they found themselves in a very large room with a single table that stretched well over 30 meters in length. Some of Eientei's rabbit residents were enjoying their lunches that were being brought in through a door leading directly into the kitchen.

* * *

"I wonder what's on the menu…" murmured Marisa, looking at others' plates.

"Whatever Sakuya cooks for us." Reimu gave a reply with a light giggle.

"Yeah… That's right. I just hope it won't take her too long."

"Sakuya-san isn't going to eat with us?" asked Alice curiously while calling her doll back to herself.

Reimu replied with a shrug. "She said the meal would be ready soon, so…"

Not even getting to finish her sentence, the elegant maid walked gracefully out of the kitchen, carrying several plates at once, followed by a small crowd of rabbits who carried the rest of the plates with food.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." she said with an apologizing tone, serving her own version of curry to all the girls who were sitting at the table.

"Now THAT was fast." noted Reimu who almost refused to believe that the maid actually managed to make all of that food from the scratch literally in a blink of an eye.

"Hahaha~!" Marisa made a hearty laughter. "That's Sakuya for you… Oi, Sakuya! Did those rabbits learn something from you? Or did you just make it so fast that they only saw as food suddenly appeared out of nowhere?"

"I froze time and taught them how to make a GOOD curry step by step… Whether or not they learned anything from my demonstration is still questionable, though."

"Mmm~." hummed Alice as she took a whiff of the pleasant smell. "This smells very good, doesn't it, Shanghai?"

Her doll leaned over the plate making a gentle head motion, as if she was actually taking a whiff as well and then she turned back to Alice, nodding repeatedly.

"Oh… You think it looks delicious too? Well, then we better start eating before it gets cold, right?"

Alice politely waited until Sakuya and the Moon rabbits served the meal for everyone and until Sakuya herself took a seat at the table.

"Before we indulge ourselves in this tasty-looking curry, I'd just like to say one thing…" spoke Byakuren as she stood up. Everyone's glances were now directed at her person, wondering what the monk had to say. "…Thank you for the meal, Sakuya-san!" she uttered and bowed to the maid.

This caught Sakuya off-guard, since she wasn't used to hearing thankful words from anyone besides the Scarlet sisters and Patchouli. The maid blushed in her cheeks and resolutely shook her head.

"It was nothing… You don't really need to thank me so…"

"Oh yes, we do!" Alice seconded Byakuren's opinion and also stood up to bow and express her thanks. Like a domino effect, all the other girls followed suit and thanked Sakuya for her hard work, not just with cooking, but also her assistance in the most recent battle.

The silver-haired girl now sported a bright pinkish blush on her face and an expression of slight embarrassment, but inside her heart, she was very happy to get such an acknowledgement.

"And now, I would also like to say a few words as well." Reimu suddenly demanded attention.

"Huh? Reimu?" Marisa raised an eyebrow at her.

"Don't worry, it will be short, since I bet you're all as hungry as I am…" she said in unison to the growl of her stomach. "In spite of the recent unsettling events that we were all forced to deal with, I would officially like to invite you all to the annual festival which will, as every year, take place at the Hakurei Shrine on Tanabata. I hope to see you all there… And get ready for a Spell Card tournament. That is all, thank you."

"Reimu-san…" sounded Nue with a raised hand.

"Hm? What is it?"

"I will gladly accept that invitation… If you can defeat me in a battle right now." she said with a wide grin.

The miko was struck dumbfounded. "W-W-Whaaaat?!" she exclaimed her question. Eientei's dining hall was large enough, but it really wasn't the most suitable place to hold a duel. Normally, Reimu wasn't afraid to go up against any opponent, but now, hungry and exhausted as she was, she would surely lose to even a much weaker opponent. Not to mention that Nue ranked among Gensokyo's elite in terms of power. The fact that this girl still donned a carefree smile even after dealing with thousands of fairies and receiving countless hits from danmaku projectiles only proved her incredible endurance. And now, she proposed a duel against Reimu, as if she didn't have enough battling for today.

"Juuust kidding~ !" she chimed merrily and sat down. "Of course I'll gladly go to see the festival with Byakuren-sama and everyone…"

Reimu exhaled with relief and a bit of annoyance. "Geez… Such Yukari-like jokes really aren't funny…"

With that said, the shrine maiden again seated herself at the table and unable to resist the unbearably pleasant smell spreading from the food in front of her, she grabbed her chopsticks and declared: "Let's eat already!"

"Itadakimasu~!" sounded the mixed voices of all the other girls and the feasting began.

* * *

Sakuya reaped another wave of praises after all the girls have finished their meals. Shou and Alice even stared asking her about the exact ingredients and procedure she used to make such a sublime combination of flavors.

"Aaahh~…" Reimu gave out a satisfied sigh. She wiped off a grain of rice off her lips and with evident reluctance, she stood up from the table. "Umf… Now if only someone was so kind as to carry me back to my shrine…" she muttered a wishful thought.

In the end, Reimu had to fly home by herself. After the lunch, the large band of girls split up into smaller groups, each taking separate ways. Byakuren and her loyal youkai followers returned to the Temple of Myouren, Satori headed back to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, after a long time being accompanied by her sister. Marisa accommodated Alice at her house and Sakuya, having fulfilled her part for today, returned to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Nitori said her farewell too and flew towards the base of the Youkai Mountain, where her home was located. Patchouli, of course, remained in Eientei, trying her best to be of any assistance to Eirin and the many patients with various different problems.

* * *

As the tired miko finally landed in the shrine yard, her heart was pleasantly surprised to see Suika basking in the sun on the porch, sipping from her endless gourd and relaxing.

"Yaaay~! Hi, Reimu~!" she clumsily stood up and ran with her arms spread wide to welcome her human friend.

"Huh? Suika? When did you…?"

"Reimu, Reimu, Reimu, Reimu, Reimuuuu~ !" rejoiced the little oni as she threw her arms around the slender waist of the Hakurei shrine maiden.

"Hey! Calm down, Suika!" she tired to free herself from the tight embrace, but she was no match for the raw strength of an oni. Even though Suika was incredibly strong, she was also careful, so that she wouldn't accidentally hurt Reimu.

"Look… I'm glad you came back again, but please… Let me go… I'm very tired… I need a bath and fresh clothes."

"How about some sake~?"

"Are you even listening?!"

"Huh?"

Only now the oni noticed Reimu's tattered clothes and bandaged wounds. "Whoa… What happened to you, Reimu?"

"That's a long story and I'm too tired to explain everything to you now… Could you at least make some tea for me while I take a bath?"

"Of course~ ! Let me take care of you." she released Reimu and hurried inside the shrine to boil some water for the tea.

"Wait a second…" Reimu halted her just before she entered the shrine. "Where have you been? Do you even know there were several forest fires recently?"

"Yeah… I noticed the burned area near the shrine as I was returning here… But I don't know what really happened. I was in Heaven, so I didn't know what was going on."

"Heaven? What were you doing up there? Having another drinking session with the Celestials?"

"Heeeh? How did you know?"

"Geez… You're so easy to see through…"

"But that's not the only thing I've been doing there~. I also told them about Yukari and that she went missing, so Hinanawi-san ordered a thorough sweep of Heaven… But they couldn't find her… Guess we'll have to go looking for her elsewhere~."

"Really?" asked the shrine maiden, slightly surprised by Suika's helpful act. "So she's not there either, huh…? I wonder if the upcoming festival is going to change anything…"

"Oh~!" the little oni exclaimed as she got an idea. "When you mention the festival, perhaps I could do the same thing I did back then… You know… Turn myself into mist and spread my presence all over Gensokyo. That way if Yukari would appear, I'd be the first to know…"

Reimu sighed with a sad scowl. "I know how you miss her… I feel the same way, but you've heard Satori when she checked that amulet, right? She said that Yukari's not in Gensokyo… Besides… We have other things to worry about."

"Other things?" Suika repeated with a curious look.

"I'll explain everything… Just… not now. I need a rest…" said Reimu in a strained, almost whispering voice.

"Don't worry, Reimu. Like I said, I'll take good care of you~!" Suika reassured her with a bright smile. "Go take a bath. I'll make you some tea and get you some clean clothes…"

* * *

Once the miko got out of the bath, her body wrapped only by a towel, Suika was already waiting at the table with two cups of steaming-hot tea.

"You look like you've been through a tough battle, Reimu…" noted the oni. She couldn't have guessed it better.

"Fairies…" murmured the Reimu with a sleepy voice and without waiting for the tea to cool down, she took a sip. "Yaah! It's hot!"

Suika giggled amusedly. "Of course it is~! I just made it… But did you just say "fairies"?"

"Mhm…" muttered the shrine maiden and resumed cooling her tea by gently blowing at its surface.

"So there was another attack of the fairies?" Suika asked to make sure she understood the situation correctly. Despite having drunk enough sake today to kill an elephant, she was unusually sharp and her voice and face seemed rather sober.

"Those forest fires I mentioned earlier… They were caused by several fairy attacks."

"Whoa~! Really?" exclaimed the little oni in surprise. "This is getting really serious… Was anyone hurt more seriously?"

The miko gently shook her head. "Fortunately not. But you should have seen what happened today…"

"What, what?" Suika excitedly demanded an answer.

"Imagine an army of fairies… So many, that if they were to stand next to each other, they'd completely cover up an area as large as the Misty Lake. We've just fought against such an army today…"

Suika looked genuinely surprised. "Where was that? How come I haven't noticed this?"

"Near Kazemura…" answered Reimu, finally having cooled her tea to a drinkable temperature. "It's quite far from the shrine so it's natural you didn't notice…"

"So you escaped from them, huh?"

The miko reacted with a raised voice. "Escaped?! We've shot down every single one of them!"

"You and Marisa?"

"No, not just us… There were others too… Like Byakuren-san and her band, Satori and her sister, Sakuya, Alice and Nitori too…"

"Oh! I see now… You were teamed up, huh?" muttered the oni to herself and took a light sip of her tea. "I wish I was there to see and fight in that battle… But it looks like you already got that incident resolved without me…" she said with slight disappointment in her eyes and voice.

"I wouldn't look so uptight if I had it all resolved." frowned the shrine maiden as the burden of an unresolved incident still bothered her mind. "We might have stopped an army of crazy fairies, but we haven't found out what their source is… Even if Patchouli is working on it, it will take her a very long time to figure it out…"

"Hmm…" Suika hummed as she brainstormed for the most reasonable options in order to help Reimu, but no good ideas were coming her way. "I wish I could do something to help you~…"

"All we can do for now is to be vigilant, I'm afraid…" sighed Reimu with contempt. "We'll need to be checking the forests in northeastern Gensokyo regularly, so the fairies wouldn't have the chance to amass themselves into an overwhelming army… The best thing would be if we could evacuate all fairies from that area, but that's a task near impossible."

"Yeah…" Suika agreed with a nod and finished her cup of tea, immediately flushing it down with an ample dose of sake. "I might have an idea, though…" she said with uncertainty, because the idea that she just got could bring more harm then benefit.

"And I'm desperate enough to believe you…"

"Well, I guess there's no harm in just saying it…" shrugged the horned girl and started explaining. "I could use my ability to gather, focusing my attention to the critical area and lure all the fairies to another location…"

"That's…!" Reimu widened her eyes suddenly. "That's actually one good idea from you after a long while…"

"But…" Suika interrupted her halfway through her sentence, raising a finger. "There's a little problem with that~."

"What? You're too drunk to do it?" Reimu started picking fun at her. "Or too sober perhaps?"

"No, I feel fine, thank you~." smiled the oni girl while shaking her head. "The thing is, I might stir up a hornet's nest by doing that… It wouldn't be good if I lured thousands of crazed fairies to an area near Human Village, would it~?"

"Well… That certainly wouldn't be a wise thing to do…" acknowledged Reimu. "Being responsible for bringing a disaster to the Human Village wouldn't really help my reputation with the locals."

"That's why I said it was just an idea; not a suggestion~."

"Ahhh~. I'm so tired I can't even think straight." murmured the miko resignedly as she yawned.

"Then you should go have an afternoon nap. Don't worry, I'll watch over you~." said the oni with a reassuring smile.

"Mmmhmm…" came an agreeing response from the sleepy human girl, who had conveniently placed her futon near the table and lied down without even dressing up into any clothes after her bath.

"Hey, Reimu, Reimu… You should at least put on your nightgown; you'll catch a cold if you sleep like that."

"Mamfmfrrmrmn…" Reimu replied with an incomprehensible mumbling, as she cared little about anything else but rest right now.

Suika covered her up with the futon cover and ran a gentle stroke over her head. "Sweet dreams, Reimu~." she whispered. "I'll watch the shrine for you…"

…

Watching the shrine, as Suika put it, meant that the oni would lie down next to Reimu and pass out right on the floor, making muffled snoring sounds. Both girls were lucky that they had no other visitors at the shrine on that afternoon and could sleep peacefully for as long as they wanted.


	36. The House of Eternity

The heaviness of the hot summer air… The muffled sounds of footsteps that echoed in the distance, breaking the otherwise perfect, tranquil silence… The darkness that lasted long enough to seem natural… The taste of nothing but wet dust… The smell of bamboo and medicine… The uncomfortable ache of lying in the same position for God-knows-how-long…

Those were some of the feelings he woke up to. Feeling some sense of touch coming back into his limbs, Kyouichi lightly stirred inside his bed. To be exact, he didn't know where he was lying. He still had a hard time trying to figure out who he was in the first place. As he tried opening his eyes, he noticed that his sight was blocked by something… something he had wrapped around his face. He slowly brought his hands to his face to identify the rough texture of a bandage. His memory was still hazy, but a little flashback made him recall being hit in the head really hard. With his fingertips he gently moved a piece of bandage away from his eyes, making himself a narrow visor. The first idea that crossed his mind as he saw the wooden interior of the room was a guess that he was at the Hakurei Shrnie, but as he looked left and right, that thought was quickly dismissed. He still had no idea of his new whereabouts, so he tried to gather enough strength to his limbs so he'd be able to stand up.

After something over a minute of mental preparation for this outstanding feat, he managed to lift himself into a sitting position. His head hurt really bad, but so did over 70 percent of his whole body. Just as he sat up, his bed made a loud creaking sound which didn't go unnoticed.

"Oh~! What do you know? Another one's waking up, huh?" sounded a slightly hoarse male voice from somewhere further in the room.

Kyouichi cleared his throat, which hasn't been used for some time, in an attempt to react to the voice. "Wh-… Who's there? Uh…. Damn it… Where am I?"

"That voice… Ishimaru, is that you?"

He found it really surprising that somebody could identify him just by hearing his voice, even when Kyouichi himself had close to no clue about who does the other voice belong to. His mind had a really hard time trying to think straight. It was almost as if he was drunk, but somewhat different.

"Who's there?" he repeated his first question, holding onto his bed with both hands, while taking small, unsteady steps to see what's behind the folding screen standing next to his bed.

As he could finally peek around the folding screen, he saw a remotely familiar face of a young man with semi-long black hair as he was sitting on another bed further in the room. Even though Kyouichi was certain that he has seen this guy before, his confused mind could barely put two and two together.

"Aha!" exclaimed the young male, pointing his finger at Kyouichi. "I knew it was you, club prez!" he said with a teethy smile. "Man, you should see yourself in a mirror…"

Even stranger was the fact that the man could identify him despite the fact that Kyouichi's entire face was bandaged. The way he addressed him almost immediately rang Kyouichi's bell. "Club prez? Wait a second… No way… you're…"

"Ha! It's no wonder you're having trouble remembering my name after such a hit in the head…" remarked the young man who could be two or three years older than Kyouichi. "Well… not that I've seen that incident, but I've been told what happened to you…"

"…Asakura-san…?"

"Whoa! Cool! You remember!" smiled the man. "Yeah, it's me, Soudai Asakura… To be honest, I never thought I'd meet you here, hehe~!"

"Soudai…" Kyouichi muttered the man's first name, already knowing that he's one of the Transfer Students' Club members and that he worked with the local woodcutters.

"That means I'm now in…"

"Intensive Care Ward, third floor, Eientei in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost…" Asakura answered quickly, before Kyouichi would hurt his head with excessive thinking.

"Eientei, huh…?"

He really wondered about the "intensive care", though, since besides the few patients lying in beds, there was nobody else in the room right now.

"Yeah… It's a really big house… By the way, how do you feel, man? They told me you got a really unlucky hit in the head. Eirin-sensei was even worried you'd end up with lasting brain damage."

Even the name of Eirin sounded familiar to Kyouichi's ears, but he knew that he hasn't met her before. After a little while of logical association, he remembered that Eirin Yagokoro was supposedly a Lunarian who lived at Eientei, providing medical services to everyone without discrimination. And that she was really good at it too. He worked on transcribing some of her manuscripts after all…

"Say, Soudai…" mumbled Kyouichi through the bandage on his face. "How long have I been out cold?"

"You should probably ask someone else… I don't even remember when they brought you in."

"Uhhh… God damn it… I feel like I was eaten by something and vomited out…"

"It must be the all those weird drugs they use here." explained the other outsider. "I myself don't feel like dancing right now…"

Soudai rubbed his own head in a pained expression and curiously looked up at Kyouichi, who was now unsteadily heading towards the door. "Hey… Hey, dude, where do you think you're going?"

With his hand already on the door, he slowly turned back and with a bit of embarrassment, he asked: "Do you know where I can find toilets here?"

Soudai chuckled amusedly. "I'm not too sure about this floor, but there most certainly is a restroom on the first one."

"M-kay… Thanks." he replied groggily, sliding the door open and dragging his feet out of the room.

"Yeah… Good luck trying not to break your leg!"

* * *

By now, the freshly woken outsider was already headed down the corridor, supporting his body by bracing one hand against the wall as he went. Several Moon rabbits who were passing along the same corridor just confusedly stared at him, but still minded mostly their own business. Kyouichi trusted only his instinct to follow the rabbits until, with a bit of luck, he found a staircase leading both up and down. He wasn't even that much surprised to see the busy Earth and Moon rabbits running all over the place. His only thought now was to successfully climb down the stairs to the first floor and find the restroom. After more than two minutes of carefully stepping down each stair, he finally made it to the ground level.

"Uhh… Finally… Now… Which of these doors leads to the restroom?" he asked himself after a while of scouting both sides of the incredibly long corridor. As he saw the doors which all those rabbits used to come and go through, he figured that they probably weren't taking food or medical supplies out of the restroom… No. The most often used doors must have led to some other facilities of this immensely large building. Therefore, Kyouichi tried opening one of the doors that weren't used by any of the rabbits for a longer while. He immediately noticed that the room he peeked into was an office of some sort, but there was nobody there… Nobody with the exception of a short girl with white rabbit ears, short black hair and a pinkish dress. She looked just like one of the other rabbits, only somewhat larger, though that still made her size small enough to be comparable to a pre-teen child. She was sitting on a chair and building a house out of empty medicine boxes. She certainly didn't look like an employee.

"Uhh… Hello?" Kyouichi sounded timidly, immediately getting the rabbit girl's attention.

The girl looked back with a very curious, almost freaked-out look in her eyes. No wonder after seeing some stranger in a patient's robe with his face completely covered by bandage.

"I just wanted to ask… Where can I find men's restroom around here?"

The girl continued to stare in silence for a while, but after a moment her expression changed into a smile. A very mischievous smile at that... However, since Kyouichi didn't have his glasses on, he didn't really notice.

"The eleventh door to the right from here~." replied the rabbit, rubbing her hands under the table.

"Oh… Okay… Thank you very much…" Kyouichi mumbled a few thankful words, bowing down once before closing the office's door. Right after that, the rabbit girl began giggling for reasons known only to her…

* * *

Walking slowly and counting the doors he passed by, the outsider finally reached the count of eleven.

"Restroom at last…" he exhaled heavily as he grabbed the door by its depression and slid it open.

A cloud of warm steam welcomed him as soon as he opened the door to a room that most certainly wasn't a men's restroom. There was a large ofuro, lots of aromatic candles and flasks with bathing oils and salts. And just at the edge of the bathing tub, standing with her back turned at the door, was a single tall and slender female figure with milky-pale skin and a veil of glossy straight black hair that reached below her waist. She was just discarding the last piece of garment that covered her body, before she was about to step into the warm water. Kyouichi didn't know who she was, but he couldn't take his eyes off her. It was a truly a beautiful sight. Her figure was sheer perfection. Other words attempting to describe the flawlessness of her body would be meaningless here. Just when Kyouichi thought that the most beautiful girl he met was the ghost of Yuyuko Saigyouji, now he started to have some doubts. He began to wonder why does Gensokyo have such an abundance of beautiful girls. He nearly forgot that he wasn't invisible and that if the girl he was glaring at for almost half a minute now turned around, she'd spot him right away. Almost as if reading his thoughts, the beautiful girl really did turn around… It took a while for her to even process the fact that she wasn't alone in there. Her instinctive reaction was to use her arms to cover her most intimate parts. However, it was just a little too late. Kyouichi had seen EVERYTHING… She was even more beautiful from the front. Still looking puzzled, she stared at the intruder silently with her dark-brown eyes and raised eyebrows.

"Sorry, wrong room…" muttered Kyouichi in a phlegmatic voice before taking a step backwards and closing the room's door. A couple of seconds after he did so, he heard a terrified scream coming from the bathhouse.

"KYAAAAAAAH~!"

The girl screamed so loudly that any birds that were roosting near Eientei immediately took flight.

Not a second later, a huge barrage of multi-colored danmaku riddled the bathing room's door with numerous holes. Fortunately for the outsider, he had already moved on from the door, further searching the corridor for a men's restroom. However, since he knew that this attack was meant for him, he tried to hurry and get away from that place as quickly as possible.

"I'VE BEEN SEEN~!" echoed the unknown girl's voice all over the Eientei's main corridor. "EIRIIIIIN~! HEEEELP~! THERE'S SOME PERVERT ON THE LOOSE~!"

"Uh-oh… This won't end well if I stay here…" thought Kyouichi as he hurried to open the nearest door to hide himself. He just hoped, he wouldn't enter any similar room and get himself into even bigger trouble.

He slammed the door shut behind him, figuring out that he ended up in some sort of storeroom or pantry, where large bags of various staples were taking up most of the room's area. He flattened himself against the wall, waiting until his rapid, shallow breathing would settle down a bit. He could hear the sounds of rushing footsteps on the corridor and some unfamiliar woman's voice calling: "My lady, are you alright? What happened here? Why is that door full of holes? Were you attacked? Was it Mokou?"

"FAR WORSE~! SOME MASKED PERVERT WAS SPYING ON ME WHILE I WAS GOING TO TAKE A BATH~! THIS IS SO EMBARRASSING~!"

"Man… With body like that, I don't know what does she have to be embarrassed about…" said Kyouichi under his nose as he eavesdropped on the conversation.

"A pervert? Could you describe that person a bit better?" asked the other woman.

"Like I said, he was masked, so I don't know what he looked like. But I think he was one of your patients, Eirin. Why can't you just keep them under control?"

"I apologize, my mistress, but… wasn't it also partly your fault for not locking the door, or at least hiding it with magic?"

"Uuu~… But it was your idea to turn this place into some pseudo-hospital…" replied the black-haired girl.

"Pseudo…? I'm trying my best here. Only thanks to our hard work has this place become the largest and most well-equipped medical facility in the entire Gensokyo. Besides… you always complained to me about feeling lonely, mistress. You even used to get excited every time we had a new visitor…"

"Maybe so, but this is just too much… What is with all these people anyway? We've never used to have so many sick and injured ever since we took shelter here to hide from the lunar emissaries."

"I know… But please bear with it. We're all experiencing breaking events, but it shouldn't be long before I manage to get all of our patients recovered. Then things will be back to normal again."

"Bear with it, you say? How can I just sit around and "bear with it" when there are so many patients that they're starting to invade my privacy?!"

"Princess…"

"I've just about had it with being useless… If it means that this place will once again become peaceful and quiet, and that no masked perverts are going to sneak up on me anymore, I'll do whatever necessary to help you, Eirin!"

"Are you really certain, my lady?"

"Haven't I said it clearly enough? I want you to accept my help… That is an order."

"But mistress… You barely have any knowledge or experience with medicines and treatment."

"Uuuu~…"

"However, I could always use another nurse."

"I'll do it!"

"But you'd basically be doing tasks that the other rabbits do around here… Such work is way below your status, princess…"

"You think I can't do the work?"

"No, I didn't say that; it's just… unexpected of you."

"That's YOUR opinion, Eirin. Now… get me a uniform and tell me what should I help you with!"

The woman that was addressed as Eirin giggled. "Okay, mistress, follow me then. And know that you can quit whenever you feel like it…"

Sounds of distancing footsteps indicated that the two females were heading down the corridor. Kyouichi still didn't dare to leave his hiding spot until he was certain that the coast was clear.

He didn't even want to think about what would happen to him if the two ladies would catch him. Leaving the pantry and closing its door, he resumed his search for the toilets which he needed to use really soon. The method he used was the same trial and error one. After about fifth attempt, however, he finally found it.

"Bingo!" he rejoiced after finding the right facility.

* * *

After using the toilet and washing his hands, he again carefully peeked out around the corridor to make sure he wouldn't run into that black-haired girl he saw earlier.

"Damn… Would it really kill the folks living here if they marked the doors with signs or at least some numbers?" he muttered to himself as he headed to the stairway. "Didn't that bunny girl say it was supposed to be the eleventh door? I mean… she missed by at least seven doors… Unless…" only now did Kyouichi begin to wonder if the girl didn't misguide him on purpose. "But even so… that sight was well worth it, hehe~…"

After quite a while, Kyouichi returned back to the third floor, but now he forgot which room was the Intensive Care Ward.

"Ah… god damn it… why didn't I memorize how many doors I passed by before I went downstairs?" he blamed himself as he walked onward, guided only by his rough guess. Fortunately, he saw Soudai's head peeking out from one of the rooms. He probably wanted to go somewhere as well.

"I'm back…" Kyouichi nodded to him as he returned back to the ward. "Hope nobody's been looking for me while I was gone."

"Nope. I've been watching the corridor for a while and nobody even stopped here to take a look… For being placed in the Intensive Care Ward, the staff sure does a good job at not giving a damn about us."

"Maybe they're too busy." reasoned Kyouichi as he slowly walked back to his bed. Since he overheard the conversation from a while ago, he had a good reason to assume so. "Besides, this may not be the only Intensive Care Ward in the entire building."

Soudai made a quiet and slightly pained chuckle. "Well… I see you're still perfectly in possession of your faculties. Even after such a strong blow."

"Oh, am I? You still haven't asked me my full name yet… I'm having trouble to recall." jested Kyouichi as he was halfway to his bed.

"Hehe… it's written on the card on your bed in case you've forgotten it."

"Ah… I see the card, but I can barely read the sign… Where the hell are my glasses, man?"

"I'd check that night table near your bed if I were you." Soudai gave a little advice.

"Damn! You're right. They're on the night table."

"See?"

"Yes. NOW I see." nodded Kyouichi once he put the glasses on. "Wish I had these on when I saw that beauty…" he thought to himself with a bit of regret.

"Hey, have you seen your face yet?"

"Uhh… No."

"Then take a look. The mirror's over there." Soudai gestured towards the corner of the room where a round mirror was affixed to a wall.

Kyouichi was curious to see how much bandage he had on himself, so without further ado, he proceeded to the mentioned mirror. After a while of silent observation he nodded to his reflection.

"My entire face… and upper torso too, huh?" he whispered to himself. "Cool…" he stated with sarcasm and assumed a mock fighting stance while still looking in the mirror. "Vengeance of the White Shinobi~! Haiii~yah!"

Soudai let out another amused chuckle. "More like The Mummy Returns…"

This time it was Kyouichi who couldn't hold back his laughter. "Phahahaha~! Yeah… except that mummies don't wear glasses… At least I haven't ever seen one wearing them, hahaha…"

"Oh, you're laughing now, but will you still be laughing when they put those bandages down from your face?" asked the other outsider in a suddenly much more serious tone. "From what I've heard, your face was peppered with wooden splinters. I hope you're ready to live with the fact that your face might not look the same again."

Soudai was just teasing a bit, since he also knew about the fact that Eirin managed to treat Kyouichi's facial wounds so well that he won't even have any scars left. Nevertheless, he wanted to see what would be his reaction to this false news which would surely unsettle any normal, healthy person. To his surprise, Kyouichi's response was rather unexpected.

"Meh… So what if my face now looks like as if someone ran over it with a cheese grater? Even ugly people get eaten by youkai. They don't discriminate… And if you meet one of them man-eating ones, your beauty won't help you much."

"That's… true." nodded Soudai agreeingly. "But you can relax, friend. I'm just pulling your leg. I've heard Eirin-sensei earlier that at least your face should make a full recovery. She wasn't too sure about your brain, though…"

"So you were just kidding?" asked the younger outsider and for a moment he turned away from his peer. "Hmm… I wonder how long…."

Before he even got to finish his sentence, the door of the ward suddenly opened and inside rushed a tall girl with long purple hair and a pair of rabbit ears. The expression she made immediately after seeing the two patients standing and casually talking was just as surprised as Kyouichi's who has seen her for the first time. But of course, due to the bandages he had all over his face, only he knew what face was he making right now.

"Oh my! You woke up!" called out the girl and eyed both patients carefully head to toe.

"Uhh… Yeah, I guess so…" mumbled Kyouichi through the bandages while bowing slowly. "Name's Ishimaru… Nice to meet you, Yagokoro-sensei."

"Eh?" the surprised rabbit girl blinked a few times before denyingly shaking her head. "No, no, no… I'm not Yagokoro-sama."

Soudai quietly chuckled behind Kyouichi's back. "That's Reisen, dude. She's a Moon rabbit."

"How should I know? I just woke up… I've never even met the person yet."

"Yes, my name's Reisen…" nodded the Moon rabbit instead of bowing. "Reisen Udongein Inaba… It's a mouthful, I know…"

"Are you a doctor, Inaba-san?"

The rabbit girl still had a bit of panicked look in her eyes. "No… No, I'm just a nurse… In training, that is… I-I don't even know what I should do now… I better call Eirin-sama. Please wait here, okay?"

Without waiting for any reply from either of the two humans, she left the ward to inform Eirin about the new situation.

"Oh, you don't need to worry, Inaba-san…" said Kyouichi as if Reisen was still in the room. "I'm not leaving the safety and comfort of this room."

"It was about time someone took notice of us, eh?" asked Soudai as he turned away from the door. "Well… Better get back to my bed."

It wasn't long before the ward's door opened again, but instead of Eirin, Reisen returned alone.

"I'm sorry, but Eirin-sama is currently busy with a surgery, so I guess I'll be the one tending to you two for now."

"Hey, no sweat, Reisen… I'm feeling quite well today." replied Soudai as he waved his hand. "But I'm not too sure about my pal here… He still looks a bit groggy."

"Very well." nodded Reisen and proceeded to take a better look at Kyouichi first. "So… Ishimaru-san…"

"Yes?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Could be better; could be worse…" the outsider gave another one of his uncertain replies. "Say, Inaba-san…"

"Could you please just call me Reisen?" requested the Moon rabbit as she walked up to Kyouichi's bed.

"Okay then… Reisen… May I ask a few questions first?"

"S-sure. Go ahead." she stuttered for a moment, but agreed to answer.

"How long have I been here? Unconscious, I mean…"

"Today would be the third day of your hospitalization. When they brought you in with that Ryuuken warrior you were in pretty bad shape. Eirin-sama worked her entire night shift stitching the wounds on your face. She joked that at least you didn't need any anesthetics…"

"So Eirin-sama has a good sense of humor, huh? But… did you say I was brought in with a Ryuuken?" wondered the young outsider, trying hard to recall the moment before he woke up in Eientei. "Was it possibly Takamori-san?"

"Yes. Lieutenant Akiyoshi Takamori was brought in along with you by a small group of other Ryuuken… They were saying something about an ambushed caravan en-route to Human Village from Kazemura, if I recall correctly."

A flashback in Kyouichi's memory replayed a scene where Takamori was fighting a Spell Card duel against a youkai known as Otoya. Judging by the fact that the young Ryuuken lieutenant also ended up in Eientei, Kyouichi figured that he had lost that duel. "Is… he okay?" he asked after a while of thinking.

"He woke up on the same day he was brought in here with minor injuries. He's currently recovering at the Rehabilitation Ward and should be discharged shortly…"

"So he's fine… That's good to hear." exhaled Kyouichi with relief.

"Now it will be me who's going to ask questions." said Reisen, taking a moment to read the notes on Kyouichi's patient card. "Are you felling alright? Any pain or feelings of nausea?"

"You've guessed that quite well, Reisen… Oh… and I'm also really, really thirsty and hungry."

"I understand. It's no wonder after three days… I'll have food sent to the ward right away. Don't you also need to use the toilet?"

Kyouichi silently blinked a few times at the Moon rabbit nurse. "Where have you been ten minutes ago, Reisen? No, I already found the toilets on my own, thank you…"

"I'm sorry, Ishimaru-san…" apologized the Moon rabbit. "Normally, Eientei isn't always this busy, but we've had a massive influx of patients in the last few days… Eirin-sama will take care of you as soon as she's done with the surgery. In the meantime, I'll go send you something to eat… And don't worry about your face." she gave a comforting smile as she was leaving the room. "A couple of more days and you'll be as good as new."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a second~!" Kyouichi shouted at the leaving Moon rabbit. "How long exactly do I have to do this mummy cosplay? And how am I even supposed to eat?"

Reisen covered her lips with her hand as she giggled. "No worries. You can remove a patch of the bandage from your mouth just like you did around your eyes… As for your first question, Eirin-sama said that she'll remove the bandages in three to four days from today."

As the Moon rabbit was about to close the door, Kyouichi halted her one more time. "Reisen-san!"

"What is it?"

"Please… Tell Eirin-sensei that I thank her for taking care of me."

Another smile came from the lunar rabbit as a reply. "Oh, you'll have plenty of opportunities to tell her that yourself, Ishimaru-san. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go downstairs to order you some lunch… Oh, and don't be surprised if somebody else will come here to take a look at you later… Other than me and Eirin-sama, I mean… Well, I better get going already. Stay in your beds, you two, okay?"

The next second after saying that, she was already gone. Again, she didn't even wait for the two patients to say anything.

"Well, at least we get the bed-and-breakfast service." murmured Soudai with a hint of sarcasm. "Better than living in the Ryuuken barracks, don't you think?"

Kyouichi was concerned with his own problems. He moved a piece of the bandage away from his mouth so his words could be more audible. "So… three to four days, huh…?" he repeated what Reisen told him.

"Hey, Kyouichi, are you listening?"

"Huh, what?" the younger outsider turned his face at his older friend and stared at him confusedly.

"I said that it's better here than living with the Ryuuken."

"Uh… yeah… So you're also living in the barracks, huh? I haven't heard much praises on living conditions there… But… I assure you… You won't have to put up with living in the barracks for much longer."

"You're talking about your plan to leave Gensokyo through the Hakurei Shrine, right?" asked the older outsider.

"Yes… I remember you were absent when we were discussing the date marking the beginning of our journey… the first of Kannazuki… We're saving up money to buy us all the necessary food and equipment… Actually, that's the part of the reason why I ended up here."

"You rode with the trading caravan to earn some extra yen, right?"

"Yeah… I rode with the caravan to… Oh, damn it!" he exclaimed upon sudden recollection of his business in Kazemura.

"What's wrong? A sudden pain surge?"

Kyouichi shook his bandaged head. "No… I just remembered something."

"Like what?" inquired Soudai.

"I… I need to send my report to the Scarlet Devil Mansion about my little snooping around in Kazemura." murmured Kyouichi to himself, but Soudai heard him anyway.

Soudai already heard about that place from school and several other sources and knew that it was considered quite a dangerous place to be. "Scarlet Devil Mansion?!" he repeated with disbelief. "So you're trying to tell me you've had some deal with the local vampires?"

"Yeah… I got this offer to look for anything suspicious in the mining village… I didn't really find anything, but I had fulfilled my role and now I need to send a report as soon as possible."

"Did they threaten you or something?"

"Not directly… But I certainly don't want to get on Remilia's bad side. Besides, the money she promised in return will greatly help our cause. Damn… I hope the postal fairies visit this place too…"

"I'm afraid any activities of the First Fairy Post Office in Human Village will be temporarily shut down until further notice…" sounded Reisen who just entered the ward, carrying two bowls with food on a platter.

"Reisen-san?"

"Due to the recent fairy incident, the Ryuuken militia decided to close the post office and put all the postal fairies under quarantine here in Eientei."

Kyouichi was already confused enough as he was, let alone now when he's heard of some recent incident. "What exactly happened?"

Reisen took a deep breath and sighed. "I really don't know the details myself… It's been nearly two weeks since I last left Eientei, but I've heard this: Supposedly there's something in Gensokyo that's driving the fairies insane…"

Kyouichi gasped just as he heard Reisen say that. "Just what I've been sent to investigate…" he thought.

Reisen ignored his reaction and kept on explaining. "A couple of days ago, several postal fairies returned to the Human Village that were under the same spell as the other insane fairies and caused some serious chaos in the post office. Even its owner, Kurohana-san ended up here…" she gestured to the bed standing right next to Kyouichi's, separated by a folding screen.

"Huh? Ai-chan?" asked Kyouichi as he tried to stand up from his bed to take a look, but Reisen gently pushed him back down.

"Please, don't strain yourself, Ishimaru-san. Besides… Kurohana-san is sleeping now, so we shouldn't disturb her." she added while lowering her voice a little. "Here." she said as she passed him a bowl of soup. "You have to eat something to regain your strength faster…"

"Thank you, Reisen-san…" Kyouichi happily accepted the bowl and began hungrily sipping its content.

"And one for you, Asakura-san…" said Reisen as she walked up to the other patient's bed, serving him some fresh soup.

"Thanks, Reisen."

"What… what about my things?" asked Kyouichi after he finished his soup. He recalled visiting a certain youkai alchemist and buying several healing potions which he was now tempted to use. "Where are my clothes and my backpack?"

"Oh, you mean the big brown leather one with a bento box, a bunch of notebooks and wine bottles inside?" asked Reisen to make sure she had the same backpack on her mind.

Kyouichi's heart started beating a bit faster. "Ehh… yes, yes. That's the one."

"It's safely stored in our deposit just behind the reception office." replied the Moon rabbit reassuringly. "Your clothes too, of course… Don't worry, they'll be returned to you as soon as you get discharged."

"But… there's something I need to look at."

"I'm sure it can wait for those three to four days, Ishimaru-san. We've got some regulations here, you know, and one of those regulations says that any patients' belongings should be returned to them only when they get discharged."

"Damn…" cursed the young man in his mind. "Well… Guess I have no other choice but to wait."

"Is there something troubling you?"

The outsider sighed and shook his head. "No… Not really…" he lied and resignedly buried his head in the pillow.

"No need to worry, Ishimaru-san." said Reisen as she took the empty soup bowl from his hands. "We've had patients with much more serious injuries and we've managed to get them back up on their feet. You should be glad that you'll recover in just a few days. And who knows? Maybe you'll even grow to like it in Eientei."

Kyouichi waited until Reisen did a quick check-up of the other patients and left the ward. When she was gone, he got back up on his feet and walked slowly towards the door.

"Where are you off to now, King Ramses?" inquired Soudai as he saw Kyouichi leaving the room without saying anything.

"Just going to take what belongs to me. If all goes well, it may even benefit you… a bit."

"Huh? Just what exactly are you up to, Kyou?" asked the older of the two with a wry smile.

"You'll see." replied Kyouichi as he opened the door and peeked out of the room.

"Don't get yourself into any trouble, okay?" Soudai gave a warning. "If you do, don't expect me to defend you."

Kyouichi's response was a short chuckle. "Wish me luck."

After that, he snuck out of the ward and closed the door behind him.

"Hehe… Not the one to care much about authority issues, are you, Ishimaru?"

It's not like Kyouichi was rebellious by nature, but given his current situation and state of mind, the darker side of his ego has won the internal conflict this time and so, the young outsider resorted to this solution…

* * *

"So… the first floor reception office, huh?" he murmured to himself as he went to the staircase, feeling that the numbness in his limbs is slowly but certainly going away.

Half of the way he at least looked like he knew where he was going, but once on the first floor, he hopelessly turned his head left and right, trying to figure where the reception office was. Fortunately, somebody just opened a door at the very end of the corridor, letting a beam of faint daylight enter the building.

"Okay, so there's the entrance… Logically, the reception office should be right next to it… Or nearby…" he thought and headed towards the end of the corridor. The busy Moon and Earth rabbits that were running and flying all over Eientei paid him almost no mind. Kyouichi just hoped he wouldn't run into any of the doctors here, because they would get suspicious. Pretending like he was just looking for a restroom like a while ago, he inconspicuously made his way to Eientei's main entrance. From behind one of the doors, he heard some voices… One of them was Reisen's, the other one Kyouichi didn't recognize.

"Ah, welcome Kurohana-san… I'm sorry about what happened to your daughter, but you needn't worry. Eirin-sensei has informed me that she'll make a full recovery by the end of this week…"

"So… can I at least take a look at her?" asked the other female voice.

"Why of course you can. Just hold on a bit… I'll take you there right away…" answered Reisen and after that, Kyouichi could hear footsteps nearing the door.

"Oh crap!" he uttered in panic. He needed to hide and quickly. The first idea he got was to go outside and wait until the coast is clear. Taking no chances, he darted for the exit, opened the door and closed it quickly, but silently. He did so just in time before Reisen, who just left the reception office, noticed anything strange.

"That was close…" sighed the outsider and as he turned around, he spotted the familiar rabbit girl in pink dress. She was apparently playing outside – juggling a bunch of cotton sacks filled with rice. She was a terrible juggler, but it seemed she was having fun. Then her and Kyouichi's eyes met…

"A..." the rabbit girl uttered a single vowel sound as she saw him. One of the rice sacks she forgot to catch landed on her head. Her expression was tinted with a bit of panic, a hint of guilt and a speck of mischievousness. Now that Kyouichi got a better look at her, he noticed she was wearing some sort of carrot-shaped pendant around her neck. She was definitely the one who misled him to walk into the bathhouse when someone was just about to take a bath.

"YOU!" he exclaimed, pointing his finger at her. She must have taken it as a sign of aggression or something, because she immediately started running into the deep, dense bamboo forest.

"Hey~! Wait a second~!" Kyouichi gave out a futile shout as he tried to follow her. The rabbit girl was a bit too fast for him to catch. "I said WAAAAAIT~!"

By now the frightened rabbit girl was already gone, and Kyouichi out of his breath.

"I *huff, huff* wanted to… *huff* thank you…" he wheezed, but nobody could hear him. His real intention was truly to thank this mischievous little rabbit for letting him see what he certainly couldn't see every day.

"Drat… she runs too fast… ahh never mind… But… where the hell am I now?"

Only now when he stopped to look around did Kyouichi notice his surroundings – bamboo, bamboo and more bamboo. Luckily for him, he didn't run off too far from Eientei, so he had no problem returning there after simply turning around.

"So this is the fabled bamboo forest where people get lost… Heh… and smack in the middle of it – this…" he gestured at the huge mansion of Eientei as he was getting closer to its entrance. Why would anyone build this huge mansion right here, isolated from any settlements was a question which the outsider was pondering all the way back. Besides being a former ninja hideout or something, its location didn't make much sense to him. Once he was at the main entrance he slid the door just enough to allow him a peek inside. Besides a few youkai rabbits, there wasn't anyone else in the corridor. He didn't wait long and took his chance. Just upon entering the building again, he tried opening the door to the room where he heard Reisen's voice from… It opened up without much effort. Inside the room was a tall counter with a paper plaque with a single word "reception" written on it. A bunch of notepads and writing brushes were lying atop this counter along with a few houseplants in vases for decoration. Another doorway in the back indicated another room behind the counter and that's where Kyouichi went. The back room was a bit larger than the reception office itself, its walls lined with wooden lockers numbered from 1 to 200.

He exhaled heavily as he confusedly stared at all the lockers. "Now… which one of these lockers holds my stuff?"

He tried opening a random locker just to see what's inside, but the sturdy wooden container was apparently locked.

"Damn!" he cursed and tried his luck with several other randomly picked lockers, but ended up with the same result.

With the time running out, he became more nervous and desperate. Reisen could be back any moment now. If she has taken Mrs. Kurohana to see her daughter, she has surely found out that Kyouichi was missing. The young outsider only hoped that his older friend will think of some clever excuse as to why he isn't in his bed.

"Keys… Where are the keys?" he asked himself, hurrying back to the reception office to take a better look. It didn't take much effort to find a board with several rows of numbered keys hanging on wooden pins, as it was just behind the reception counter.

"Alright… here are the keys. Now just to figure out which number I'm looking for… Think, think, think!" he urged himself as he was running out of time.

Then his look fell on one of the notepads on the counter. "Hmm… let's see…"

The notepad was a chart filled with dates, names and numbers. Kyouichi raced through it while looking for his name and after a brief moment he found it.

"Oh, here I am… Date – Minazuki 27… Number – 370…" he blinked a few times at the number to make sure he sees it well. "370? What does that number stand for? There's only 200 lockers here, so it has to be… Hmm… I'd say it's the number of the room I was placed in…"

His guess was confirmed when he found the same number next to the names Asakura and Kurohana.

"Heh… guess they DO mark their doors… but I wonder how…"

There were no more notes in the chart that would indicate which locker holds any of the patients' items. Kyouichi desperately looked all over the counter and grabbed another of the notepads. He slapped his forehead right after he read the title – deposit room logbook.

It was another simple chart with names and numbers of the locker in which their belongings were stored. His name was associated with the locker number 62. Without any hesitation, he took the right key and hurried to unlock the locker with the same number on it.

"Yes!" a single word of rejoice escaped his lips as he saw the familiarly looking backpack resting on top of his folded black-white kimono. He grabbed the backpack and opened it up to look inside. Everything was still intact and in its place. Kyouichi took out the notes he made during his time in Kazemura. He took just a while to check if he got all of them out of the bag. He then decided to try out one of those healing potions he bought from Xeng. If what the old immortal youkai alchemist said was true, just one of these bloody-red potions should be enough to restore any light injuries on his body. That would mean that even his facial wounds would disappear in a matter of seconds and Kyouichi would no longer need to have his face bandaged. However, since his instinct told him not to linger any longer, he just took one of the smaller bottles out of the bag, closed and locked the locker's door and returned the key to its place.

With rolled notes under his arm and the potion bottle in his hand, he walked out of the reception office in a very nonchalant manner. He was even slightly surprised that he didn't see Reisen returning to the office yet, which was quite fortunate. After no more than two minutes he was already standing at the door of the Intensive Care Ward and peeking in to see if there wasn't anyone else in the room besides the patients. He did see some unknown person in the room standing at one of the beds, but he only saw her back. Not knowing what to think and do, he hesitated to walk right in.

* * *

"Oi, Kyouichi~! Is that you?" called Soudai who noticed somebody peeking into the room. "It's okay, just come in…" he gestured with his hand. The person standing at the bed curiously turned around and Kyouichi could see that she was a lady, probably 30 years old with long crimson hair, dressed in a dark western-style dress. The young outsider shyly opened the door and walked in, bowing to the lady who he assumed to be Kurohana-san. Her daughter Ai definitely took after her.

"Good afternoon." he greeted and immediately threw a questioning glance at Soudai. "Wasn't Reisen-san here a while ago?"

"That she was." confirmed the older of the outsiders. "I told her that you got a diarrhea from the food and that you needed to use the toilet again… She seemed too busy to even process what I told her, though, because just as soon as she led this young lady here, she disappeared somewhere again."

"Oh…" Kyouichi exhaled with relief. "I see… Thanks, Soudai."

"Don't mention it…" smiled the other outsider and shifted his look at the bottle Kyouichi was holding. "More importantly… what did you bring? Wine? Are we going to throw a little party or what? You know that you shouldn't combine medicine with alcohol, right?"

"This IS the medicine." Kyouichi corrected him while stretching out his arm with the bottle. "I bought this from a certain alchemist as part of the supplies we need for our journey back home. But I suppose now would be a good time to see if this healing potion even works…"

Soudai raised a suspicious eyebrow as he leaned a little closer. "Mmm… well I don't know… It still looks like red wine to me."

"Well… you'll see in just a moment that I'm not kidding you." said Kyouichi with a strong belief that the healing potion is going to work, but just a moment later, doubt began settling inside his mind.

He removed the cork seal on the bottle with the help of his teeth and the bottle made a distinctive popping sound. Both Soudai and Kurohana-san were curiously staring at him, waiting until he takes a sip of the bottle's content. Suspicious like with everything new, Kyouichi first took a few whiffs of the potion. Then he shrugged his shoulders and took a modest gulp of the red liquid.

Savoring the taste and trying to find something to compare it to, the young outsider was silently thinking for a moment.

"So… feel any difference?" inquired Soudai.

"…This really does taste like wine…" muttered Kyouichi to himself. "Hope I haven't been swindled…" he didn't really feel any change when he swallowed the potion.

Soudai was trying to hold back his laughter. "I can't believe you're such a sucker, Ishimaru! Getting tricked like that… that's something I'd expect from an elementary school kid; not you. Buying stuff from some charlatan alchemist… You should have demanded to see the potion's effects on spot. Ask him to cut his wrist and then let him drink that stuff…"

"You don't understand." Kyouichi defended himself. "That guy's immortal, dude! He cut off his own head, damn it, and in just a few seconds, he grew a new one! Even if these so-called healing potions would work, I'm afraid they would have no effect on him. But I really didn't expect him to deceive me like… Urrgh!" he exclaimed with a sudden sensation of heat spreading over his face.

"What's going on?" asked Soudai upon seeing Kyouichi's reaction.

"…my face…!"

"What about it?"

"It feels like it's on fire!"

"Oh my, should I call the doctor?" asked the worried-looking Kurohana-san.

Kyouichi resolutely shook his head. "No… no, there's no need to… hyaaaaaa! Aaargh… damn it..!" he fell on his back and started clawing at his face through the bandages.

Even Asakura now looked shocked to see a friend rolling on the floor in agony while furiously scratching his face.

"Oh no! This looks serious!" he uttered as he shifted his look to Kurohana-san – the only non-patient in the room. "I've seen something similar in Higurashi… and it didn't end well… You better call Eirin-sensei right away!"

The young Mrs. Kurohana didn't quite get Soudai's reference, but she nodded and hurried out of the room, calling for any doctor within earshot. "Doctor~! Doctor~! We need a doctor~!"

Then, all of a sudden, Kyouichi stopped thrashing about, because the sudden heat began to go away and was followed by a strange tingling feeling and numbness spreading all over his body.

"Oh my god, he DIED!" panicked the older outsider, clumsily standing up from his bed and hurrying to offer his help.

By the time he made it to Kyouichi's motionless body, all the tingling, pain and numbness were gone and the younger outsider casually stood up and dusted off his patient's robe as if nothing happened.

With his mouth opened wide, Soudai glared at him, having trouble to process his thoughts into words. "W-what?! When?! You were… But then you… You feel alright, pal?"

"Never felt better~!" replied Kyouichi rather cheerfully.

Even Kurohana-san could sigh with relief that no doctor was needed after all. Kyouichi reached behind his head and slowly began unwinding the bandage…

"It's kind of hard to breathe with this thing on… seriously…"

"Wait!" Soudai tired to halt him. "You heard Reisen, didn't you? You're not supposed to remove that bandage until 3 to 4 days…"

However, Kyouichi turned a deaf ear to Soudai's words and continued unwinding the white bandage from his head, slowly revealing his forehead, then his eyes and nose…

"Whoa… I guess… you really didn't need to wear that thing after all…" remarked Soudai as he saw Kyouichi's unscratched face.

Once all the bandages were removed from his body, he hurried to take a good look at himself in a mirror.

"…" he stood in silent awe, seeing that his body was perfectly healed up. Well… almost perfectly, because as he checked his left forearm where he got bitten by Rumia a couple of weeks ago, the scars were still there. As for any of his more recent injuries, they were gone without a trace.

"I told you this stuff was gonna work." he said to his older acquaintance, gesturing at the potion bottle standing next to his bed.

"But Eirin-sensei had her bit of work with your face too, you know…" Soudai reminded him, still being skeptical about the effects of the potion.

"I know she had." Kyouichi acknowledged with a nod as his steps headed back to his bed. "And I am most thankful to her for that… The potion only speeded things up a bit. And it's good to know that it works the way it's supposed to…"

Soudai raised both his eyebrows in disbelief. "Are you kidding me?! What about those strong side effects? I was thinking that you got the last stage of Hinamizawa Syndrome a while ago."

"You watch too much anime, Doctor Asakura." Kyouichi jokingly retorted as he closed the potion bottle and hid it under his bed. "So what if it hurts a bit? No pain, no gain… It's the same as with disinfection… Would you like a sip?"

"Uhh… no, thanks… I'm glad my injuries are almost all haled up. I don't need any suspicious potions."

Kyouichi shrugged. "Well, suit yourself… By the way, I think I forgot to ask you how you even ended up here."

"Me? Hehe~! You could say it was goddamn luck how I got here. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this lovely conversation."

"I'm a curious person, Soudai. Saying something like "it was goddamn luck" is hardly going to satisfy my curiosity."

"Alright, alright…" Soudai chuckled weakly. "So there I was, working with the woodcutters in the bamboo forest – a day like any other… We even had a pair of those Ryuuken fellows to watch over us in case things would get dangerous."

"If the forest's so dangerous, why don't the woodcutters gather bamboo wood only from the edge of that forest?"

"Yeah, a smart person would say the same thing." nodded the older outsider and continued retelling his story. "But some of the more speculative woodcutters say that the bamboo from deeper within the forest has much better quality. They even claim it has magic properties. That's basically why the woodcutters prefer to venture a bit deeper into the forest, thinking that no harm can come to them when under protection of the Ryuuken… Just relax, they said. If any youkai would show up, the warriors will drive them away. Ha! What a load of crap…"

"So, I'm guessing that some youkai did show up…" assumed Kyouichi.

"You bet… Well, actually, it didn't, because this particular youkai or spirit or whatever it was, was invisible."

"Invisible? Oh damn, that sounds dangerous."

"Damn right, it was!" confirmed Soudai, taking a quick look at his stomach and rubbing it with one hand. "Ever heard of Betobeto-san?"

"You mean the sounds of footsteps without any visible source?"

"Yeah… I've heard something like footsteps just a while before we got attacked. I thought it was just one of the woodcutters or Ryuuken, but then one of the men suddenly collapsed, holding his shoulder that was cut by something sharp. The Ryuuken were quick to react, but not quick enough to protect me from getting the next hit, or should I say, a whole combo. Blood just sprayed out of me and I passed out from shock. The next thing I remember was waking up, being carried by some mysterious girl with very long light-violet hair and red eyes… I only caught a glimpse of her face before passing out again."

"Long light-violet hair and red eyes?" Kyouichi repeated thoughtfully. "You mean Reisen-san?"

"No. It wasn't Reisen… Her hair had a much lighter shade of violet and she had no rabbit ears… Whoever she was, I doubt she was a human. After all she carried my unconscious body alone and I weigh over 75 kilos… Anyway, I later woke up here. Met Reisen and Yagokoro-sensei. The first few days were the worst. They had to keep me drugged constantly so I used to pass in and out of consciousness a couple of times a day… I had completely lost my track of time. Fortunately, now I feel much better and sometimes, I'm allowed to take a little walk outside every once in a while. It won't be long before they'll send me back to the village… Hey, maybe I'll get discharged on the same day as you will."

"But I'm completely fine now." objected Kyouichi, pointing a thumb at his face. "I might as well start packing up. There's no need for me to be here any…" his sentence got cut off just as somebody entered the ward. It was a tall young-looking woman with long silver hair and a peculiar red-blue outfit that remotely resembled a nurse uniform.

"Oh… a good afternoon to you, Kurohana-san." she greeted casually, since Mrs. Kurohana was the first person she noticed.

"Yagokoro-sensei." replied the mother of one of the patients. "Good day to you as well."

"Hello, Eirin-sensei…" sounded Soudai from his bed, nodding to greet the Lunarian doctor.

"Ah, Soudai-kun… Are you feeling well today?"

As Kyouichi silently measured up the woman, he thought to himself: "So this is the famous Yagokoro Eirin… For someone who's several millennia old, she looks too pretty… Ugh… What am I thinking? I better greet her politely too…"

"Umm… Good afternoon, Yagokoro-sama…" he greeted shyly, just like every time he met someone new.

Eirin turned her surprised face to him and blinked, as if to make sure she was't seeing a mirage.

"Ishimaru-san? I heard from Reisen that you woke up, but why did you put the bandages down?" then she shook her head as if to gesture she takes back her last question. "More importantly, how come you recovered so fast?"

"Uhh… thanks to your umm… expert treatment?" shrugged the outsider as he told a little lie.

"It… can't be…" objected Eirin as she took steps to Kyouichi's bed and scanned his face. "My herbal regenerating balm works great, but not that fast… Did Reisen give you any medicine recently?"

The outsider decided to play dumb. "Maybe… I don't know…"

"This is really strange…" the doctor scratched her head thoughtfully.

"I'd really like to thank you for taking care of me, Yagokoro-sensei…" thanked the outsider. "After reading some of your manuscripts and transcribing them, I've always wondered what you looked like in person. It is a real pleasure to meet you." he bowed deeply even when he was sitting in his bed. "How much do I owe you for treatment and when can I go back to the village?"

The silver-haired doctor giggled weakly. "Take it easy now… First off, I'm fine with being called by my first name. Secondly… what manuscripts are you talking about? And finally, even despite your miraculously quick recovery, I'd like to keep you here a bit longer for observation… As for the money, you don't need to concern yourself with that right now…"

"But, but… I'm already healthy…" protested Kyouichi who wanted to be out of this place as soon as possible.

"The strong occipitofrontal trauma caused by a direct hit of a danmaku projectile might have triggered an endorphin rush, resulting in a sudden pain relief…"

Kyouichi confusedly stared at Eirin with his mouth ajar, barely understanding half of what she just said. "I… I'm sorry, Eirin-sensei, but I don't speak Lunarian…"

"In other words…" continued the doctor after another giggle, "…you may still not be as fit and healthy as you might think. And even if you are, I'm going to find out how is it possible. Don't worry, though, a couple of more days and we'll send you back home… or to the place where you currently reside. We'll move you to rehabilitation ward along with Asakura-san. Take your time to relax and recover properly…"

"You don't understand… Time is a luxury I don't have." objected the outsider, looking pleadingly into the Lunarian's gray eyes.

His serious expression only managed to elicit another amused giggle from Eirin. "Ah~. You're so funny, Kyouichi-san." she patted him on the head like mother pats a child who said something too mature for his age. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"I… I need to send or deliver these papers…" he reached for his notes from Kazemura and waved them gently, "…to the Scarlet Devil Mansion."

"What's this?" asked the Lunarian, taking the notes from Kyouichi's hand and briefly racing through them. "Are you some sort of archeologist or surveyor?"

"No… Just a hired man sent out on an investigation. And I'm already late with my report for Remilia-sama."

Eirin's face turned to serious again as she returned the notes to their owner. "What would the vampire hire somebody else for? Especially somebody from outside the border?"

"Haven't you just read my notes? It's all there… I was to take a look into a certain matter involving fairy attacks."

"That incident?" asked Eirin with a little raised voice. "As far as I've heard, Kazemura is currently among the most dangerous places in Gensokyo. The source of the fairy madness is said to be somewhere near that area… Furthermore, while you've been lying unconscious, there have been several simultaneous fairy attacks on random locations, reaching as far as the forest near the Hakurei Shrine. The resulting forest fires could have caused catastrophic damage, if it weren't for the initiative of several brave humans and youkai."

The news of the recent forest fires left Kyouichi flabbergasted for a good moment, allowing Eirin to make a quick check-up of the other patients in the ward, especially Ai, who needed to have her bandages replaced again. Poor girl has suffered some bad burns that must have been painful to bear even with anesthetics. Kyouichi felt sorry for her, even when he met her only once and spoke with her just briefly. The same pity he felt for her worried mother, even when Eirin was persuading her that everything will turn out well for Ai-chan. Then he returned to his previous thoughts and timidly asked: "Umm… Eirin-sensei?"

"What is it, Kyouichi-san?"

"I know you're busy, but… could you please send some of your rabbits to deliver these notes to the Scarlet Devil Mansion? I couldn't care less about the fairy incident, but this is really important both to me and Remilia-sama…"

The Lunarian froze in motion for a moment as she glanced at him, then she compassionately nodded. "Very well… I suppose I could employ one of the rabbits with this task. But I have my doubts about this… If your notes are so important, shouldn't they be sent to the Hakurei miko instead?"

"Perhaps they should, but the shrine maiden is not going to pay me for it. Besides, I'm not too confident to say she'd be able to make heads or tails out of these notes… But somebody more knowledgeable, like Remilia-sama or Patchouli-sama would be more likely to know how to use these findings to make further progress…"

"Aah~. Patchouli-san." said Eirin, as if she had recalled or realized something. "Well, that solves our problems…"

"What do you mean?"

"You're in luck, Kyouichi-san. Patchouli-san is right here, in Eientei. Should I call her?"

"She's here?!" repeated the surprised outsider, thinking that something bad happened to the youkai sorceress.

"That's right." confirmed Eirin with a smile as she was leaving the room. "Please wait a minute while I go find her."

* * *

It took her but a short while before she returned to the ward in tandem with a short girl with purple hair adorned by various colorful ribbons. She had pale skin and a sleepy expression. Even if Kyouichi had seen her only once, there was no mistake that this was Patchouli. What surprised him, however, was the fact that she wasn't wearing her usual clothes. Instead, he saw her dressed up in a white doctor's uniform with a stethoscope hanging from her neck.

"Patchouli-sama?" he asked in disbelief. "I had no idea you actually worked here."

The sorceress curiously eyed him, then she read the card on his bed. "So… you finally woke up, Kyouichi-san…" she stated as she walked up closer. "I don't really work here… Not full-time, at least. But since Eientei is having a staff shortage, or should I say, an excessive amount of patients, I temporarily decided to offer my help."

"I see…"

"Eirin-sama told me that you needed to deliver something to Remilia, right?"

"Why yes." nodded the outsider, passing his notes to Patchouli. "My report from Kazemura… It's all I could find during my short stay, but I hope this will be enough…"

"You actually made the report…" she muttered as she glanced at the first page. She actually made it sound as if Kyouichi didn't have to do that report after all.

"Hmmm…." she hummed as she flipped a page and continued reading. Then she paused for a moment, thoughtfully tapping a certain word or sentence in the notes with her fingertip before she went on. When she finally got to the sketches of the ruins in the Kazemura quarry and the penciled-out imprints of the symbols, her eyes widened and her lips parted.

"Is something wrong, Patchouli-sama?" Kyouichi asked when he noticed her change of expression.

"These symbols…" she whispered, still absentmindedly looking at the notes. "I know I've seen them somewhere…"

"Have you?"

For a moment, Patchouli was trying to recall where she saw these markings. Then she finally realized it. She drew out her own notepad from the pocket of her uniform, flipped a couple of pages. She carefully looked from left to right at both her notepad and Kyouichi's loosely written report, as if she was comparing something.

"Some of these markings are identical to what Komeiji-san has written while she was looking into the mind of one of the possessed fairies. So it really is a language after all…"

Kyouichi didn't have a clue what was Patchouli talking about just now, but he did find the name she mentioned somehow familiar.

"Komeiji-san? Oh, you mean Satori-satori? The one who was supposed to look at that amulet you gave me earlier?"

"Yes." confirmed the elemental sorceress. "We managed to capture some of those enraged fairies and had Komeiji-san look into their minds in order to identify the source of their madness. Unfortunately, all we got was some riddle-like rambling while she was in her trance… This is what she wrote down." she showed Kyouichi the notepad where she copied Satori's strange writing in some unfamiliar language.

"So you're saying that some of these weird symbols are actually the same as those on the ruins in the quarry?"

"There's no mistake… The language is the same. Even when I don't understand it yet, this will greatly help me in my research and deciphering these symbols. This is an invaluable find…"

Kyouichi surprisingly blinked at her, still unable to believe that his negative result on finding the culprit behind the fairy attacks turned out to be of some value.

"It is?" he raised a doubtful eyebrow.

"Indeed." nodded Patchouli, mustering a very faint smile as she folded all the notes and put them away in her pocket. Kyouichi could tell that she was tired and Patchouli's heavy sigh didn't help him shake away that guess.

"I'll let Remilia know that you fulfilled your investigation… I'm grateful for your effort, even if it means more work for me."

"Uh… no problem, Patchouli-sama…" uttered the outsider shyly.

"If there was no problem, Kyouichi-san," sounded Eirin suddenly while she was still changing Ai's bandages, "you wouldn't have ended up here…"

"Oh… Yeah, that's right." acknowledged Kyouichi with a weak chuckle.

"By the way, Patchouli-san…" continued Eirin, "Since you're already here, would you please take Ishimaru-san and Asakura-san to the Rehabilitation Ward? I'm a little busy at the moment, as you can see."

"Of course." nodded the temporary doctor, stretching out a hand towards Kyouichi to help him stand up. He accepted the hand and tried to get on his feet. Since he knew that Patchouli was a youkai, he expected her to be strong enough to be able to hold him without a problem. But he was wrong…

"Mukyu~!" uttered Patchouli as she lost her balance.

*thud*

Putting too much trust into Patchouli's hand as he was trying to stand up, Kyouichi managed to pull her down instead. Now the youkai librarian found herself in a very awkward position, lying atop Kyouichi, still holding his right hand. Their faces were dangerously close to each other. They just silently stared into each other's eyes for a moment before they realized what just happened. Kyouichi could feel a warm, soft sensation pressing against his chest and his own heart rate almost doubled its pace in an instant.

"P-Patchouli-sama…" the outsider wanted to apologize, but he only managed to utter the girl's name.

Patchouli's response wasn't exactly rich in words either. "Umm…"

Her face slightly reddened and she immediately tried to stand up before anyone could notice her in this suggestive position. But it was too late…

"Oooh~! Patchouli-san~!" sounded somewhat cheerful Eirin's voice from behind Patchouli's back.

The librarian's face again changed from blushing to milky-pale from shock and chill ran down her spine. Too embarrassed to even think straight, all that the poor Patchouli could manage was to utter her usual: "Mukyuuu~."

Eirin smiled brightly. "It was about time you finally managed to find someone you like, Patchouli-san. Congratulations~!" she clapped her hands in a light applause. "But why an outsider, I wonder…"

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" exclaimed both Kyouichi and Patchouli at the same time. The elemental sorceress was already back on her feet and trying to convince Eirin that it's not the way it looked like.

"Well, if you say so~…" said the Lunarian teasingly. "Anyway… you should at least wait until your duty ends before you engage in your affairs."

"I said it was an accident!" retorted Patchouli angrily. "Ishimaru-san, Asakura-san, come with me please! I'll take you to the Rehabilitation Ward."

"S-Sure." nodded Kyouichi as he stood up, ready to follow Patchouli's lead. He even completely forgot about the potion bottle he hid under his bed.

* * *

Soudai was a bit reluctant to be moved to another room, but he obliged Patchouli's request and together with Kyouichi, he followed her all the way to the mentioned Rehabilitation Ward.

"Once again, I'm sorry, Patchouli-sama. I didn't mean to pull you down like that…"

"It's… okay…" replied the librarian without even turning her face to the outsider.

"What did you do to her anyway?" inquired Soudai pryingly.

"I won't speak without my lawyer…" Kyouichi jestingly refused to say anything about the accident.

"Well then I'll ask Patchouli-sensei…" said the older outsider in hope of getting an answer from the temporary doctor.

Patchouli turned around and with a menacing expression, she gave Soudai a piercing glare. "It was an accident!" she repeated what she told Eirin. Even though she was much shorter than him, she could be quite intimidating.

Soudai made a frightened smile and nodded affirmatively. "Alright, alright… I'll shut up already…"

"By the way, Patchouli-sama…" said Kyouichi again as he was curious to hear an answer to one of his questions. "How does one translate a language that is completely unknown?"

"I have a lot of unread books relating to other languages that yet await translation. With Koakuma's help I may find a book that is written in the same language as the glyphs on the Kazemura ruins. It would probably help me even more if the Kazemurans uncovered more of these ruins and probably even found some artifacts that would help me better understand the meaning and context of not just the individual symbols, but the words themselves."

"Do you think that the discovery of these ruins is causing the fairies to go crazy?"

"There is a doubtless connection between the fairy incident and the ruins… But as you have already stated in your report, your magic scan didn't show a single trace of magic around the quarry area, meaning the ruins themselves are most likely not the source of our troubles. I'd suspect some elder being… someone who's lived for a long enough time to know this language and the civilization that used it. A very old youkai with mind-control abilities perhaps…"

"…like Yukari?"

"Yakumo-san doesn't have any direct mind-controlling ability, but… Since she can manipulate borders of just about anything in existence, I bet she could even mind-control other beings, if she so desired…"

"What would she achieve by dragging a train full of unsuspecting Tokyo citizens into an illusionary realm and then making random fairies go crazy, all the while effectively staying out of the scene?" wondered Kyouichi aloud, assuming that Patchouli's suspicion in Yukari is correct. "And what do the ruins in Kazemura have to do with all this?"

"I don't know…" replied Patchouli while thoughtfully looking down. "I'm not even sure if Yakumo-san is to blame this time… Perhaps that Xeng person you mentioned in your report is more suspicious than he lets on. However, an unfounded theory is just that – a theory. Right now I really can't say anything more… But I will find out… it may take weeks, it may take months, but I WILL find out the truth…"

"By that time we may no longer be here." thought the young outsider to himself. Whether or not is Reimu, or the Ryuuken or anyone competent going to solve the incident behind the crazy fairies before autumn was not Kyouichi's problem He and the rest of the outsiders would be out of Gensokyo by that time, and whatever would happen to it afterwards didn't concern him. However, that was true only if any of the factors of this on-going incident wouldn't somehow jeopardize his plans or directly endanger his life. In that case it would be also his concern…

"Well, here we are…" announced Patchouli's voice as she stopped in front of one of the myriad doors, all of which looked the same to the untrained eye. "The Rehabilitation Ward…"

"I see… Well, thanks for showing us the way…"

"I'll be working here in Eientei for yet a couple of days. Only then can I actually start working on deciphering the symbols of the ruins… Maybe I should go to Kazemura too to take a better look…"

"Hey, hey, Patchouli-sama…" sounded Kyouichi suddenly as he just remembered something, although completely unrelated. "Are you going to go to the Hakurei Shrine for the Tanabata festival?"

This question was something Patchouli didn't expect and she wasn't even sure what answer to give. She knew that she had tons of work to do, but on the other hand, she did want to enjoy at least one festival this year.

"I… I really don't know yet, Kyouichi-san… You know how much work I need to do?"

"Come on. It's just one day that comes once a year." he tried to convince her. "Your work won't run away from you."

"I'll see in a few days maybe… Right now I feel kind of tired and my shift is far from over. Never used to stand on my feet for so long…" she murmured a complaint. "Now if you have no more questions for me, I have to get back to work."

"Just one." replied the outsider after a brief moment to think what to ask.

"Yes?"

"…What on Earth is a "mukyuu~"?"

"Mukyuu~…" Patchouli's face reddened again in embarrassment. "It's… nothing…" she refused to give a direct answer and turned on her heel, walking away from the two outsiders.

"Hey, wait! Why are you mad at me all of a sudden? Whatever I insulted you with, I didn't mean it!" he called at her, but the sorceress continued in her way without stopping or turning her face back. "Waaaait~! When and how is Remilia going to pay me for my report~? Ugh… she's gone…" he shrugged hopelessly as Patchouli's figure disappeared into one of the further rooms on the 3rd floor corridor or Eientei.

"I have to admit, though, she's really cute…" muttered Kyouichi, still looking at the other end of the corridor.

"Well, why are we still standing here?" asked Soudai as he opened the door he was standing at.

"Yeah… Time to make some new friends…" said the younger outsider, following his older friend into the room, but stopping dead in his tracks as soon as he saw a bunch of fairies flying around in there…

"What's wrong?" wondered Soudai why Kyouichi wasn't entering the room.

He silently pointed at the fairies with a horrified look and shook his head slowly. "…They can't seriously mean that…"

"What?"

"Fairies…"

"Oh, you're right." nodded Soudai as he also noticed the fairies playing their games. "It seems we have some fairy roommates too… Awww~… How cute. Come on, Kyouichi…" he made a "follow me" gesture and nonchalantly greeted everyone in the ward. It was considerably larger than the Intensive Care Ward and had both human and youkai patients. Most of them were recovering from light injuries or diseases and were waiting to be discharged. It was also quite a lot noisier than the peaceful Intensive Care.

"You don't get it. I hate those creatures and they hate me back… There's no way in hell I'm entering this room…" declared the younger outsider, still standing outside and staring at the little youkai, which he was quite afraid of.

Soudai disbelievingly glanced at him, then at the fairies and again back at Kyouichi, unable to hold back his chuckling.

"Dude, don't even tell me that you're afraid of those cute little fairies."

Kyouichi swallowed his saliva and tilted his head to the side. "Well…"

"Oh, I get it… It must be the trauma from your last encounter with a youkai… Now you're afraid of all of them." deduced the older outsider. "But don't you worry, my friend." he theatrically raised a finger into the air. "Soudai is here to help you overcome this fear~!"

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?! Put me down!" protested Kyouichi after Soudai grabbed him by his arm, lifted him up and carried him on his back like a sack of potatoes. "As a president of the Transfer Students' Club, I demand you to put me down~!"

"Umf… come on… Cooperate a bit! You're really heavy, you know…"

"Eirin-samaaaa~! Heeelp~!"

Kyouichi's desperate call went unheeded and Soudai dragged him all the way to one of the vacant beds in the room.

* * *

"Greetings everyone… This here's my friend, Kyouichi… He's a little shy, you see…"

"I ain't that shy… It's just…"

"Oh, hey Kyouichi! Good to see that you're still kicking." sounded a very familiar man's voice from behind him.

"Lieutenant Takamori?!"

The young Ryuuken lieutenant was peacefully resting on his bed, reading the latest issue of Bunbunmaru. At first, Kyouichi found it surprising to see him there, but he quickly remembered that Reisen already told him about the fact that the Ryuuken warrior was brought into Eientei along with him.

"It's a little crowded in here, isn't it?"

"Well, what do you know?" murmured Soudai, sounding somewhat impressed or surprised. "You already have some friends among the Ryuuken, eh, Kyouichi?"

He paid no attention to Soudai's remark and gave Takamori a questioning look. "Why do they put humans and youkai together in the same room?" he wondered after taking another look around.

"That's because this is Eientei… A place where both humans and youkai are treated equally."

"By the way, Takamori-san, who was that youkai you were fighting against back then?"

"Oh, you mean Otoya Hidekawa – an old friend of mine. Still, I think he went a bit too far this time…"

"A friend?!" repeated Kyouichi in disbelief. "Are you serious? To me he looked like a vicious evil youkai who held some grudge against you…"

"A friend, a rival and a regular duel partner is what Otoya means to me. He may have a bit harsh demeanor, but that's just a facade. We've known each other since childhood… well, MY childhood that is… He's a youkai, so he looked the same back then as he does now. It was him who had trained me in combat since I was little. He's also the reason why I'm now in the militia… He said that way we can duel each other like true warriors…"

"The battle you two had seemed like some sort of personal vendetta, rather than an innocent Spell Card match."

Akiyoshi let out a soft chuckle as he nodded. "Exactly what I'm talking about. Otoya only pretends to be the "evil and merciless" type. He doesn't really eat humans. He just always looks for an excuse to battle. Especially when it's against me…"

"But it looks like he got you this time."

"Well, like they say: you win some, you lose some." shrugged the young Ryuuken indifferently. "The same goes for Otoya. He's a strong and very skilled fighter who always wants to know everyone by fighting them and comparing them to himself. But even he has his bad days and so, he's lost to even much weaker opponents on many occasions. He always deceives his opponents by telling them he's fighting them to death, but when he wins, he just leaves the scene… If he loses, he escapes. The most interesting fight I saw him in was when he challenged the Scarlet Devil Mansion's gate guard. After a whole ten minutes of intense fighting, the battle ended as a draw and Otoya just bowed and casually walked away…"

"He fought Meiling?"

"Yeah. For ten minutes. No Spell Cards, no danmaku. Just plain and beautiful hand-to-hand fighting. Otoya may not look like it, but he's a man… I mean a youkai of honor. He knows when to fight and when to admit defeat and makes no fuss about being beaten. His magic is decent too, but he's not too fond of danmaku battles. I also believe he's one of those youkai in Gensokyo who hasn't yet had a battle against the Hakurei shrine maiden. He just avoids her, and the whole Hakurei clan altogether… When he fought Hong-san, he just decided to call it a draw. The gate guard was quite freaked out, but had no objections."

"So… you're saying he's not really that dangerous?"

"Depends on what you call dangerous." replied Akiyoshi with a faint smile. "He can knock you unconscious, maim you, break half of your bones, but he doesn't kill his beaten opponents. There are much stronger and more dangerous youkai around than him. Some that even he won't dare to approach."

"Yeah…" whispered Kyouichi and tentatively turned his face back to check if the fairies in the room aren't planning to ambush him while he's not looking. "I really don't feel too safe to be here…"

Akiyoshi raised a curious eyebrow. "What are you afraid of? There aren't any particularly dangerous youkai in this room… Just a few fairies, a firefly and… that girl over there looks like a karakasa…" he gestured towards the bed at the very end of the room.

Kyouichi curiously gazed at both the youkai firefly and the karakasa. The former was almost unrecognizable from the fairies. She was short, had short teal hair, blue eyes and a pair of bug-like antennae. She wore a simple white shirt with short sleeves, a pair of short blue baggy pants and a black cape with dark-red inner side. She was cheerfully playing together with the fairies who were about her size and age. The karakasa girl was further in the room, so Kyouichi didn't see her all that well. All he could make out was that she was taller than the firefly, had turquoise hair, a turquoise vest on top of a white shirt and a light-blue skirt. Next to her bed there was a folded purple umbrella that apparently looked just like Kyouichi had imagined the karakasa – one large red eye and a long tongue hanging from its large mouth. It even had a mini-sandal on its handle. To tell the truth, Kyouichi first thought that only the umbrella was the karakasa, so he turned again to Takamori-san.

"And who's that girl in the corner bed? A human?"

"No, that's the karakasa."

"And that umbrella…?"

"That's a part of her, of course…"

"Oh, now I see… So both the girl and the umbrella are the one karakasa…"

"Pretty much…"

Soudai also curiously watched the girl in question, not yet sure what to think. "I wonder if the karakasa are human-friendly…"

Akiyoshi thoughtfully scratched his chin. "Not too sure about that… They live to scare the humans in order to feed on their emotions or something like that…"

"Scare? Really?" asked Soudai. "The one over there looks kind of… I don't know…" he snapped his fingers repeatedly as he tried to think of the right word.

"Moe?" sounded Kyouichi again.

"Yeah, that's the word I was looking for…" nodded Soudai while making an amused grin.

Akiyoshi just confusedly stared at the two outsiders, having no idea what were they talking about. Then suddenly one of the fairies turned around.

"Huh? Did somebody call my name?"

The fairy that asked the question had light-pink hair, white dress with pink flowery pattern a pair of butterfly-like wings and a diadem on her head. Kyouichi now had a strong feeling of déjà vu.

"Oh… Moe remembers you~!" exclaimed the fairy joyfully as she saw Kyouichi.

"Huh?"

"You're Kyouichi-san~."

The outsider just confusedly glared back at her, then as if hit by a brick in the head, he remembered where he saw this particular fairy. "…You're Ai-chan's friend."

"Yes~! I'm Moe~!" nodded the little fairy with a sweet smile. "Nice to see you again~."

It appeared that Moe greeted everyone she knew with a hug, because that was the next thing she did to Kyouichi.

"They all hate you, right?" asked Soudai sarcastically in response to Kyouichi's earlier remark about the fairies.

"Well… this is just the exception that confirms a rule." he replied and very tentatively patted the fairy on her head, as if he was afraid of getting bitten. Once the fairy released the embrace she threw a questioning look at Kyouichi.

"Do you know where Ai-chan is right now? Eirin-san, the lady in red-blue dress told me that she's somewhere in this big house, but also told me that I couldn't leave this room. But Moe is really worried about Ai-chan~."

"I've seen her."

"Really~? Is she okay? When can we play together again? Moe's been a good fairy… will Ai-chan give me a cookie~?"

Kyouichi knew the critical condition that Ai was currently in, but the last thing that he wanted was to unsettle her beloved fairy, who cared deeply about her well-being. If he told her the truth, Moe could get depressed. But at the same time, he didn't want to lie to her, so he chose a neutral answer to her question.

"She's… sleeping right now… She should be okay in a couple of days, but I'm afraid you won't be able to see her until then."

"Moe understands…" muttered the fairy sadly. "You said almost the same thing that Eirin-san did… I will wait patiently then... I've even prayed for Ai-chan to get better soon…"

"Ha! What an idiot~!" exclaimed another fairy while pointing an index finger at her. She was a blue fairy with ice-shard wings, and for some reason, she seemed awfully familiar to Kyouichi as well.

"Wasn't it you who shot that human girl with your own danmaku? Even if you look like a wimp, I have to say you've got some guts!" said the ice fairy with a sly grin. "That ought to teach those foolish humans to enslave our kind and use them to carry stuff around!"

Upon hearing those mean words, Moe lowered her head in despair, covered her face with her palms and started sobbing.

"M-Moe would… never do anything… so horrible to my… my dear Ai-chan~!"

The ice fairy just amusedly laughed at Moe's lament. "Ahahaha~! You don't even remember that~! You really are an idiot! But don't worry~! If you join me to fight against humans for the rights of fairies, I'll teach you all sorts of awesome things, so that you can be almost as brilliant as I am~! We'll be the strongest fairy army in all of Gensokyo~! Even if I could easily take on all the humans by myself, it's good to have some trusty sidekicks…"

"So you're the one behind the crazy fairy incident?" asked Soudai with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you an idiot?" retorted the agitated ice fairy. "I'm not that weak-willed to let myself be mind-controlled by some puny magic like those other crazy fairies~! I am Cirno and I am the strongest!"

Only now Kyouichi finally remembered why this rather rowdy fairy seemed so familiar to him. "Hey, I know you. You're the one who sank my boat! Well… it wasn't really mine, but you sank it while I was on it!"

"Huh?" uttered the blue-haired fairy while confusedly staring back at Kyouichi. "Is Eientei full of idiots? I don't remember you at all. What are you even talking about?"

"You don't remember, huh?" Kyouichi stood up and raised his voice, as if he had completely forgotten about his fairy-phobia and took a bold step towards the ice fairy who introduced herself as Cirno. "Let me remind you then… Thursday, the 20th of Minazuki, sometime around noon, location – Misty Lake. Does that ring the bell?"

Cirno confusedly blinked her sky-blue eyes, her mouth making the shape of the letter "o".

"Ehehehe~. When was that?"

Kyouichi slapped his own forehead as he realized that fairies probably don't keep a track of days or passing time like humans do. He therefore chose an alternative approach.

"Don't you remember? You had a danmaku battle against…" he paused himself, because in this very room he saw another fairy who was Cirno's opponent on that day when they accidentally sank the boat he borrowed. "You fought against HER!" he pointed at the golden-haired fairy in red and white dress, who questioningly tilted her little head to the side.

"Oh~!" exclaimed the ice fairy as she snapped her fingers. "Now I remember~! We had a fight above the lake on that day. But it was a misunderstanding… Now me, Sunny, Luna and Star are friends again."

"So you do remember after all."

"No I don't. I never saw you or any stupid boat!"

"Then you should have paid more attention!" argued the outsider.

"Oh yeah?! Well so should you~! Idiot…"

They both angrily gritted their teeth at each other and growled like dogs ready to bite. That's when the ice fairy was grabbed from behind and dragged away by the other fairies and Kyouichi was pacified by Soudai in similar fashion.

"Just calm down, pal! I don't know what happened between you two, but I'm sure there's a non-violent way to resolve your dispute…"

"See? I told you that fairies hate me." muttered Kyouichi once he was dragged back to his bed.

"Let-me-go~!" yelled the ice fairy as she struggled hopelessly against the other three fairies who were holding her back. "If you're so worked-up about me sinking your stupid boat, why don't you try and challenge me?!" she proposed the challenge to the outsider.

"Don't do something that could get you into more trouble, Cirno-chan~!" the fairy in red and white dress tried to make her see reason. "Eirin-sama will think you've been possessed by that evil curse if you'll act violently~!"

Only those words were able to calm Cirno down and make her reconsider her behavior.

"Hmm… You're right…" she muttered with disappointment and stopped struggling. "Those crazy ones give us normal fairies a bad name… Perhaps that's why people look down on us…"

"But it's also true that we had our danmaku fight above the Misty Lake back then…" remarked the other fairy as she released her grip on her icy friend. "And we were all fully sane back then…"

"But unlike you, Sunny-chan, I have never fallen under that spell." declared Cirno with a hint of pride in her tone. "I'd understand why Eirin is keeping you here, but… Why is she keeping ME here? I'm healthy and full of energy!"

"Yeah, me too…" Kyouichi spoke up again, wondering why he had to spend more days in Eientei even when he no longer had any health problems.

"I want to go out and play with Dai-chan and Rumi-chan and Mysti-chan and not be locked up here~." continued the ice fairy with complaints.

"Well, if Eirin-sensei had a bit more time on her hands, we probably wouldn't have to wait for so long, Cirno-san…" reasoned Lieutenant Takamori and leisurely flipped another page of Bunbunmaru.

"I don't understand why you are in such a hurry to get out of here, Kyouichi…" said Soudai. "You said yourself that you already had all of your business taken care of when you gave Patchouli-sensei those notes or whatever…"

"Well… It's not like I'm in that much of a hurry to start going to school and work again…" replied the younger outsider with a low voice. "It's just that… I don't want to miss the festival at the shrine…"

"Aaah… so that's the reason." responded Soudai with an understanding nod and smile. "But you needn't worry. Eirin-sensei said she'll keep us here only for a couple of days. We'll still have plenty of time until the 7th of Fuzuki (July)."

"So you're coming too, Soudai-san?"

"Sure, why not?" asked Soudai as he stretched himself on his new bed. "It's not like you get spirited away to a supernatural world every day. I want to enjoy the time I spend here before I return back home. Since we already have a plan that is likely to work, I'm not worried about our journey to Tokyo. I want to have fun too, join a party or two and meet many interesting people."

"Yeah… Just make sure you won't end up here again when we'll be leaving this place." replied Kyouichi with a joking tone.

"Hahaha… I'll do my best, club prez. But the same goes for you."

"I know, Soudai… I know."

"I want to be at the festival too~!" sounded Cirno's childish voice again. "Have you heard? The shrine maiden will arrange a danmaku tournament. This will be my chance to prove I'm the strongest~! And Mystia-chan will sing there too… I can't wait to be out of here already."

"I'm basically healthy too…" the karakasa girl suddenly joined the conversation after she got bored of staring outside the window. She stood up, grabbed her purple umbrella and started walking around the room as if to relieve the numbness in her legs. As she walked past the outsiders, both of them took a closer look at her and noticed that the girl's eyes were not of the same color. One of them was turquoise like her hair, and the other one was red like the one on her umbrella.

"She really is very… moe~…" commented Soudai as he watched the youkai girl stroll about the room.

"No~! I'm Moe~!" called the pink-haired fairy as she wiped tears from her eyes. "That girl is Kogasa-chan."

Soudai turned his look to the fairy and after a moment of silent staring he nodded. "Well… yes. You're moe too, Moe-san."

In the meantime, Kogasa kept walking around the room and muttering her thoughts to herself. "I wonder if it would surprise anyone if I just left this place without saying anything… No, no, no… That's no good… If I can't see the people who get surprised by me, it will be useless…"

"What are you talking about, Kogasa-san?" Soudai dared to ask her.

The karakasa seemed a bit startled by being suddenly addressed by a complete stranger, but she gave an answer anyway.

"Well… Umm… I usually fly around in the sky and surprise random humans who happen to be passing by… This gives me energy to use for spells and danmaku."

"Danmaku? Isn't that a type of shoot-em-up games?"

"Well, yes." nodded Kyouichi who had a little bit more insight about this matter than his older peer. "Danmaku is basically a term which Gensokyo's inhabitants use to refer to all the offensive magical projectiles."

"Oh… I see." muttered Soudai and made an understanding nod. "So basically, you need to absorb the people's emotion of fear in order to draw some magical energy, huh?"

"No, not fear. I said surprise~." Kogasa corrected him while making a pouting face. "But lately it's kind of hard to surprise people… They just have no respect for youkai these days… Boo!"

Soudai chuckled lightly. "Well, I can understand what you mean, Kogasa-san. If you perhaps fed on emotions like "aaaw she's just so cute~!" when people saw you, you would never have to worry about lack of magic essence."

Kogasa lowered her head and shook it in self-disappointment. "Just like I said… It's getting harder and harder to surprise the humans…"

"Aww… Don't worry, Kogasa-san." he cheered her up, or at least, attempted to. "Maybe I'll help you come up with some new way how you could make people surprised…"

"Hey, hey, Soudai…" Kyouichi interrupted as he put his palm on his friend's shoulder. "Take it slow… From my point of view, it seems like you're trying to hit on her."

"Like you're the one to talk!" retorted the older outsider with an amused grin. "After what you did to Patchouli-sensei just a while ago… You old Casanova…"

"Haaa?!" exclaimed Kyouichi in disbelief. "What happened back in the Intense Care Ward was just an accident. There's nothing between me and Patchouli-sama, but a vague, semi-professional relationship."

"I heard you mutter that she's really cute just before we got here. What's wrong if I'm trying to be friendly with Kogasa-san here?"

Kyouichi just shrugged with an innocent smile and shook his head. "Nothing really… Kogasa-san is very cute too…"

"You don't have to point out the obvious." replied Soudai matter-of-factly and turned his face away again to admire Kogasa some more. "Oh, Kogasa-chan… You're sooo cute. Can I take you home?"

While Kogasa was struck with shock and confusion, Kyouichi couldn't hold back his laughter at Soudai's straightforwardness.

"Well… I'm not sure if Reimu would allow any youkai to go outside the barrier along with us… With the exception of Yukari, of course… But I'm sure if she could, she'd most likely restrict even her of that freedom."

"Oh… Now that you mention it, that's another reason why I want to go to the Tanabata festival… To meet this shrine maiden you've mentioned more than once during our club meetings."

"Reimu…" Kyouichi quietly muttered the shrine maiden's name. "If it wasn't for her, all our hope to return would be long lost… It's true that the major part of our plan depends on our own abilities, but we'll be forever indebted to that girl for being able and willing to take us back to the outside world."

"That's why I'd like to meet the person at least once before we go home. I'm also curious to see that tournament that she's planned for the festival…"

"Me too~!" exclaimed Cirno joyfully while flying up and almost hitting the ceiling with her head. "And I'm going to win~! You'll see…"

"Looks like Cirno-san is all fired-up for dueling." commented Lt. Takamori from his bed. Those words immediately managed to elicit a shocked cry from the ice fairy.

"Yaaah~! I'm on fire?! Waaaaah~! Get it off me, get it off~!" she cried and rapidly flew in circles inside the Rehabilitation Ward. The other fairies gave chase as they tried to calm her down.

"Cirno-chan~! Waaaait~! Don't break something expensive~!" called a black-haired fairy after she failed to catch Cirno in flight.

"You're not really on fire, Cirno~!" exclaimed the golden-haired fairy as she also attempted to catch Cirno before she hurts herself.

"Hehe~! I wanna play this game too~!" said the firefly youkai and joined the fairies in their circular flight around the room while giggling mirthfully.

"Moe doesn't understand this game at all…" commented the pink-haired fairy while confusedly scratching her head. "What are the rules to play?"

"…I don't want to be on fire~!" cried the panicked ice fairy without paying any heed to what her friends were trying to tell her. Her flight was becoming faster and more erratic as she was getting more frightened. Kogasa just barely managed to duck before Cirno would crash into her.

"Hey~! Watch it~!" she raised her voice warningly. "You almost crashed into…"

*bang*

Before Kogasa managed to finish her sentence Cirno was lying on the ground along with the other fairy she addressed as Sunny. Both were rubbing their aching heads with dizzy expressions on their faces.

"Uwaaaa~! The whole world is spinning before my eyes~…"

"Hey… Cirno-chan… I had no idea you had a twin sister~." muttered the other fairy dizzily as she experienced a temporary double vision due to the unpleasant impact to her head.

"Oh my, are you alright?" asked the fairy with long black hair, slowly descending down to check on those two.

"Ehehehe~!" Cirno made a weak chuckle. "I'm no longer on fire… What a relief…"

"That… was nasty…" commented Soudai while grimacing, as if he could feel the pain of the fairies himself.

"Oh, good grief…" grumbled Akiyoshi, putting away the newspaper on the night table next to his bed. "This is going to be a long day…"

"Well…" spoke the youngest outsider in the room. "At least it's not so damn hot in this room anymore…"

Truly, after Cirno's misguided flight, the ice fairy really managed to lower the temperature in the room from hot to pleasantly cool.

"Wait a second…" sounded the firefly girl with a confused face. "Does this mean I won the game, or…?"

Kogasa just planted her palm on her forehead, sighed and shook her head disapprovingly.

"Now you understand why I want to be discharged as soon as possible?" Kyouichi asked Soudai while pointing a thumb backwards over his shoulder at the two stunned fairies.

"I think I can now sympathize with that thought…" replied the older outsider with acknowledgement.

* * *

And that is how the two young outsiders met with their new roommates. Their stay in Eientei was still a few days early from being over, so they both tried their best to get used to the other patients that shared the same ward. The human and the youkai groups each minded mostly their own business with only scarce interactions between their members. Even when Soudai still tried to establish a more friendly relationship with Kogasa, the other two humans weren't as outgoing towards their youkai roommates. The only one Kyouichi dared to talk to was Moe and even then their conversations were brief and rather formal. It took more than a day before the humans and the youkai on the ward became more accustomed to each other. Since everyone got easily bored of the long waiting, they began telling each other stories to help them pass the time. Among a couple of fictional tales, Kyouichi and Soudai learned quite a bit of information concerning the recent happenings in Gensokyo. The younger outsider had even overcome his fear of the fairies a bit and asked them about what they thought of the incident that has driven thousands of their kind mad. That way he became acquainted not only with Cirno, but also the trio of her fairy friends – Sunny Milk, Luna Child and Star Sapphire, who were more commonly known as the three mischievous fairies by the locals. From their stories, he learned that those fairies that were driven to insanity didn't remember anything during their craze and returned back to normal only once they were "killed". In similar fashion he made his acquaintance with the firefly youkai girl who introduced herself as Wriggle Nightbug. She also ended up in Eientei because of an unpleasant encounter with a flock of possessed fairies that apparently didn't abide the Spell Card Rules. The strange thing was, that Wriggle described her savior as a girl surprisingly similar to the one described by Soudai.

Last, but not least, Kogasa Tatara, as the karakasa girl introduced herself, had quite a heroic tale to tell. She supposedly helped extinguish a huge forest fire with the earlier assistance of Marisa and Patchouli. However, she gave all of her power to drive her spell for as long as possible and exhausted herself to the point of losing consciousness. How she got to Eientei was therefore left only to her speculation, but she assumed that one of the two mentioned girls took her there.

Slowly and gradually, both the human and youkai patients on the Rehabilitation Ward were becoming more openhearted towards each other. Kyouichi could hardly believe that he could have a friendly idle conversation with the other fairies. He was slowly starting to form a different opinion about this race of youkai. While he no longer felt the fear and reverence he used to, he still slept with one eye open just to make sure.


	37. A Living Legend

After two days on the ward his sympathy towards fairies has grown by yet another little bit. He even dared to play some games with them and gave them simple riddles to guess. The most enthusiastic person to guess the riddles was Cirno, but of all the fairies in the room she managed to guess correctly the least times. Kyouichi could never hide his amusement at how childish, yet adorable this ice fairy could be. When he later apologized to her for being mad at her for sinking his borrowed boat at Misty Lake, she didn't seem to care the slightest bit. However, when he gave her his after-meal dessert, which was a part of the lunch on that day, it was a completely different story. Her way of accepting the apology was somewhere along the lines of: "Hmph… I just might spare you from the wrath of my icy danmaku for today, human, but if you want to prolong your puny existence, you better give me more next time~!"

Coming from someone else, Kyouichi would most likely frown at the person, but in Cirno's case, he couldn't help but to smile. Especially when in the following moment Cirno flew back to her friends, joyfully calling: "Yahay~! I got an extra muffin~! Yummy~!"

"Muffins aren't bad…" commented Moe as she was eating her share, "But Ai-chan's homemade cookies are the best. I wish I could see Ai-chan again…"

"I wonder how she's doing too." murmured Kyouichi thoughtfully.

"We could ask Reisen about her." Soudai gave a reasonable response. "On another note, I wonder when will Eirin-sensei give us permission to return to the village. It's been two days already and she hasn't even shown herself in this ward ever since."

His remark was correct indeed, because the only person who checked on them from time to time was Reisen. Since Eirin was the only one who decided whether the patients should or shouldn't leave Eientei, nobody was certain when exactly she'd give them that permission.

Almost as if the patients' wishful thoughts were to be answered, someone opened the ward's door and entered. It still wasn't the mentioned Lunarian doctor, nor was it her apprentice Reisen. It wasn't even the temporary doctor, Patchouli. The person entering the ward was a slender young female with long, straight, slick and glossy black hair that was styled in a hime-cut. She wore a white uniform, very similar to the one that Patchouli was dressed in. Although still not knowing her name, Kyouichi recognized her right away and his heart skipped a beat from the shock.

"Holy crap! That's the girl I stumbled upon when I accidentally entered the bathing room…" he thought to himself as cold sweat dripped down the side of his face. It seemed to him that she was a part of Eientei's staff and he dreaded the thought that she would recognize him as her unwanted voyeur.

"Good day to you all." she greeted formally and closed the door behind her.

As she was nearing the patients' beds, Kyouichi was trying to pretend that he was sleeping, concealing his face with the covers, all the while thinking: "I'm doomed…"

"I've come to do a regular check-up in Eirin's stead." the young doctor explained her arrival and with a somewhat grudging expression, she began examining the patients one by one.

"Alright, you seem to be recovering well, Takamori-san." commented the new doctor and walked up to the second bed. "Next up is… Asakura-san. Stand up, please…"

"Oh, damn…" cursed Kyouichi under the bed covers, brainstorming for a way to avoid being killed in the following moment. "What do I do now?"

"Good. You may lay down again, Asakura-san." said the doctor's voice, and after a moment of silence, her steps were headed towards Kyouichi's bed. "Who's next? Hmm… let's see… Ishimaru-san, is it? Huh?" she questioningly tilted her head to the side as she saw that the patient was "fast asleep". "Is he still sleeping?"

"I doubt it." replied Soudai nonchalantly. "We were talking just a while ago…"

Kyouichi angrily clenched his fist and softly hit his forehead with his knuckle. "Damn you, Asakura! Damn you~!" he thought to himself.

"Hey, Ishimaru-san, wake up~!" said the doctor gently. Kyouichi was still petrified and didn't move.

"Ishimaru-san! Ishimaru-san! Come on, wake up already!" she raised her voice and attempted to pull the covers down, but the outsider was clenching them tightly like a vice.

"Here, let me help you, miss." Soudai gentlemanly offered his help, stood up from his bed and with one swift pull, he successfully seized the covers and revealed Kyouichi who was apparently faking his sleep.

"Hey. What are you doing, pal? It's just a regular check-up. There's nothing to be afraid of." he said a few words of comfort. "Plus, the doctor is a real beauty… Now get up already!"

"But I don't want to~!" protested Kyouichi as Soudai yanked him out of the bed. He was now standing in front of the young doctor and thought that she'd recognize him immediately, but she only gave him a confused look.

"If you keep acting so strangely, Ishimaru-san we'll have to keep you here even longer." she made a joking threat and smiled.

While Kyouichi was standing still like a pillar, all pale from stress, he couldn't help but to wonder why this girl didn't recognize him. Then he realized it.

"But of course! I had my face all bandaged-up." he thought as he exhaled with relief.

"Come on, step a little closer, Ishimaru-san." the doctor requested, readying her stethoscope. "You're making the other patients wait."

Relieved that the young doctor didn't know that it was him who saw her in the bathing room, Kyouichi now acted like a completely different person. As he walked up to the doctor, she measured him up and with a curious face she asked: "Why were you looking so strangely at me? As if you had known me… Have we met before?"

Kyouichi shook his head so profusely and vigorously that his own ponytail slapped him a few times. "No, no, no! That's impossible!"

"Really?" asked the doctor. "Impossible you say? Is this your first time in Eientei?"

"Yes. My first…"

"Okay… Could you turn around, please?"

Kyouichi obliged and turned around while the young doctor listened to his heartbeat with the stethoscope.

"Umm… I'm recovering from an injury; not a disease. Why listening to my breathing?"

"Because Eirin told me to check up everyone in that way…" replied the young lady with reluctance in her voice, which made her sound rather unprofessional. "She said to give all the patients a thorough check-up just in case…"

For a while Kyouichi just did as the doctor told him and breathed deeply as she moved her stethoscope to different spots on his back.

"So… is my breathing and pulse okay?"

"I guess so." replied the doctor, letting Kyouichi turn his face to her again.

"I knew I was healthy all along. May I ask when will we finally get discharged?"

The black-haired doctor blinked her dark-brown eyes a few times and shifted her thoughtful gaze away from Kyouichi's face. "Hmm… I don't know. Eirin's been busy with surgeries and medicine production and hasn't told me anything about that matter."

The way she mentioned Eirin's name without any honorific made the outsider think that this young doctor had about the same authority as her silver-haired colleague. However, her demeanor, her attitude and even the way this young beauty carried herself made him think otherwise.

"You don't know? Aren't you a doctor too?"

"I'm just doing what a nurse does." the young female corrected him.

"Ah, so you're a temporary staff member like Patchouli-sama, right?"

"Uhh, yes, something like that." she nodded and a slight blush showed on her cheeks. "Reisen is now busy with office work, so I'm checking on the patients now."

"So I guess we'll have to keep waiting some more… Great." frowned the outsider and sat down on his bed.

"Wait, I'm not done with the check-up yet."

"Huh? Oh, sorry, sorry… I just spaced-out a bit." he apologized and stood up again, letting the nurse or doctor or whoever she was finish the check-up.

"By the way, I believe I didn't catch your name, Miss…."

"It's on my ID-card." she replied and pointed at the small card pinned to her chest.

Kyouichi leaned a bit closer so he'd be able to read the tiny kanji characters on the card.

"Hou-rai-san… Te-ru-yo…" he syllabicated slowly.

The girl immediately pouted and furrowed her eyebrows at him. "I'm Kaguya~! Ka-gu-ya~!"

"Oh… Well, that's another way to read it… Sorry for messing up your name, Kaguya-san."

"Yeah, nice to see somebody new checking on us." said Soudai with a smile. "Nice to meet you too, Kaguya-chan."

"...chan? Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" the girl asked a bit incredulously.

"Uhh… A cute temporary nurse of Eientei?"

Soudai's wrong guess made Akiyoshi let out an amused chuckle, but otherwise he didn't say anything.

"Haven't they taught you anything about Eientei at that school in the village?" Kaguya asked both outsiders.

"Well… umm… We haven't yet learned about Eientei at school." Soudai explained his lack of knowledge. "I just know some vague information about this place from the villagers and a little bit from Reisen and Eirin-sensei."

"Huh? You haven't learned about Eientei yet? And you still go to school? At your age?" Kaguya could hardly believe Soudai's words.

Lieutenant Takamori chuckled again and finally spoke up. "You'll have to forgive these two, Kaguya-sama. They're outsiders, so naturally they don't know everything about Gensokyo and its important locations and people. But to be honest, it really surprised me as well to see you working as a nurse."

"I've already explained my will to be useful to Eirin and I really don't want to go over all that again…" muttered the black-haired nurse and again glanced at Soudai and Kyouichi. "So, you two are outsiders as well?"

"As well, you say?" Kyouichi repeated her last words. "Have you had more outsiders stay in Eientei lately?"

"More than I care to count or remember." replied Kaguya disdainfully. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you don't know me…"

"Hmm…" Soudai hummed, thinking hard. "Well… Takamori-san addressed you with the "sama" suffix, so you must be someone important… My guess is that you run this place."

"Very good, Asakura-san." she praised him with a smile and nod.

"Whoa, really? It was just a wild guess…" admitted the older outsider. "So technically, you're Eirin-sensei's superior, right?"

"Yes. I'm the proprietor of Eientei, but that's not all there is to my status." she winked as if prompting the outsiders to keep guessing.

"In that case, forgive my rudeness, Kaguya-sama, for addressing you improperly." Soudai apologized to her.

In the meantime, Kyouichi's brain kept coming up with many, many varying ideas as to who exactly this person might be. "Hmm… Kaguya, Kaguya, Kaguya…" he kept whispering her name and put into association with the Lunarian race. "You're Kaguya… Wait... Not THE…?!"

Kaguya's smile widened and eyes closed in a silent response.

"Who? What?" Soudai uttered with a confused face.

"The Kaguya… from Taketori Monogatari (Tale of the Bamboo Cutter)… Kaguya-hime… The Moon princess…" Kyouichi spoke slowly, as if he was unable to believe his own words.

"Say what?" sounded Soudai's surprised voice again. "Look, I know that we're in Gensokyo and all, but this is just ridicu…"

"Wonderful~!" chimed Kaguya's cheerful voice, cutting off Soudai's last word. "You guessed it correctly after all… Who would have thought that an event from over 1300 years ago would survive for so long in the memories of Earth's people even outside of Gensokyo's barrier?"

"Oh-my-gosh~!" exclaimed the younger outsider in a state bordering with overexcitement. "That's incredible! I loved that story when I was a kid, even if it's a sad one… I even cried when I heard it for the first time."

"I wonder how does today's version of that story sound…"

"Sure, I can tell you if you got time, but… If you're truly the person from that tale, shouldn't you be…?" he pointed his finger upwards, indicating the Moon.

Kaguya gently shook her head, making her beautiful hair sway from side to side. "I guess the story differs from the reality after all." she commented. "Unfortunately, I don't have much time to listen to stories or to tell them. Eientei may have the capacity to accommodate even thousands of people, but there's only one Eirin. I don't know what's going on out there, but the number of patients we've taken in has by far exceeded our standards. Humans, youkai, natives, outsiders… We've got them all and they're all in need of treatment, as you can see."

"But I already made a full recovery." Kyouichi pointed out.

"Yeah, me too." Soudai seconded. "If you're Eirin-sensei's superior, couldn't YOU give us the permission to go?"

"While it may be true that Eirin serves under me, I highly respect her, so I wouldn't do anything she would disagree with. Besides, this is HER line of work, so she has the final say about all matters regarding medicine production, distribution and direct treatment. I assure you that as soon she has time, she'll come to see you and discharge you, should she consider your condition as completely healthy. But you are at least allowed to move freely around the first and third floor of Eientei, or to go out for some fresh air. However, you shouldn't stray too far from Eientei, lest you want to get yourself lost in that big bamboo forest."

"Eirin-sama already told us that we can stroll about the first and third floors." recalled Soudai. "Though she never said what's on the second one…"

"The second and fourth floors are the living quarters of the resident rabbits, Eirin's quarters, and of course, my private chambers." answered the princess.

"It just comes to me as rather strange for the Intensive Care Ward to be located on the 3rd floor…" Kyouichi pointed out. "Wouldn't it be more convenient for it to be on the ground floor? That way the patients that would require immediate treatment or surgery wouldn't need to be laboriously carried up the stairs."

"The operating room is indeed down on the ground floor. Once their condition is stabilized, the patients are taken up to a respective ward on the third floor by the rabbits..." explained Kaguya and took another look into her notepad after she finished checking up Kyouichi. "Alright, next up… Moe-san…"

"Yes~!" chimed the gentle fairy and floated towards Kaguya.

While she was checking up the fairy, Kyouichi's mind drifted again to Ai Kurohana. He was really curious to know how she was doing and how long she would have to stay here. Since the only person in the room who might have an idea about that was Kaguya, he asked her.

"Kurohana Ai-san, you say?" the princess repeated the girl's name.

"Yes, please tell me how Ai-chan is doing~!" Moe also begged her for the answer.

"I'm sorry…" Kaguya apologetically lowered her head. "Since I'm not a regular staff member, as you already figured, I don't know all the patients by their names." she stopped examining the fairy for a moment to look into her notepad containing the names of patients she was supposed to check up.

"She's placed on the Intensive Care Ward." Kyouichi tried to help her remember. "A girl around the age of 15, crimson hair… Suffered multiple burns…"

"Ah… That explains why I don't know her…" noted Kaguya to herself. "This is my second day on the job and mostly my work consists of only the simplest of tasks, such as doing regular check-ups."

"So you don't have any medical experience at all?!" asked Soudai whose facial expression already went through several degrees of surprise and confusion.

"I am a princess." Kaguya emphasized. "Naturally, I have minimal medical experience. I decided do this job of my own free will, for which you should at least show some gratitude… Eirin gave me a quick course so that I could do my tasks well… Nobody died or complained… yet."

"That's… relieving to hear…" nodded Soudai with a worried smile. "And we ARE thankful to you for volunteering yourself as a part-time nurse, Kaguya-sama."

"Very well…" shrugged the proud Moon princess and resumed her work. "So as I already explained, it's not that hard to figure that Eirin wouldn't let me work on the Intensive Care due to my lack of experience. Guess that's why I don't have the name Kurohana anywhere in my list… I'd suggest you ask either Eirin or Reisen."

"Or we could just go and visit Kurohana-san ourselves…" speculated the older outsider.

Kaguya made a disagreeing hum as a response. "It'd be better if you didn't. It's not allowed for patients to visit other wards than the ones they are assigned to. People may visit the patients only during the visiting hours and only with the approval from a qualified doctor, which I'm not."

"Now I'm quite confused." admitted Soudai. "Who's really in charge of this place? You or Eirin?"

"I'd really like to let you visit your friend, but… like I said, I respect Eirin's word."

"Never mind, Kaguya-sama…" Soudai waved his hand. "Thanks anyway."

In that very instant, Kyouichi snapped his fingers and with his eyes and mouth opened wide, stared into the ceiling as if he remembered something important. Soudai noticed his reaction and raised an eyebrow. "What's up, Kyouichi?"

"My healing potion…" he whispered a barely audible reply.

"What…? Oh~! THAT! What about the potion?"

"Shhhhhh~!" the younger outsider hushed him as he didn't really want his little trip to the reception office to go public. "Not so loud, damn it!"

"Hm? Did you need something, Asakura-san?" asked Kaguya who heard him say something, but was standing too far away to make out the words.

"Uhh, no, nothing, nothing…" he denyingly shook his head as he lied.

As Kaguya shrugged and continued checking up the other youkai patients, Soudai and Kyouichi both exhaled heavily.

"So… What did you say about that red stuff?" Soudai whispered his question to his neighbor.

"I hid the bottle under my bed, but I forgot to bring it here."

"Ah… So it's still there in the "Not-So-Intensive-Care-Ward", huh?"

Kyouichi nodded once. "I need to get that potion back…"

"What's your suggestion then? You've heard Kaguya-sama, didn't you? We're not allowed to visit any other wards but this one…"

"Yes, I caught that part. Thank you for reminding me." replied the younger outsider with a calm, but agitated tone. "Now let me think, okay?"

Soudai didn't heed his friend's request and turned again to Kaguya, who was now checking up Wriggle.

"Umm… Kaguya-sama?"

"What is it?"

"If I got discharged from Eientei and wanted to visit someone who's on the Intensive Care Ward... When are the visiting hours?"

Kaguya sighed and nodded understandingly. "I understand your concern for your friend, Asakura-san… Once you get discharged, you can visit the patients every weekday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m."

"Oh… Okay, thank you very much…" he bowed thankfully. He didn't really have any friends on that ward besides Kyouichi. To him, Kurohana Ai was just another patient and he already heard Eirin say countless times that she'll make a full recovery, but it will take some time. The only reason he asked this question was to find out when it would be possible to enter the ward. Right now, however, it was already past 5 p.m., so Kyouichi would just have to wait and pray that no one would notice the bottle with suspicious red liquid under one of the beds.

"Tomorrow's your chance, Kyouichi…" he whispered with a mischievous grin.

The younger outsider nodded and was already mentally preparing himself for another little sneaking mission. He still had no idea how he was supposed to carry it out, though.

"Well, it seems you're all in good health…" summarized Kaguya as she finished her check-up with the last patient. "I hope Eirin will make some time to have a look at you too… You're not the only ones who can't wait for you to get discharged."

"Yeah… I can understand that." said Lt. Takamori. "With so many patients in Eientei, your servants have barely enough time to tend to your needs, Kaguya-sama. Guess that's why you're working as a voluntary nurse…"

"You're half right about that, Takamori-san." acknowledged the Moon princess. "Another reason why I got into this is the lack of privacy. The other day when I was about to take a bath, some masked pervert walked into the bathing room and stared at me… The rudeness…"

"Now what kind of brazen bastard would do that…?" asked Soudai. "I'd like to congratulate him…" he whispered silently, so only he could actually hear it.

"I've been asking myself the same question…" replied Kaguya with a thoughtful expression. "Must have been one of the patients… Probably already got discharged…"

Kyouichi nervously gulped and wiped a few droplets of cold sweat from his forehead, not daring to have any comment about this matter in order to keep the truth hidden and his hide in one piece. He's heard quite a few things about the Lunarians and how powerful they are. He really wouldn't want to get on their bad side and for the sake of this, he had to stay quiet.

"Well, anyway, my work here is done…" said Kaguya and was ready to leave the room.

"Wait, Kaguya-sama~!"

"Huh? Ishimaru-san?"

Kyouichi hesitatingly looked into her eyes and shyly asked: "Can I ask you one more thing before you leave?"

Kaguya returned a curious look. "What would it be?"

"…Can I get your autograph, please?"

"My… what?"

"Come on, you're Princess Kaguya from Taketori Monogatari… How many outsiders can brag about having met you in person and owning your autograph to prove it?"

"Actually, quite a number of outsiders have already met me in person." she led him out of fallacy. "However, you're the first one to request an autograph from me…"

"I want one too~!" Soudai joined the imaginary waitlist for Kaguya-hime's original autograph.

For a moment, she was hesitant, but she found the fact that somebody would ask her for an autograph quite flattering.

"Very well…" she nodded with a smile and ripped off two sheets of paper out of her notepad, jotting down her name on both of them. "Here you are…"

"Thank you very much, princess." said both outsiders almost in unison.

"You know, I rarely missed an opportunity to talk to outsiders, but the time is really pressing… Perhaps we can have a conversation when you visit us next time."

"No, I'm afraid this is the first and the last time we see each other." said Kyouichi and glanced at his friend who nodded agreeingly. "We're returning home in three months… It's been a great pleasure meeting you, nonetheless."

"You're leaving Gensokyo?" the princess curiously tilted her head. "Is that even possible?"

"Sure is." confirmed the younger outsider. "Reimu-san will take us across the barrier. From there on, we'll be on our own, but I think we can make it if we're well supplied."

"But… you said you'll be leaving in three months… A lot can still happen in those three months. Perhaps this won't be the last time we'll see each other."

Kyouichi gave out a soft chuckle. "Hm… I'd rather not get seriously injured again… But now that I think about it, perhaps you'll also attend the upcoming Tanabata festival, right?"

"The festival?" Kaguya repeated.

"Yeah… I'm really looking forward to it. I know all of you in Eientei are very busy these days, but perhaps things will change until then…"

"I'll think about it." replied the Moon princess without any false promises and opened the sliding door. "I'm not even sure if I should say "farewell" or "until next time"…" she said with a giggle.

"Let's make it a "goodbye" then…" suggested Soudai. "That sounds neutral."

"Very well. Goodbye to you all…" said Kaguya with a gentle nod and left the ward.

Soudai immediately looked at his paper sheet with the princess's autograph and grinned smugly. "Who would have guessed it? The legendary Moon princess Kaguya… She's really very beautiful, just as the story said."

"I can only confirm that…" remarked Kyouichi and also checked his paper with Kaguya's name. "But you better not start anything with her… You know well how that story goes, don't you?"

"Yeah… The Five Impossible Requests, blah, blah, blah… I wonder how much of that tale is actually true."

"I'd be eager to know that as well." admitted the younger outsider. "But this thing here…" he waved the paper with autograph in his hand, "This is quite a souvenir to bring home from Gensokyo…"

"You got that right!" agreed Soudai. "This has an immeasurable value!"

"Hmph~! My autograph would be at least as valuable as hers~!" sounded the childish voice of Cirno, the ice fairy.

"Huh? Cirno-chan?" both outsiders turned their gazes at her.

"Can you even write?" Kyouichi asked her, because he wasn't too sure about it.

"I bet she can't…" murmured Soudai.

They got a reply as they would expect from Cirno: "Of course I can write, you dummy and idiot!" she exclaimed agitatedly.

"No, no, no…" Kyouichi interrupted her. "He's the dumb one; I'm the idiot… Don't get us confused!" he jestingly corrected her.

"I know all the kana characters and even alphabet letters~!" declared the ice fairy with pride.

"Wow! This fairy has potential…" said Kyouichi with an acknowledging nod.

Soudai let out an amazed whistle. "That's quite something… For a fairy, I mean."

"That's because I'm a genius~!"

"In that case, could I have your autograph too?"

"Huh? You really want it?" asked the ice fairy in disbelief, even if it was her who suggested the idea in the first place.

"Yes, I do…" the younger outsider gave an affirmative nod. "Getting an autograph from a fairy is quite a rarity too."

"Yaay~! I'm a celebrity now~!" rejoiced the fairy and started to fly around in circles to express her emotions.

Soudai and Kyouichi exchanged their confused looks and after shrugging they asked Lt. Takamori to lend them his pen and sacrifice two blank pages from his little diary.

The Ryuuken lieutenant reluctantly obliged while muttering: "Why are you spoiling that fairy anyway?"

"Because we're two strangers on an unwanted tour." replied the older outsider and passed his blank diary page to Cirno. "Everything we see here, we don't see where we come from… Why not take some souvenirs while we're still here?"

The ice fairy took the page and the pen and with a bit shaky and clumsy grip, she scribbled her name on it.

"Chi-ru-no… There. Aren't you honored to have my autograph?"

Soudai checked the paper to see the fairy's name written in hiragana as well as Romanized.

"Thank you… But it seems you misspelled your name with the Roman letters."

"No, it's correct~!" Cirno insisted.

"But you've written "Cirno" here…"

"Because that's my name. It's spelled "Cirno" and pronounced "Chiruno"."

"Oh… I see now…" he nodded understandingly as he examined the fairy's crude handwriting.

"Don't forget about me, Cirno-chan…" said Kyouichi as he passed the piece of paper to the ice fairy to sign.

She again sloppily scribbled her name on it, and with a smiling face returned it to the outsider.

"Now I'm a famous fairy~!" sang Cirno happily.

"Now, you say? So you're trying to say you weren't famous until now?" Kyouichi teased her a bit.

"Of course I was famous even before then!" pouted the fairy.

"Now that you mention it, I do remember reading an article in the news about an ice fairy being eaten by a giant toad or something…" said Akiyoshi.

"T-that's a lie~!" Cirno immediately denied, but her slightly trembling voice and a little stutter made everyone in the room doubt the credibility of her claim.

* * *

As the hours went by and the evening fell, the cheerful atmosphere on the Rehabilitation Ward had died down a little. The youkai girls found entertainment in telling scary stories, Lt. Takamori decided to go out for some fresh air and the outsiders were plotting how to retrieve the healing potion from the intensive care without getting caught.

"You really think it will be that easy?" Kyouichi asked his older acquaintance. "There's always bound to be someone accompanying the visitors during the visiting hours."

"I wouldn't say that with such certainty." Soudai opposed. "Remember last time when Mrs. Kurohana visited her daughter? Reisen did only as much as show her the way to the ward and then she was gone again… I say all you need to do tomorrow is to wait for the right opportunity."

"Hmm… Even if you're right, I still think it's risky."

"Look, all you're going there for is to take that stupid bottle; nothing more. A simple task. In and out; no one injured."

"Perhaps I'd draw less suspicion if I could get dressed into something… normal." Kyouichi kept thinking aloud.

"Hey, I got another idea." Soudai declared with a raised finger. "We could ask one of them to do it for us…" he sneakily pointed at the group of fairies and two non-fairies behind Kyouichi.

The younger outsider didn't even look back. He just rolled his eyes and tapped his finger twice on the side of his head, silently saying "Are you out of your mind?" to his older friend.

"I might as well go after Eirin and tell her: Excuse me, but would you mind bringing me a bottle of potion, made by a shady immortal youkai alchemist who hates Lunarians with a passion, which I smuggled into the Intensive Care Ward, but forgot it under my bed? Thank you very much…" he said with intended sarcasm.

"Hmm… You're right. I think we should just stick to the original plan and wait for an opportunity." concluded the older outsider. "Perhaps I could even distract Eirin or Reisen or whoever will be there, so that you'd have a clear path."

"Simple…" remarked Kyouichi after a while of thinking, "…yet clever."

"Good… Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sleep now…" said Soudai as he yawned.

"It's still rather early." Kyouichi stated after a glance out of the round window.

"I know. But those fairies always wake up so early and become noisy. It's impossible to have a peaceful morning with them on the ward… Good night."

Kyouichi once again took a look at his two papers with autographs from Kaguya and Cirno, folded them up and put them away on the night table.

"Well then… I better go catch some z's too if I want to be fresh in the morning…" he thought to himself as he decided to call it a day.


	38. A Lost Umbrella

Just as Soudai had predicted, the first ones to wake up were the childish and energetic fairies. Their chattering could be heard as soon as the first rays of sun seeped through the natural cover of bamboo surrounding the building of Eientei. At first they weren't too loud to wake up their roommates, but that didn't last too long.

"Waaah~! Where did Kogasa-chan go~?" exclaimed Sunny as she realized that one of the beds was empty.

"Oooh, you're right, Sunny~!" confirmed Luna. "She's not here. Did she tell you where she was going, Wriggle-chan?"

"No, she didn't tell me anything." replied Wriggle's voice. "We should tell Eirin-sama…"

"Maybe she just needed to use the restroom." reasoned Star. "There's no need to cause a fuss."

"But, but..." Cirno joined the discussion, but forgot what she wanted to say.

"She'll be back in a few minutes, you'll see." Star reassured everyone. "Let's play something until then."

"What, what~?" Cirno was apparently eager to play.

"Tag?" suggested Sunny and looked at the expressions of other girls.

"We've played that yesterday." Luna reminded her. "How about a pillow war?"

"Pfff~!" scoffed the ice fairy. "That's no fun in comparison to danmaku."

"But we're not allowed to play danmaku inside, Cirno-chan." said Wriggle.

"Which is why I'm already growing sick of this place." murmured the disappointed ice fairy. "There aren't even any frogs to freeze…"

"I say pillow war is almost as good as a practice of danmaku…" Luna insisted on her idea.

"No, it's not. It's boring." Cirno disagreed with her.

"Maybe you're just afraid you'll lose~!" the moonlight fairy taunted.

"Oh yeah?! I'll show you that I'm the strongest pillow fighter~!" Cirno accepted the challenge. "Bring it o…" *thud* her last word was silenced by a swift strike of a pillow flying from Luna's hands.

Madness ensued. Pillows were flying around like danmaku and the fairies' laughter and screams echoed throughout the ward. It was therefore only a matter of time before one of the pillows missed its intended target and hit one of the sleeping humans.

"Oh, for crying out loud…" thought Kyouichi to himself as his dream was interrupted by a sensation of being hit in the head with something soft. He opened his sleepy eyes and slowly sat up, looking around.

"Okay, which one of you threw that pillow?"

Wriggle and four of the fairies pointed their fingers simultaneously at Sunny who was now floating by the door with an innocent look on her face. That was all that Kyouichi wanted to know. He grabbed the pillow that hit him just a few seconds ago, cocked back his right arm and heaved the pillow with full strength at the culprit. Sunny was quick, though, and she managed to move out of the way with little effort. But just before the pillow would land harmlessly on the sliding door, someone just had to be there to open it and catch it in their face…

* * *

"Unf… w-what's going on?" sounded a surprised mature female voice that could belong only to one person…

"Oh my god, Eirin-sama, I'm so sorry~!" Kyouichi immediately bent forward in apology. "I didn't mean to…

"Ishimaru-san? Why are you throwing bed pillows?" she gave him an accusing glance.

"The fairies… They started a pillow fight and hit me while I was sleeping. I just wanted to return the blow and then…"

"…I opened the door…" Eirin finished the sentence and giggled. "I see… But still, that was rather childish of you, Ishimaru-san."

"I'm sorry, Eirin-sama… Are you alright?"

"I am." she replied as she picked up the pillow from the ground and entered the ward. "In fact, I've got some good news for you all…"

"Yes?"

"Good news?" Soudai immediately sat up, eager to hear what Eirin had to say.

"I'm all ears, Eirin-sama…" said Akiyoshi as he focused his attention at the Lunarian.

"Can we use danmaku indoors now?" Cirno tried to guess what the good news was.

"No, no, dear Cirno-san…" smiled Eirin as she lightly shook her head. "I'm finally done with all the surgeries and finally have some time to take a look at you. If your results are good, you may even get discharged and be on your way home."

"That's great news, Eirin-sama!" rejoiced Soudai. "But Kaguya-sama had already checked us up yesterday."

"Yes, of course." nodded the silver-haired doctor. "I gave her that assignment after all… According to her, your physical condition is as good as healthy. However, there are still a few tests I'll need to put you through before I let you go home…"

"Tests?" Kyouichi repeated with a worried expression.

"No need to worry. These tests are completely painless, although a bit time-consuming… But before we begin, does anybody know where Tatara-san is?" asked Eirin after she noticed the absence of one of the patients.

"We don't know…" shrugged Sunny Milk as she briefly glanced at her friends' equally clueless faces. "Kogasa-chan wasn't already here when we woke up."

"I thought that she needed to go to the restroom, but she's gone for quite a while now." explained Star.

"Well, if she won't return when her turn comes, I won't be able to tell if she's really healthy." said Eirin with a concerned tone. "I'm talking about her magical health… Anyway, the first on my list is Takamori-san, so could you please follow me to my office?"

Akiyoshi was on his feet in an instant. "Of course, Yagokoro-sensei."

* * *

Soudai and Kyouichi curiously watched as the Ryuuken lieutenant left the ward along with Eirin. As they exchanged their looks, both of them thought that the day when they get discharged from Eientei was today.

"Say, Kyou, how about we go fetch that potion of yours now? It seems Eirin will be busy for the next couple of minutes."

"It's morning, man… The visiting hours start in the afternoon."

"I think you're not fully awake, dude." Soudai said with a louder and more serious voice. "Why the hell do you want to wait for visiting hours?! Just go there now. There's hardly anyone there watching over the ward anyway."

Kyouichi's eyes widened as soon as he realized that Soudai was most likely right about this.

He got out of his bed and walked up to the door.

"Aren't you going with me?" he asked as he turned back to see Soudai still sitting in his bed.

"What for? It's your potion. You've brought it there, you've forgotten it there; you go get it."

"Heh… Alright." said the younger outsider after a weak chuckle.

* * *

He opened the door and peeked out on the corridor. Since it was early in the morning, there were just a few youkai rabbits running their menial errands. Kyouichi stepped out of the room and headed towards the Intensive Care Ward. He still remembered the way, since Patchouli led both him and Soudai from there to the Rehabilitation Ward three days ago. When he found the right door, he rubbed his palms against his robe to wipe off the sweat as well as to relieve a little bit of stress.

"Okay, this should be smooth and easy…" he thought to himself and opened the door.

"Aw, damn it!" he cursed in his mind as soon as he did that, because Reisen was there in the room, changing Ai's bandages.

"Who's there?" she asked as she turned around to look who opened the door. "Ishimaru-san? Is something wrong? You shouldn't really be here, you know."

"I was just… uhh…" he stuttered as he tried to think of any justifiable reason for his visit. "I wanted to see how Ai-san is doing."

Reisen raised her eyebrow. "Kurohana-san? Well, to be honest, it could be better. But I suppose it could be much worse too…"

Kyouichi found Reisen's serious tone rather unsettling. "Is she… really going to make a full recovery?"

"That she is." confirmed the Moon rabbit and resumed her work. "Eientei isn't known as Gensokyo's finest medical facility for nothing. Although I have to admit, burns are some of the nastiest injuries. Their treatment is lengthy, and requires a lot of work as well as resources… Bandages, regenerating salves and of course, sedatives to ease the pain... It might take yet another week before we won't need to use sedatives on her."

"Poor Ai-chan… Be strong…"

"If she wasn't, she probably wouldn't make it through her first night here." commented Reisen, still fully focused on her work.

"Her condition seems too serious to be caused by fairies…" Kyouichi contemplated. "Or am I wrong?"

"Fairies can be surprisingly strong. And when driven by this mysterious rage, their battle prowess seems to be increased… at the cost of their resurrection speed. I hope the shrine maiden can put things back to normal soon."

While Reisen was talking without keeping an eye contact with Kyouichi, the young outsider thought that he should take this momentary chance to snatch the potion bottle from under the bed. He made a few silent steps towards the said bed when the Moon rabbit unexpectedly turned her face at him.

"If Kurohana-san is your friend, I can fully understand how you feel, but please... I must ask you to leave this ward. We could both get into trouble if Eirin-sama sees you here."

Kyouichi clenched his right fist out of frustration that his plan failed, but obliged Reisen's request.

"I understand… Sorry to bother you, Reisen-san." he apologized and left the room.

* * *

"So how did it go? Do you have it?" Soudai immediately inquired as soon as Kyouichi returned to the Rehabilitation Ward.

"Do you see any bottle in my hands?" replied the younger outsider with a question, not waiting to hear an answer. "Reisen was there. She sent me right back."

"Bummer…" stated Soudai tersely as he shrugged. "Seems you'll just have to wait until she leaves the ward then…"

"We don't even know when Eirin comes back to call another one of us for the tests." argued Kyouichi.

"Oh, yeah… The tests. I wonder when it's my turn…" murmured the older outsider thoughtfully.

"So… we just wait, huh?" Kyouichi asked himself as he sat down on his bed.

The waiting turned out to be longer than expected. It was almost noon and Eirin still hasn't come up to call another patient. Soudai was so bored, he stated to play some silly word games with the fairies and Wriggle, while Kyouichi just woke up from a short nap.

"She still hasn't shown up, has she?" he asked his friend.

"Yeah, it frustrates me too." Soudai admitted his displeasure. "What kind of "tests" is Eirin going to perform on us anyway?"

Kyouichi jokingly pantomimed pulling a draw cord while imitating sounds of a two-stroke engine, typically used in gas-powered chainsaws. Then he ran the imaginary chainsaw across Soudai's neck with a manic expression on his face.

"Crap! Don't scare me… But even if you were right, it certainly wouldn't take her THAT long, would it?"

"I guess she'll experiment with all sorts of weird drugs on us before that part." Kyouichi kept on joking.

"Cut it out already! I'm already nervous enough…"

"Hehe… Well, jokes aside, I honestly have no idea what will Eirin do to us once she call us."

* * *

Just as soon as Kyouichi said that, the Lunarian doctor returned to the ward. "I'm back…" she announced tersely.

"Speak of the devi… I mean… we were wondering when you'd come back, Eirin-sensei." Soudai quickly corrected himself as he welcomed the doctor.

"Yes, nice to see you too, Asakura-san."

"By the way, where's that Ryuuken?" he wondered.

"Takamori-san was discharged a while ago and is now probably half-way to Human Village."

Eirin's words again filled Soudai and Kyouichi with anticipation and as both of them were envisioning themselves packing their stuff and leaving Eientei, the Lunarian doctor checked her list.

"Um… Tatara-san hasn't returned yet?" she forwarded the question to the group of fairies and the youkai firefly.

"No." the fairies synchronically shook their heads. "It's really strange, isn't it?"

"I hope Kogasa-chan is okay…" said Moe.

"She must have gotten lost." reasoned Sunny. "This building is so easy to get lost in."

"Hmm…" Eirin put on a concerned face. "I really don't have the time to look for her, and Reisen too must be already cursing me for giving her more and more tasks… Could I ask you to find her for me?"

Kyouichi raised his eyebrow as he pointed his thumb at his chest. "ME?"

"If it's not a bother to you… I'll tell some of the rabbits to look for her, but I'd greatly appreciate your help too. In the meantime, Asakura-san, you're next. Please come with me."

"Sure…" he tentatively stood up and as he walked closer to Eirin, he gave Kyouichi a glance that had "it's been nice knowing you" written all over it.

"What's with that look, Soudai?" Kyouichi teased him. "Aren't you glad we're finally going to get out of this place?"

"I… I guess…" he spoke with uncertainty. "But on the other hand…."

"Let's go then, Asakura-san. There's yet much for me to do." Eirin called him and impatiently tapped her foot against the wooden floor.

"Yes, Eirin-sama…" he docilely answered her call.

Before the silver-haired doctor left the ward, she turned once more at Kyouichi and with a single nod she added: "I'm counting on you to find Tatara-san…"

Before the young outsider could give her a reply, she closed the door. Now it was just him and a bunch of young youkai girls on the ward.

* * *

"Sheesh… Why should I of all people go looking for some lost karakasa?" he asked himself. "She probably got bored of this place already and left on her own. Smart girl..."

He really didn't feel like scouring Eientei for the missing youkai when Eirin herself said she'll task her rabbit servants to do so. However, since it was already one hour past noon, he wanted to give his potion retrieval plan yet another try. Now he at least had an excuse when any of the staff members of Eientei catches him in the Intensive Care Ward. He'd just say that Eirin asked him to look for a missing patient. With new hope and courage, he crackled his knuckles and without saying a word to his youkai roommates, he left the room. With confidence, he walked the long and faintly illuminated hallways of the house of eternity. He opened the door of the Intensive Care Ward, and with surprise he found nobody inside besides the patients.

"That's weird…" he thought. "The visiting hours already started and there's nobody here yet?"

This was exactly the opportunity he was waiting for. He hurriedly walked up to the bed where he was laying a couple of days ago. He bent down and looked under it to see the small glass bottle, still mostly full of bloody-red healing potion. It was untouched, just a little dusty after standing there for over three days. Kyouichi grabbed it and wiped the thin coat of dust off its surface with his patient's robe.

"Finally…" he muttered to himself, content with his own success. He concealed the bottle under his robe and headed right for the room's exit. Then with his right hand on the door, he turned back and his gaze stopped on the bed of Ai Kurohana. He just stood there, motionlessly for well over thirty seconds, lost in deep thought. His eyes trailed off back to his potion bottle and returned back to Ai. A serious inner conflict was now taking place inside his head and his heart. In the end, the kind part of his self won and as the young outsider nodded to himself, he took slow steps towards Ai's bed.

"Ai-chan…" he whispered to the sleeping girl whose body was mostly covered with bandages. He gently placed his hand on her head and stroked her hair. "You really don't deserve to be in so much pain…"

He reopened the potion bottle. "But you're not going to suffer much longer…" he gently lifted Ai's head, opened her mouth and poured in a small amount of healing potion. He knew that swallowing was one of the basic human reflexes, like breathing, and that Ai would be able to drink the potion even while sleeping. After he gave her the first dose, he waited a moment, but when he saw no reaction, he gave her another gulp.

"I hope this stuff works on burns too…" he murmured to himself as he lightly shook the bottle in his hand.

A reply to his question came shortly afterwards, as Ai's upper body jerked up lightly. It looked like some sort of spasm and it repeated itself multiple times. Kyouichi's mind was now starting to panic. "Oh damn! I hope I didn't poison her or something…"

After a minute, Ai began to stir about in her bed, weak moans escaping her mouth. Kyouichi then realized that he himself was going through quite an unpleasant moment after he had a taste of this potion. The feeling was something between intense itching and burning on the wounded parts of the body. Then after a while the pain should fade completely away and the recipient's wounds should be closed and healed. While Ai was going through this unpleasant state, Kyouichi grabbed her by the hand to at least subconsciously tell her that she's not alone.

"Hang in there, Ai-chan… Just a little longer…"

Ai thrashed about and groaned. Her grip around Kyouichi's hand had tightened up to the point when it became painful, but the outsider ignored it. Then when her trembling subsided and her breathing slowed down, Ai's eyes slowly opened. She held her hand up to her forehead, because her eyes were very sensitive, even to the dim light inside Eientei. After a couple of incomprehensible moans, the crimson-haired girl whispered: "I-is this… heaven?"

Kyouichi let out a relieved snort and smile finally returned to his face. "Sorry, but no." he replied to Ai's question. "Heaven can wait…"

"W-who's that?" she asked confusedly, her eyes were still only adapting to the light.

"I am… a friend."

"Mmm… a friend you say?" whispered the girl. "That's… a vague answer…"

"We've met only once, so "friend" may be a bit of an exaggeration." Kyouichi admitted.

"Your voice…" Ai murmured slowly. "I know… I've heard it somewhere."

"Don't talk now… Just relax." he tried to put her mind at ease.

"And your hand…" she continued whispering, "…it feels so warm…"

Only then the outsider realized he was still holding Ai's hand and he immediately let go.

"Where… are you going?" she uttered a question as she felt that her hand was no longer being held.

"I'm right here."

It took about a minute for Ai to adjust her eyes to the light and she was finally able to see who she just talked to.

"This… is Eientei, isn't it?"

"That's right."

"And you are… Shimizu-san's… new assistant…" Ai muttered as she recognized Kyouichi's face.

"Was." he corrected her.

"Sorry… I… forgot your name…"

"Ishimaru Kyouichi." he reintroduced himself to the girl.

"Now I remember… You sent a letter to the Scarlet Devil Mansion… And you said how fairies are dangerous."

"And it seems you've found that out the hard way."

"I… I still find it hard to believe. I thought I knew everything about the fairies… For them to do something like that is just…"

"Perhaps you know all about the normal fairies." Kyouichi interrupted her. "But now there seems to be some malicious magic at work that is making them violent…"

"If that's true… that means… the Ryuuken must have… killed them all…" spoke Ai with a sad voice even though she knew that the fairies cannot be killed permanently. "Even my dear Moe-chan… Even she had turned against me… I know it wasn't her fault… But now I'm very worried about all my darling fairies."

"Moe is now in the Rehabilitation Ward along with me." he comforted Ai's troubled mind. "She's okay now, but doesn't remember anything… Just like all the fairies affected by that magic…"

"Moe-chan is okay?" she asked with a louder and stronger voice, as if the fact that her dearest fairy was alright gave her new strength.

"That she is." Kyouichi reassured her. "And I've heard that the rest of your fairies are fine as well, although they must be on a different ward… Anyway, how are you feeling, Ai-chan?"

"Me? Uh… a little strange, but it doesn't hurt."

"I'm glad to hear it." he smiled at her. "I'm sure Moe-chan will be overjoyed to hear that you finally woke up."

"My dear Moe… I hope she's not blaming herself for what happened to me…"

"I already told you. She doesn't remember a thing from that incident."

"I see…" she nodded and slowly turned her head to left and right, examining her surroundings. "By the way, Kyouichi-san... What are you doing here anyway?"

This question caught the young outsider off guard and he had a hard time trying to formulate a coherent answer.

"Well… You see… Ehehehe~…"

"You're not working here, are you?"

"What? No, of course not." he nervously shook his head and hid his potion bottle behind his back. "I… uhh… I was accidentally hit by a stray danmaku shot. That's how I ended up here."

"In that case, is it really okay for you to be here?"

Again, Kyouichi was taken aback from how sharp-witted this young girl was. Indeed she had a point, but the young outsider knew exactly what to say.

"Doctor Yagokoro asked me to look for someone… A patient… she's a youkai, short light-blue hair, carries this big unfashionable umbrella with her…" he explained and stretched out his arms when he emphasized the size of Kogasa's umbrella.

"Really? Well… in that case, I'm afraid I won't be much of a help since I just woke up." said Ai and giggled weakly. "But… it's rather strange…"

"What is?"

"That you were here with me when I woke up… holding me by the hand…"

Kyouichi quickly made up a lie. "I uh…. I was checking your pulse… because you looked like you were having a seizure or something… then you suddenly stopped moving…"

"A seizure?" repeated the girl in disbelief. "I don't know… But I remember having a bad dream… I was stuck inside a burning house, you see, and just before I was engulfed in flames, I woke up."

The outsider wiped off a few freshly formed droplets of sweat from his forehead. A part of him felt guilty for causing Ai more pain by giving her the potion and not even telling her the truth, while the other part of his soul approvingly nodded to his action.

"Well, I'm glad it was just a dream… I should probably get going already, seeing as the girl I'm supposed to look for is not here…" he intentionally changed the topic and backed one step away from Ai's bed.

"Does Yagokoro-sensei really trust her patients so easily to make them look for other missing patients?" Ai asked nonchalantly and Kyouichi could feel that her suspicion towards him is growing. He didn't lose his cool, though.

"If she and her staff weren't so busy, perhaps they wouldn't be asking me. Furthermore, Kogasa-san, that's the girl's name, was one of my roommates. She's been missing since early morning."

"Oh my… I hope nothing bad happened to her."

"Oh please." Kyouichi dismissively waved his hand. "Don't be so naïve… The young karakasa probably just got tired of waiting and left. You see, all of us who were moved to the Rehab Ward were in good enough condition to be discharged, but Eirin-sama insisted to keep us for further observation and some tests. Says she wants to be sure that we're all 100% healthy… Just between you and me, I think she's taking her job a little too seriously."

"So… are you going to help her look for that missing girl?"

"Well… yeah, I guess." he answered after a moment of hesitation.

"Alone? Hasn't Yagokoro-sensei asked your other roommates too?" Ai curiously kept asking.

"Well that's the thing. We were only three humans on the ward. One was already discharged and the other one is now down in Eirin's office undergoing a series of tests… I was the only human left."

"What about your youkai roommates?" the girl wondered. "Didn't you say that Moe-chan is one of your roommates too?"

"Well, yeah… the rest of my roommates are all fairies." replied the outsider with a hint of disdain in his voice. "And one is a youkai firefly or something like that… Not much of a difference, if you ask me."

"Why don't you ask them to help you then?" she suggested.

Kyouichi scoffed at her question. "That's just ridiculous on so many levels."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, for instance," said the outsider as he stretched out one finger for each reason he named, "the fairies would sooner laugh at me than agree to help me. Secondly, they aren't the most trustworthy candidates for this task. They'd most likely get themselves lost or break something along the way. If they were reliable, Eirin would ask THEM to search too, which of course, she didn't. And finally, I've heard there's supposed to be a Quarantine Ward around here somewhere, where Eirin keeps the possessed fairies in isolation so she could study them closely… Now just imagine what would happen if any of the healthy fairies would accidentally stumble into that ward and come into contact with their crazed relatives… Total chaos, that's what!"

"Hmm… good point." Ai acknowledged. "But don't you also think that something as dangerous as a Quarantine Ward would be separated from the rest of the wards and secured against unauthorized entry?"

Kyouichi couldn't hide his amazement from Ai's brilliant reasoning. She was most likely right about her last statement, although given how easily Kyouichi managed to sneak into the Reception office a few days ago, he wasn't all that sure about Eientei's security. Nevertheless, he thought that it would be nice if he managed to solicit the help of fairies and muster up a coordinated search party. They'd just search those floors and areas where patients are allowed to move about, and if their search turned out fruitless, they'd just return back to their ward and wait for Eirin.

"So…" he finally spoke up again after a long moment of silent thinking. "Let's say I'd give your idea a try… How would I even manage to get the fairies to listen to me?"

"Oh, that's easy." replied Ai with a cheerful expression. "The fairies are all very playful creatures that love playing games."

"Uhh… yeah, I've noticed that." nodded the outsider as he recalled what his fairy roommates did most of the time when they weren't eating or sleeping.

"All you have to do is to tell them that you're going to play a game with them. Also, if you have anything tasty to offer as a reward to the winner, you've got yourself a cooperative team of fairies."

"That simple?" asked Kyouichi with a surprised face.

"That's right." nodded the redhead with a sweet smile. "Fairies are actually very easy to befriend. Just try my advice and see for yourself. And since Moe-chan already knows you a little, the other fairies might be swayed more easily."

"I see… I'll give it a try then."

"The only problem is… Where are you going to get something delicious in this place?"

"Oh, there's a big dining hall downstairs that also serves as a cafeteria. I'll ask if I could get some snacks…" thought the outsider aloud.

"Good luck then, Kyouichi-san." said Ai as she showed a thumbs-up.

The outsider bowed thankfully and when he was already standing at the door, he threw one last glance at the crimson-haired girl in bed.

"You must be hungry too, no doubt." he assumed. "I'll tell the rabbits to bring you something to eat."

"O-okay…" she replied shyly. "Thank you very much."

* * *

A few minutes after he left the Intensive Care Ward, he was now standing in line in Eientei's great dining hall, waiting for his turn to order. Being a patient in Eientei had its perks too. He could get three meals per day and as much tea as he wanted. However, if one would like to have seconds or some snacks, he'd have to pay for it.

Finally it was Kyouichi's turn. He ordered a small bowl of yakisoba for himself and a bowl of miso soup for Ai. He also asked if they had any sweets for sale. The youkai rabbit that was serving the meals brought a sack of biscuits, a pack of candy that was apparently from the outside world or from Kourindou and a bar of chocolate. For a moment, the outsider was scratching his head as he was trying to decide which of these snacks should he buy to offer to the fairies, but when he was taking too long, the people behind him were starting to become nervous. He noticed this and shrugged.

"Ah, what the hell, I'll take it all "

The rabbit girl surprisedly blinked at him a few times, and then she smiled and rubbed her hands as if she had just made the best transaction of her life. Since the outsider had no cash on him at the moment, like most of the patients, the rabbit marked his order into something that looked like a ledger. The sum he owed for the snacks would therefore be added to his hospitalization bill, which all patients paid when they got discharged.

"Thank you." he thanked the youkai rabbit as he took the platter with his lunch and snacks.

He slurped up his yakisoba in a mere minute and he was already headed back upstairs, carrying the sweets and hoping that Ai's advice would prove useful. When he opened the door of the Rehabilitation Ward, he was met with a surprising sight.

"Soudai? What are you doing here?" he asked his older dark-haired friend.

The young man just shrugged with a crooked scowl. "When Eirin-sama was checking me up, Reisen suddenly rushed into her office and called her to the Intensive Care Ward… She said it was urgent, so Eirin sent me back here to wait… again."

Kyouichi immediately understood that this sudden commotion that Soudai was talking about was actually his fault. He made Ai drink the healing potion, Reisen had found her awake, and now the Moon rabbit had to interrupt Eirin's work.

"What's with that look, Kyou?" Soudai's question snapped him out of his reverie.

Kyouichi had honestly no idea what kind of expression he had on his face when he realized what kind of chain reaction he just triggered. It must have looked really awkward, though.

"Nothing…" he denied by shaking his head. "I… I just hope nothing bad happened…"

"Yeah, me too." said the older outsider wishfully. "Because if something bad happened, that would mean we'd have to stay here even longer, until Eirin has time again."

As Kyouichi made a nervous gulp, he was at least comforted by the thought that Ai's condition got considerably better. Therefore, it shouldn't take Eirin too long before she resumes her previous task of examining the patients from the Rehabilitation Ward.

It took no more than ten minutes until Doctor Yagokoro showed herself at the mentioned ward. Kyouichi managed to stash his half-empty potion bottle again under bed and was in the middle of negotiations with the fairies when the silver-haired Lunarian doctor entered. She had a strange look on her face that radiated concern, confusion and a little bit of guilt.

"I'm sorry." she bowed in apology to everyone. "It seems that I'm going to have to postpone your check-ups until tomorrow."

"What? Why?!" Soudai demanded an explanation from her.

Eirin threw a piercing glance at Kyouichi for some reason. She then took a deep breath and began explaining.

"Another patient has woken up at the Intensive Care…" she started vaguely.

"Isn't that good news?" asked confused Soudai.

"Why yes, of course it is." agreed Eirin and thoughtfully rubbed her chin with her fingertips. "But the strangest thing is that Kurohana-san has woken up from a state of deep narcosis."

"O-kay, that really IS strange, I'll admit…" nodded Soudai and let Eirin continue.

"Ai-chan has woken up?" Moe's eyes flared up with hope and happiness. "Yaaay~! Can I see her, can I see her?" she asked pleadingly, but the Lunarian just brushed her off.

"Kurohana-san has been hospitalized a week ago with 3rd degree burns over 60% of her body. I'm using a traditional Lunarian procedure that can effectively treat even such injuries, but like everything, it takes its time to work. I've estimated Kurohana-san's treatment to take at least two weeks, but… what I saw a while ago could be only described as…"

"A miracle?" Soudai tired to help her find the right word.

"An anomaly." Eirin used a more scientific approach to name this unusual development. "Not only did Kurohana-san wake up on her own, but her burns are now almost completely regenerated…"

"Any idea on what might have happened?" wondered the older outsider after a while of silence.

"I'm yet planning to give Kurohana-san a thorough check-up, but right now…" she paused herself and shook her head lightly. "…I cannot explain her rapidly improved condition."

"Perhaps Kurohana-san is a youkai." speculated Soudai, but wasn't really serious about his statement.

"If that was the case, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised, but… she's a human, just like you or Ishimaru-san… And speaking of you, Ishimaru-san," she shifted her glance to the younger of the two outsiders, "your sudden recovery is not exactly what I'd call standard either… If I were to jump to conclusions, I'd even say there's some connection between your and Kurohana-san's cases."

"Well~…" Soudai spoke up while putting on a wry smile, since he now figured what was going on. Before he could say another word though, Kyouichi pierced him with a murderous stare.

"Yes, is there something you'd like to say, Asakura-san?" asked Eirin.

Soudai, who noticed Kyouichi's threatening look just shook his head in response to the doctor's question. "No, nothing… Nothing at all."

"I'd once again like to apologize to you for this inconvenience, but I'll definitely try to make it up to you tomorrow." promised the Lunarian after repeating her apology. "Oh, and have you tried finding Tatara-san yet?"

"Uhh… no." uttered Kyouichi sheepishly.

"In that case, I'd also like to ask you to try and look for her... You too, Asakura-san. If you won't find her, I'm going to have to cross her out of my list of patients."

"Say, Eirin-sama…" Kyouichi addressed her and asked her a question: "Did it ever happen that your patients just ran away? Or left without saying anything?"

The silver-haired lady frowned and sighed. "Yes, unfortunately… It happens sometimes… Usually it's humans who are in bad financial situation and are afraid that they won't be able to pay for our services. But we at Eientei don't work that way…"

"What do you mean?"

"While it's true that we normally expect some sort of financial compensation for our work, we are very… liberal towards our patients and customers. Even when people have no money to pay for the treatment or medicine, I can patiently wait until they can pay for their debt. Whether it is a week, a month, or several years, it's all okay with me."

"You trust people so easily?" Kyouichi couldn't believe her words. "And you haven't been swindled even once?"

"It's not the money that I really care about, Ishimaru-san… If you or Asakura-san are currently short on funds, don't worry, you can pay later personally or you may pay Reisen when she'll stop in the village to sell medicine."

"But I DO have enough money to pay for your services, Eirin-sama." objected Kyouichi. "Although, I have to admit, I don't know the price yet…"

"I think I have it somewhere in my files here." Eirin wetted her lips with her tongue and began browsing through the pages of her notebook. "Let's see… Ishimaru, Ishimaru… Ah, there you are… Your bill for the hospitalization will be… 5 825 yen."

"Per day?" asked the younger outsider.

"No, in total." the doctor corrected his false assumption.

"That's dirt cheap!" exclaimed Kyouichi, as if he was just being insulted. "I've been here for six days. There must be some mistake…"

"There is no mistake." giggled Eirin, insisting on being correct. "To you outsiders, our prices may seem a bit different in comparison to your hospitals."

"That's not a "bit different", Eirin-sama, that's like comparing a dorm to a 5-star hotel!" Soudai shared the same opinion as his younger peer. "By the way, how much do I owe you?"

Eirin again flipped a couple of pages in her notebook in diligent search for Soudai's name. "Well, since you've been here considerably longer than Ishimaru-san, and your condition was much more serious, your bill will cost you… 24 550 yen."

Soudai made a silent whistle. "Well, that's certainly more expensive than his…" he beckoned at Kyouichi, "But still, it's much cheaper than I had expected."

Eirin just shrugged. "I keep my prices low so that people of all social classes could afford our services… Now, will you please help me looking for Tatara-san?"

"Sure, I'll go looking for Kogasa-chan." agreed the older outsider. "But what if we won't find her?"

"Once you're done with your search, just stop in my office, I'll be there examining Kurohana-san. Whether you find her or not, please just let me know."

"Whatever you say, Eirin-sensei." said Soudai and rose up from his bed, ready to go look for Kogasa immediately.

"If all goes well, I'll be able to examine all of you tomorrow, but I need all my patients accounted for." said Eirin from the doorstep, just as she was leaving the ward.

"Alright, alright, we understand…" replied Kyouichi with evident annoyance in his tone, because he thought the Lunarian just kept repeating herself.

"You don't have to be so grumpy at me, Ishimaru-san." she reacted with a peaceful smile. "It's not my fault that Tatara-san is missing…" and with that, she left.

* * *

"It's not my fault that Tatara-san is missing…" agitated Kyouichi mockingly imitated Eirin's voice. "Pfha! Aren't YOU responsible for your patients?" he asked the no-longer-present doctor a question that was not meant to be answered. "Seriously… Why should WE be the ones looking for the missing patient when we barely know this building's layout? I think I'm going to complain to her manager…"

"What's got you so worked-up?" asked Soudai with an amused grin. "We're just going for a little stroll to kill some time."

"Well, if you put it that way…" shrugged the younger outsider and took a deep breath to calm down again. For a long moment, there was complete silence in the ward and even the playful and cheerful fairies were mutely staring at the two humans standing at the door and thinking about their situation.

"So… we're staying here another day, huh?" Wriggle broke the silence with a non-directed question which she didn't receive an answer to.

"You gave it to that girl, didn't you?" Soudai asked as he lifted his gaze to Kyouichi's face.

Kyouichi knew that he was asking him about the healing potion and Ai Kurohana and he simply nodded to answer. He expected to take verbal bashing from his older friend for delaying their discharge from Eientei's care due to his actions. What he didn't expect was a friendly tap on his shoulder and Soudai's approving nod.

"You did a good thing, Kyou… I would have done the same… if it was someone I know, that is…"

"You're… not gonna scold me, or even complain?"

"Hey, I may not look like it, but I have a heart too, you know." Soudai remarked jestingly. "She must be special to you… Kurohana-san…" he stated, this time with a serious face.

"Huh? Don't know where you gather that nonsense from…" Kyouichi denied sternly.

"Just a guess." shrugged the older outsider with an innocent smile that was quickly replaced with a timid look. "Oh, sorry… I forgot that you're after Patchouli-sama…"

Soudai's wrong assumptions made Kyouichi plant his palm on his forehead and sigh. "Look, Asakura… How should I put this so even you'd understand?" he asked him a rhetorical question. "Ai-san isn't any more special to me than you are, but I know her and she needed help, so I did what I thought was the best… I'd do the same for you and I'm even not in love with you, believe it or not…"

The older outsider burst into laughter. "Ahahahahaha~! Alright, I get it now! You have a point… Still, I just wanted to know how you feel about her…"

"Friendly at best…" Kyouichi gave as short and simple answer as possible.

"And what about Patchouli-sama?" Soudai persistently inquired.

To answer this question, Kyouichi hesitated. He'd be lying if he said he didn't feel any attraction towards the purple-haired elemental sorceress, but after giving it some rational thought, he knew that he should avoid any and all feelings of affection towards all Gensokyo residents, since he knew he'd be leaving this place in a relatively short time.

"No… I don't love her." he spoke up with a certain degree of determination, as if he was trying to convince himself about this fact.

"Really?" Soudai wasn't ready to believe him just like that. "I see that you hesitated."

Kyouichi didn't want to discuss this matter any further. "Could we please change the topic?"

Soudai obliged with a muffled chuckle. "Alright… So, that red potion is actually quite effective, isn't it?"

"It's a miracle in a bottle, baby…" agreed the younger outsider. "If anyone will get injured during our exodus from Gensokyo, we'll just let them have a sip of that stuff and they'll be as good as new. No cumbersome first-aid kits, no need for any medical experience and hopefully… no danger of overdose. Perhaps I should have bought even more."

"How many bottles do you have?"

"Four more bottles of the standard potion and three bottles of concentrated potion."

"I'd say that's quite enough." estimated Soudai, "Unless you're planning to drag us through a war zone or something."

"Or unless something nasty happens to us before we leave this youkai realm…"

"Oh, I'll be damn sure to be more careful and pay more attention to my surroundings from now on." declared the older outsider, hoping that this was his first and last visit to Eientei in his life.

"Yeah… I'll try that too." muttered Kyouichi with a lowered head.

"Anyway…" Soudai again broke the silence, "How about we go looking for Kogasa already?"

"Huh? Oh, damn! I almost forgot about that…"

"You'll take the ground floor while I scour this one, okay?" suggested Kyouichi's friend.

However, the younger human already had a different plan on his mind. "Wait a minute." he grabbed Soudai's sleeve. "Let me talk to the fairies for a moment."

"Are you sure you want THEM to tag along?" Soudai raised an eyebrow at him.

"No, but it's going to take us much less time if we search as a team."

"Do as you like…"

Kyouichi quickly returned to his bed and from a night table he took all the sweets he bought down in the dining hall.

"Umm… dear fairies, can I please have your attention?" he asked as politely as he could. "We're going to play a game…"

"Yaaay~! What game, what game~?" Cirno asked excitedly.

"Can Moe play too?" sounded Ai's fairy and hovered a little closer to Kyouichi.

"Me too, me too~!" exclaimed Sunny Milk and her two friends followed suit.

"Okay, now calm down a bit…" said Kyouichi once the fairies have gathered around. "Uhh… you're not interested to play, Wriggle-chan?" he asked the green-haired youkai girl who stayed behind her friends and silently stared at the scene.

"But you only addressed the fairies…" she pouted, as if she was insulted or even discriminated. "I'm a firefly, you know."

"Very well, then all the fairies AND youkai fireflies in this room, please gather around. We're going to play a game of hide and seek." announced the outsider like a teacher in a kindergarten.

He was met with a wave of mixed reactions from his little audience. "Hide and seek? How about a danmaku hide and seek?" suggested the ice fairy.

"But the game is fun even without danmaku, Cirno-chan…" argued the dark-haired Star.

"Who's going to be "it"?" wondered Luna in the meantime.

"I want to play catch instead…" muttered Wriggle.

"Yes, yes… I thought some of you might protest, and for that reason, I've brought this." said Kyouichi and gestured at the small pile of sweets sitting right next to him.

"Cookie time~!" Moe exclaimed joyfully while she closed her eyes and opened her mouth wide, expecting to be fed. "Aaaaaaah~."

"Now hold on a minute there, Moe-chan. This is the prize for the winner…" said Kyouichi and he soon regretted those words when he saw Moe's disappointed look.

"Hey, hey, don't give me that look, please…" he begged her, but the fairy's expression remained the same. Kyouichi could resist her endearing look no longer.

"…Alright! I suppose I could give you all one biscuit as a sign of good faith. But just one, okay?"

"Yaaay~!" sounded a unanimous cheer of the youkai girls as they stretched out their hands, expecting to receive a sweet snack. Once Kyouichi shared his biscuits with them, he resumed explaining.

"Good… Now that I got your attention, I'm going to explain the rules, because this isn't going to be an ordinary game of hide and seek."

"So who's going to hide and who's going to seek?" asked Wriggle the firefly.

"We are all going to look for Kogasa-san."

"Oh, so you wanted to look for Kogasa-chan? You should have just said so from the start." said Sunny with a straightforward attitude.

"So… is that a yes?"

"Of course it is~!" she confirmed and threw quick glances at her friends who also nodded agreeingly. "Kogasa-chan is our new friend and we too are worried about her."

"That's right." Star Sapphire continued, "But this Eientei is so far the biggest house I've seen. We could get lost if we go search for her just like that…"

Both humans were surprised by Star's reasonable remark. "That's right." confirmed Kyouichi with a nod. "Therefore, in order for us not to get lost, we need to assign different roles to each of us..."

* * *

It took over five minutes of explaining that the only areas they'll be searching are the first and third floor. The group of two humans and six youkai girls split up, each taking one of the two respective floors.

"So… All I have to do is to stay here in front of this door?" asked Luna whose role was to serve only as a marker for other search party members. She was stationed in front of the door of the Rehabilitation Ward and the look on her face was filled with anything but excitement. "This is the most boring version of hide and seek I've ever played."

"Look at it this way…" Sunny tried to cheer her up, "You're going to get some extra snack and you barely need to make any effort for it."

"Yes, just let us know if you see Kogasa-chan passing through this corridor by any chance." said Star and darted off to the opposite direction of the corridor as Sunny.

"Okay, is everyone ready?" asked Kyouichi while raising his hand up to signal his teammates.

"I'm ready~!" Sunny waved her hand.

"Me too~!" Star shouted, but her voice could barely be heard from the other end of the corridor. Her tiny waving hand was the only thing the outsider noticed from her reply.

"Let the search begin!" he declared loudly, and as agreed upon, he started checking the rooms from the northern end towards the south. Sunny was checking the adjacent corridors and rooms all the way from east to west and back. Star took the search from south towards north and was supposed to check all the rooms along that corridor up to the Rehabilitation Ward where Luna held a vigilant patrol. Since the fairies could fly, they were given more ground to cover than the two humans. While Kyouichi and the so-called Three Mischievous Fairies were scouring the third floor, Soudai, Cirno, Wriggle and Moe were doing the same on the ground floor. Their job wasn't any easier, since most of the places were off limits to patients. However, they all asked any Eientei staff member they encountered that they were looking for Kogasa, thus increasing their chances of finding her, provided that the karakasa was still inside the building. After more than 30 minutes of diligent search, the two teams looked everywhere where they were allowed to move and their search ended without success.

* * *

"So… I'm guessing you had about the same luck as I did…" assumed the younger outsider when he met up with his three fairy teammates in front of their ward.

"I've looked everywhere, even under the patients' beds, but I didn't find her…" reported Sunny with a disappointed frown.

"I have the ability of sensing all living creatures within certain radius…" informed Star while putting on an expression of embarrassment, "but there are just so many of them here that I couldn't tell them apart… Rabbits, humans, youkai, fairies… The only difference I can detect is the size."

"I didn't see anyone else passing through this corridor all the time I was standing here." pouted the unamused Luna. "Perhaps Cirno-chan and the others had more luck than us."

"We'll wait for them inside the ward then. They should be able to find their way back." suggested Kyouichi and opened the Rehabilitation Ward's door.

He was a little disappointed with the result of his search, but that's what he expected in the first place.

"Well, we did what we could, didn't we?" he stated as he sat on his bed. "I guess you can have the rest of these snacks now for your efforts…" he muttered as he reopened his sack of biscuits.

"Huh? What the…?!" he uttered in confusion, since there were no more biscuits inside. Instead, he only found one piece of folded paper.

"What's wrong?" Sunny asked curiously.

Kyouichi gave Luna a suspicious stare. "Did you… help yourself to my snacks while we were looking for Kogasa?"

"Eeeeh?! What are you accusing me of?" the moonlight fairy defended herself.

"Of this…" replied the outsider as he turned his biscuit sack inside out, only to litter his lap with biscuit crumbs.

Sunny and Star gasped in shock. "What happened to the snacks?"

"Why don't you ask your greedy friend here?" Kyouichi gave Luna another unpleasant stare.

"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything!" she claimed being innocent, but had a very poor alibi to back her claim up. "I was standing in front of the door the whole time."

"Exactly!" exclaimed the outsider, making the accused moonlight fairy flinch a little. "You were here this whole time while we were searching high and low for the missing karakasa. You were in a perfect position to seize the opportunity and eat all of the biscuits."

"B-but it really wasn't me~! Honest…"

"And who else could it have been, if not you?" Kyouichi continued to prosecute. "Weren't you the one keeping watch on the corridor? Because if you did, there's no way anyone could simply sneak inside without passing right around you."

Luna's eyes blinked a few times before they began to produce tears. "I… I don't know who did this, but I swear that it wasn't me~!"

A sudden sound of the sliding door opening distracted everyone for a moment.

"…So she's apparently not on the ground floor, that's for sure." announced Soudai's voice before the young man entered the ward along with Cirno, Moe and Wriggle. "Uhh… did we miss something?" he asked when he noticed Luna wiping her tears and Kyouichi angrily staring at her with his arms crossed.

"Not much… Just a certain fairy who munched up all my biscuits."

Soudai's reaction was an amused laughter. "Well, you should have put your sweets somewhere safer then."

"Yes, that's right~!" Luna seconded. "If you hadn't left your sweets here on your night table, they probably wouldn't get stolen."

"Aha! So you're confessing your theft!" Kyouichi pointed his finger at her.

"Confessing my butt!" the fairy angrily jabbed back. "I already told you that I didn't steal your snacks!"

"Sorry, but somehow I don't buy that." the outsider refused to believe her. "Why else would you three be known as "The Three Mischievous Fairies"?"

"So now you're accusing Sunny-chan and Star-chan too?"

"No. I'm just saying that your claim is hardly believable." stated Kyouichi and looked at the other fairies in the room. "I was going to share all of those snacks with you girls, but now I can't… If it was your doing, then you haven't just robbed me, but also your friends, and I'm not too sure if they'll sympathize with you."

"Huh? Luna stole OUR shares of snacks?!" exclaimed Cirno in disbelief. She was easily swayed to the accusing side. "This is an outrage~!"

"And such sweet and delicious biscuits they were…" commented Moe sadly.

"Hey guys, forget the biscuits." Soudai stepped in to resolve the situation. "You still have a pack of candy and a bar of chocolate right here…" he grabbed the mentioned chocolate and opened the wrapper. "Or… I should say "had"…" he stated as he revealed an empty box of tablets with approximately the same parameters as the missing bar of chocolate.

"So you stole the chocolate too?" Kyouichi again frowned at the moonlight fairy.

"None of this is my doing~!" Luna denyingly shook her head. "It's all a conspiracy~!"

"Indeed… A conspiracy against me!" said the young outsider and grabbed the empty tablet box from Soudai's hands.

"What about this pack of candy here?" asked the older outsider and took it to have a closer look. It was obvious that the packet was already opened and filled with colorful marbles instead of candy. "Hmm… I think we have a serial prankster on the loose." stated Soudai and spilled the marbles on the bed covers.

Even Kyouichi wasn't too certain anymore if this all was the work of Luna Child, but so far the fairy barely had any redeeming evidence to her name.

"And what was that piece of paper that fell out of the biscuit sack?" asked Star Sapphire – probably the smartest of all the fairies in the room.

"What paper?" asked the outsider and drew his attention down to his feet. There, lying on the ground was a small folded piece of paper, just as Star said. Kyouichi barely remembered taking it out of the sack and paid it no mind, but now, the small scrap of paper was the most interesting object in the entire Rehabilitation Ward. Everyone watched closely as the outsider tentatively picked it up from the floor and unfolded it slowly.

"It's a message of some sort…" he said as soon as he saw some scribbled kana and kanji characters.

"What does it say?" asked the golden-haired Sunny.

Kyouichi loudly read the short text on the paper: "I have taken your precious red wine and hidden it somewhere inside the mansion. If you want to find it, follow the clues I've left on messages like this one~. P.S. Thanks for all that candy, it was delicious~."

Instead of a signature, the author of this message had drawn a cutesy girl's face with short hair and a pair of bunny ears.

"Huh? Her again?" muttered the surprised outsider.

"See, what did I say? It wasn't me~!" concluded the accused Luna and crossed her little arms.

"That rabbit…" Kyouichi confusedly shook his head. One thing he really could not understand was how the rabbit girl managed to sneak past Luna who was supposedly guarding the ward's door. "If it really was her then how did she…?"

Then he felt a gentle breeze on his face and he immediately glanced at his right side to see one of the round windows opened. "Oh… but of course." he nodded understandingly as he walked up to the window and peeked outside to look around. There really wasn't much to look at, though, besides the impenetrably dense bamboo thickets surrounding the entire mansion.

"What did I ever do to her?" he mumbled to himself as he pulled his head back inside. "And what's the first clue I'm supposed to look for? She didn't give me any hint in this message…"

"Who are you even talking about, Kyou?" asked Soudai with a clueless look.

"I'd like to know that myself." replied the younger outsider. The only thing he knew about that prankster of a rabbit is what she looked like and what her voice sounded like.

"Damn it… this is the last thing I needed." he cursed and bent down to look under his bed.

The rabbit girl didn't lie. The potion bottle was missing and in its place there rested another small piece of paper. Without hesitation, Kyouichi grabbed it.

"I think I've found the first clue." he announced as he was standing up.

"What does it say?" asked Soudai and peeked over his shoulder.

"Everything has its beginning and so does this game. Winner will gain neither glory, nor fame. You will only get back what was taken from you and for that, you must begin your journey anew. On the place where we first met, behind the silent waterfall, lies the next hint you need to get, and you'll understand it all…"

"So… whoever's playing this prank on you has already met you once?" asked the older outsider.

"Yeah. It's one of Eientei's rabbits… And she apparently knows who I am…" responded Kyouichi in low voice.

"Didn't I tell you I was innocent?" Luna asked him with a blaming look. "I don't write in stupid rhymes like that."

"Because you don't write… at all~!" exclaimed Cirno and began laughing, since she was at least literate.

"In any case, you're right, Luna. You are innocent and I'm sorry for blaming you." Kyouichi apologized to the fairy. "Please forgive…"

"Hmph! I won't." pouted the insulted moonlight fairy and turned her face away from him.

Kyouichi indifferently shrugged his shoulders. "Fine, then don't. As if I care…"

"Umm…" Star suddenly demanded attention. "I think we're being eavesdropped… I sense someone small standing right behind that door."

As soon as she said that, everyone could hear rapid footsteps fading into distance as the eavesdropper figured that her presence was exposed. Kyouichi immediately jumped out from his bed and darted to the door. The curious fairies and the youkai firefly followed him. As he opened the door and ran out into the corridor, he could only catch a glimpse of pink fabric disappearing behind the corner.

"After that rabbit!" he shouted and shot full-speed behind the fleeing prankster. The fairies also wanted to see who just stole all the sweets that were meant for them and punish her. Once Kyouichi reached the corner, he didn't even slow down as he made a sharp turn to the left, which proved to be a mistake…

"Yaaah~!" *thud*

With confusion, panic and embarrassment, he looked down and saw Reisen lying on the floor. She looked back at him with almost the same look on her face.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" he began to apologize. "I wasn't looking where I was… Ugh!"

In the next moment, something hit him hard from behind and the impact repeated itself yet two more times, each followed by an exclamation from a different fairy. Even they weren't careful when cutting the corner and have hit the outsider's back in full speed. It was enough to knock him down right on top of lying Reisen. Whatever embarrassment Kyouichi felt when he knocked Reisen down was now doubled.

"W-w-what's going on?!" she asked with a frightened voice.

"You tell me~…" muttered Cirno who was slowly recovering from the impact. "Hey, Sunny, get off me. You'll melt my wings."

Kyouichi, on the other hand, felt like his back was on ice and the weight of the fairies was pushing him down.

"First tell Luna to get off ME." Sunny replied to Cirno's request as she struggled to stand up.

Only Star, Moe and Wriggle avoided ending up on this pile, since they were flying a bit more carefully. The sound of falling and the exclamations of their friends might have served as a warning for them to slow down before taking a turn.

"What are you all doing down there?" asked the dark-haired fairy.

"This looks like fun~!" Wriggle exclaimed happily and threw herself on top of Luna, who almost got up, but was pinned down again.

"This isn't a game, Wriggle-chan~!" Luna shouted at her and tired to shake her off. After a while, however, Wriggle obeyed and helped the other fairies stand up. Poor Reisen was still stuck on the floor under Kyouichi in a compromising position.

As if the situation couldn't get any more embarrassing, Soudai leisurely walked up to the scene and caught a sight just after Cirno got off Kyouichi's back. In other words, he only saw him lying on top of the Moon rabbit. He only crossed his arms and shook his head.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk… First Patchouli-sama and now Reisen? Oh, I get it. You have a purple-hair fetish…"

Kyouichi palmed his forehead just before he finally got off Reisen and helped her stand up while apologizing to her several times.

Reisen confusedly blinked and dusted off her clothes. "Say, where were you all in such a hurry anyway?"

Before Kyouichi could formulate a reply, Cirno already began explaining things in her own way.

"We were playing hide and seek with Kogasa-chan, but we couldn't find her and then when we returned, this human here," she pointed her finger at Kyouichi, "kept saying something about his sweets missing and he thought Luna-chan did it… And then, and then… he found a funny paper and figured out that it wasn't really Luna-chan. But then Star-chan detected somebody with her ability standing behind the door and the human thought it was the thief, so he gave chase, and we followed, because all those sweets were actually for us, you see…"

Reisen never looked more confused. "C-come again?" she raised an eyebrow at the ice fairy, then she turned her gaze at Kyouichi in hope of getting a more coherent answer. The outsider shrugged. "Well… Cirno-chan pretty much said it all…"

"So you were chasing a thief, you say?"

"Yes… We suspect one of Eientei's rabbits. She left me this message here…" he passed her the piece of paper to read.

Reisen's bright-red eyes raced over the short message and her face expression instantly changed to that of full understanding. She exhaled heavily and shook her head with her eyes closed. "Oh great, this again… As if there wasn't already enough chaos in Eientei as it is."

"Again?" Kyouichi repeated in confusion. "So… you know who did this?"

"Yes. There's only one person that comes to mind…"

"A short black-haired rabbit in pink dress and a carrot pendant?" Kyouichi described the girl he suspected and waited for Reisen to either confirm or deny his suspicion.

"Yes. Inaba Tewi…"

"Inaba? Just like you." remarked the outsider. "What? Are you two sisters or something?"

"No, no, nothing like that." Reisen denyingly waved her hand. "The "Inaba" in my name is but a nickname my mistress gave me."

"Eirin?"

"No, Kaguya-sama."

"Oh…"

"I got that title after Tewi. It refers to the old Inaba Province back from the Kansai era. And "Udongein" is another title given to me by Eirin-sama. I was once known only as Reisen. But back on topic, unlike the "Inaba" in my name, which is in katakana, Tewi Inaba's name is written like this…" she grabbed a pen and scribbled the rabbit's name on the same piece of paper that contained Tewi's message.

"Inaba in kanji and Tewi in hiragana…" she explained briefly.

Kyouichi took a peek over her shoulder to look at the name. "So her first name uses the obsolete "wi" kana, huh?"

"Yes." confirmed the Moon rabbit. "It's pronounced as "Tei" and written as "Tewi".

"What do you mean obsolete kana character?" asked Cirno confusedly as she also hovered by to take a look at the unusual name. "Don't you have "wi" in the outside world?"

"Nope…" the outsider shook his head. "At least not since 1954, I think. That's when the government removed it from the official Japanese, ain't that right, Soudai?" he asked his older friend who nodded in response.

"In 1954?" Cirno repeated and burst into a childish laughter. "What nonsense~! It's only year 125~! Are you from the future or what~? Hahahaha~!"

"The calendar of the outside world is different from Gensokyo's, Cirno-san." Reisen silenced her laughter.

"So this Tewi… What is she? I mean what's her role here in Eientei? Is she just another Moon rabbit like the others?"

"No… First off, Tewi's an Earth rabbit. And secondly, she's the leader of the Eientei's rabbits, which includes me…" she explained with another sigh of displeasure escaping her mouth.

"Wait. You're saying that kid is actually your superior?" asked Kyouichi full of surprise. "And of the whole Eientei's rabbit… syndicate or whatever…?"

"It may come as a surprise to you, but Tewi is actually way older than me." Reisen revealed an interesting fact. "She's been here long before I took refuge here and met my current mistress, Kaguya-sama as well as Eirin-sama. She is the leader of not just Eientei's rabbits, but also of all the rabbits residing in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. She's so old, in fact, that she's been around even before this very mansion was built. That makes her one of the eldest youkai in Gensokyo. She's lived for over 1300 years."

"Whoa!" exclaimed the outsider. "So she must be really powerful…"

Reisen gave him a questioning look. "Powerful? Not that much, really… Not all the youkai gain power with age… or become mentally mature... If you say you visited the Scarlet Devil Mansion, you know what I'm talking about."

"Hey doesn't that make her older than that Yakumo we're looking for?" asked Soudai thoughtfully.

"Knowing someone's minimum age and actual age are two different things, Asakura-san." replied Reisen wisely. "Suffice to say that both mentioned youkai have lived for a very long time."

"You don't know Tewi's actual age?" Soudai asked her.

"If you lived for as long as she did, you'd easily lose count of how many times you've seen the seasons change. Furthermore, she was once an ordinary white rabbit, and as far as I know, they don't keep an exact track of time. So no, neither I, nor Tewi knows how old she is exactly."

"Alright, I was just asking."

"And I was just answering." continued the Moon rabbit. "And as you can see, Tewi absolutely loves playing pranks and doing all sorts of mischief, just like a fairy. Most often on me." she exhaled again. "Must be her way of saying that she likes me, I guess… I haven't spent here as much time as some of the other rabbits and yet, for some reason, her pranks mostly target me."

"Wait a minute. Did you say earlier that you first met Kaguya and Eirin here?" Kyouichi wanted to make some facts clear.

"That's right." she nodded affirmatively. "I escaped the Moon during the War for the Moon's Surface."

"You mean Yukari's invasion?"

"No, I'm referring to the event when you Earth people attempted an invasion in rockets. I believe it was sometime after the year 1969 according to the Earth's calendar."

"Oh… She must be referring to the Apollo 11." Soudai realized the truth. "Hahaha! That was… hardly an invasion, though… Did it really cause such uproar in the Lunar Capital?"

"I didn't know the details when the sirens went off and when the Udonge trees bloomed, indicating the presence of impurities. I ran and abandoned my former owners, Toyohime and Yorihime of the Watatsuki clan. I fled to Earth and here I stumbled upon Eientei and its residents – the exiles from a long time ago, Houraisan Kaguya and Yagokoro Eirin."

"Watatsuki… a familiar name…" commented Kyouichi in a quiet murmur.

"Yes, the two of them were once Eirin-sama's students just like Kaguya-sama. Now they share the role of the former exiled moon princess. Both are in charge of the Lunar Defense Corps."

"Oh… Now I remember!" he exclaimed as he recalled. "Reimu mentioned them once."

"Yes… I was their pet back then."

"A pet?" Soudai repeated in disbelief and let out an amused chuckle.

"Yes, a pet. And now I'm Kaguya-sama's pet. Got a problem with that?" she asked with a bit intimidating tone.

Soudai blinked twice, looked left then right at Kyouichi and the bunch of youkai girls who all silently stared back, some of them shrugging. "Nope… I don't." he finally replied to the Moon rabbit and smiled.

"Good…" she smiled as well, "But enough about me. I think you all want to find Tewi now, right?"

All the present humans, fairies and the firefly replied agreeingly.

"Well, good luck with that, because even after all those years I've spent here, I haven't discovered all of Tewi's hiding spots."

"But we saw her running along this corridor just a moment before we had that collision." remarked the younger outsider.

Reisen briefly threw a glance backwards and bent her lips into a scowl. "Hmm… In that case, she's probably hiding in one of these rooms with the exception of the one I just left." she pointed at one of the sliding doors.

Kyouichi thankfully bowed to the Moon rabbit and turned 180 degrees back. "Alright, squad, assume your positions~!" he commanded like a leader of a SWAT team and took his place near one of the nearby doors, ready to storm the room. The fairies were all excited by this new game and without further ado; each of them took one of the doors on the corridor. Even Soudai joined the task force and flattened his back against the wall, waiting for the signal. Kyouichi gave a silent gesture order to Wriggle to stay in her position and keep a lookout on the corridor. The firefly nodded once to acknowledge.

The outsider then raised his right arm with three fingers stretched out, ready to count down the seconds before he wanted to storm the rooms.

"Say Reisen-san…" he asked just before he began the countdown.

"What is it?"

"Are you really okay with us entering these rooms?"

"All of these are equipment rooms, not wards." she answered and nodded after a moment of hesitation. "Just be careful not to break anything, okay?"

"I shall try…" he smiled and began the silent countdown.

When he retracted the last finger and shut his fist tight, he opened the door in sync with other team members and stepped inside. Just like Reisen said, it was an equipment room, containing all sorts of medical equipment, medicine jars, infusion stands, spare beds, folding screens and baskets full of white uniforms as well as greenish patients' robes. The room itself was quite large - approximately five meters in width and ten meters in length. It reminded Kyouichi of Reimu's own storehouse located behind her shrine – large and cluttered up to the ceiling. Navigating through it was quite a challenge.

"Just where is that sneaky little rabbit hiding?" he thought as he took a look around. There didn't seem to be anyone in this room, but Kyouichi didn't want to take any chances and began a thorough search.

"Heeeere Tewi, Tewi, Tewi, Tewi~! I've got a carrot for you~!" he jested as he was checking all the possible hiding spots and proceeded slowly into the farther part of the room. Of course, there was no response, so the outsider continued his search. After five minutes he was at the end of the room and about to declare his search as unsuccessful. All that was left for him to check was a large pile of unused chairs stacked up on each other in the far corner of this storage. He walked up closer and began looking from different angles to see if nobody was hiding there.

"Hmph… Nothing here but a bunch of old…"

"SURPRISE~!" sounded a girl's voice out of nowhere.

"WAAAAAH! Holy crap!" the frightened outsider jumped back out of shock, managing to knock over one stack of chairs and falling down on his back. "Ungh! What the hell?! Oh no…"

He widened his eyes and covered his face just a second before another pillar of stacked-up chairs collapsed right on top of him with a thunderous racket.

"Ishimaru-saaaan~! Are you alright~?" called Reisen who got alarmed by the noise and rushed inside the storeroom. The first thing she noticed was Kogasa hovering above a pile of fallen chairs, looking down with a guilty expression.

"Tatara-san! So that's where you've been this entire time?" she looked at the karakasa with a scolding look. "Eirin-sama and I thought you simply ran away without saying anything. By the way where did Ishimaru-san go?"

The pile of chairs suddenly began to quiver and a human arm stretched out from underneath, the hand making a thumbs-up.

"I… I'm okay~!" called a young male's voice, muffled by all those chairs.

"Ishimaru-san! What are you doing down there?"

"What does it look like? I'm lying down here, of course!" he gave a pretty obvious reply marked by an ironic tone.

"Hold on, I'll get you out of there!" Reisen trotted towards the pile, but before she even got close to it, Kyouichi stood up without help, freeing himself from under the avalanche of chairs.

He shook himself awake and took a look around to assess the collateral damage. Fortunately, the only things that have fallen down were the mentioned chairs and none of them looked broken. Then his eyes rolled upwards and gazed upon Kogasa who smiled sheepishly, yet her smile also seemed to be filled with satisfaction for some reason.

"Kogasa-san… What are you doing here?"

"I'd like to know that as well." Reisen stared at her intensely. "You better have a good reason to explain your actions."

Kogasa lowered her head, folded her purple umbrella and sighed. "I… I just wanted to… surprise someone."

"And you've done one hell of a job too…" confirmed the outsider whose heart was still beating at an alarming rate.

"I know~." said the karakasa girl with a proud smile. She really looked happy.

"Geez." Reisen disapprovingly shook her head. "That was most irresponsible from you, Tatara-san. Not only did you cause needless trouble for me and Eirin-sama, but scaring our patients can easily worsen their condition."

"But, but… I don't scare people. I surprise them~." Kogasa defended herself.

"That's almost the same thing. What if some elderly person entered this room and got jumped like Ishimaru-san? They could even get a heart attack… Not to mention all the mess you've made here. I want you to clean it up right now."

"Auuu~…" uttered the displeased karakasa, obviously not in a mood to clean the room up. "But he's the one who knocked down all those chairs~." she pointed the tip of her umbrella at Kyouichi.

"And who made him do that, huh?" Reisen strictly furrowed her brow.

Kogasa reluctantly descended down to the floor and murmured: "Whatever…"

"I'll let Eirin-sama know you've been found. After you clean this room up, I want you to stay on your ward, because she's currently checking the patients up to make sure they can be discharged."

"Huh? Discharged? But… I kind of grew to like this place…" said the karakasa with a sad voice.

"You're a rare case then, because most of the patients are already itching to go home."

"But… I don't really have a place to call home. And Eientei has lots of hiding places and lots of people to surprise."

"Heh… You'd probably be good friends with Tewi." remarked the Moon rabbit, but when she imagined her and Tewi combining their forces to forge insidious pranks on her, she shuddered.

"But… I'm afraid you can't stay here even if you'd like to."

"Well…" shrugged the karakasa resignedly. "I guess I should have expected that. Fine, I'll go back to the ward." she said and walked up towards the door.

"Hold it right there!" Reisen put a hand on her shoulder, pointing backwards with her other hand. "You still haven't cleaned that mess up."

"Boo~." pouted the youkai umbrella girl and stuck her tongue out.

"Hey, let me help." Kyouichi gentlemanly offered to make Kogasa's work a bit easier. "You were right. I was the one who knocked those chairs down even if you were the one who scared the hell out of me."

She looked at him with a mistrustful face and measured him up for a few seconds, then nodded. "Thank you."

"Okay then." said Reisen from the doorstep. "I really need to get going now. Once you're done cleaning up, please return to your ward."

"But what about our search for Tewi?" Kyouichi asked.

"Oh right… Tewi." Reisen thoughtfully rubbed her chin. "You know what? If it's just candy that she's stolen from you, you should forget about it. If you play by her rules, you'll be doing what SHE wants and motivate her to play similar pranks in the future. But if you leave things as they are, she'll be frustrated that you're not willing to play her games. It might serve as a lesson to her."

Perhaps Reisen's suggestion was not completely pointless, but Kyouichi had only shown her the second letter with Tewi's little riddle, so the Moon rabbit didn't know that Tewi also took Kyouichi's healing potion. He wanted to keep it a secret from Eientei's staff, despite Xeng-Yao's request to advertise his alchemy business. The reason? He wanted to avoid all the questions and potential trouble from Eirin concerning the potion and its origin. If that Chinese half-snake youkai has a score to settle with the Lunarian race, let HIM confront them personally. If it's just a matter of massaging his ego of making a greater scientific accomplishment, Kyouichi didn't think that putting his hide on the line for Xeng's sake was really worth it. Besides, what's the gain if he does him a favor? Chances were that Kyouichi wouldn't ever meet the guy again or require his services and the youkai alchemist didn't even give him anything to motivate him besides the relatively cheap healing potion. It would be best to simply keep quiet about the matter, but he couldn't leave things as they were. Not after hearing that Tewi was very cunning and mischievous. So far it didn't seem like she knew what she actually stole, but should that potion bottle somehow fall into the wrong hands…

"I still want to look for Tewi." he declared with determination. "I'll teach her a lesson of my own."

Reisen tilted her head to the side with a worried grin. "Hope you're not planning to hurt her."

Kyouichi shook his head. "Do I really look like the type to do such things? No, it's just… I want to explain to her that stealing is a punishable act."

"Oh please!" Reisen waved her hand. "I won't even dare to count how many times I tried to explain that to her. Quite frankly, you don't stand a chance at reeducating her. But I agree that she deserves to be punished… Tell you what. If you manage to find and catch her, bring her to me. I'll think of a worthy punishment that won't be too harsh to her, but a one she won't soon forget."

Even Kyouichi was surprised by her words. "Can you really do that to your superior?"

"Tewi may be the leader of the rabbits here, but unlike the rest of the rabbit folks, I belong to princess Kaguya, the current proprietor of Eientei. That makes us pretty much equal in our status."

"Okay then. I'll see what I can do."

"Yes. I'll try to look for her as well in my spare time. Now please excuse me. Duty calls." She bowed politely and left the outsider and the karakasa alone in the equipment room.

"Who is this Tewi-san you mentioned?" curious Kogasa broke the ensuing silence.

"She's an Earth rabbit. Supposedly." replied Kyouichi and began putting the fallen chairs back on top of each other as they were originally. "Imagine this… In order to motivate the fairies help me look for YOU, I've bought some sweets here. Then when I got them to cooperate, we searched this floor and the ground floor, but you obviously found a good hiding spot. Then when we thought that you must have run away, we returned back to our ward, but the sweets were no longer there. Instead we found this message written by Tewi, who proposed to play some sort of game… If I follow the clues that she left behind, I'll get back what she took from me. As for what kind of person Tewi is… I doubt I can tell you anything more than I know from Reisen. We last tracked her running along this corridor, but lost her here. You haven't seen her by any chance, have you?"

"Eh… No. I was here this whole time, waiting for someone to come close enough." replied the young youkai girl.

"To "surprise" someone?"

"Yes." she nodded and flashed her happy smile again. "Ahh~! It's been long since I've surprised someone like that. It feels so… refreshing. I bet I could even use ten Spell Cards in a row now."

"Ah~. So that charged your magic up, right?"

Another nod from the karakasa indicated a positive reply. "That's right. I could even put out three forest fires with so much energy~!"

"Really?" smiled the outsider back at her. "In that case, putting this room back into order will be a breeze for you."

"Auuu~."

"Don't worry; I'm here to help you, remember? This really isn't such a terrible mess. Five minutes of work at most. Let's go…"

* * *

It didn't even take the estimated five minutes for the two of them to put everything back in its place. Despite Kogasa's initial reluctance, she did her share of work and finished it in sync with Kyouichi.

"There… See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" he gave her a praising tap on the shoulder.

"Not really…" she murmured as she picked up her umbrella again.

"By the way, how come we didn't find you when we were scouring this floor and checked every room?" wondered the young man.

Kogasa blinked her dichromatic eyes before she made a silent gasp, as if she had just remembered something. "Yes, I think that fairy, Sunny opened this door and called my name before she moved onto the next room and did the same…"

Kyouichi's palm again met his forehead as a reaction to the fairy logic. He couldn't help but to chuckle. "Oh well… As expected from a fairy…"

"I didn't react to her call, because then my plan to surprise someone would have been for naught." the karakasa girl elaborated.

Kyouichi nodded understandingly and another chuckle escaped him. "And what would you do if nobody would come here? This isn't one of the most frequently visited rooms in Eientei, you know."

Kogasa put on a serious thinking face as she hummed quietly. "I don't know… Maybe I'd move to another room. Perhaps one of the offices downstairs…"

"I see… Alright, there's no more business for us in this room. Let's get out of here and meet the others." Kyouichi suggested and opened the room's door.

* * *

Once outside, he could see Soudai standing at the neighboring door, resting his back against the wall and waiting for the other member of the so-called search party to finish their sweep.

"Oi, Kyouichi~! What took you so…? Kogasa-chan?! Where the hell have you been?!" he immediately shifted his attention to the youkai girl. "We've been looking high and low for you."

Kogasa shyly lowered her head. "I'm sorry."

"Hey~! Don't worry about it. The important thing is that we know you're alright."

Not long after he said that, the other girls started co come out one by one out of the other rooms they were searching.

"She's not in there…" Star tersely announced the negative result.

"Not here either." stated Luna after she poked her head out of the room.

"Tewi-san is not hiding here." Moe reported with a disappointed face.

"No rabbits in this room." said Wriggle and met up with her friends on the corridor.

"I've already searched these rooms once." said Sunny matter-of-factly. "There wasn't anyone there before and there's not anybody there now.

"Oh really?" asked Kyouichi with a sarcastic tone, having one hand placed on Kogasa's shoulder.

The sunlight fairy's reaction was the one which Kogasa fed upon – surprise. "Ooooh~! Kogasa-chan~! Where did she come from?"

"Apparently you didn't search those rooms thoroughly or you'd be the first one to meet her." stated the outsider with a light grin.

"But… But I swear I did search this one room properly. I looked everywhere and found no one. What about you, Star-chan? What does your ability tell you?"

The starlight fairy shook her head in response. "Besides us, I sense nobody nearby. As for the more distant life forms, there's too many of them to tell exactly which one of them is the one we're looking for. They're all over the place: below us, above us, and even in the other rooms on this floor… Sorry I couldn't help."

"That's alright, Star-chan, you tried your best." Sunny comforted her. "There's still Cirno-chan who has yet to make a report. Perhaps she's had have more luck…"

"FOUND IT~!" sounded the excited ice fairy's voice from one of the farther rooms on the corridor.

Everyone held their breath as they exchanged their surprised looks and hurried towards the room to take a look at Cirno's triumph. However, once they peeked in through the doorway into the room, their reactions changed varyingly from surprise through confusion, disappointment to laughter. Cirno-chan was in yet another room used as storage for various currently unused items. Apparently, some of those things included toys for child patients. The ice fairy was standing atop a large toy box happily waving a wooden frog-shaped toy with the most content smile ever.

"Hehee~! Look, look at what I found~! Ehehehe~!"

"Geez~! Cirno-chan…" pouted the disappointed Sunny. "We're looking for an Earth rabbit, not toys~!"

The ice fairy's smile turned into an o-shaped mouth expression and her aqua-blue eyes slowly blinked. "Oh… I forgot…"

As Kyouichi couldn't decide whether he should slap his forehead again or laugh, he felt something cling to his back. As he looked back, he saw Wriggle standing behind him and peeking around his hip nervously.

"Wriggle-san? What's wrong?"

"I… never liked frogs much…" she murmured with a shaky voice as she looked at Cirno's new toy.

"Because they eat insects, right?" deduced the young outsider.

"Uhm~." nodded the firefly, still holding onto Kyouichi's robe.

"Don't worry, Wriggle-chan~!" Cirno tied to calm her down. "This frog won't be eating any fireflies any time soon~! Hyyyah~!"

With as little as a simple movement of her fingers, Cirno conjured up a bluish light in her right hand and as she pointed her index finger at the frog toy, the light slowly moved towards it, leaving a white vaporous trail like an opened canister of liquid nitrogen. Once it made contact with the wooden toy, it formed a thick layer of ice all over it while making a distinct crackling sound. The toy frog was effectively frozen. Right after that, Cirno flung it against the ground with all her might, shattering it into thousand pieces.

"Ha! Take that, you evil Wriggle-eating fiend~! That ought to teach you to threaten my friend." the ice fairy called out loudly, addressing the words to the shattered inanimate object.

Soudai made a pained grimace, as if he felt the toy's pain himself. "O-kay… That frog really had it coming, but we still need to find that thieving rabbit."

"Oh. Okay~!" nodded the ice fairy and started digging around in the toy box she was standing on. "Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit… Ah, here's one~!" she pulled out a rabbit-shaped rubber squeak toy of outside world origin. "How about this one?" *squeak, squeak* "Doesn't sound much like a rabbit to me, though…"

Kyouichi again couldn't hold back his urge to laugh. "Tell us, Cirno… What's it like having an ice cube for a brain?"

"Huh? Ice cube? I don't have…"

"No, please don't answer that." he cut her off before she finished her reply. "You're very cute and all, but I'm afraid the only way to find Tewi is to follow the clues like she instructed…"

"But I want to find her too!" Cirno protested. "She owes me my share of candy."

"Just remember that all those snacks were MINE to begin with and I only meant to give them to you to make you cooperative in search for Kogasa-san, who was just recently found, by the way…"

"Kogasa-chan was found?" the blue-haired fairy asked incredulously.

"That's right." Kyouichi nodded and beckoned to his left side. "She's right here with us. Come and take a look."

Cirno was really excited to reunite with her new friend. "Yaaay~! Kogasa-chaaan~!" she floated up and rocketed out of the room, not even bothering to clean all the mess she left behind. The outsider certainly didn't feel like cleaning after someone else, so he just shut the sliding door and pretended like everything was okay.

Cirno was hugging the surprised karakasa, the other fairies and Wriggle were having an idle off-topic conversation and Soudai was again resting his back against the wall, looking bored. Kyouichi, in the meantime, unfolded Tewi's message again and read it a couple of more times, deciding that it would be best if he went searching for her alone.

"Well, wherever that little rabbit girl ran to, she's certainly not here anymore." commented the older outsider, not looking at anyone in particular.

"Yeah." confirmed his younger friend as he refolded the piece of paper he just read. "If Tewi wanted us to search for her as a team, she'd leave some messages to you guys as well… She's not here anymore, that little is certain." he drew his attention to the whole group and waved his hand. "Okay, everyone, show's over. Take five."

"But we want to catch the thief too." argued the previously accused and subsequently exculpated Luna Child.

"I'm afraid it's just me that Tewi wants to lead around. Besides, we're too easy to notice if we move as a group. Nah, you just wait in the ward like Reisen told us. In case Eirin would show up to give you a final check-up before discharging you, I say my goodbye to you in advance. Otherwise… see you guys again at the Rehabilitation Ward."

"Are you really sure you don't need our help?" Star asked him with a serious face.

"Hey, if I change my mind, I'll return back to the ward, okay?"

"Very well." nodded the beautiful dark-haired fairy. "We'll be here if you need any help."

Kyouichi smiled warmly and patted her on the head. "Thank you very much. You fairies are really nice… It was you girls who made me change my opinion towards your kind. I wish you all got discharged soon and that incident that makes you go berserk, resolved… Oh, and Luna-san, please forgive that I blamed you for staling those snacks. It wasn't fair of me."

"I… I said that I wouldn't forgive you so easily…" said the moonlight fairy with a pouting face, but her voice sounded different than before. "But, I guess being angry at someone isn't a good thing… I accept the apology."

"I'm glad." smiled the outsider and started walking towards the staircase. "Okay then… Be good, everyone…"

"Moe wishes you luck too…" the pink-haired fairy waved her hand after the outsider split up from the main group, heading his own way.


	39. Follow the White Rabbit

Kyouichi trotted briskly downstairs, and without thinking, headed for the mansion's main entrance. As he opened the main door, he stepped outside and took a deep breath of fresh air, looking around.

"This is where I met her…" he thought to himself. "Now I'm supposed to look for some small waterfall, huh?"

And so, the young man made one full lap around the entire mansion of Eientei, keeping his eyes and ears open for any signs of waterfall, but the dense bamboo forest was deadly silent. It took him over thirty minutes to return back in front of the main entrance, disappointed at his inability to find the next clue. Then he realized an important detail, which he didn't take into consideration.

"Oh gods, am I an idiot or what?!" he exclaimed into the silent dusk of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. "This isn't the place where I first saw Tewi! It was one of the offices on the ground floor!"

* * *

He made haste back into the main corridor, but stopped shortly afterwards, because he couldn't remember which one of the myriad doors led to the office where he met the mischievous rabbit for the first time. Then he remembered the prank she had played on him, by sending him into the wrong room at the wrong time.

"The bathing room." he muttered and kept on running, keeping his attention focused at the left side. The door to the mentioned room was quite easy to notice, because it was brand new and its shade was slightly lighter in comparison to the other doors. The old door had to be replaced after Kaguya made Swiss cheese out of it with her danmaku.

"Now if my memory still serves, the office where I first met Tewi is the eleventh door to the left from this one…"

* * *

And so, he slowly counted the doors as he was returning all the way up to eleven. He opened the door and immediately recognized the layout of the furniture in this particular office. It didn't even surprise him anymore that the room wasn't locked, despite the fact that there was nobody inside. This was definitely the place. He recalled as Tewi was sitting behind the table and playing with empty medicine boxes. However, Kyouichi now wasn't too certain what kind of "waterfall" was he supposed to look for. Besides some unknown liquids in the medicine jars placed on one of the shelves, there really wasn't any water in the room. It was just an ordinary office with a couple of chairs, two tables, a bunch of shelves and display cases, a single bed, one round window, several lanterns, a few houseplants to decorate the environment, along with some oil paintings depicting various landscapes…

"The pictures!" Kyouichi got a sudden idea and turned his head frantically as he was looking for a picture that had a waterfall. Within five seconds, he found a small, inconspicuous picture hanging just a few centimeters to the left of the office's door. It depicted a mountain stream, flowing from atop of a tall gray mass of rocks. It was no masterpiece, but it was tasteful and fitting as a room decoration.

"The silent waterfall…" he murmured as he observed the picture closely. "Tewi's message said to look behind it… The next clue must be behind this picture."

As he looked behind the picture, another small piece of paper has fallen down and landed by his feet. Not wasting any more time, he read the next message.

"Pretty easy, wasn't it? Now it's time to turn up the heat. If you want to know what to do next, you better hurry before you forever lose the text. A place that's always busy, where guests are not meant to go, you'll find it with burning sensation, if you're not too slow. Better run now, I hope you'll make it, if not… well then… bon appétit~!"

Kyouichi quickly brainstormed the most possible options, but only one seemed to be the most plausible.

"Bon appétit, you say? Is she sending me into Eientei's kitchen? By the looks of it, it seems that the message is hidden inside one of the ingredients for today's dinner… Well, here I go…" he shrugged and hurried to the door where the main dining hall was located. By applying even minimum logic, it was more than obvious that the kitchen's door was right next to it. Despite being normally off-limits to visitors the door opened up just as easily as any other door in this mysterious mansion.

"Hmph… I guess that to Eientei's residents, security is about as familiar a concept as natural death to domestic poultry…" he remarked sarcastically as he barged into the kitchen.

* * *

Just as Tewi described, the place was bustling with activity as dozens of Earth and Moon rabbits were busily preparing the ingredients for today's dinner course. For over ten seconds, none of the rabbits even noticed him, but once his presence became obvious to the cooks, some of the rabbits gathered around the outsider, trying to send him back where he came from.

"Excuse me, but you shouldn't be here~!" explained one of the rabbit cooks.

"The kitchen is off-limits to patients." another youkai rabbit completed the information.

"Please turn back and return to your room." the third rabbit demanded while waving a wooden ladle in her hand. Despite her attempt to look and sound intimidating, she looked endearingly childish.

Not needing much time to think, Kyouichi drew out the message left by Tewi and showed it to the bunch of spectating rabbits, like a policeman showing his badge.

"I have an official order from your boss, Tewi-sama to make an inspection here." he made up a lie, making his voice sound important while holding back any signs of snickering. He bit his lip in hope that the rabbit cooks would fall for it…

All the rabbits stood in silence with their mouths ajar. Kyouichi could only imagine what they could be thinking right now. For a moment it looked like they were going to drive him out of the kitchen by force, when suddenly…

"Mmm… okay…" nodded one of the rabbits and stepped aside from Kyouichi's way. "We really didn't expect Tewi-sama to send someone for inspection."

One rabbit's reaction caused a domino effect with the other rabbits, and within seconds, there wasn't a single rabbit in the kitchen who doubted the credibility of Kyouichi's claim. They all returned back to work, tying to make the best impression, but the only thing that the outsider thought about was to find the next message.

"…you'll find it with burning sensation…" he murmured the line from the paper found in the office. "What does that mean? Should I look for it in the oven?"

And he really did look into all the places that generated heat. The rabbit cooks were giving him sidelong glances, but avoided direct eye contact when Kyouichi looked back at them. He searched all the possible places that came to mind, but found nothing. He was getting more desperate by each second.

"Alright, everyone," he again centered the rabbits' attention at himself, "stop working for a moment."

The cooks and kitchen helpers obeyed, but were now looking at him with even more mistrustful eyes than before. Kyouichi had issued this order just so he'd buy himself some time. When no rabbits were working, it meant that the next Tewi's message wouldn't end up being destroyed in the cooking process.

"Is there something wrong, mister kitchen inspector?" asked the rabbit chef.

Kyouichi was silent for a moment as he threw nervous glances all over the kitchen, as if in hope that he'd notice a piece of paper somewhere.

"Hello? Mister?" the chef rabbit waved his hand to get the outsider's attention. "How long are we supposed to wait? If we don't hurry and prepare the food soon, everyone will be nervous. We understand Tewi-sama's directives, but we don't want to get into trouble with Her Highness, Kaguya-sama."

"What food are you preparing for today's main course?" asked the outsider.

"We're making a shabu-shabu with various different dipping sauces and seasoned rice." answered the rabbit.

"Is there going to be a hot, spicy sauce too?"

"Of course."

"May I take a look at the spices then?"

"Go ahead… They're lined up on the top shelf over there." the chef gestured at a line of bamboo spice containers.

Fortunately, the outsider was tall enough to reach the topmost shelf without the need to stand on a chair. He walked up to the shelf and began checking the content of each and every spice container, he even tested whether the paper he was looking for wasn't buried deeper within the particular spice. After checking the last one, he shook his head, feeling a mixture of confusion and frustration. He knew that he was at the right place, but looking at the wrong things. He really couldn't understand what Tewi meant by the line: "…you'll find it with burning sensation, if you're not too slow."

He was almost certain that he knew what to look for, and yet, it seemed that he got once again tricked by the mischievous Earth rabbit.

"So… can we return to work already?" the chef nervously stepped around from left foot to right, eager to finish what he and his team started.

"I… I..." Kyouichi stuttered for a moment before he waved his hand and sighed. "I guess so…"

He almost accepted the fact that he'd lose this little game and that he wouldn't get back what Tewi took from him.

The rabbits have already resumed their tasks in the meantime, but the chef wanted to satisfy Kyouichi's curiosity about today's dish.

"Some of the meat slices are going to be seasoned with shichimi spice before boiling. Eirin-sama likes spicy food."

"Yeah, that's good to know." grumbled Kyouichi upon hearing this trivial information, but the next second he realized that perhaps somehow Tewi managed to hide her message somewhere on the slices of beef.

As unlikely as that sounded, Kyouichi was desperate enough to give it a try. He started to examine the meat. However, there were simply too many meat slices for him to check in a short time. Again, anxiety and frustration continued to grow inside his chest as not even the 25th beef slice held any indication of hiding Tewi's next clue. The cooks were already starting to serve the food into dishes and the young outsider knew that he was running out of time. It would not be accepted well if he once again interrupted the rabbits in their work, so he just speeded up his search. Not even the 40th piece of meat yielded any positive result and Kyouichi was about to give it up, when suddenly one of the rabbits that was serving the meat seemed to have torn something away from one beef slice and looked at it in confusion.

"What's this… paper doing on the meat?" she murmured and discarded the object into a waste basket. "If mister inspector saw this, he'd scold us…"

Kyouichi noticed that with just the corner of his eye and immediately turned his head in that direction.

"What was that you just found?!" he asked the young rabbit maid with a heightened voice.

The surprised rabbit flinched for a moment, and then she denyingly shook her head with a sheepish smile. "N-nothing." she gave a stuttered reply.

"I saw you find something on that piece of meat. What was it?"

"It was nothing; just a little paper – probably from the wrapping." insisted the rabbit. "That meat piece is clean now. I threw the paper away…"

"WHERE?!" shouted the outsider.

The nervous rabbit pointed her shaky finger at the waste basket. "T-there… Please don't yell at me."

Without another word, Kyouichi leapt to the waste basket and started to dig around in its content like a homeless man. The spectating rabbits exchanged their surprised and confused looks. None of them dared to say anything.

"Salvation~!" cheered the young man as he found a piece of wet paper with Tewi's handwriting in all that garbage. "Thank you, all Shinto gods! Thank you, dear rabbits! Gotta run now, see you later~!" he bowed hastily and hurried out of the kitchen, slamming the door shut behind him.

Shortly after Kyouichi left, the rabbit chef bewilderedly shook his head. "What was that all about? First some crazy knife maniac maid shows up and starts cooking here, now Tewi-sama sends us this weird guy… What's next?"

* * *

Meanwhile the outsider unfolded the paper with fading Tewi's message and read it.

"You made it in time; you've found the right place, but don't slow down and keep up your pace. To find the next clue will be a bit trickier feat. Better get going now, time to move your feet. The message keeps moving from one place to another, carried by a guest of Eientei; see if you can find her. She's not a patient now, but used to visit as such. She prefers to stay indoors and not go out very much. A nurse who works from morning to noon; look for a veil of violet hair and golden crescent moon."

"Okay, that definitely sounds like Patchouli-sama…" he figured out easily. "So she has the next message without even being aware of it, huh? That shouldn't be so hard, provided that I know where to look for her…"

And so, the outsider directed his steps towards Eirin's office where he hoped to find someone to ask where to look for the temporary doctor. He knocked on the office's door and let himself in.

* * *

"Please excuse me…" he bowed apologetically before he even noticed whether there was anyone in the office at all.

"Yes? How can I help you?" sounded Eirin's voice from behind a screen and her head peeked out to take a look. "Is there anything you need from me, Ishimaru-san?"

"Sorry to interrupt your work, but… Do you know where can I find Patchouli-sensei?"

"Aaah, you couldn't wait to be with Patchouli-san again… I see…" she nodded understandingly and smiled.

"Why do you keep implying that we have anything to do with each other?" muttered the annoyed outsider.

"Hmm? Well then why else would you be asking me where to find her?" retorted the Lunarian with the same wry smile.

"It's just… business…" Kyouichi gave an avoidant reply.

"Whatever you wish to call it…" she remarked with a giggle. "Patchouli-san works every day from early morning to noon due to her health condition. Since it's already afternoon, she's most likely taking a rest in her room. It's a small study here on this floor. It's, if I remember correctly, the 57th door from here on the left side of the corridor."

"Fifty-seventh? Okay, I hope I'll get it right…" said Kyouichi as he was about to leave the office.

"Wait a minute. I better take you there myself." Eirin unexpectedly volunteered.

"Aren't you busy?"

"I am. But it's just another check-up." she gestured behind the folding screen. "I'm checking whether Kurohana-san here requires any further treatment."

"Ai-chan is here?"

As a response, the girl's crimson-haired head popped out from behind the screen. "Oh, Kyouichi-san, good afternoon~!" she greeted cheerfully, "It seems I'll get to go home soon."

She certainly looked a lot better than a few days ago.

"And what about our final check-up?" Kyouichi asked the doctor.

"Patience, young one. I'll be on it as soon as I get the results of Ai-san's check-up, which may yet take a few hours."

The Lunarian then put her notepad on a table and told Ai to wait for a moment. "Alright, let me show you the way." she gestured to the outsider and he followed her out back to the main corridor. After more than a two minute walk, Eirin stopped at one of the doors and tilted her head to the side.

"This is the place." she announced and gently knocked on the door. "Let's see if she's even there in the first place…"

She opened the door and announced her arrival: "Sorry to intrude, Patchouli-san, are you here?"

"Eirin-san?" sounded the quiet voice of Scarlet Devil Mansion's librarian and resident elemental sorceress.

"Ah, so she's here after all." whispered Eirin and smiled at the outsider. "I don't mean to interrupt your well-deserved rest, but you have a visitor."

"A visitor?" asked the voice of Patchouli, followed by a short pause. "Okay…"

"Very well then. I'll get back to work then." said Eirin and gave Kyouichi a rather mischievous wink. "Good luck…"

"What does she mean "good luck"?" he wondered silently as he watched her returning back to her office. He then turned at the door and walked into the study.

* * *

The room was not larger than Eirin's office. However, most of the furniture consisted of bookshelves. There was only one table at the window and a single bed in the corner. Patchouli was sitting at the table so her back faced the door. Since her work for today as a doctor was over, she was dressed up in her typical attire. Even during her free time, she preferred to indulge herself in reading Eientei's literature. As Kyouichi entered the room, the girl didn't even bother to turn around. She just raised her hand and with a nonchalant tone she addressed him, thinking that her visitor was someone else…

"I was wondering when you'd come here again, Sakuya. Tell Remilia that I'll return back to the mansion tomorrow evening. You can pack up my things, since you're already here. Oh… and please bring me some tea. Some dessert would be lovely too…"

"I'm afraid I won't be visiting the Scarlet Devil Mansion in the following days, but I suppose I could at last fetch that tea for you." replied Kyouichi with an amused chuckle.

His voice was definitely not the one Patchouli had expected to hear. She froze in shock on her chair, slowly turning herself around.

"Ishimaru-san…?"

"Sorry, I should have at least greeted you when I walked in." he apologized for surprising her.

"No, it's fine… I should have at least taken a look at who my visitor is…" she admitted to be partially at fault. "I truly didn't expect you to visit."

"Yes, I should imagine… Hope I'm not disturbing your work."

"I only work until noon, so in my leisure, I'm trying to piece together the information you gathered from Kazemura and the text written by Satori-san while she initiated a mental probe into the mind of one of the affected fairies…"

"Any progress?"

Patchouli sighed and gently shook her head. "Minimal, I'm afraid… Aside from what I already knew, I had only managed to contemplate one possible last-resort solution to this… unpleasant incident."

"Really? What kind of solution?" inquired the outsider.

"Well…" she muttered quietly, as if she was shy to give the answer. Kyouichi leaned a little closer so he could catch whatever she was going to say. Finally, the sorceress spoke up again: "If we manage to confirm that the ruins discovered in Kazemura quarry pit are truly the cause of these unsettling events, we could simply ask the villagers to bury them again, cutting off their influence on the local fairy populace. However, that may turn out to be more complicated than it sounds. Like I said, it's just as a last resort…"

"Why would it be so complicated to bury those ruins? Just take a dozen of men with shovels and…"

"First of all," Patchouli cut his sentence off, "we're not even certain whether the ruins alone have any direct effect on the fairies and whether burying them would amount to anything, other than shutting down the very reason of Kazemura's existence. Not to mention that the history-obsessed yama-bito, who make up over 50% of the village's inhabitants, would be by any means willing to surrender one of their greatest discoveries along with the source of their income. Should it prove to be necessary to take such a dire action, it would most likely mean the end of Kazemura, forcing its inhabitants to relocate. I just hope that we won't be forced to make that decision."

"I see…" said the outsider once Patchouli made things a bit clearer for him. "So you want to go and take a look at those ruins personally?"

"Yes. Not only to investigate their connection to the fairy incident, but also to record and document them in order to preserve the memory of their existence, should we decide to bury them forever… However, I'm reluctant to go there alone. No. I need a team of people or youkai I can trust – someone who knows about ancient civilizations as well as someone who can fight well. Also, it would be good to have someone, besides me, who knows a thing or two about arcane arts… But that's nothing that you need to concern yourself with, Kyouichi-san."

The human again chuckled with amusement. "I don't meet even one of those three requirements… But, I'm sure you'll be able to figure something out, Patchouli-sama… Now, how about that tea?"

The purple-eyed youkai sorceress looked at him surprisedly. "Do you really want to go and bring me some tea?"

"Sure, why not?" smiled Kyouichi. "After all, I did come here to ask something from you, so I suppose I could at least do something in return… I'll be right back."

Before Patchouli managed to say anything, the young man made himself scarce, headed for the great dining hall where everyone could ask for as much tea as they could drink, without any extra charge, of course. In less than five minutes another knock sounded on the small study where Patchouli spent her free time in Eientei. Kyouichi had brought in two wooden cups with steaming hot tea.

"Thank you very much." Patchouli courteously thanked and gently nodded her head as she accepted the cup.

"No problem." replied the young man with a smile, taking a light sip from his cup. "Hmm… could use a bit more sugar, though…"

The sorceress also followed suit and after she had savored the not-so-perfect taste of Eientei's blend, she put the cup on the table and folded her arms over one another, looking at Kyouichi with an intense gaze. "Now… What can I help you with?"

"Ah, yes…" Kyouichi nodded and took out Tewi's last message. "Do you perhaps know someone called Tewi Inaba?"

"Tewi?" Patchouli repeated the name and her eyes widened a bit, as if she indeed knew someone like that. "I… did see her a few times when I visited this place. She's an Earth rabbit with substantial authority in Eientei. However, her demeanor would suggest otherwise. Her personality is rather… fairy-like, for the lack of better term…"

"Yes, I've found out… the hard way. Now that rabbit has something that's mine and I'd like to have it back."

"Come to think about it, Marisa also has some things that are mine and I'd like to have them back… But, you already know what she's like…"

Kyouichi knew that she was talking about her books, which Marisa liked to borrow and never return, and he couldn't hold back a chuckle. "Why don't you do the same thing to her then? Give her a taste of her own medicine…"

Patchouli only disapprovingly shook her head while frowning. "Me? Stealing from Marisa? I will never lower myself to HER level." she emphasized with a disdainful tone.

"But that wouldn't be stealing." argued the outsider. "You'd be merely getting back what rightfully belongs to you."

"I'm afraid that doing that would only fuel the fire, encouraging the witch to "borrow" more books and more often than before… Anyway, I believe that this conversation has gone off-topic again…" she remarked nonchalantly. "You mentioned Inaba Tewi, right?"

"Well… yeah…" Kyouichi's response was a bit delayed.

"Can't say I've seen her in the past few days, so you're probably asking the wrong person…"

"Believe it or, not, Patchouli-sama," he interrupted her suddenly; "you CAN help me, even if you probably aren't aware of it."

She gave him a puzzled gaze. "What do you mean by that?"

"You probably already know Tewi-san a bit better than I do and you also know what sort of a trickster she is."

"So far I've been lucky to avoid being targeted by her." murmured the sorceress and gently knocked on the wooden table. "Guess I'm an uninteresting person for her, which suits me just fine."

Kyouichi made a crooked smile, not too sure what he should say about Patchouli's last statement. Regardless, he continued explaining.

"So this Tewi somehow thought that it would be a blast if she took one of those potions I bought in Kazemura and left me a message with a proposal to play a game of following her clues in order to get it back. And so, here I am with the next clue leading directly to you…"

"Me? But I already told you that I haven't seen…"

"And I already told you that it doesn't matter." he cut off Patchouli's objection and passed her Tewi's last message. "Take a look. She doubtlessly means you in this riddle… Saying that you carry another riddle without your knowledge… Uh… no pun intended."

Patchouli accepted the paper and observed it with a mixture of curiosity and mistrust.

"Umm… Ick… Where has this thing been?"

Kyouichi chuckled embarrassedly. "You probably don't want to know."

She made something that looked like a very miniscule shrug and quickly raced through the short rhymed riddle. Then she suddenly snorted, as if she just got insulted.

"Hmph… So what if I prefer to stay indoors?" she commented one of the lines. "If I read my books outside, they could easily get damaged… Why, just a few hours in the sun and the pages would turn yellow… And I do go outside. During the past three months I've been outside at least once." she said that in a prideful manner, as if she just beat her own personal record.

"Whoa…" uttered the amazed outsider and nodded with respect. "And I thought I was bad…"

"In fact," Patchouli continued without paying heed to Kyouichi's last comment, "I've been outside last week when Marisa told me about the forest fire."

"Ah, but of course!" Kyouichi snapped his fingers. "Kogasa-san told us all about it! How you and Marisa combined your magic with her to put out a huge fire in a matter of minutes… *sigh* If only I was there to see it…"

Patchouli blinked a couple of times, her face barely conveying any emotion, but somehow she felt a sort of heartwarming feeling that her good deed has not gone unnoticed and that at least someone openly appreciated it.

"Kogasa-san, huh?" she whispered the karakasa's name. "She really saved us then…"

"Yes, she may have a good heart, but damn… That habit of hers…" said Kyouichi as he replayed the scene when Kogasa "surprised" him in his head.

"My… Just look how we always keep digressing from the topic." Patchouli remarked with a gentle smile. "So, if I understand this correctly," she gently waved the message in her hand, "Tewi has hidden a message in one of my pockets, huh?"

"So it seems." confirmed the young human.

Without further ado, the young youkai sorceress stood up and started tapping her hands over her pockets to feel if there wasn't any paper hidden inside them.

"Hmm… My pockets are all empty." she announced the negative result.

"Perhaps that sneaky rabbit didn't place that message inside your pockets…" said Kyouichi thoughtfully and measured Patchouli's short, but shapely figure from head to toe.

The girl's face suddenly turned a light shade of pink. "W-what are you hinting at?"

"Hmm… how should I put it as mildly as possible?" muttered the outsider and took a deeper breath. "Undress yourself."

"WHAT?"! she exclaimed with a surprisingly loud voice, which immediately caused her asthmatic attack to kick in. Kyouichi figured that his joke was most inappropriate and as he apologized to her, he quickly opened the room's door, ready to run and call doctor Yagokoro for help. However, patchouli raised her right hand, halting him while her left hand reached for the top drawer of the table she was sitting at and grabbed an inhaler. After taking a deep breath through its mouthpiece, her labored, wheezing breathing returned to normal and she sighed with relief.

"I'm very sorry, Patchouli-sama… Even though that was just a joke, I should have thought about your health condition…" Kyouichi repeated his apology.

"Whew… so it was only a joke…" the purple-haired girl whispered to herself.

"Are you sure I shouldn't call Eirin?"

"I'm alright now." she calmed him down. "You just… uh… startled me. And you're not even a karakasa…" she remarked jokingly.

"All I meant was to tease you a bit…" muttered the outsider, looking down in guilt.

"But…" sounded Patchouli again, pausing herself for a long while, "you're probably right."

"About what?"

"That I have to check my clothes thoroughly…" she specified and a blush settled on her cheeks again.

"Eh? You're serious?" Kyouichi raised his eyebrows.

Patchouli took her hat off and shook it up and down in hope of finding any hidden papers that Tewi might have planted there, but to no avail. Then she raised her look at Kyouichi once more and nodded. "I guess it can't be helped… I'll have to take my clothes off after all."

Kyouichi widened his eyes in disbelief, unable to manage a single-word reply. He was struck dumbfounded and kept staring at Patchouli for over 15 seconds with his mouth ajar.

Patchouli in turn tilted her head to the side and nervously tapped her foot against the floor. Both of them were silent for a while.

"…"

"Why are you still sitting here? Get out of the room!"

"Huh? O-oooh, yes, yes, of course!" Kyouichi quickly, but clumsily stood up from his chair as he was returned back to reality. "Damn it…" he whispered in disappointment as he was leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

* * *

After waiting for over 20 minutes on the main corridor of Eientei, even Kyouichi's otherwise patient soul was starting to grow impatient.

"Oh come on… What's taking her so long?" he said to himself as he was walking back and forth in front of the door of the study. He bent over closer to the door in hope of taking a peek inside, but the door's design simply didn't allow it. "Sheesh! Why can't these doors have keyholes to peek in through? *sigh* I hope you're watching me from somewhere, Tewi, and having a good laugh… Just pray that I never find you."

Finally, the long wait ended when the study's door reopened and Patchouli stepped out fully clothed again. She silently shook her head when Kyouichi asked her what she found.

"In that case," said the young man, "Tewi must have hidden the message somewhere in your white uniform…"

"Hmm…" the youkai bookworm hummed and turned her face to a small pile of clothes lying on the bed in the room. "Should have thought so in the first place…" she muttered and slowly proceeded to search her borrowed uniform. "What's this?" she asked as she pulled out a paper card out of the pocket. "This must be what you're looking for…"

Patchouli stepped closer to Kyouichi and passed it to him. The outsider instantly recognized Tewi's handwriting.

"For finding the clues you sure have a knack, just track down the last one and don't hold back. The end draws near, your goal is in sight, give you a reward I just might. Once upon a time, in a bamboo stalk was found, on a shining night an infant, to life on Earth was bound. A silver platter full of tasty treats hides the last clue and towards your goal it leads…"

Kyouichi was starting to get a feeling that Tewi's riddles were gradually making less and less sense. Then Patchouli leaned over his shoulder to take a look at the text and make a quick analysis.

"Well, Tewi is obviously hinting at the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter." she said without thinking. "And the "shining night" written in hiragana here, when written in kanji, makes up the name "Kaguya"."

"O-kay… so the next clue will be probably somewhere around the Moon princess…"

"On a silver platter of some sort, apparently…" concluded the librarian.

"But… Damn…" Kyouichi cursed again when he realized a problem. "She can't seriously want me to barge into Kaguya-sama's private quarters. I'll get killed!"

"Hmm… Perhaps we could ask her for permission then…" Patchouli suggested.

"And how do you suggest doing that?"

"If I'm not mistaken, Princess Kaguya has also volunteered to do the job of a nurse until the number of patients in Eientei decreases to… acceptable levels."

"Yes, I'm aware of that." nodded the outsider. "She's come once to our ward to check on us. But what if she is currently not working and staying in her quarters? Without any special permission I'll never be able to even get near her."

"Fortunately, I'm a bit more informed about this matter." said Patchouli and her lips bent in a light smile.

Kyouichi copied her smile and asked her to explain. "I'm all ears."

"You see, Kaguya-sama, as a voluntary nurse doesn't have her shift as long as other regular staff members. The same goes for me. However, while I work six hours from morning till noon, the princess has her shift from noon to evening, which means…"

"That she's now on duty…" Kyouichi finished Patchouli's sentence.

"You should be able to find her in one of the wards, tending to the patients, but I can't exactly say which one."

"Finding her is one thing, but how am I supposed to persuade her to let me inside her quarters?"

"Kaguya-sama's superior status gives her freedom to do her voluntary work for only as long as she sees fit. I believe I would be able to help you persuade her…"

"You'd… really do that for me, Patchouli-sama? Even after all the trouble I just put you through?"

"There's actually something I wanted to discuss with the princess regarding the fairy incident so I'm doing this for my own benefit as well."

"So are you coming with me then?"

"Yes. I believe I can get much more information about certain matters from her than from these books." acknowledged the sorceress and emptied her tea cup in one go. "We should probably ask Eirin or Reisen where to find her…"

* * *

And so, Patchouli and Kyouichi have gone to Eirin's office together to ask her about Kaguya's current whereabouts. The Lunarian doctor was already alone in her office, standing over some sort intricate laboratory apparatus and diligently examining the content of one of the vials.

"Sorry to bother you again, Eirin-sama." Kyouichi apologized right upon entering. "Can I ask you something?"

"And how can I help…" she turned around and saw that Kyouichi wasn't the only person who entered, "…you two? Would you perhaps be interested in buying some of my... special medicine?" she asked and made yet another mischievous wink at her guests.

"What's she talking about?" Kyouichi whispered his question to Patchouli.

The purple-haired elementalist didn't seem to have a clue either as she only shrugged in response.

"Oh, you know…" Eirin widened her smile, "aphrodisiacs and the like… I've got all that can make a young couple's life more… interesting."

"When will you cut those jokes out already?" Kyouichi asked with a chiding tone. "We've come to ask you where to find Kaguya-sama."

"Mistress?" the doctor connoted. "For what business?"

Patchouli opened her mouth to respond, but Kyouichi was faster. "You see, Patchouli-sama here said that she wanted to discuss something with her about the recent incident and I just kept her company on the way to your office…" he told a half-truth. "I'll be going back to the ward right afterwards."

Patchouli realized that the young outsider was merely trying to cover up his true intention just to make sure Eirin would have anything against him meeting the princess. However, Eirin's reply came as a surprise to both her and her human acquaintance.

"Well, she's on her "duty", as you may know, but in which ward can you find her exactly at this time is beyond me… She could be anywhere on this or the third floor… But once her shift's over, she's in her quarters as usual. Do you want me to pass on the message to her or…?"

"Uh… No, no…" Patchouli shook her head. "We… we'll find her somehow, thank you."

"Suit yourself…" shrugged the Lunarian and returned her attention to her mini lab.

* * *

"Oh, great..." muttered the youkai girl as the door to Eirin's office closed behind her. "It seems like we're going to be looking for a needle in a hay sack."

"Ha! I've had my share of scouring Eientei in order to find someone." said Kyouichi with an annoyed voice. "Even though I've had the fairies helping me…"

Patchouli let out another thoughtful hum and stayed quiet for nearly half a minute. Then she snapped her fingers with an idea popping up in her mind.

"Fairies... That's it!"

"Huh?"

"Well, not exactly fairies, but youkai with similar attributes – the rabbits!" Patchouli excitedly elaborated her idea.

"Hey, easy now, Patchouli-sama. Don't get another asthma fit…" Kyouichi jestingly calmed her down. "What was that about the rabbits?"

"Eientei is full of Earth and Moon rabbits who serve under authorities like Tewi, Eirin and ultimately – Kaguya. I'm sure that when the princess desires something, the servant rabbits respond immediately to cater to her every whim. They have to know where exactly their mistress is, regardless of the time. They can lead us directly to her!"

Kyouichi raised his eyebrow, as he was quite skeptical about the idea. "And they'll just show us the way if we ask them nicely…" he said with sarcasm. "Yeah, right… Like they'd let any outsiders disturb the princess without invitation."

"I've been in Eientei more times than you have, so I know that the princess is rather easygoing." argued the sorceress. "She doesn't mind visitors. On the contrary, she welcomes them."

"Yeah? That one time I've talked to her, she said otherwise…"

"Must be because she has seen too many patients lately. However, when we were sorting medicine the other day, she complained to me that being a nurse is no fun at all… I'm sure she wouldn't mind taking a break."

Kyouichi nodded after a long pause. "Okay. I admit you have to know Kaguya-sama more than I do. Perhaps you're right about her, but I'm still not too sure about the rabbits… I highly doubt they'd just take us directly to her. IF they even know where she is at the moment…"

"Trust me, they are intelligent creatures. I've read many books about them. Similar to the tengu race, they too have their hierarchy and they have a highly developed communication network within their society. Information, regardless of the content, becomes generally known in a matter of minutes to all of the rabbits living in one community. They love to gossip, just like the tengu."

Kyouichi let out a whistle of respect to both the rabbit race and Patchouli's knowledge. "Almost like a living Internet…"

"Internet, you say?" Patchouli turned her purple eyes at him. "I saw a book with that term in its title in Rinnosuke-san's shop, but I haven't read it yet…"

"Eh… never mind." the outsider dismissively waved his hand. "Let's get back on-topic."

"Yes, we should find us a servant rabbit first."

"There's one." Kyouichi pointed forward as one of the rabbits just exited one of the rooms, carrying something small in her hands.

Patchouli nodded and engaged her magical hover mode, since she wasn't a big fan of physical activity. Kyouichi trotted behind her, trying to keep up with the sorceress as she was approaching the unsuspecting youkai rabbit.

"Umm… Excuse me for a minute~!" she called with her subtle voice at the long-eared youkai. "It's urgent."

The female rabbit servant curiously tilted her head to the side and stopped just a second before Patchouli caught up to her. The elemental wizard elegantly descended back to the floor and bowed to the surprised rabbit. "I have an important business with princess Kaguya. Could you… tell us where to find her?"

The rabbit girl stood there with the same bewildered expression for a good while. Kyouichi sighed and placed his palm on Patchouli's shoulder, silently shaking his head. "Just as I thought… These young rabbits are about as competent as…"

He cut off the rest of the sentence in a surprised reaction to the rabbit's sudden take-off. She even gestured to them to follow her and so, without any needless words they hurried up after her. She flew fast and didn't turn back. To Kyouichi's surprise she didn't stop at the stairs to go up, but continued her flight onwards and at one of the crossroads she turned to the right.

"Could you… please… slow down a bit~?" Kyouichi called at her in between his huffing and puffing, since his legs were no match for the speed of her flight.

"Hurry up, Kyouichi-san!" Patchouli urged him to keep up. "She went that way!"

Kyouichi had lost sight of the rabbit, but at least Patchouli was considerate enough to stay a couple of meters behind. Due to all the sudden turns the servant rabbit made, she almost even eluded Patchouli.

"I think I know where she's going." the purple-haired sorceress informed the outsider. "Looks like the princess is sorting the freshly made medicine again… The rabbit is headed for the pharmaceutical department."

"I… hate… running…" wheezed Kyouichi as he was running out of breath.

A couple of more seconds and he could finally come to a halt when he saw the rabbit floating in front of one of the doors, as if hesitating to enter. However, she seemed to have overcome her doubt and entered the room in the very next moment. Patchouli shrugged and followed suit with Kyouichi in tandem. Together they entered a big room that resembled a smaller warehouse. Thousands upon thousands of boxes with medicine of all varieties were neatly placed on tall shelves, ready to be distributed. Some of the medicine was placed on wooden pallets, fresh out of the lab and yet to be sorted… And near one of those pallets, sitting on a comfortable-looking chair with one leg folded over the other and a cup of some refreshing beverage in her hand, was one very relaxed Moon princess.

* * *

"Sorry to intrude~!" Patchouli politely announced her arrival, which had startled the black-haired beauty into jumping on her feet.

"W-what?! Who?! I… I'm not slacking off~!" she immediately began to pretend that she's working before she lifted her gaze up at her surprise visitors. "Huh? Patchouli-san? And… umm… Outsider-san?"

"Well, what do you know? Who would have thought it'd be that easy…?" Kyouichi commented the success of Patchouli's idea.

"Yes." nodded the sorceress. "Sorry to bother you while you're on duty, but… I had something important do discuss with you. If you don't mind, that is…"

"Mind? No, no, of course I don't mind." Kaguya shook her head and her expression changed to make her look somewhat guilty. "To be honest… I'm glad you showed up, Patchouli-san…" A deep sigh escaped her lips. "I deluded myself into thinking that I can help Eirin as a nurse… But this job is not easy at all. I'm already tired of it and I haven't been doing it for even a week."

"Oh, tell me about it." said Patchouli with contempt. "Although I did get to put some of my knowledge to good use, I'm not cut out for this kind of work. I prefer the library."

"I can totally understand what you mean." the princess sympathized with her. "But at least I learned my lesson from it."

"Yes, me too." nodded the sorceress agreeingly.

"I knew you were a kindred soul, Patchouli-san." Kaguya smiled at her. "You know what? Why don't you follow me so we can discuss whatever you'd like in better comfort?"

She took her drink and led the way out of the room.

"Oh, is he coming with us too?" she asked and beckoned at Kyouichi.

Patchouli had already prepared an explanation. "This is Ishimaru-san… My friend Remilia had hired him to take a look around Kazemura and take notes of anything suspicious regarding the incident with the aggressive fairies. It is because of this trip he took that he ended up here. He's made an important discovery and after the trouble he went through, I think he at least deserves to know what's going on here."

"O-okay, Patchouli-san, I was just curious." shrugged the smiling princess.

She gracefully walked along the confusing and endlessly long corridors until the group had reached the familiar staircase. From there she headed her steps upwards to the top floor – the one that was out of bounds not only to regular patients and visitors, but pretty much most of Eientei's staff.

* * *

"It's not every day that I let my guests here, but… I just feel like taking a break from this boring work."

"We're both very honored to be invited to your quarters, Kaguya-sama." said the outsider and bowed to the princess.

"Oh, now I remember~! You're the one that asked me for my autograph, right? The one from the Rehabilitation Ward…"

"Uhh, yes that would be me."

"I wanted to ask you about the current version of the Taketori Monogatari that's being passed on in the world beyond the barrier… I'm pretty sure it had diverged from the original – the true story of what happened."

"Well, if you have the time to listen, then I will gladly tell you, Princess, but I believe Patchouli-sama has more important things to discuss."

"But of course." said Kaguya and stopped in front of a door that looked just like any other in Eientei. She placed her slender finger over it and a silent click could be heard as the locking mechanism was magically disengaged.

"So, welcome to my little kingdom." she gestured into her living quarters and entered as first. "It's nothing in comparison to what my chamber on the Lunar Capital was, back when I was still an official princess, but to tell you the truth, I like it much more here on Earth…"

"Wow…" uttered the amazed outsider.

"Amazing..." whispered Patchouli in awe.

For both of them this was the first visit to the otherwise forbidden chamber of the legendary Moon princess. However, Kyouichi's amazement was amplified simply because he was an outsider and that he never even dreamt of being where he was now and meeting people and youkai he has met so far. The fact that he was still alive after more than a month in this world was a miracle by itself.

Both he and Patchouli were now admiring the luxurious interior of Kaguya's private quarters.

Vast, spacious and bewildering… Those were some of the many words one could use to describe the interior of this place. Traditional Japanese furniture made of the finest polished mahogany was only one small part of princess's luxury. She seemed to be fond of reading, or at least had a taste for using books as a part of decoration, because there were two massive bookshelves on the left side of the room, separated by a doorway leading further into other chambers.

"As you can see, I don't have a throne or anything as you might have expected." Kaguya explained as she led the way towards a large low table topped with various dishes with desserts, fruits and decorative houseplants. "I really prefer to sit on the ground like so…" she suddenly dropped to a sitting position on one of the comfortable cushions at her table.

"Or sometimes," she continued, "I just lay comfortably down on the side like this…" and she did exactly as she said. She then elegantly ripped a single gape berry out of the cluster on one of many plates and savored it slowly.

"So, what do you think?" she asked both her guests. "Are you impressed?"

"Totally…" uttered the outsider who was still studying his surroundings with his mouth agape.

Patchouli seemed to be a bit less impressed due to the fact that she spent most of her days living in the no less luxurious Scarlet Devil Mansion, but she had to nod in acknowledgement.

"Well, if you asked Remilia, she'd probably say something like: "Pfffha! You call that impressive?" But I have to admit that it pretty much rivals our mansion. The only major difference is the style."

The princess smiled. "I see. I haven't really seen what your mansion looks on the inside, besides the foyer and the dining hall, so I can't really judge that… Seems like yesterday when I first heard the news of if appearing in the middle of the lake. Heard there was some strange red mist too…"

"Yes, that would be her doing." Patchouli indirectly referred to Remilia Scarlet and her reckless attempt to make Gensokyo a vampire-friendly place even during daytime.

"Oh, by the way… why am I still wearing this nurse uniform?" Kaguya asked herself, looking down at her chest. She slowly and reluctantly stood up, as if it consumed all of her energy and after stretching her neck left and right she turned again to her guests.

"Alright…" she exhaled heavily. "Please excuse me for a moment while I change into something more comfortable. Why don't you two sit down somewhere?" she prompted her guests, because both of them were still standing. "I'll be right back and bring you some snacks. Please don't eat those on the table, okay? I really like those…"

"…and hate to share." added Kyouichi, as if he was finishing Kaguya's sentence when she was already gone.

Patchouli shrugged in response. "Princess-like manners, I guess… But here's your best chance to get the next message, Kyouichi-san."

"You're right!" the outsider called out spontaneously, because the sheer magnificence of Kaguya's living quarters made him forget what he had come here for in the first place. He once again took out the piece of paper that Patchouli found in her uniform and unrolled it. He reread it a few times and then shifted his attention to the great table in front of him.

"A silver platter full of tasty treats hides the last clue and towards your goal it leads…" he repeated a line from the short text left by the youkai rabbit. "Damn… all of these platters are silver! My, what a specified hint, Tewi-san… Again, we can't help it, but to look everywhere."

"Somehow I doubt it's hidden among the fruits, though…" stated Patchouli as she watched the outsider picking through the grapes, apples and oranges.

"Please…" he looked at her pleadingly. "Can I ask you for assistance one more time? The princess can return any minute and I don't have enough time to check every platter. I need you to help me."

"But I already am..." said the sorceress. "I'm helping you by logically eliminating the least probable places."

"Hmm… I guess that IS some sort of help… But rather than telling me where not to look, could you please tell me where would you look first?"

Patchouli took a deep nasal breath and slowly scanned the surface of the table from left to right while humming quietly.

"How about that bowl with fondue?" she pointed with her hand and resumed her "scanning".

"Fondue?" Kyouichi repeated as he gazed at the said bowl. "You know, Tewi had already hidden one of her messages on a piece of meat. I somehow doubt she'd be so… unoriginal to make the same thing twice."

"Really?" Patchouli raised a surprised eyebrow. "In that case, it can be really anywhere… Perhaps even in that salad over there…"

"That really didn't help us at all." grumbled Kyouichi and randomized his search.

"Or maybe…" continued the purple-haired elementalist, "maybe Tewi simply put her message UNDER one of these silver platters."

"Now that's an idea!" called the human and started to lift the platters to look under them, but his luck remained to be poor. Meanwhile, Patchouli stood up and sneakingly walked towards the doorway between the bookshelves and focused her hearing sense to check whether the Moon princess wasn't about to surprise them. She could hear muffled sounds of rubbing cloth and a silent creaking of wooden floor somewhere far. Then she heard Kaguya's voice saying something.

"Mmmf… How… am I… supposed to… put this… on? Umf…"

Apparently the princess had a bit of a difficulty putting on some part of her usual attire without the assistance of her servant rabbits.

"Hey, Patchouli-sama, where are you going?" Kyouichi called at the librarian. "Now is not the time for studying books! I still haven't found anything and need your help!"

The girl nodded with a wry smile. "I think we still have some time before the princess returns… Hey, how about that platter with mochi? Isn't that a card over there?"

She pointed at a tall pile of rice cakes and a small paper card leaned against it. Since Kyouichi was sitting at the opposite side of the table, he couldn't see it, but as soon as Patchouli informed him about it, he looked around and grabbed the said card. For a moment he felt like he was about to celebrate, but as soon as he noticed what was written on it, his hopes diminished again. The card simply said: "Do not touch! Yes, that goes for you too, Tewi!" The text was written by none other than Princess Kaguya herself.

"Hmm… I guess she really must like these..." stated Kyouichi while gesturing at the cakes.

"That warning is like an invitation for Tewi to do something funny." remarked Patchouli after reading the card.

The outsider carefully lifted the platter and looked under it. "Ah~… Nothing… As if that was anything surprising."

"Then we have no choice but to take this pile apart." said the youkai sorceress. "But knowing Tewi, she most likely wants you to get into trouble by having to look inside the rice cakes for her message…"

"You mean she slipped a message inside the mochi?" he asked in disbelief. "Like a fortune cookie?"

"Something like that." nodded Patchouli. "Try poking a toothpick into one to sense if there isn't any… foreign object inside…"

"Your idea is brilliant, Patchouli-sama, but I see no toothpicks." retorted the outsider with a hopeless face.

"Then you have to eat them to find out…" said Patchouli nonchalantly and again slipped away to the bookshelves and checked if she wouldn't hear Kaguya's footsteps. After focusing her ears, she could hear the princess still grumbling over her clothes.

Kyouichi hesitated for quite a while, but he finally made that hard decision. He took the topmost mochi and stared at it intensely. "I guess she won't notice when there'll be one mochi missing…"

He opened his mouth and took a careful bite from the rice cake. It was like any traditional Japanese rice cake – sweet, sticky and chewy. A real jaw killer. Kyouichi felt like he had enough after eating one. Not that he disliked mochi. On the contrary, he actually liked them, but he considered all that chewing required to eat them as quite annoying. After a long minute he finally managed to swallow the first rice cake, but as his luck would have it, he didn't find anything inside.

"Damn you, Tewi!" he uttered as he took the second cake and stuffed his mouth with it. "Omnomnomnom nomnomnom~ …"

While Kyouichi was battling with a whole platoon of rice cakes, Patchouli peeked in a bit further and managed to see the half-naked Moon princess standing in front of a mirror in another room as she was putting on a light-pink shirt… with problems.

"Don't worry~!" she called out to the guests. "I'll… be… ready… sooon~!"

Patchouli couldn't help but to giggle. "Kaguya-sama, the head does not go through the sleeve~!"

When Kyouichi heard that, he straightened up in shock. "Mnf…*gulp*. What are you doing?! Now she'll be here sooner!"

He grabbed yet another rice cake from the platter and started chewing vigorously. He already ate two and found nothing. While he was chewing, however, he did feel something rough rub against his tongue. His eyes widened up. He stuck out his tongue a bit and salvaged a thin piece of paper from his mouth with his fingertips.

"Ow yeaw~! Finawy~!" he cheered as he put the paper on the table and stuffed the rest of the rice cake into his already full mouth. Now all he needed was to rearrange the mochi pyramid in a way that Kaguya wouldn't notice anything missing. However, he could already hear the princess's footsteps drawing closer, accompanied by her distant call. "I'll be right there~!"

In the nick of time he managed to make the mochi pile look almost untouched along with the warning card, but his mouth was still filled to the brim with the last mochi he ate. Kaguya was already there, dressed in a bright-pink shirt with many white bows along the buttons and a long dark burgundy skirt with yellow bamboo and flower pattern decorations and a wide frilly white hem. Her skirt was in fact so long, that it completely obscured her legs and feet and she dragged it behind almost like a wedding dress.

"Are you sure that this is more comfortable than what you were wearing a while ago?" Patchouli asked her with an uncertain look.

"Oh, it's comfortable, alright." said the princess with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Just a bit hard to put on…"

"Ever thought about unbuttoning that shirt before putting it on?" Patchouli continued to tease her.

"And risk breaking my nails? No way!"

"Considering that you regularly have to recover from total obliteration, that was a poor excuse, Kaguya-sama…"

The princess resignedly sighed and nodded. "Fine… So I just don't want to unbutton it all the time… What a pain…" she then brought her attention to Kyouichi, and the fact that his cheeks were strangely bulging out didn't escape her. It took her no more than a second when she looked at the platter with mochi to notice that something was out of the ordinary. Her reaction, however, was not an angry outburst. Instead, she smiled and nodded understandingly.

"Ishimaru-san?"

"Mmmnfmnfmm!"

"What's that you're eating?"

"Mnf… Nuffin?"

"I'll give you ten million yen if you can whistle right now."

Kyouichi took a deep breath through his nose and attempted a whistle, but all he managed to do was to make himself look hilarious. He repeated the process yet several times, only to fail again and again and making Kaguya laugh louder and louder. Patchouli too had to hold back her urge to laugh so she turned away for a while. Once the princess's hearty laughter subsided she took the warning card into her hand and shook her head lightly. "Some people just don't listen, do they? I thought you outsiders could at least read…"

Kyouichi finally managed to swallow the last remnant of the rice cake and lowered his head shamefully. "I'm sorry, Kaguya-sama… It was the sixth Impossible Request…"

Kaguya giggled in response. "Is that right?" she asked and took a rice cake from the top of the pile. "Well, at least we have the same taste in sweets… I have to admit that whenever Reisen makes these, I can hardly resist…" she took a very small bite, and after a while of chewing, she looked up at her guests again. "I can understand that you couldn't resist either. Oh well, no matter… Reisen will make me more whenever I ask her to so… I suppose it's alright for both of you to have some more."

While Patchouli turned her face to her again and courteously refused, Kyouichi profusely shook his head. "Oh no… I've had just about enough! No more rice cakes for me!" he declared and with a sleight of hand he grabbed Tewi's message from the table and hid it inside his pocket.

Kaguya looked confused for a moment, but then she just shrugged and assumed her favorite reclining position on her side, supporting her upper body with an elbow on one of the cushions. "Very well… Let's entertain ourselves with a conversation then. Patchouli-san had something serious to ask, if I'm correct…"

"Yes. Regarding the fairy incident." confirmed the librarian tersely.

Princess Kaguya took another mini-bite from her mochi and when she swallowed it, she nodded. "I'm not really in a mood for serious things much, but I guess it's better to get over with that now than later… So, Patchouli-san, what's on your mind?"

Patchouli didn't speak up immediately. She took a while to formulate her thoughts into coherent sentences and once she had done so, she began explaining.

"As you have doubtlessly noticed, Gensokyo is facing a serious incident." she preambled.

"That's hardly anything new, Patchouli-san, is it?" reacted the princess.

"Everything's new, Kaguya-sama. Even all those seemingly harmless incidents that have cropped up during the past decade were all of different nature."

"I don't bother myself much with incidents." said Kaguya. "That's the shrine maiden's job after all."

"Indeed. However this time, things are different then during any of the previous incidents. At least the ones I remember… After all, the fact that Eientei is currently brimming with more patients than usual is merely a part of the effect that this incident is taking."

"But not all of these humans were attacked by crazy fairies." the princess pointed out. "Many of them have merely common illnesses and minor injuries from work accidents and such…"

"Yes, I was getting to that…" Patchouli nodded. "Another reason is the mass spiriting away of dozens of outsiders into Gensokyo. They are not adapted to this place and it stands to reason that they are the first ones to be hunted down by most of Gensokyo's youkai. Not a small number of this latest "batch" of outsiders has already met their demise here."

"Humans come and go, Patchouli-san. Such is the fate of all living beings… with a few exceptions, of course… Uh, no offense, Ishimaru-san…" she looked sort of pityingly at Kyouichi who curiously raised his eyebrow in response.

"If this does not alarm you," continued the sorceress, "then what would you say if I told you that I suspect there to be a connection between the mass spiriting away and the fairy incident?"

"Please, go on…" the princess prompted her.

"Actually, to be exact, the first time I had the chance to observe the strange behavior of some of the fairies was shortly after the New Year – approximately a month before the spiriting away… In any case, while the connection between these two events still remains to be hypothetical, I am much more certain about the connection between the crazed fairies and the archeological discovery in the village of Kazemura. In other words, the ruins."

"Yes, word has reached me about that discovery as well." nodded Kaguya. "So you think that the Kazemurans have awakened some sort of ancient curse?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out." said the sorceress and searched the inner pocket of her long nightgown-like robe. After a moment she drew out the sketches which Kyouichi had given to her earlier and presented them to the princess. Kaguya observed them briefly, without having much of a clue about what they depict.

Patchouli went on with her explanation. "These sketches, or should I say penciled imprints come directly from the Kazemura ruins. The symbols at first appear to have no greater function besides being mere ornaments. However…" she reached inside her pocket once more to draw out her personal memo where she copied Satori's writing during her "trance". "This is the exact copy of the text written by a certain Satori Komeiji, a mind-reading youkai who has agreed to help us solve the fairy incident. She has written this text while she observed the mind of one captured fairy specimen here in Eientei in a trance-like state. During this trance she seemed to be rambling incoherent nonsense and her behavior nearly turned into that of the crazed fairies. At least that's what I've been told by those who were there with her in that room. When she came to, she could not remember anything during her… experience and neither could she understand what she had written… Now take a closer look, Princess, at these symbols and then again at the ones from Ishimaru-san's sketches…"

Kaguya did as Patchouli asked and her lips suddenly parted in surprise. "Some of them… match…"

"Quite a striking resemblance isn't it?" the sorceress beckoned at both documents. "This made me believe that the ruins are all marked with words… Meaningful texts in a language long forgotten. Now, to be honest, I haven't even begun to try and translate these symbols. I'll start as soon as I'll be back in my library. However, since I'm already here, I cannot help but to ask you, as someone who's lived here long before this place got its name, whether or not have you seen any similar symbols…"

Kaguya studied the documents for yet a few moments, then she shrugged and shook her head in a negative reply. "They're not Lunarian, that's for sure… And I can't say I have come into contact with this… language yet. Try asking Eirin, she's much older than I and knows… well, almost everything."

"Eirin-san was there personally when Satori wrote that strange text. In fact, it was her who had brought it to my attention after she couldn't figure out what these symbols mean."

"I see…" shrugged the princess once more. "In that case, I'm afraid I won't be of much help to your effort, Patchouli-san." She regretfully lowered her head. "This language is foreign to me."

Patchouli went silent for a moment and once again took a look at both of the documents once Kaguya had returned them to her. She seemed to be lost in deep thought, when she suddenly nodded and looked up at the Moon princess again.

"Never mind then… Thank you anyway." she said quietly.

Kyouichi who just sat there in silence for the whole time of their conversation could tell that Patchouli was a little disappointed. However, it appeared to be only his own inability to perceive her mood, because the youkai girl managed a light smile in the very next moment.

"Guess it's up to me and my books after all…" she said while looking at both Kyouichi and Kaguya. "Frankly, I'm looking forward to see if I'm up for the challenge. Just one more day of voluntary work…"

"What? You're still working here tomorrow?" Kaguya asked her incredulously. "I think I've had enough of my work yesterday… I'd rather be dying three times a day than having to sort medicine again."

"I don't think it was THAT bad." shrugged the librarian. "I've had more work with building a rocket once…"

Kyouichi turned his surprised face at her immediately. "Eh… say what?"

His question, however, remained unanswered, since Kaguya spoke up again, taking the center of Patchouli's attention.

"By the way, Patchouli-san… What did you mean when you said that this time things are different than during any previous incident?"

"Apart from what I already mentioned? Well, this incident is not one of those that will get resolved in a day, I'm afraid. And due to the fact that the boundary youkai is missing, I'm forced to speculate her to have a hand in these unusual happenings."

"Yakumo? Yes, I've heard that she hasn't been seen for a while." confirmed the black-haired Lunarian. "Isn't she acquainted with that Hakurei shrine maiden?"

"As far as I know, yes." replied Patchouli.

"Why not let her handle this as usual?"

"Yakumo-san cannot be reached or found unless she wishes so. So far it seems she simply prefers to stay hidden. Not even the Hakurei miko can do anything about that. Furthermore… and I'm almost embarrassed to say that, but perhaps the cause of this incident is not caused by the ruins after all, but by a living being who has or had some connection to this ancient civilization that used this language. I think so mainly because of Ishimaru-san's report where he stated that his magic detector didn't pick up any signs of magic in the whole quarry area. This seems rather contradictory to my theory, so I'd also like to visit the ruins personally for a detailed analysis. Preferably with a team of cooperative companions…"

"Hmm… Now that sounds interesting…" hummed Kaguya and straightened herself up. "Kazemura, huh? I haven't really been there. It's a rather new village, right? Established no longer than a couple of centuries ago… I've heard that the surrounding landscape is very beautiful. Perhaps I could take a look there at least once. Perhaps we could go together?"

Patchouli didn't expect the Moon princess to react so positively. "That would be splendid… Would you really like to be a part of the team?"

"Well… I'd like to see the sights and enjoy the fresh mountain air… Hmm…" she paused herself in a thoughtful expression. "Depends on what would you expect me to do as a part of the team… Because if you'll ask me to dig around in dirt in order to find some rocks and bones, than I'll refuse your offer like I refused all my suitors." she added with a mirthful giggle.

"The digging part is entirely up to the local prospectors. I'm going there merely to see whether there are any other arcane, youkai or divine powers at work near that area that a regular civilian-class magic detector wouldn't pick up."

"Are you saying that I own some cheap piece of garbage?" asked Kyouichi in regard to his magic detector which he received from Kirisame-san as a gift.

"That device is indeed trustworthy and surprisingly accurate. However, not perfect." stated the elementalist. "Apart from someone who can understand the arcane arts, I also need someone who can sense divine and special youkai energies. The first candidate that would come to mind would be Yukari-sama, but she is not even among our options. Besides that, I'd also need someone who possesses some knowledge about history… A linguist wouldn't be a bad idea, but a historian is a must."

"Then Keine-sensei and Akyuu-chan are probably your best bet." Kyouichi suggested.

"Yes, I've been considering those two as well." nodded Patchouli. "And lastly, since now the northeastern Gensokyo has become considerably more dangerous in the recent days, the team is also in need of a capable guard… Not that I couldn't take care of myself in a fight, but just in case of another surprise attack from the fairies, it'll be better to be surrounded by a handful of capable danmaku fighters. Reimu and Marisa will probably come with me, but it can never hurt to have some extra firepower…"

"Now that sounds like something I could do." said Kaguya and smiled. "At least it'll be a refreshing break from my constant battles with Mokou… Alright, Patchouli-san, you convinced me. When are we going out for this trip then?"

"I'll visit Eientei personally when the time comes. Right now, I can't say how long will it take for me to assemble the team, so please be patient."

"Alright…" the princess nodded lightly. "I'll be looking forward to your next visit then."

"And I thank you in advance for your willingness to help." bowed the librarian of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"My pleasure." said Kaguya and again took a bite of her rice cake. "Mmm… dewifouf…" she mumbled with her mouth full. She flushed it down her throat with a cupful of cool green tea and then she arched her back while stretching her arms above her head to relieve the stiffness from her body. Despite all the serious talk she just had with Patchouli, she seemed very laid-back and carefree.

* * *

"Now… You've been mostly just sitting here quietly, haven't you?" she asked Kyouichi. "I hope our conversation with Patchouli-san hasn't bored you too much."

The outsider raised his brow. "Bored? Not at all! I just… didn't really have much to say. The nearest time I'll go to Kazemura again will be in my next life."

"Because of what happened to you there?" inquired the princess.

"No. Because I'm going home – Tokyo, to be exact."

"The capital of Japan… Hasn't always been that way, though."

"Yes, Kaguya-sama I'm aware of this, thank you…" he replied with a light chuckle.

Kaguya also let out a light giggle. "Why of course. You come from that city after all."

"Actually, I come from Sapporo, but never mind… You could say that I come from Tokyo, since I've been living there for the past couple of years…"

"Then if you would have lived in Gensokyo for a couple of years, would you say that you come from Gensokyo?" she asked a bit teasingly.

"Most certainly not." replied the outsider sternly.

"Neither would I, to tell you the truth." confessed Kaguya. "I've basically spent more time here on Earth than on the Moon and yet I wouldn't dare to say that I come from here. However, you know the old saying – home is where your heart is… And for me that place is now Gensokyo. I wouldn't return to the Moon if they dragged me. And believe me, they tried…"

"Are you now talking about the true version of the Story of the Bamboo Cutter?" asked the human.

"Oh, yes. A part of it… Would you like to hear my whole story?"

"Yes, please. Very gladly."

"In that case, I'd first like you to tell me how the current-day version of the story goes in the outside world." requested the Moon princess and grabbed another rice cake to snack on.

"I'm not sure if I'm a good storyteller, but I'll do my best…"

He took a deep breath and began recounting the classic folk tale in his own words, as he remembered it being told to him by his grandmother when he was barely a ten year old. The fact that he was now telling the story about Princess Kaguya to Princess Kaguya struck him as awkward, to say the least. The Moon princess seemed to be listening carefully and nodding to herself as Kyouichi got to the part about the Five Impossible Requests. Meanwhile, Patchouli's attention seemed to have drifted away to her left side as she stared at Kaguya's decent collection of books. Her curiosity had built up to the point when she stood up by herself and walked over to one of the bookshelves, throwing an asking glance at the princess.

"Mind if I have a look?" she uttered a question quietly, interrupting the outsider's storytelling.

"Uh… sure, go ahead." replied Kaguya and with a somewhat distracted look she gestured to Kyouichi to continue.

After a couple of minutes, the story had come to its end where Princess Kaguya supposedly left the Earth and returned home to the Moon, abandoning the people who had found her and raised her. Kyouichi didn't even omit the part about the Japanese emperor, who like so many men before him, sought to marry the princess, but she rejected his proposal. However, as a parting gift, she had left him a flask filled with the elixir of immortality before she returned home, never to return to Earth again. The emperor, however, said that he didn't want eternal life if he couldn't spend it with her. And so, after the Moon people have come to take the princess back home, the emperor had ordered his men to take the bottle of elixir to the tallest mountain and burn it there along with Kaguya's farewell letter. He hoped that his message would reach the distant princess. It is said that the word "immortality" (fushi, or fuji) has become the name of that mountain and that the smoke from the burning letter and elixir still rises from its peak even today.

Once Kyouichi's narrative was over, Kaguya lightly snorted and smirked. "I see… The present day version hasn't changed much over the past few centuries. I guess the major diversion from the truth must have come sometime earlier… Sometime around the tenth century by your calendar perhaps… Storytellers use to add their own elements into the stories to make them more… appealing. In any case, thank you for the story, even if I've heard it from many outsiders before you."

"You're welcome." said Kyouichi and bowed once more. He then took a while to think about the whole story he just told and then he chuckled softly. "Well, apparently you either returned from the Moon or… never went there at all." he speculated.

"All will be made clear to you in a moment." said the smiling princess. "It is now my turn to once again retell the truth of my past and present. Please, make yourself comfortable and listen carefully. Oh and don't be afraid to stop me when you'll feel like I'm talking too much. I've got a whole eternity of time, so I often get carried away and go too much into unnecessary details when I tell stories."

"Don't worry about that, princess. I'm much better at listening to stories than at telling them. I won't stop you from talking about details. I want to know as much as possible."

Kaguya was glad to hear those words. "The humans live very hectic lives because your lifespans are so short… I understand that, so I will try not to waste your time with unnecessary trivialities. But if you'll have questions, just ask them."

Kyouichi nodded and decided to ask his first question now, regarding what the princess had said just a moment ago. "You said that you've got a whole eternity of time… Did you mean that literally?"

"Why yes." responded Kaguya with a little surprised expression, because she found his question rather stupid. "Didn't you know?"

The outsider embarrassedly scratched his head. "Actually… now that I think about it, since you did give the emperor the elixir of immortality, it would be only logical to assume that you'd be immortal."

"Ah, yes…" the Lunarian nodded. "The elixir… It all started with the elixir…" she muttered with a spacey look as she reminisced. "Before the beginning of the story you just told me, I lived on the Moon. That, I believe, you're well aware of. As a Lunarian it comes as granted that each person is born with some unique power. We are, after all, the originators of all magic."

"Wait." Kyouichi halted her. "Are you saying that all the magic has come from the Moon?"

"It's not like I made that up, Ishimaru-san. The facts speak for themselves. Our magic is far beyond anything any of the Earth's human sorcerers or the youkai possess…"

"And yet you were defeated by a human shrine maiden…" Patchouli murmured over the book she was just reading. "Also, the youkai of boundaries would most likely argue with you about that statement."

"That time it was merely a game." Kaguya retorted with a colder voice. "Hardly a real battle… The miko AND the oh-so-powerful Yukari Yakumo were both standing against me, so the odds were… slightly in their favor. Besides, the old youkai learned her lesson not to mess with Lunarians after her repeated fiasco of an invasion. Not even she can hold a candle to the power and knowledge that we possess. However, I have no hard feelings for her or the one who wears red and white. But I'll get to that part later… Now where was I? Oh, yes… So I said that all Lunarians are born with some abilities, and some of those abilities are considered as prodigious even among our people. I was such a child… not only was I born in a royal family, but on top of that, I was born with a gift that was envied by many – the power to manipulate eternity as well as the instantaneous. That alone, however, doesn't mean I was born as immortal, oh no… It all happened much later. While I was still an infant, my family had learned about my unusual gift and thought that it could greatly benefit the entire Lunarian society. That's when they had allowed their most trusted sages and scholars to study my innate ability. That's when I first came into contact with Eirin, one of the eldest scholars. She was one of the key figures in the establishment of the Lunar Capital."

"My word!" uttered Kyouichi in amazement. "How old is she?"

"Millennia…" came a vague answer from the princess's lips. "I myself haven't dared to ask her about her exact age."

"So… uh… how long does an average Lunarian live? Or is Eirin-sama immortal too?"

"We live, by your standards, a very, very long time… Some have even lived so long that it is said they are immortal…"

"So your people are something like the Tolkien's elves?" asked the confused young outsider.

Kaguya only shrugged at the question. "I have honestly no idea what are you talking about."

"Ah… The Lord of the Rings…" sighed Patchouli nostalgically as she kept on reading one of Kaguya's books. "That brings back some memories…"

Kyouichi realized that he should specify the meaning of his question to the princess, and at the same time, he was surprised that Patchouli knew about that story. "I simply meant to ask whether the Lunarians don't die of old age, but can die from illness or injury."

"Our society has pondered the same question for ages, but in the end, we've all become aware of our own mortality. Long-lived we may be, but none of us was born to live forever… That very thought has haunted the minds of basically every Lunarian, but my birth was supposed to change everything…" Kaguya made a longer pause, as if she was once again visualizing something from a very distant past. Then she just nonchalantly grabbed another rice cake from the platter and smiled. "Excuse me for a second…" she took a bite and after swallowing it, she cleared her throat and continued.

"The sages and scholars believed that my unique power can bring about a miraculous change. A revolution that would defile the rules set by the gods. And they were right. In their joint effort they somehow managed to brew the potion of immortality, using my power as a catalyst. After me and one legendary place on Earth, they named it the Hourai Elixir. It was again Eirin who came up with the formula which was tested on one Moon rabbit. The result was a success. Even after countless attempts to end her life, her body regenerated completely. Ironically, it was this series of tests that have split the opinions about the elixir into two opposing factions. While one faction insisted this invention to be available to all those who are worthy, the more… conservative minds, my family included, claimed it to be a blasphemy that should have never even been created, let alone used. And so, after many decades of political struggle and even civil wars, it has come to pass that the use Hourai Elixir is strictly forbidden to all Lunarian citizens and its purpose was reduced solely to be some sort of bait to tempt mortals from Earth and manipulate them according to our will. Needless to say that no human ever received the elixir even when they survived whatever trial my ruling parents have put them through. Every time they used that experimental Moon rabbit to demonstrate the elixir's effect, and the foolish humans, blinded by the vision of eternal life, did everything at their bidding. All of that happened before I even became self-aware. Later when I grew older, Eirin became my tutor and had explained everything to me. I spent countless days contemplating about the possibility of living forever. Then one night I confronted Eirin with a request. I asked her to brew some of that elixir for me, even when I knew that it was strictly forbidden. She didn't agree at first, but I've made my point by telling her that if anyone deserves to benefit from its discovery, it should be me, because without me, there would be no Hourai Elixir. I told her that I was aware of all the consequences that it might bring and she had finally obliged my request with one last warning. But I just did what I had intended from the start. And that's when I became immortal. I have crossed the point of no return, because the elixir's effect is irreversible. To test it, I jumped out of one of the palace windows and fell to my death… only to wake up, surrounded by a curious crowd of people and my crying parents. When I stood up and dusted off my dress, as if nothing happened, everyone had their eyes and mouths wide open. I openly explained to my family that I drank the elixir, because I didn't fear the consequences. Of course, my conservative father was outraged by this and has forsaken me despite mourning my "death" just minutes before. Oh, the irony… He had me arrested, trialed and sentenced to death for an act of utmost treachery and heresy. However, when the day of my scheduled execution came, they couldn't get me to stay dead. They've tried everything, just like on that test rabbit, to no avail. It was horrible. I admit that I truly wished for death many times then… But in the end, I always regained my consciousness with my body renewed. When the executioner finally gave up, my father decided for a different punishment. One that was considered by many Lunarians even worse than death. I was exiled to Earth… So that you'd understand me better, Earth was, and still is considered as a filthy, disgusting place filled with impurities and reeking of death. And any human is believed to be foul and impure as well. I too once embraced such beliefs before my exile, because that's what every Lunarian is being taught ever since childhood. Nothing but a bunch of hypocritical, prejudicial nonsense… However, like I said, I once viewed this place and humans with the same contempt as anyone from the Moon. So when I heard what my punishment would be, I screamed and begged for forgiveness. Of course, they wouldn't listen and so they sent me here to live my eternal life among the humans. I was magically turned into an infant again and sealed within a bamboo stalk. That's when the events of the Taketori Monogatari happened… well, most of them anyway… The trick behind the Five Impossible Requests, which I asked of all my suitors, was that I made sure that they were… impossible. The stone begging bowl of Buddha from India, the jeweled branch from the island of Mount Hourai, the robe of the fire-rat from China, the dragon's necklace and the swallow's cowrie shell… they were all already in my possession."

This revelation was truly something the outsider hasn't expected. "Huh? You already had all of these items?"

"Why yes." nodded the princess with an innocent smile. "Let me show you…" she suddenly stood up, and raised her hand with her palm upwards. A bright sparkle was conjured out of thin air and after a moment, the light formed into a rectangular shape. Kaguya was simply drawing out one of her Spell Cards. When the light faded, the card was resting on the princess's palm. Then, without any declaration, she raised it above her head and another bright flash illuminated the room for a brief moment. When Kyouichi wiped his eyes, he could already see the five legendary items hovering silently around the Moon princess, each surrounded by an aura of different color. Again, he couldn't keep his mouth in an intelligent position and opened it wide. "J-just when and where did you get all of these?"

"Believe it or not," continued Kaguya with her nonchalant tone while explaining, slowly making the five radiant items spin around her, "I used to do quite a bit of traveling back in those times… That's what the present-day version of the story doesn't mention. A few of those items I acquired during those travels, such as this branch, this robe or this shell… As for the other two, the necklace and the stone bowl, they were already found long ago. All by nameless humans, who were like so many before them, tempted by the elixir, promised to them by the lunar emperor… Ironic, is it not?"

"But you said that you were exiled to Earth…" Kyouichi pointed out. "How did you manage to take those two things with you?"

"The necklace was given to me as a birthday present by my father, so I basically had it with me all the time. As for the bowl, it's again thanks to my dear Eirin… When I was held in prison for those few days before my "execution", she managed to smuggle it to my cell on my request. You see, all of these artifacts bring interesting benefits. The stone bowl can completely rid anyone from hunger and thirst. You won't get to enjoy any taste as you would by eating a tasty meal, but you'll never starve… Despite the fact that the elixir grants immortality, it unfortunately doesn't rid you of sensation of pain, thirst or hunger. The stone bowl came quite in handy not only in that cell, but also here on Earth during my travels that no tales speak of… Since I was immortal, I wasn't afraid to wander this world by myself meeting and sometimes fighting youkai that are unheard of even here, in Gensokyo. I've quested for these items to make my life here more… comfortable. However, when I had enough of traveling I again settled down at my "home", which is like the folktale says – the house of the old bamboo cutter and his wife. They were probably the only two humans in the world I actually liked at that time. Later that feeling became ever stronger… it became… love…" she paused herself again in a silent reminiscence of the old man and woman who raised her with love and care as their own child. After a good while has passed, when the only sound that interrupted the silence was the rustling of paper as Patchouli turned a page in a book, Kaguya resumed her story. "Then I had a vision."

"A vision?" repeated Kyouichi with a curious expression.

"Yes, a vision. In it I've seen my father in despair, greatly regretting everything he had done to me. I've seen him forgiving me for drinking of the forbidden elixir and even the day when he would send his emissaries to bring me back to the Moon… Oh yes… Many nights when the moon was full, I used to sit on the porch of that old house, staring up and… crying. A part of me was happy that my "crime" had been forgiven, but the main reason for my tears was the fact that I didn't want to abandon my human family who had adopted me. It was around that time when for some reason, men from far away began to visit the old bamboo cutter only to take a look at me. Some just curious, others… well, like the story goes, sought to marry me. I knew that I was going to return home soon, so marrying a human would be most unwise… Furthermore, I kept my true identity a secret from everyone until I was certain that I'd be going back home… I rejected all of my would-be husbands one by one. Some, however, didn't get the hint and were annoyingly persistent. So I got an idea of asking them my Five Impossible Requests, asking each to bring me one of the items I already owned. And five humans were stubborn enough to accept my requests, some of them dying in their attempt to fulfill them. That part is pretty much the same as it's said in the folktale, including the part about the emperor. But where the story and reality differ the most is the end. On the night when the lunar emissaries have arrived, I was most surprised to see Eirin among them. I had but a brief chance to explain my desire to stay on Earth to her, and I'm forever in her debt for what she did afterwards… Just before the emissaries have made me wear the Raiment of the Moon, which would make me lose my memory of the time I spent on Earth, Eirin had created a magical distraction, allowing us both to escape. By doing so, she had made it clear to everyone that she was sided with me and like me, she became an exile. We ran and ran without stopping for the whole night. When we lost our pursuers, Eirin told me about a place where we could find refuge and perhaps, even live peaceful and happy lives after all of this… And that place is right here – Eientei… In fact, there wasn't any mansion here when we first arrived here. But together with our magic, we built our new home. The place got its name because it was magically sealed in time. Nothing that ever happened in Eientei could become history, or to be more exact, to become recorded history. That all had changed with the arrival of an Earth rabbit, Tewi Inaba, but I've digressed… Anyway, I've lived here with Eirin ever since our daring escape from the agents of the Moon. I love it here very much… Hmm... I still miss my human stepparents sometimes, but most of the sadness from our sudden parting is already long gone… When I think about them, I think about the happy moments… After some time, Eirin decided that I should not spend my eternal life on Earth alone, so she finally took the forbidden elixir herself."

"Eirin-sama became immortal too, huh? She apparently really cares for you."

"She's more close to me than anyone from my family could ever be. She did so much for me… She's the most important person for me. I love her very much…"

Kyouichi was stunned for a good while when he finally spoke up. "Now… now it all makes much more sense to me! Thank you, Kaguya-sama, for telling me that story. It was… well, much better than what's being passed down these days in the outside world. And unlike the modern Taketori Monogatari, it has a much happier ending."

"Huh? You think the story is over?" asked the beautiful Lunarian, "I was just a bit lost in thought for a moment… So now you know how I ended up living here. By the way, was everything I said clear to you or do you have any questions?" she asked considerately.

"Actually, one thing still isn't quite clear to me." admitted the outsider. "About that Hourai Elixir…"

"Yes?"

"You said that its use is forbidden to all Lunarians and yet, they still haven't forbidden its production. Why is that?"

"As I said earlier, they keep using it as tool of manipulation."

"But they could just fool any human by simply filling some flask with water and telling them that it's the Hourai Elixir…" Kyouichi argued.

"Indeed, they not only could, but have done so on many occasions." confirmed Kaguya. "However there is one thing I haven't yet explained about the effect of the Hourai Elixir. That is the fact that it grants eternal life only when one gets a taste of it for the third time… Yes, however strange it sounds, that's how Eirin made it. The amount isn't crucial at all; it's the number of ingestions. You could empty a whole bottle in one go, but you wouldn't become immortal and at the same time, if you tasted just three drops of it, you would make your physical form eternal. That is the trick behind it. The first taste will make the user stop aging or growing up, the second taste makes the user incapable of becoming ill and the third one… makes one immortal… Now, since it's been over 1400 years since I was last on the Moon, a lot of things could have changed since then. Perhaps it is legal to use two doses of the elixir in case of some serious disease… Even though the pure environment of the Moon should prevent anyone living there from ever getting sick. Who knows? Perhaps today it became completely legal… Perhaps they sell it among soft drinks… And perhaps things haven't changed at all. Perhaps they use it for experiments on Moon rabbits or perhaps they are making a stockpile of it in case of some dangerous enemy would attempt to invade the Moon… Like that's ever going to happen." she dismissively waved her hand and giggled at that silly thought. "However, Reisen, as all Moon rabbits, has an ability that you could call telepathy. She's basically our source of information about the happenings on the Moon, because she can communicate with other Moon rabbits even over this great distance. Maybe I should ask her to find out something about the recent policies on the use of Hourai Elixir…"

"I would think that with your and Eirin-sama's exile from the Moon, the Lunarians have lost their means of making that stuff."

"I doubt it." Kaguya replied negatively. "Like I already said, the first dose of the elixir was made when I was a baby, unaware of my ability. And Eirin – merely a person who invented the recipe. Her knowledge could be still kept archived somewhere on the Moon and my power, could be recorded and stored, perhaps even duplicated for the sole purpose of reproducing the Hourai Elixir. But I can neither confirm, nor deny these theories…"

"May I have another question for you?" asked Kyouichi again once the princess went silent.

"If you think I know the answer, just ask." she encouraged.

"Why did you even want to become immortal in the first place?"

"And why not?" replied the Lunarian with a question of her own. "Wouldn't it be a waste of Eirin's hard work if nobody would ever get to enjoy the benefits of her discovery?"

"For Eirin's sake?" asked the human with a raised eyebrow, apparently not ready to believe this to be the princess's sole motive for committing her greatest crime. "Was that the only reason?"

"As I said earlier, I was also tempted by curiosity and will to live a life as an eternal being."

"And do you really think it was worth it? Going through all that trouble, pain and life in hiding? You even lost your title, because as I understand it, you're no longer officially a princess."

"That's true." agreed Kaguya with a carefree tone. "It's probably just a force of habit for everyone to address me as such… As for your question, yes… Yes, I think it was worth it. Despite all the hardships I was forced to go through, I live a peaceful and happy life without regrets for the past. And what's the most important thing; I have something that I didn't have even as an official princess of the Moon – freedom."

"What about the future then?" wondered Kyouichi. "You must be well aware that in the end, everything and everyone around you except Eirin-sama will eventually… disappear. Aren't you haunted by the thought of ending up only with Eirin, suffering for the rest of eternity?"

"Naturally, I am aware of this law… Nothing on Earth that has a form will remain intact and that nothing that lives will live forever… It is due to the impurity that permeates the Earth, stealing the eternity from all things and beings, seeping away from their lifespans…"

"Yes." smiled the outsider. "And science even has a name for it – free radicals." he added in jest.

"Free… what?" the ex-princess attempted to repeat the expression. "I… I have to ask Eirin about that…" she concluded with a somewhat embarrassed tone.

"Also…" continued the outsider, "What you just said was a bit… contradictory to what you said earlier. Didn't you say that even Lunarians die? Doesn't that make them or the Moon basically the same as Earth in that aspect? If your people lived forever, why would the Hourai Elixir be forbidden then? It would have no effect on anyone. What exactly makes us the impure ones and you the pure ones, I wonder…"

"I'm afraid the concept of purity and impurity is too abstract for your simple mind to comprehend, Ishimaru-san. We are a completely different class of beings than humans or the youkai. Purity is a trait that every single Lunarian is born with. Losing it, means that one is cast out of the capital. The Moon is eternally pure, unlike the Earth and so, the Lunarians rarely ever stayed here for a prolonged period of time. Impurity is an evil force that can spread like a disease. There is even a plant called udonge – a sort of tree that grows in the Lunar Capital. It only blooms and bears fruit when it comes into contact with this impurity. Since it feeds on it, it never bears fruit on the Moon. However, the Lunarians use it as a detection mechanism in case of any invasion attempt, like a few years ago… Once it detects an impurity, it bears a beautiful seven-colored gem. By the way, this jeweled branch of Hourai, which was one of the Impossible Requests, is nothing else, but a branch of an udonge tree from Hourai…"

"Interesting…"

"And to fully satisfy your curiosity, I also have to tell you that since we drank of the forbidden elixir, both me and Eirin are already impure, just as any human from the Earth. That means we cannot return to the Lunar Capital."

"Another contradictory statement from you, Kaguya-sama…" remarked the outsider. "Why have you spent over a millennium in hiding from the lunar emissaries then? They couldn't have brought you or Eirin back if they'd see that you're both "impure"."

"Not unless we'd undergo the purging ritual… But neither of us wished to return to the Moon anyway. In fact, we still live in hiding… sort of… Not as worried as a couple of centuries ago, but still. It would be most bothersome if the lunar emissaries were to find us again, which they nearly did not too long ago… That's when we had to magically seal off the real Moon in one of Eientei's chambers and replace it with a fake one, so that the agents from the Moon could not find their way here to Earth…"

Kyouichi was having a hard time even trying to imagine this, but he vaguely had an idea about what event was Kaguya referring to. "You're talking about the Imperishable Night…"

The princess smiled again and made a confirming nod. "Looks like someone's done their homework..." she remarked jokingly. "Yes, that night. I was nearly discovered… The lunar emissaries were looking for Reisen who was hiding here in Eientei. We dreaded the thought that they would find us, so we've had the real Moon sealed off just for that one night of the full moon. The presence of a fake moon in the sky naturally alarmed the sensitive youkai, which has consequently drawn the attention of the Hakurei shrine maiden. She, in cooperation with a youkai found her way into the mansion and even to the room hiding both me and the true Moon. I was worried about being discovered and they, in turn, demanded that I return the real Moon to the sky immediately. Naturally, this conflicting situation escalated into a battle. I tried to break their spell of everlasting night, but in the end, I was outmatched… Fortunately, all ended well, as no lunar emissaries made their way to Earth on that night and I could restore the real Moon at the break of dawn. Both parties were pretty much satisfied."

"So, back to my earlier question… You have no worries about the future?"

"I learned to enjoy the moment and that what exists here and now, instead of dwelling too much on the past or thinking too much about the future."

"Apparently you don't seem to be troubled by such thoughts now." said Kyouichi when he heard Kaguya's carefree response. "But what will you do in… let's say… 5 billion years, I wonder."

"Five billion years?" repeated the Lunarian fugitive with a bit clueless expression.

"The estimated time when the Sun will run out of its hydrogen reserve…" Kyouichi elaborated. "The most definite end of all life on Earth, IF any life will remain here up to that long… The Moon will most likely suffer the same fate, unless your mages and sages think of some trick to restore the Sun or live without it… Have you ever thought about that, Kaguya-sama? You… floating in space for eternity, gasping for air, feeling the chill of minus 100 degrees or worse, nothing to eat or drink, nobody to talk to and unable to die… for the whole eternity… Sounds worse than going to hell, if you ask me. I don't think you or Eirin deserve endless suffering, Kaguya-sama."

The princess took her time to imagine the scenario and after a pause, replied without giving any hint of being worried. "Even when I have to admit that what you just said made me feel uneasy, I have already made my choice and can't do anything about it… There's an old saying that goes: If a problem can be solved, it's needless to worry about it. If it cannot be solved, worrying won't help you."

Kyouichi was surprised by her attitude, but he himself felt a bit guilty for making her realize how cruel the immortality can be. He bent forward in apology. "I'm sorry, Kaguya-sama… I didn't mean to unsettle you… I just… feel a bit sorry for you…"

"You don't need to apologize for my decision… What has to happen will happen and I'm ready for it." said the princess reassuringly.

That's when Kyouichi remembered the old youkai alchemist who claimed to have invented an improved Hourai Elixir, which negates any and all unpleasant sensations in addition to granting the benefit of immortality. He gasped loudly and opened his mouth to tell the princess about it, but in this very instant he realized that by doing so, he could get himself into all sorts of trouble. Devoured and tormented by this internal conflict, he swallowed his words and didn't say anything. Now it was him who felt uneasy for keeping this secret from her and he didn't like that feeling at all. The princess noticed his sudden change of mood and stole a questioning glance at him.

"You looked like you were going to say something."

Kyouichi camouflaged his original reckless intention by pretending he just wanted to ask her another question.

"Uhh… yes, yes. It's probably a silly question, but is the Lunarian race older than mankind?"

Kaguya surprisingly shook her head in a negative reply. "No, it is not."

"That's… unexpected." said the outsider with a puzzled look.

"The genesis of our race began with Lord Tsukuyomi. He was a sage who had realized that the impurity was stealing life from all living things. The legend has it, that watching the full moon over an ocean, he had become determined to free himself from the impure Earth. He managed to leave the Earth and took up residence on the Moon. He took only his most trusted of relatives with him and together, they founded the Lunar Capital. Since the Moon was completely without impurity, those who had moved there forsook any lifespan."

"Sorry to interrupt you again, but… with all due respect, that again doesn't make sense." said the human outsider. "Are you saying that the founder of the Lunar Capital was a sage from Earth?"

"What doesn't make sense about that?"

"Everything!" declared Kyouichi who was now really confused about everything he had heard up to this point. "While it does explain as to why do you Lunarians look like us and even speak our language, it completely undermines all your claims about all magic originating from the Moon as well as that "purity" vs. "impurity" concept, which my simple mind cannot comprehend, as you so graciously pointed out. Since this sage was a human, no matter what sort of life he had led, he must have been just as impure as the next commoner. However, he was apparently quite… gifted to be able to travel to the Moon by sheer power of will. The Moon might be a place without impurity, but he surely must have brought some of it with him."

"Observant you are, I'll give you that." Kaguya acknowledged. "Yes, some miniscule amount of impurity does indeed exist on the Moon. However, this amount is so negligible that it can't be even measured."

"But that already means that the Moon is not perfectly pure." argued the young human and even Patchouli seemed to have nodded in agreement. While it seemed that she was diligently reading one of Kaguya's books, she still paid attention to the conversation.

"By the way… if he's the lord of the Lunar Capital does that mean that you're…?"

"A child he had with one of his wives, yes… The very person who raised me and later attempted to execute me for drinking the forbidden medicine."

"I see… But there's another thing that confuses me…" Kyouichi was about to point out another inconsistency. "You said that those who were taken to the Moon had forsaken their lifespans? After you just told me that even Lunarians can die? Forgive my rudeness, but I'm more than confused by your statements."

Kaguya still kept smiling warmly, not feeling offended in any way, because she was convinced that it was not her statements that were confusing, but rather Kyouichi's inability to understand that made him so puzzled.

"To forsake one's lifespan…" she began to formulate an appropriate explanation, choosing words carefully. "…means that one becomes neither alive, nor dead. In that sense, the Lunarians are pure. Of, course, since the lunar citizens or the rabbits aren't immortal, they can still die in, let's say, battles or accidents. Even the lunar citizens bear just the tiniest trace of impurity and even they may eventually die…"

Finally, Kyouichi got a satisfying answer that made his image of the Lunarians more clear. It turned out that the Lunarians had an unwavering tendency to view themselves as perfect beings, when in fact, their basal essence was technically the same as that of Earth's humans, who they all originated from. Nevertheless, one could never deny the obvious facts that the Moon people were superior to the humans in pretty much every aspect, save for the personalities. Their wisdom, vitality, longevity, magic power and technology they possessed, all by far surpassed the Earthlings. They were probably the closest tier of beings to the gods.

Kyouichi decided that he had bothered the princess with his incessant questions far enough and that he should take his leave soon.

"Very well, Kaguya-sama…" he said as he bent down before her for the last time. "I thank you very much for being able to bear with my impertinence and willingly answering all the questions I asked."

This was for the first time that the young outsider had seen the beautiful Moon princess bow down as well. "And I thank both of you for sharing your time with me and having this interesting conversation… I enjoyed it a lot. I was actually made to think deeply about many, many things. That doesn't happen with every human guest I talk to… Umm… you can borrow that book if you like it so much, Patchouli-san." she addressed the purple-haired youkai girl who appeared to have lost herself in the book's pages.

Patchouli's amethyst-colored eyes have peeked from behind the tome she was indulged in and blinked twice, as if she had returned to reality from a daydream.

"Is that… okay?" she asked with a quiet and timid voice.

"Why of course~!" nodded the owner of Eientei with her ever-sweet smile. "You can borrow even more if you like. It's the least I can offer for your hard work… Not just that, but... think of it as a token of gratitude… for our sprouting friendship."

The princess's hearty offer left the sorceress speechless for a few moments before she put down the book she was reading on her lap and her face brightened up with a similar smile.

"Thank you very much." she replied simply, but her words were filled with a feeling of happiness. "Then I'll just take this one…" she tapped her hand on the book's cover. "I'll make sure Marisa won't "borrow" it by accident."

Kaguya giggled in response. "Why not lend it to her for a while as well?"

Patchouli gave her an incredulous look. "No offense, Kaguya-sama, but you apparently don't know much about that human. When she borrows something, you're likely to never see it again. Unless you're fine with waiting until her death, I'd strongly recommend against lending her anything… Just hope she won't become a youkai then." she added jokingly.

"Well, I guess that makes me lucky, since she doesn't know about my little library…" said the princess as she was seeing her guests off. "Goodbye to you both then… Please come again sometimes."

Kyouichi hoped that this was the last time he saw Eientei and that he'd have no reason to visit it again. He guessed that the princess probably directed those last words at Patchouli and not at him.

"I already said I'll stop by once I had assembled a team to observe the ruins in Kazemura." replied the sorceress.

"That's right." the Lunarian nodded with a smile. "I just hope the weather won't turn bad on the day of our trip…"

"We'll choose a day with a more suitable weather then."

"I see… Well then, until next time, Patchouli-san."

With those words, Patchouli and Kyouichi left the princess's quarters, closed the doors and headed back to the staircase.

As soon as the princess was left alone, she realized something. "Oh, my… I'm so forgetful… I didn't even tell them about Mokou. Oh well…" she shrugged indifferently. "Perhaps some other time…"


	40. Truth Exposed

"So…" Patchouli turned a curious face at the outsider as they walked down the empty long corridor. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

Kyouichi grinned slyly and drew out the last Tewi's message from the sleeve of his robe. "Here it is…" he waved it gently and spread it open to read it.

"Hm…" Patchouli smiled and grabbed the piece of paper right out of Kyouichi's grasp. "It turned out we didn't need it after all…" she muttered and with a little bit of her magic, she burned the paper strip on her palm into ash, right in front of Kyouichi's surprised eyes.

"…"

"In fact, we didn't need any of them from the start…" added the sorceress as she wiped the ashes off her palm.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!" the outsider shouted out his question as he lifted the girl with both his arms, shaking her lightly back and forth.

The sorceress sighed. "Please, put me down." she demanded with a completely unamused tone. "You really didn't need to follow Tewi's messages in order to find her."

Kyouichi calmed down a bit, and as he realized that he didn't want to end up in the same way as the last Tewi's message, he slowly and carefully put the youkai librarian down.

"Why did you burn it?" he muttered as he was looking down at the floor. "What do you mean I didn't need to follow the messages?"

Patchouli first picked up her hat from the floor, which fell down from her head after Kyouichi shook her up. Once she put it back on, she let out a silent giggle, which comforted the outsider into thinking that the young youkai had some kind of plan.

"I knew about it all along, but sometimes, I tend to forget… However, Kaguya-sama made me remember it…"

"Remember what?" asked the confused human.

"The fact that the rabbits can communicate with each other telepathically even over great distances."

"I still don't see how is that going to lead us to Tewi."

"Isn't it obvious? We'll just have to find an Earth rabbit and ask them about the whereabouts of their leader."

"And you believe that any of those rabbits are going to rat out where their leader is hiding?" Kyouichi was again overcome by his own skepticism.

"Of course." said the sorceress bluntly. "All we have to do is ask the right question."

Patchouli's face brightened up with a wry smile. "Now, let's find an Earth rabbit…" she suggested and resumed her hover-flight along the corridor.

"How do we even recognize an Earth rabbit from a Moon rabbit?" wondered the outsider as he followed her.

"The ears, Kyouichi-san, the ears…"

"The ears?" repeated the young man, wondering what Patchouli meant.

They reached the staircase and walked all the way down to the ground floor where they were sure to see dozens of busy rabbits. Once there, Patchouli pointed her finger at a group of rabbits and explained.

"The ones with the thin, rumpled ears are the Moon rabbits, like Reisen-san. The ones with the fluffy downward ears are the Earth youkai rabbits… Now, let's ask them about Tewi-san."

"I seriously doubt this is going to work…"

Ignoring Kyouichi's remarks, Patchouli halted one of the passing Earth rabbits.

"Excuse me, but Kaguya-sama has asked us to call Tewi-san to her quarters. She said she had something important to tell her… Do you know where we can find her?"

The rabbit silently stared at her for a while before she bowed and turned her face away and stayed motionlessly in this position for nearly a minute.

"We might have fooled one rabbit when we were looking for Kaguya, but Tewi's not that stupid…" commented the outsider.

The Earth rabbit finally ended her telepathic communication and turned her face to Patchouli.

"Tewi-sama says that she'll see the princess in a moment. She says she just needs a little while until somebody comes to pick something up from her… She didn't say who, though…"

Although the rabbit had no clue, both Kyouichi and Patchouli figured that Tewi was simply waiting until the outsider finds her and receives back his potion.

"But if Kaguya-sama needs to speak with her immediately, she can find her on the second floor in the conference room…" added the rabbit in a by-the-way manner.

Kyouichi's jaw dropped upon hearing the rabbit tell them exactly where Tewi was waiting. He turned to Patchouli and gave her a deadpan serious stare. "Patchouli-sama…"

"What is it?"

"You… are… a… freakin' GENIUS!" he exclaimed with excitement.

"I don't really see myself as a genius." replied the librarian modestly. "More importantly, you better get going and find the conference room before Tewi-san gets bored and moves to somewhere else.

"You're right, time to give her a surprise visit. Let's go!" he called at her, but Patchouli remained standing and shook her head.

"No, Kyouichi-san. I'm not going with you. Since you already know where she's hiding, you don't need my help anymore. Besides, the second floor is out of bounds to guests. I'm not going to risk getting into trouble for your sake… no offense."

"I understand…" nodded the outsider as he took a step back. "Thank you anyway. You've been an awesome help. I guess it's time to part our ways then, huh? Goodbye, Patchouli-sama, and good luck with helping resolve the fairy incident."

As he wished her good luck, Kyouichi waved his hand at her one more time before he left the corridor and ran up to the forbidden second floor of Eientei. He didn't care about the fact that he was breaking one of the internal rules. After all, he's already broken quite a number of them during his stay. Once he was up on the second floor, he was met with another complex system of corridors and unmarked doors.

"Oh, crap!" he muttered a curse under his nose as he realized that he had no idea where the conference room was. What's worse, some of the rabbits that were just flying along the corridor spotted him and hurried to meet him.

"You there~!" they shouted at him from a distance. "The patient wards are on the third floor! Please turn back! This area is for Eientei residents only!"

Kyouichi's brain now struggled to quickly come up with some excuse. When the rabbits stopped a few meters in front of him, they once again repeated their warning.

"I know…" said the outsider and bowed to them apologetically. "But I've been tasked by the princess to meet someone in the conference room…"

The rabbits silently hovered in mid-air, apparently not falling for Kyouichi's cheap lie. They both exchanged their looks before looking again at the human intruder.

"Leave this place at once, mister…" one of them ordered coldly.

Kyouichi had no choice. He nodded and turned around in disappointment, ready to take the stairs down again. Just as he put his foot down the first stair, however, the second of the two rabbits called out.

"Wait a minute!"

"Huh? What is it?" the surprised outsider turned around, curiously staring at the pair of rabbits.

"I… uh… I just checked that information with other rabbits and… it seems that Kaguya-sama has indeed sent a human to meet someone in the conference room."

"R-really?" asked the other rabbit incredulously. "Are you sure about that?"

"I just said it, didn't I? This human is here on Kaguya-sama's behalf."

Kyouichi was in a loss for words. He could only speculate that the Earth rabbit halted by Patchouli really fell for the lie and telepathically spread the false rumor to some of her friends.

"In that case…" said the less trusting of the two rabbits, "we apologize for our rudeness, sir. Please, let us show you the way to the conference room."

Without a word to say, Kyouichi followed the lead of the two rabbits. After a short while, the two youkai rabbits stopped and gestured at one particular sliding door. "This is the conference room. Once your meeting is over, please leave this floor the way you came. We cannot have the patients wandering about, unless they have a good reason…"

"O-okay…" said the outsider, still unable to believe the favorable development of the situation. He tired to regain his courage and composure and quietly slid the room's door open. The pair of rabbits who escorted him all the way here was already on their way, apparently busy with some other assignments. Shrugging his shoulders, Kyouichi stepped into the conference room. A single large table surrounded by over twenty cushions was taking up the center of the room. Lined along the walls were several cabinets and bookshelves accompanied by houseplants and decorative paintings. But most importantly, at the other side of the room, kneeling on a cushion and with her back turned at the door, was the person Kyouichi was looking for – Tewi Inaba. It seemed she didn't even notice him come in. Instead, she looked as though as she was looking into the neighboring room through a hole in the wall and giggling quietly. Kyouichi had caught her completely off guard. He tiptoed all the way to the leader of the youkai rabbits and nonchalantly spoke up.

"Is there anything interesting going on in the next room, Tewi-san?"

"Waaah~!" exclaimed the shocked rabbit as she rapidly turned herself around to face the source of the voice.

"Well, well, well… We meet again at last… Tewi-san." said the outsider with an intimidatingly calm, drawling tone and flashed a dark smile at her.

The youkai rabbit girl was still too shocked to manage a reply and she just silently stared at him with widened eyes and trembling ears.

"What's the matter? Aren't you even going to greet me?" Kyouichi continued teasing her. After all, he did want to give her some sort of punishment for stealing his belongings and the fact that he now had her backed against a wall and sweating nervously brought him quite a satisfying feeling. He decided to keep his act up for just a bit longer.

"Well, no matter… I can make do without your greeting, however, not without an adequate… compensation."

"Y-you're here for your red wine…" uttered Tewi nervously. "Ehehe… it's right there in the next room."

"That's good…" Kyouichi gave her a praiseful nod. "But regardless… I cannot leave things as they are and just happily walk away, oh no…"

"W-what do you want to do?" the black-haired prankster asked with a shaky voice.

"You've been a bad girl, Tewi-san… Certainly not setting an example for the other Earth rabbits under your command…" Kyouichi continued enjoying Tewi's insecurity. "Your little game could by many humans, as well as non-humans, be considered as an act of thievery… A punishable act, so to speak…"

Tewi nervously swallowed her saliva as she stared at the target of her pranks – now, the predator that caught its prey. "P-please don't hurt me."

"Letting you go without any form of punishment would only be a reward to all the thieves around the world… And you, Tewi-san, after all you've made me go through, definitely deserve to be punished…"

"I'm sorry~! I'm sorry~!" the frightened Earth rabbit covered her face with her arms and began sobbing, thinking that Kyouichi was about to hit her. But that didn't happen.

"Oh… You think your punishment will be a physical one?" Kyouichi asked her calmly.

The rabbit responded by lowering her arms and a curious stare.

"Reisen-san has asked me to bring you to her, should I find you… She told me to leave your punishment up to her… And that's just what I'm going to do."

"Yaaaah~! No~! Please, let go~!" Tewi protested as Kyouichi forcefully grabbed her little wrist. She squirmed and struggled, yanked and twisted, but her muscular strength was no match for that of an adult male human. It was at this moment, when Kyouichi realized that he had probably gone too far. He didn't release her, but instead tried to calm her down.

"Hey now… Don't worry. I won't do anything to you… Just calm down, okay?"

"I… Let go… I'll defend myself with danmaku~!" she threatened.

Out of fear of her magical power, Kyouichi quickly took a hold of her left wrist as well and secured her arms behind her back with a steady grip.

"Nooo~!" she screamed in protest. "Don't… Don't take me to Reisen… We… we could make a deal… Just don't turn me over to her…"

"Calm down I say…" Kyouichi repeated his words. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Then let me go~!"

"Not before you calm yourself down, Tewi-san." the outsider stated a condition.

At first, Tewi seemed to ignore his request and continued her attempts to break free from his grip, but after a minute of pointless struggle, she lost her will to resist and she finally relaxed her body.

"Okay. I'm going to release you… But you must promise me that you won't attack me afterwards or run away."

"Just let me go already." she grumbled in irritation.

"That doesn't sound like a promise."

"Fine… I promise."

"Promise what?"

"Uuu~… I promise that I won't attack you or run away. Are you happy now?"

Kyouichi remained silent for a moment. "You know what? I think I better take you to Reisen after all…"

"Nooo~! Please, don't be so cruel~!" cried the rabbit, but didn't struggle anymore. Perhaps she was already tired of it. "I'm sorry for stealing your wine. I won't ever do it again. Just don't tell Reisen."

Finally, Kyouichi let her go. "And I'm sorry for scaring you so much." he bowed to her in apology.

This surprised the Earth rabbit even more. "Eeh? You… weren't going to tell Reisen?"

"Actually, I was… But I changed my mind."

After a good while of complete silence, Tewi slowly lowered her head. "Thank… you… But… why did you change your mind?"

"I've already given you the punishment." answered Kyouichi plainly. "And I'm afraid I've scared you a bit too much. And even though Reisen personally asked me to, I'm not going to turn you over to her… Instead, I'd like to give you a chance… as a friend." he added with a smile.

"As a friend?" Tewi repeated incredulously.

"That's right. A friend. A person who is there for you during fun times as well as times of need."

"You're… not really angry at me for taking your stuff?"

"A little bit." admitted the human. "But I've already forgiven you. Now… how about we started our meeting anew?"

"Okay then." Tewi nodded agreeingly.

"Good afternoon to you." Kyouichi greeted and bowed politely to Tewi. "My name is Kyouichi Ishimaru. Pleased to meet you."

"Umm… My name is Tewi… Tewi Inaba." the rabbit introduced herself a bit shyly. "Good afternoon…"

"That wasn't so bad." Kyouichi smiled at her encouragingly. "Friends?" he asked as he extended his hand towards her.

After a hesitant moment, the rabbit girl slowly took the human's hand into hers and gently shook it. "F-friends…"

"You don't need to be so shy, Tewi-san. I'm just an ordinary human. I should probably address you Tewi-sama when I come to think of it…"

"No… Tewi is okay…" muttered the rabbit, with a little more confidence resounding in her voice.

"Very well then, Tewi…" said Kyouichi as he measured her up for a moment. "It's good to have a new friend in Gensokyo…"

"I… uh… I didn't see that reaction coming from you…" admitted the rabbit honestly.

"Say, Tewi… Why did you choose me for your prank anyway?"

"Well…" the Earth rabbit paused herself in thought. "When I first saw you, I couldn't help but to try pulling something funny on you, hehehe…"

"And thus, you misguided me to the bathing room instead of men's restroom." Kyouichi commented, chuckling in retrospect of this event. "And at the worst possible time…"

Tewi also couldn't hold back her giggle. "Tehehe~… So… did you get a good look?"

"Yeah… A second longer and they'd be scraping my remains off the floor and walls… But it was still worth it… Actually, the next time I met you, I wanted to thank you for arranging it…"

"Huh? The next time…? You mean outside, right? I thought you were so angry at me that you were going to strangle me… So I ran off."

"Which I find a little strange." admitted the outsider. "If I'd really threaten you, you'd just make short work of me with magic… Right?"

"Well… I prefer to avoid violence if possible, so if there's any danger, I, more often than not, simply run."

"So… what made you want to play another prank on me later?" Kyouichi inquired.

"Because as I hid in the forest, I was still watching you." the rabbit girl answered. "I saw you do something… interesting. You snuck into the reception office… So I thought to myself that I better keep an eye on you. I followed you in and watched you take something from one of the lockers. At first I thought you planned something evil, but it turned out that you were just taking some of your own stuff to your ward. So then I thought: what an interesting person… Not caring about some rules and doing things his way… So then, when you were moved to the other ward and no longer wore the bandages, I was secretly planning to play a little game and see if you really had what it takes to break Eientei's internal regulations. It sure was fun watching you… But sometimes you just took too long and I was getting bored. I was almost caught at the beginning when that fairy noticed me standing behind the door, hehe. That was a close shave…"

"But apparently you didn't keep a constant watch of me, since I caught you here…" remarked Kyouichi as he looked around the spacious conference room.

"That's right…" Tewi made a bit embarrassed nod. "How did you know I was here?"

"I didn't…" spoke the young man truthfully. "It was thanks to the brilliant mind of Patchouli-sama that I found you."

"Patchouli? From the Scarlet Devil Mansion? Hmm… maybe next time I should play a similar game with her…" muttered the mischievous rabbit to herself.

"Please, don't." Kyouichi pleaded her. "She's busy with lots of important work. She's even working to resolve the incident with crazed fairies. The last thing she needs is to be disturbed…"

"Then I guess I'll just have to make do with Reisen." shrugged the youkai rabbit.

Kyouichi raised an eyebrow. "Reisen? You were begging me not to turn you over to her just a while ago and yet you're not afraid to keep playing pranks on her?"

"Hehe~!" Tewi giggled smugly. "Reisen will never catch me. She's too lazy to even give it a try."

"Or too busy to even bother…" the outsider said a more probable reason for Reisen's passive attitude towards Tewi.

"So… now that you've found me, I guess you want your stuff back." Tewi quickly changed the topic.

"I'd expect no less."

"Then follow me." the rabbit gestured and opened the door. "It's all there in the room behind that wall…"

"What do you mean "all"?" wondered the young human. "Didn't you just steal my po… uhh… I mean... red wine?"

"Oh, so I can keep all those snacks and candy?" asked the girl anticipatively as she led the way.

"Wait a sec. You still have the snacks? I thought you ate them all."

"Of course not." she shook her head denyingly. "I only had a little bit of each… Just look at me. I'm barely half your size. Do you really think I'd manage to stuff myself with so many sweets?"

"Well… With youkai, you never know." shrugged Kyouichi as he followed her. "For example: I know a girl who's about the same size as you and she can drink up several barrels of sake in one go."

"Whoa~! Really? She could even rival the oni!"

"Actually, she IS an oni."

"Eeeh? Well in that case, there's nothing to be impressed about." Tewi waved her hand. "If she was a human and could drink the same amount, now that would be worth admiration."

"There's no human dead or alive that could drink that much, though…" remarked the outsider after a weak chuckle.

"Yes, I thought so… And there's no rabbit dead or alive that could eat as many sweets as I've taken from you… Anyway, here we are. It's right inside this room. Just follow me…"

Kyouichi was still proceeding rather cautiously, not fully giving his trust to the youkai rabbit. He waited until she opened the door and entered first, so she couldn't lock him in from the outside.

"Why are you standing out there, Kyou-san?" she called him impatiently. "Hurry, hurry… before Eirin comes back…"

"Huh?" the outsider was met with another surprising fact. "Are you trying to tell me that we're now in Eirin-sama's bedroom?!"

"That's right." the rabbit replied innocently and bent down near the bed, reaching for something.

"It's rather modest…" Kyouichi commented the room's furnishing. "But that's not important now… You hid my things in Eirin's room? If she'd find them before me…" he left the sentence unfinished, because even a mere thought about that unsettled him.

"Why are you so pale all of a sudden?" wondered Tewi as she gave him a quick once-over. She then pulled out a half-empty glass bottle with the dark-red potion from under Eirin's bed. "Okay… and now the sweets…" she muttered to herself and stepped up to a small cabinet with several drawers. She opened the topmost drawer and started to dig around a bit.

"They should be somewhere further in the back…" she explained and began discarding all the things that were getting in her way.

Kyouichi's jaw dropped in shock as he watched Tewi nonchalantly discard various pieces of Eirin's underwear from the drawer onto the ground.

"Where the hell did you want me to dig around?!" he asked her scoldingly.

Tewi ignored him completely and continued her search until she recovered all the things she had hidden inside the drawer and passed them to their original owner.

"Thanks…" he nodded as he received back his snacks that were all wrapped up in rice paper. "Now hurry up and clean up this mess you just made." he nervously urged the rabbit.

As Tewi was leisurely picking up the scattered undergarments, she let out her typical mischievous giggle and waved one of the panties in front of Kyouichi.

"Hey, hey, Kyou-san… Want a little souvenir before you go home?"

"P-put that thing back where it belongs, damn it!" he turned away in embarrassment. "I can't believe you expected me to search that drawer…"

"Aw, come on~! It's not half as perverted as staring at a naked girl in a bathroom." remarked the Earth rabbit teasingly.

The outsider sighed with contempt. "That's a low blow, Tewi."

Finally, when the youkai rabbit put everything back into the drawer, she and her new human acquaintance quickly and discreetly left the zone of certain death – that is Eirin's bedroom. As they walked along the hallway, headed for the stairs, Tewi noticed that Kyouichi was tightly clinging onto the bottle, as if it was of some special importance to him.

"Is that wine really that expensive?" she asked curiously.

Unwilling to give a truthful answer at first, Kyouichi took a moment to think before he nodded and gave a reply.

"I… I'll let you in on a secret, Tewi."

"Hm? A secret? What kind of secret?"

"This thing here…" he gently tapped his finger against the bottle, "is no red wine."

"Not wine? Then what is it, Kyou-san?"

Kyouichi took a deep breath and briefly explained the origin and effect of the mysterious red liquid in the bottle.

Tewi was apparently amazed. "Eeeh? Really? That's interesting…"

"…and that's why I was so worried about it being discovered by Eirin-sama…" Kyouichi went on explaining. "If that happened, she'd surely want to know where I got it from and even if I told her the truth, she could suspect me from collaborating with an enemy of the Lunarians. In regard to Eirin-sama and princess Kaguya, I definitely don't wish to be associated with that alchemist…"

"Ohh… Now I understand why you were so eager to play along." nodded the rabbit girl understandingly.

"I'm glad everything was resolved discreetly and peacefully in the end."

"And I'm glad that I made a new friend." said Tewi and showed a cute smile.

"As a friend I ask you to keep this secret just between us. At least for the time being…" Kyouichi requested her. "So far everyone believes this thing is ordinary red wine. I'd like them to stay in this belief."

"I get it…" said the youkai rabbit after she nodded once. "I'll stay quiet about this… Even though it would help Eirin-sama a great deal if she could make her medicine just as effective…"

"I'm aware of that too." said the human and hushed his voice when they reached the staircase. "But I don't want to be involved in this. Not even partially. You may tell Eirin everything I just told you… AFTER I get discharged from Eientei."

"I see…" said Tewi after a thoughtful moment. "I think that would be the best course of action."

"Luckily, you won't have to wait too long. I should get discharged today, if all goes well. Which reminds me that I better hurry back to my ward. I spent too much time wandering around Eientei and I might have even missed my turn for the final check-up."

"Okay then, Kyou-san." smiled the mischievous rabbit and bowed. "I'll keep watching you. If you'll need something, just give me a signal~."

And so, Kyouichi parted ways with his new friend and hasted up the stairs to return to the Rehabilitation Ward.

As he entered the familiar room, he was quite surprised to see Soudai, all dressed-up in a dark-gray kimono with thin vertical yellow stripes, sitting on the bed with a small cotton backpack lying by his feet.

"What the…?"

"Oi~! Ishimaru~!" he greeted his friend by flashing a peace sign. "You certainly took your sweet time… Get a load of this – I'm finally discharged! Eirin-sensei checked me up and said that I have fully recovered. I can finally go back to the village~! Wooohooo~!" he called out cheerfully.

"T-that's… great news…" said Kyouichi after a moment of processing the information. "But what are you still waiting here for?"

Soudai was a bit surprised by his friend's question. "Huh? Have you forgotten? We're in the middle of the blasted Bamboo Forest of the Lost, man! I don't even know which way to go, let alone have the guts and skills to go alone. I believe the same goes for most of the humans… But soon there should be another Ryuuken patrol stopping by. We'll return to the village under their protection. However, it might take yet a few hours. Maybe Eirin-sensei will even give you the final check-up and discharges you as well. That way we could go together."

"Wait a sec." Kyouichi halted him for a moment. "Where is Eirin-sama now? Shouldn't it be my turn for the check-up now?"

"Yeah, that's true, but since you were nowhere to be found, she began checking up the fairies… Now that you mention it, I think she murmured something about you taking your time with Patchouli-san or something… Then she called four fairies at once. I guess they take less time to check-up."

"Hmm… I was wondering why this place seemed so strangely quiet." the younger outsider mumbled as he took a better look around. Besides the two of them, there was only Moe, Wriggle and Kogasa in the room.

"When did she call the fairies for check-up?"

"About an hour ago…" answered Soudai. "By the way, where have you been this whole time? Did you finally find what you were looking for?"

With a dull expression on his face, Kyouichi showed him the potion bottle and walked up to his bed to hide it. On one hand, he was glad that he managed to retrieve the potion, but on the other hand, he was angry at himself for taking too long and missing his turn for the check-up.

It would probably make no difference anyway; since the Ryuuken patrol was due to arrive to Eientei approximately one hour before sunset and Kyouichi knew that he wouldn't be able to go back to the village, even if he was now officially discharged like his older friend.

After all the walking around Eientei, his feet were quite tired, so he decided to take a quick nap until Eirin calls him for the mentioned check-up.

Without most of the noisy fairies in the room, it was now actually much easier to fall asleep than usual. Soudai respected his friend and just quietly waited on his bed, reading an already outdated issue of Bunbunmaru, which Lt. Takamori left here before he was discharged.

"We can go home now~! Yaay~!"

The loud and mirthful cheering woke Kyouichi up from his short slumber. As he opened his eyes, he saw a small group of excited fairies announcing the news of their discharge to their friends.

"Hey, hey, Wriggle-chan, Kogasa-chan, Moe-chan, we can finally go home~! But don't worry, we can wait here until Eirin-san lets you go home as well." Sunny said to the other girls.

Eirin Yagokoro was also there in the room, watching the happy reactions of the fairies for a while before she took a gander at her list of patients.

"Ah, there you are, Ishimaru-san…" she addressed the outsider without even making eye contact. "Do you know that you missed your turn once?"

Kyouichi was still a bit groggy after waking up. "Mhm…" he uttered and nodded affirmatively.

"I already managed to check up several of your roommates."

"Yes, I know…" said the outsider as he was getting up on his feet.

"Well then…" said the Lunarian doctor as she was turning towards the door, ready to leave. "Let's not waste our time with needless words. Follow me to my office, please…"

"Yes, doctor…" replied the young man and followed her out of the Rehabilitation Ward.

None of them said a single word for the whole time as they walked down to the first floor to the office. When they finally reached their destination, Eirin asked Kyouichi to sit on one of the chairs and wait while she prepares all her necessary equipment.

The waiting made Kyouichi quite nervous, as he had no idea what sort of tests he was about to undergo. When he saw Eirin placing a few vials and needles on the table, his nervousness increased even more.

"So, you're going to take a blood sample too?" he asked while trying to make his voice sound calm.

"What's wrong, Ishimaru-san? You don't like the sight of blood?" she replied with questions.

"I hate needles…" grumbled the outsider and turned his face away from the tools on Eirin's table. However, the saying "out of sight, out of mind" didn't apply this time.

He could hear Eirin's giggle from behind his back. "You're more scared than the fairies I just checked up… Don't worry. I'll just take a few milliliters. I'll be done before you even feel the pinch."

"If you say… ack!" Kyouichi was suddenly surprised by a stinging pain on the inner side of his left elbow as Eirin proceeded to take the blood sample. "Hey, you should have at least given me a warning!"

While the blood was slowly dripping into the vial, Doctor Yagokoro distracted Kyouichi's attention from the unpleasant feeling by a question.

"So… Did you have a good time with Patchouli-san?"

The awkwardness of this question has set quite a chain reaction in Kyouichi's head. "Uh… well… we were actually with Kaguya-sama for a while and…"

"Huh? With the princess? Ooooh…" she let out a surprised-sounding sigh.

"What do you mean "Ooooh"? Just what the heck are you imagining, Eirin-sama?"

"Aaaand done…" announced Eirin's mature voice after a couple of seconds and Kyouichi felt the needle being removed from his vein. "Now, before I run this sample through a series of tests, let me take a look at how you've healed…"

She grabbed a device that resembled a monocle and held it up in front of her right eye, closely observing the outsider's face from all angles.

"Mmmhm… Mmmhm…" she hummed and nodded to herself.

"Is that a magic detector, Eirin-sama?" asked Kyouichi, since the device she observed him with very much resembled his own detector of magical energy.

"No, Ishimaru-san. This here is one of my own inventions. It lets me see beneath the epidermis and even deeper up to the skeleton…"

"Like an X-ray?"

The doctor giggled amusedly. "You mean that primitive bulky scanning device that works on the principle of short wavelength electromagnetic radiation that the humans of the outside world use? No, no… Instead of emitting any form of harmful radiation, this device uses the photons from natural light to scan all sorts of materials. It only receives and amplifies those photons and depending on their wavelength, it creates an image. Natural light already has the necessary wavelengths and intensity to literally shine through us. However, only a miniscule portion of these photons actually shine through. This monocle is sensitive enough to capture even those… And it lets me see… that your brain, your skull, your facial muscles and your skin have recovered wonderfully from all the injuries that you sustained…"

"Does that mean I finally get discharged?" asked the outsider impatiently.

Eirin smiled warmly and nodded. "Unless I find a deadly amount of toxins, bacteria, viruses, leukocytes or other harmful elements in your blood sample, you'll be free to go…" she remarked jestingly and winked. "Until I'm finished and get the results, though, you'd do best to wait up in the Rehabilitation Ward. I'll try to analyze your blood as quickly as possible…" Just as she said that, she took the two vials with Kyouichi's blood and put them on a stand next to her intricate laboratory apparatus and began preparing bottles with unknown chemicals to begin the tests.

"Very well." said the young man as he stood up from the chair and stepped up to the door. "Keep up the good work, Eirin-sama…"

"Will do…" muttered the Lunarian, not even turning around to see her patient off, when she called out to him once more. "Umm, Ishimaru-san?"

"Yes?"

"When you're on the ward, please tell Moe-san, Nightbug-san and Tatara-san to come down here so I can check them up as well." she requested. "This constant running up and down the stairs is tiresome and time-consuming… Thank you…"

"Sure thing, no problem." shrugged Kyouichi and left Doctor Yagokoro's office with a strange feeling of anticipation and relief.

"Well… here I am again." he plainly announced his arrival to the ward.

"So you survived the autopsy, as I can see." joked the older outsider, Soudai Asakura.

"Yeah… By the way, Kogasa-san, Wriggle-san and Moe," Kyouichi called out to the three youkai patients, "Eirin-sama is calling you to her office for the last checkup. Uhh… You do know the way to her office, right…?"

His question was silenced in a cheerful reaction of the fairies. "Yaaay~! Soon we'll be able to leave together~! See you soon, Wriggle-chan~!" Cirno excitedly called at the youkai firefly.

"Hang in there, Kogasa-chan~!" Sunny was encouraging the youkai umbrella. "And don't be afraid of the needle~!"

"I hope you get as good results as I did, Moe-chan~!" echoed the voice of Luna.

"Oh, so it's finally my turn, huh?" muttered Wriggle as she was flying out of the room.

"It was about time…" said Kogasa as she grabbed her eggplant-colored umbrella and hurried to follow Wriggle.

"I hope I can see Ai-chan after this…" Moe said her wishful thought out loud as she was the last to leave the Rehabilitation Ward.

Strangely enough, even with the noisy bunch consisting of Cirno and the Three Mischievous Fairies, the ward was rather quiet this time… at least in comparison to previous days. It looked like everyone had just about enough of this place and thought of nothing else but the moment they would leave. The minutes were passing by very slowly and the impatience grew stronger in each of the patients. Half of an hour seemed like an eternity to everyone. That's when the ward's door opened and the trio of youkai girls who have returned from the final medical examination has entered. They most likely didn't know the results of their checkup yet, so they were, like everyone else, told to wait here in the ward. What surprised Kyouichi the most was the fact that Eirin bothered to come here again as well, in spite of her previous complaints.

"Okay everyone, just hold on a couple of more minutes while I get the results…" she addressed her words to Kogasa, Wriggle and Moe who responded affirmatively.

"And you…" she suddenly turned to Kyouichi with a strangely serious face. "About your results… There's something I need to talk to you about." she announced with her arms crossed over her chest, not giving any details.

"My results?" repeated Kyouichi confusedly. He had a really bad feeling that he couldn't put his finger on. "What about them?" he demanded to know.

"Follow me to my office…" said the Lunarian sternly, not even adding the polite "please" to her request.

Kyouichi hoped that he was just being paranoid, so he at least kept his cool on the outside. His mind was a different story, though.

"H-here…" he said to the group of fairies as he reached for the sweets from his night table. "I've found them after all…" he forced a smile and passed the sweet treats to the nearest fairy, which was Cirno. "And share equally…"

As he exchanged one brief look with Soudai, who was just as confused as Kyouichi, he left the ward, following the silver-haired figure down the corridor.

He repeated his questions about his test results, but Eirin only brushed him off by saying that they'll talk about it in her office.

The young outsider could feel his nervous heart beating faster and anxiety putting an imaginary wrench on his throat.

"What could be wrong?" he kept asking himself in his mind. "Do I have some serious illness? Whatever it is, it's serious enough for her to only talk about it in her office…"

He tried to shake off his paranoid thoughts, but they just kept coming back. When they were finally down in Eirin's office, she let Kyouichi enter first. Then she closed the door behind her and gave the young man a piercing glare.

"Have a seat, Ishimaru-san…"

Without delaying, Kyouichi did as he was asked and with curious eyes attached to the doctor, he anxiously awaited what she had to say.

"So…" she spoke up as she put her hands behind her back and began walking back and forth. Instead of a nurse or a doctor, she now resembled a policewoman during an interrogation. "What's your trick?"

Needless to say that Kyouichi was confused by the question. "T-trick? What are you talking about, Eirin-sama? I thought you wanted to tell me my results…"

"There's no use playing dumb now, Ishimaru Kyouichi-san." she retorted sharply. "I've figured it all out…"

"F-figured it out?" he repeated confusedly.

"At first I paid it no mind… But when I gave it some thought, it all made sense to me… And now, after I've tested your blood sample, I got the confirmation of my suspicion…"

Kyouichi now got the hint where she was getting at, but he still didn't say a word and waited until the Lunarian doctor gets a bit more specific.

"Your miraculously fast recovery coupled with a similar case occurring to Kurohana-san… I could tell something was not right from the very beginning…"

"Oh crap…" cursed the outsider in his thoughts. "Looks like she found out about the potion I tried so hard to keep a secret…"

"While at first I believed that Kurohana-san's case could have been caused by her inherited magical ability and the gift of healing magic, it turned out to be a false assumption. You were in relatively close contact with her, so after her recovery I assumed that some of her healing powers made their way to you… But none of that was true. Kurohana-san does not possess any healing abilities and is a 100% human with no youkai blood coursing in her veins. Even more suspicious were you, however… With all your facial wounds gone basically in a flash, I couldn't help but to wonder what could have speeded up the healing process so much. As an outsider, any form of magic presence within your body is out of the question. Now it became all clear to me… After the blood tests, I've found miniscule traces of an unknown substance attached to some of your blood cells. The same kind of substance I've found in Kurohana-san's blood. Nobody else but the two of you was positive on this chemical. And so, the radius of my suspects was narrowed down to two people. Then I took the circumstances, in which your respective recoveries took place, into consideration and by logical elimination, I've arrived to a conclusion that the one and only true suspect… is you, Ishimaru-san." she stopped and stared intensely into his eyes. "While Kurohana-san basically woke up from deep narcosis, you have been, according to Reisen, awake for quite a while before you removed your bandages. The only explanation for this is that you used SOMETHING to treat your wounds and then, several days later, you used the same SOMETHING on Kurohana-san… You don't need to worry about any sort of punishment, Ishimaru-san. There's just one thing that I want to know… What did you use? What is… your trick?"

Kyouichi was worried that it would come to this and now it really has. Right now he was solving an inner dilemma whether to tell Eirin the truth and risk the consequences, or to lie to her and try to play the innocent and risk Eirin seeing through his lies… and then risk the consequences. Either way, none of the two options seemed too attractive to the outsider at that moment. He couldn't even predict which one of these two different paths led to the "lesser evil".

"Please be honest about it, Ishimaru-san." Eirin's plea had a strangely dark ring to it. "I would very much not like having to pry this information out of you forcefully…" she added a threatening remark as she drew a single narrow syringe from behind her back. The faint light in the room gently illuminated the needle as Eirin pushed the piston a bit to make sure there would be no air bubbles in the injection.

Kyouichi nervously swallowed his saliva at the sight of the syringe. Thoughts of a daring escape were now flooding his mind.

"This drug is a psychotropic serum that makes the recipient fall into a deep state of delirium, making the mind easily manipulable." explained the Lunarian as she stared at the injection. "In other words, a truth serum. Unless, you want me to inject this into your system, you better start explaining…"

"W-what about your Hippocratic oath, Eirin-sama?"

"That applies only to human doctors, Ishimaru-san."

Kyouichi was now cornered, with no other options left but to do as he was asked. He decided that he'd tell her the truth. He opened his mouth to talk, but in that very moment, like a divine intervention, there was an urgent-sounding knock on the door of the office.

The distracted Lunarian doctor turned her face towards the door. "Ahh… What is it now…?"

She discreetly hid the injection and slowly walked up to the door. "I'm coming, I'm coming…" she called at whoever was standing at the other side of the door.

"Eirin-sama, Eirin-sama~!" sounded the stressed voice belonging to Reisen.

"I'm a little busy right now, Reisen…" said Eirin sternly as she opened the door to her.

"I'm sorry, Eirin-sama…" the Moon rabbit quickly bowed in apology, "but one of the patients in the Intensive Care Ward suddenly started choking and requires your immediate attention!" she explained in a panicked manner.

The silver-haired woman was struck dumbfounded for a moment before she made a single nod. "Understood…"

She returned to her table, from which she picked up her leather doctor's bag and hastily threw in a bunch of medicine flasks to make sure she wouldn't run out. Kyouichi silently stared at her, then at Reisen, unable to make heads or tails out of this situation. He slowly stood up from the chair and returned his gaze to the doctor.

She gave him a faint, but insidious smile as she was closing her bag. "It seems that duty calls me yet again. You may return to the ward for now. We'll talk again… Ishimaru-san." she announced with an icy voice and broadened her smile.

They all left the office and the young human watched as the doctor and the nurse in training hurried up along the hallway and disappeared behind the corner. He was still trembling from the stress he felt in the office a while ago. He certainly didn't want to see Eirin again. That's when he got a crazy idea.

Not willing to believe that he would carry out what just spawned up in his mind, he hesitated, but not for long…

He dashed off to the reception office, knowing that neither Reisen, nor Eirin would be there. He quickly opened the door and slammed it shut behind him. After grabbing the keys to the locker containing his belongings, he hurried to the locker room and opened the mentioned locker labeled by the number 62. As he took all of his things out of the locker, he could hear a faint rustling sound coming from behind him. He stopped and remained silent for a moment.

"Hmph… Must be my imagination…" he thought to himself, but then he remembered something, or to be more exact – someone.

"Tewi? Is that you?" he timidly called out into the reception office while he was closing and locking the empty locker.

The response wasn't delayed by more than a second. "Tehehe~ !" sounded an immature girly voice from behind the tall reception desk and a pair of white rabbit ears poked out. "I've been watching you, like I said… I guess you needed a little help a while ago…" she commented as she came out of her hiding.

"You saw what happened?" Kyouichi asked as he was changing from his patient robe to his normal clothes.

Tewi stared at him curiously, lost in thought for a moment. "Mhm…" she nodded. "Looks like your dark little secret is a secret no more…"

"She doesn't know any of the details yet." said the outsider as he fastened his black hakama. "Though it wouldn't take long before I'd spill my guts to her… Willingly or otherwise…"

"I know." Tewi smiled mischievously. "That's why I caused a little… diversion, hehehe~."

Kyouichi surprisedly raised his eyebrows. "That emergency call was your doing?"

"I just made one of the patients inhale a little bit of pepper. Nothing too serious…" shrugged the Earth rabbit with an innocent expression.

"I see… So that's what's caused all that commotion." muttered the human as he finally finished dressing up.

"Yes." confirmed the youkai rabbit, not letting her curious eyes off him. "But now I have to ask you… What are you planning to do now?"

"This may sound really crazy, but…" Kyouichi made a short, thoughtful pause. "I think I better… just leave right now."

"Oooh~! You're running away?" asked Tewi as sparkles of excitement flared up in her eyes.

"Well… Yeah. Sort of…" shrugged the young man as he was checking the inventory of his leather backpack.

"That sounds like fun~ !" she chimed happily. "I'll help you…"

"You will?"

"If you need some more time, I could distract Eirin and Reisen for a while… But…" Tewi's face suddenly turned more serious. "…you do know that it's dangerous to go through the forest…"

"Yes, I know. I'm still willing to risk it, though."

"But… do you even know which way to go?"

"Hmm…" hummed the young man thoughtfully. The rabbit girl did have a point. Kyouichi truly had no idea about the exact whereabouts of Eientei. Besides the fact that it was located in the vast bamboo forest, he had no leads to hold on to.

"I could take you to the village, but we'd have to go right now." Tewi informed him.

Kyouichi still planned to take that half-empty potion bottle from the ward, though…

"No… I still need to fetch that bottle."

"In that case, I'm going to have to cause another distraction. However, I won't be able to escort you through the forest then. Are you sure this is what you want, Kyouichi?"

Another tough decision to make and so little time to do so.

"Never mind… I'll think of something... But I'm taking that potion with me. All of it." said the outsider after deciding.

Tewi nodded understandingly. "Alright… I'll go and distract those two for a while. That should buy you enough time to pack up everything you need. However, once you leave Eientei, you'll be on your own and I'm a little worried…"

"You're not the only one…" said Kyouichi, admitting his fear, but decided to leave anyway.

"That's right~!" exclaimed the rabbit girl suddenly as she got an idea. "I'll charm you."

"Eh… charm me?" repeated the human nervously.

"My ability is uncanny luck. I'm not just lucky myself, but I can share some of that luck with others… usually those that I like." she revealed an interesting fact about herself. "With just a little blessing, you'll be able to make it through the forest without encountering any dangerous youkai. Please show me your palm…"

Kyouichi timidly opened up his right hand, showing his palm to the Earth rabbit. Tewi in the meantime assumed a position that resembled praying, with her hands clapped together, her head lowered and she was whispering something. When she was done, she likewise opened her right hand and gently slapped it against Kyouichi's.

"Huh? A high-five?" asked the surprised young human.

"There… All done." announced Tewi with her cute smile. "The best of luck is now with you… for a while."

"O-oh… Thanks… I think."

"Good. Now, enough lollygagging. It's time to carry out the Great Escape from Eientei, hehehe~!"

And so, Tewi and Kyouichi hurried up to the third floor where they parted their ways. Tewi disappeared in one of the many patient wards and Kyouichi returned to the Rehabilitation Ward, ready to take back the last item and say his goodbye to his roommates.

"Ahh~! I see you got discharged as well…" remarked Soudai as soon as his younger friend walked in. He was apparently fooled by the fact that Kyouichi was wearing his ordinary clothing.

"Soudai…" Kyouichi stopped for a moment in front of him. "I… I haven't been discharged…"

"What? Is there something wrong with you?"

"No. I'm leaving… To be more exact, I'm running away…" he announced honestly, letting everyone in the room know about his plan.

Soudai was taken aback by this surprising announcement. "W-what… what the hell?! Have you lost your mind? Why are you running away? The Ryuuken should be here soon to escort us to the village."

"I have very little time to explain." replied the younger outsider as he bent down near his bed and grabbed his potion bottle. "Eirin found out about this…" he said as he flashed the bottle.

"So?"

"She wanted to inject me with some shady drug that would make me tell her everything… I'm telling you, that woman is scary!"

Soudai could hardly believe his friend's words. "Eeeh?! Are you serious?"

"Nobody's going to give me any damn truth injections… I'm out of here!"

"Daaamn~! I knew it!" cursed Soudai as his face turned paler. "I knew you should never trust aliens…"

"They're Lunarians, you know…" Kyouichi corrected him.

"They're just aliens with a fancier nickname. Shit… and gods only know what sort of experiments they would put me through… A medical check-up… Yeah right! Maybe they're just extracting biological data from us humans, so they'd know how to kill us more effectively…"

"Uhhh… dude?" Kyouichi tried to halt him. "I think you're taking that a bit too far… Besides, you've already been checked up."

But Soudai kept on explaining his theories. "Or maybe, they're planning to clone an army of mindless warrior-slaves to conquer the Earth!"

"Trust me, if they wanted to conquer the Earth, they'd have done so millennia ago, without any resistance."

"I think Earth is just like a big laboratory for them to test their experiments…"

"Well… Perhaps that part is not too far from the truth…" shrugged Kyouichi, but then he remembered that he was in a hurry to get out of here. "Anyway, that's not the issue right now! I need to get out of here before I cross my ways with Eirin again."

"Wait!" Soudai grabbed his shoulder. "I know that your plan reeks of suicide, but… Damn, don't leave me here~! I don't want to be lobotomized!"

"Lobotomized?" repeated Kyouichi and chuckled with amusement. "Look, calm down. They're not THAT kind of aliens. There's no danger for you here… It's just me that Eirin wants to interrogate. You don't really have to go with me."

"Oh no!" Soudai steadfastly insisted. "You're not going to talk me out of it now! I'm not taking any chances! I'll go with you… even through that cursed bamboo forest!"

Kyouichi really didn't have the time to convince his friend otherwise, so he just shrugged to his decision and nodded. "Very well. You've made your choice… Not sure if the wisest one in your life, but… it is your choice… Grab your stuff and let's roll!"

"You don't have to tell me that again!" nodded the older of the two humans and threw his unread newspaper into his bag. "Human Village, here we come!"

Encouraged by the approving reactions of the fairies and youkai in the room, the two of them opened the door and bid their youkai roommates farewell.


	41. The Great Escape

"This is one of the craziest things I've done in my life…" commented Soudai as he trotted behind his friend.

"I told you that you could calmly stay and wait for the Ryuuken…" retorted Kyouichi as he turned left towards the staircase.

"Screw the Ryuuken, man! If they couldn't have protected me during work, they probably wouldn't be able to protect me even now… We'd just attract more unwanted youkai attention as a larger group…"

"That's an interesting change of opinion, compared to what you told me earlier…"

"Well, okay, I admit. I'd rather be leaving this place in their escort, since now I'm scared shitless to even go near the bamboo forest after what happened to me… But after hearing your story about Eirin and her shady injections, I got quite a strong urge to leave this place at all costs. Besides, letting you go into the forest alone would be… uhh… irresponsible. As your senior, I have to take the responsibility… and protect you, if need be." said the older outsider as he followed Kyouichi down the stairs. His words didn't sound convincing at all.

"Oh, so you took the responsibility for me." said Kyouichi with sarcastic tone. "That's reassuring… So you'll lead the way to the village…"

"Uhh… I… What?"

"Do you know which way we need to go to get there?" Kyouichi glanced at him briefly.

"Well, no, but neither do you… Oh, crap! How the hell are we even gonna get out of this goddamn forest?!" exclaimed Soudai in panic. "We should search this place a bit… There's gotta be a map around here or something…" he gave himself false hopes.

"As far as I know, Gensokyo doesn't have any official maps…" said the younger outsider, bursting Soudai's bubble.

"Then what do you suggest we do now, Mr. Know-it-all?" Soudai asked sarcastically.

"Give me a minute to think, will you?"

"Oh~! Sure… Stand around with hands behind our backs and wait while the aliens catch us and feed us to their pet mutated chimeras…"

"Where did that line come from?" asked Kyouichi after an outburst of laughter.

"Well, what else would you call those humanoid abominations with rabbit ears?" asked Soudai. "Some of them were quite sexy, though…" he murmured to himself.

"Earth and Moon rabbits? And I highly doubt they're carnivorous…"

"That's exactly what they want us to think!" continued Soudai with his crazy talk.

Kyouichi turned the topic to serious again. "Anyway… We both know that the Human Village is located north from this forest, right?"

"That's true," admitted the older of the two, "but we also both know that the forest stretches all the way from southeast to the western part of Gensokyo. At one point it's even connected with the Forest of Magic. If we headed north, we could end up anywhere between the Forest of Magic and… What was that place called again…? Road of Reconsideration… yeah, that's right…"

"Beggars can't be choosers." retorted Kyouichi. "We'll just have to take that risk. We'll keep heading north until there'll be no more bamboo obscuring our view. Once we're out of the forest, it shouldn't be so hard to determine the location of the village. There's a vast valley of crop fields between the village and the Forest of Magic and there also should be a road connecting these two locations. I once walked down that road from Kourindou, so I remember…"

"O-kay… I guess that sounds like a plan. Just one more thing… How the hell are we going to know which way is north?" wondered Soudai. "You have a compass or something?"

"Compass…? That's… that's a great idea!" exclaimed the younger outsider and praisingly tapped Soudai's shoulder. "We'll make a compass!"

"How, you genius?"

"Follow me! I think I just might know how…" said Kyouichi and hurried to Eirin's office, hoping that he'd find all the necessary things there.

* * *

"Hey, where are you running to? Wait up a little~!"

As expected, there was nobody inside the office and everything was left exactly as Kyouichi remembered it.

"Just what are you up to again, Ishimaru?" Soudai curiously watched his friend who was nonchalantly browsing through Eirin's lab equipment, as if it was his own.

"You'll see in a moment…" replied Kyouichi as he took one of the Petri dishes and put it on the table. He then took one random bottle filled with some unknown liquid and poured it into the dish.

"I sure hope one of us knows what you're doing… Oh, wait… Now I see…" nodded the older outsider understandingly. "Now you're going to magnetize a needle, right?"

"Exactly." affirmed Kyouichi and took one of the syringe needles and began rubbing its tip against the cotton fabric of his kimono. "Let's just hope this trick works in real life too…"

"You'll also need to put it on something that floats…" Soudai reminded him.

"Yes, I know that needles don't float on water." sounded Kyouichi's sarcasm again. "Hmm… how about the cork from this medicine bottle?"

"Yeah, that might work…"

And so, with Soudai's assistance, Kyouichi placed the magnetized needle on top of the cork and made it float on the liquid poured in the Petri dish.

Both humans held their breath for a while as they watched with great anticipation whether or not was their little experiment even going to work. Then after a few seconds…

"It's turning!" Soudai couldn't hide his elation. "It rally works! It's going to show us north!" And the needle really did make almost a 90 degree turn before it stopped. The makeshift compass was made.

"Alright!" nodded the younger outsider with a prideful smile as he stretched out his arm in the direction where the needle pointed. "We'll need to go straight that way and we mustn't make any turns or detours."

"Going straight in one direction… Yeah, I think I can handle that." nodded Soudai in agreement, and together with his friend, he left the office, ready to head out into the wilderness.

* * *

Just before they reached the main entrance of Eientei, Kyouichi suddenly stopped.

"Why are you stopping, Ishimaru?" Soudai growled at him.

"You know… It's true that we are running away… But…"

"But what? Just get a move on! We don't have much time before sunset and you DON'T want to be in this forest after sunset, believe me…"

"Don't worry, this will only take a minute." Kyouichi reassured him and one last time entered the reception office. "We have to keep in mind that Eirin saved our lives… We should at least pay for her services."

"Hmmm… I… uh… I guess so…" shrugged Soudai. "But I don't have enough money on me to fully cover my hospitalization."

"Then give her what you have and I'll pay the rest for you." the younger man volunteered. "Do you remember how much do we owe to Eientei?"

"I think about 25 thousand." replied the older outsider with a bit embarrassed tone. "And you… approximately 6 thousand, if I remember correctly. But I only have 7500 yen right now. Are you sure you want to pay the rest of my bill?"

"Sure, I'm sure!" responded Kyouichi with determination. "But I'll expect you to pay me back later."

"Uhh… yeah. Sure, I can do that… as soon as I find myself a new job here…"

"Come to think of it, I'll need one as well." remarked the younger outsider as he reached inside his pockets.

And so, both outsiders had put together enough money to pay for Eientei's services and left them on the reception desk along with a short letter addressed to Eirin.

"Alright, finish writing that letter already, you novelist!" Soudai urged his friend. "We've got a lot of ground to cover in a pretty short time!"

"Got it!" responded Kyouichi as he finished the last sentence and put down the writing brush. "Time to hit the road… or… the forest floor, for that matter, because I really doubt we'll find any roads here…" he added a humorous remark. "Do you still remember where the compass pointed to?"

"Yes, it was that way." Soudai stretched out his right arm to the said direction. "Come on already~!"

Obedient to his senior's command, Kyouichi followed Soudai out of Eientei and with a brisk tempo, they walked northwards.

* * *

"*whistle* This forest is much larger than I thought." commented the older outsider as he marched on. An hour has already passed and the two of them were still surrounded by thick bamboo with no end in sight. What's worse, the daylight was becoming dimmer as the sun slowly, but certainly neared the western horizon.

"Are you sure we didn't stray from our course?" Kyouichi asked him.

"I've tried to keep going as straight as I could, but it's possible that we might have a few degrees divergence… Though I can assure you that we are NOT walking around in circles… I hope…" he murmured the last words inaudibly.

"Say, Soudai…" Kyouichi addressed him after another longer moment of silent walking.

"Yeah?"

"What are we going to do when we encounter a youkai?"

Soudai shuddered a little upon hearing that question. "Don't even SAY that word here, damn it! I'm trying to convince myself all the way, that with positive thinking, we won't encounter anything… So don't try to invoke any misfortunes upon us, okay? I'm serious."

"Well, I did receive a kind of a blessing that should grant good luck for a while." Kyouichi recalled. "Unless it was just another mischief on Tewi's part…"

"What the hell are you talking about now?" Soudai gave him a curious look. "Isn't Tewi that thief who stole your potion?"

"Yup." nodded the younger human. "But she's friendly… And it was her, who just helped us escape by distracting Eirin and Reisen."

"So that's how it is, eh?"

"She said that she has the ability of uncanny luck or something like that." Kyouichi kept explaining. "Don't know what that means exactly, but if it's true, it should keep the dangerous youkai out of our way for the time being…"

"How long exactly?" inquired Soudai.

"Uhh… I have no idea…" Kyouichi shrugged embarrassedly. "If it wears off after an hour, then we've got a problem…"

Soudai suddenly stopped and looked his friend straight in the face. "We are NOT going to encounter any damn youkai! Understand?!"

"What makes you so certain?"

"Because if we do, then we're both screwed!" exclaimed Soudai with a mix of anger and fear in his voice.

"If you keep yelling like that, then we'll be screwed for sure." Kyouichi tried to hush him.

"Shut up, Ishimaru! I'm done talking to you… Just keep going and pray for an end of this goddamn forest!"

"I only brought it up so we'd stand at least a bit of a chance if that happened…" muttered the younger outsider.

"Oh… And what are we going to do when we meet one? Throw sand it its eyes? Or are we going to beat it with bamboo sticks? The only chance we two have against a youkai is to run. And even that chance has only about 30% success ratio…"

"That's true, but I have something that might increase this chance by a few more percent." said Kyouichi and pulled out the five ofuda amulets he bought from Reimu quite some time ago.

Soudai took one in the hand and gave it a once-over. "What are these? More good luck trinkets?"

"Close, but no…" Kyouichi shook his head. "I've bought these from the Hakurei shrine maiden… She uses those amulets as a sort of weapon against the youkai. She said that it causes them pain upon contact. However, they also disperse upon contact, which makes them a one-time means of defense… And I've only got five."

"Hmm…" Soudai made a doubtful scowl at the amulet in his palm before he turned his face to Kyouichi again. "Fine… Give me two of those. I'll pay you back later when I earn some money… IF we make it to the village alive, that is…"

"What happened to your belief that we're not going to encounter any youkai?" Kyouichi asked him teasingly.

"S-shut up… Better safe than sorry… That's what my dad always told me… That and "never trust an alien"."

"Your dad met aliens?"

"Hell if I know!" shrugged the older outsider. "Just keep going and stop making stupid remarks."

"Alright, but you started it." Kyouichi talked back. "That stuff about aliens, I mean."

"That's because I really didn't expect the kind-looking Eirin-sensei to try something like that... And all for some stupid healing potion... And since the two of us are friends, she might have even attempted to pry the information from me if you left Eientei on your own."

"Hmm… I haven't thought about it that way." admitted Kyouichi. Soudai might have had a good enough reason to go with him after all.

The older outsider slowed down his pace as he kept looking closely at the two ofuda amulets that Kyouichi had given him.

"They look a bit… weathered. Are you sure that the shrine maiden hasn't sold you some rejects?"

"Ehh, yeah… There's quite a story behind that, ehehe…" Kyouichi let out an embarrassed chuckle as he recalled his first visit to the Scarlet Devil Mansion and the subsequent "boat incident" that occurred to him on his way back.

"I hope they're as effective as you said they were." said Soudai with doubt in his eyes. "Maybe I should stick one of them to my chest to help ward away the youkai, eh?"

That's when Kyouichi remembered another important thing that could help them avoid danger.

He reached inside his pocket to take out a small magnifying glass-shaped object – his very own magic detector.

"Hey, what's that thing you got there?" Soudai turned at him with a face full of curiosity.

"This may help us perhaps even more than those amulets."

"Is it a weapon or something?" guessed the older of the two youths.

"No. This…" Kyouichi stretched out his arm to let Soudai have a closer look at the eye of the detector, "…is our youkai radar."

"Huh? And you're pulling that thing out of your pocket just NOW?!"

"Shhhh…" the younger lad hushed his friend, so that his voice wouldn't attract any youkai in the area. "If you keep yelling out like that, I'm leaving you're here!" he threatened him with a hushed voice."

"I was just expressing my displeasure of you not using that thing sooner. What would happen if we ran into some of those nasty creatures?"

Kyouichi realized his mistake and accepted Soudai's complaint. To make himself look less guilty, he flashed a smile and shrugged. "I guess we were… lucky…" he emphasized the last word, hinting at Tewi and her temporary gift.

"Sheesh…" Soudai shook his head, unable to understand his friend's carelessness. "Fine… From now on, keep your eyes on that thing and give me a shout at the first sign of danger."

"Of course I'll keep a lookout." affirmed Kyouichi. "But about that shouting part… uh… I think I'll just give you a silent tap on your shoulder instead. We don't need the whole forest to know that we're here."

"Alright, alright. Do as you see fit. Just keep us out of harm's way, will ya?"

* * *

And so, the journey through the forest continued with Soudai still leading the way, trying to stay fixed on heading directly north and Kyouichi right behind him, keeping an eye on the magic detector.

The use of that little device was not as easy as Kyouichi had thought it would be. Since the Bamboo Forest of the Lost was naturally enchanted and full of magical beings, there was a strong magical resonance, rendering the detector less trustworthy. It was picking up positive, if somewhat faint readings even from the very bamboo trees. Spotting a youkai among that field of yellow dots could be a bit tricky.

"Any danger ahead of us, Kyouichi?" Soudai murmured at his companion.

"None that the detector would see." came a reply from behind his back. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I think I see something ahead of us…" the pathfinder pointed directly forward. "There, about 150 meters… Looks like… a house maybe?"

Kyouichi focused his eyes right above Soudai's index finger and in the distance he saw a trace of brown among the ocean of dark-green.

"Good eyes…" he quietly praised his senior. "I'm not sure if that's a good sign or not, but we need to go in that direction, lest we want to lose our course."

"So… you're saying that your little gizmo doesn't pick up any youkai in there?" Soudai asked once more to make sure.

"Unfortunately, the detector's scrying radius is only 50 meters, so I cannot say unless we come closer."

"Only 50 meters?" asked the older outsider incredulously. "That's too little! You could barely call it useful."

"However," Kyouichi continued, "it also has an alternate mode…"

He put the glass right in front of his eye and looked ahead. He was able to see the magical auras more clearly and into greater distance, but he still didn't see anything suspicious.

"It looks like there's no danger ahead, but let's just proceed slowly and quietly here." advised the younger of the boys.

"Okay… We'll keep going." nodded Soudai. "But somehow, I don't have a good feeling about this. So far we're not even sure if it's a house."

With mixed feelings of paranoia and curiosity, they slowly and quietly approached what they thought was a small house. Once they got close enough, they figured that they were right. It was a small wooden cabin. Kyouichi's magic scan revealed nothing suspicious around or inside this small hut, but the two outsiders still proceeded with caution.

"Don't know about you," Soudai whispered to his comrade, "but I think it would be best if we just ignored it and kept on going. I'm not going to knock on the door and risk figuring out that we stumbled upon the home of a vicious youkai."

He had a point. Neither he, nor Kyouichi could be completely sure whether or not was it safe for them to let their presence be known to whomever lived in there. The hut's location was a suspicious factor enough. They crouched down when they were just a few meters away from the mysterious dwelling. Once they passed under the windows, they straightened up again, and hastened onward. That's when suddenly a bright-orange flash of light coming from the nearby bamboo thicket diverted all of their attention.

"What the hell is that?!" whispered the older outsider frightenedly as he froze in motion.

Kyouichi likewise stopped as soon as his friend did and took a glance at the light source through his magic detector. It flared up just as brightly as the fiery light itself.

"Oh crap…"

"Oh crap?" repeated Soudai. "What do you mean, 'oh crap'? Don't tell me that…"

"We've run into something very powerful…" Kyouichi quietly finished Soudai's sentence, confirming his greatest worries.


	42. Fire Demon of the Bamboo Forest

"Shit…" Soudai muttered a curse. "I told you I had a bad feeling about this. Why didn't you keep your eyes on that damned detector of yours?" he scolded Kyouichi.

The younger outsider blamed him in return. "I knew I shouldn't have let you go with me. You've negated my good luck blessing."

"What in the world are you accusing me of?! You're the one to blame here!"

"I'm not going to repeat myself…" Kyouichi hissed with anger. "Keep your voice down or we're finished… Let's just lay low for a while and hope it will go away without noticing us."

"Yeah, that would make sense, but only in case that thing wouldn't see us from the start." retorted Soudai with sarcasm. "Because it seems to me that it's coming our way…"

And he was right. The bright fiery light was apparently becoming brighter as its source was getting ever so closer to the two scared humans. They needed to make another tough decision without wasting any time.

"Stay hidden or run?" Soudai whispered a question.

Kyouichi didn't respond. He kept nervously staring at the detector in his sweating palm, watching as the huge flashing dot was approaching the center of the glass. Definitely not a good sign for the two of them…

"Stay or run?" Soudai repeated his question with a more urgent tone.

No longer looking at the detector, Kyouichi now gazed ahead at the flickering fiery light that penetrated the shoots of bamboo. It appeared that there were two sources of this strange light hovering close to each other, slowly flapping up and down in a synchronized rhythmical motion. Kyouichi had no idea what they were and he didn't even want to know. In the next moment when the lights got even closer, both outsiders could see something between them…

It was a human-shaped figure.

That's when Kyouichi finally found his lost voice. Turning to Soudai he whispered: "With all my optimism, I'd say we're pretty much screwed…"

"…" Soudai responded with a silent stare, thinking that he's living his last moments.

"Run, damn it, RUUUUUUN!" Kyouichi shouted as he instinctively grabbed his friend by the collar of his shirt, urging him to stand up.

Both of them sprinted for their lives, as fast as their legs allowed them. No longer caring whether they were running north or not, they dashed and slalomed through the bamboo trees, not even thinking about slowing down or looking back. Panicked and desperate, it was only a matter of time before one of them would trip over something and fall down.

"Gaah! Shit!" Kyouichi let out a pained shout.

Only then Soudai stopped and turned around to see what happened to his only friend in this ominous forest.

Kyouichi was already standing up from the ground, ready to sprint another mile if he had to. He was so thrilled from the adrenaline rush that he didn't even notice that his knee was now bleeding from the fall. Although he could tell that his running wasn't as fast and comfortable as the moment before his accident.

As he was catching up to Soudai who was nearly 20 meters ahead of him, he called at him.

"Hey! I'm fine, just keep on running! Don't stand there like a moron!"

But Soudai's feet were still nailed to the ground, as if he was waiting for his friend to catch up.

"Are you deaf?!" Kyouichi shouted as he reached his position. "Run!"

Soudai, however, didn't move even after his friend got ahead of him. He just stared back at where they were running from with eyes focused into distance. Kyouichi thought that he fell into some sort of trance, so he stopped and tried to snap him out of it. For a moment it seemed that they shook whatever they were running from off their trail, but the younger outsider didn't want to stand around. He gave his older buddy a semi-powerful palm smack on his back.

"Aaagh! Hey! What are you doing?" Soudai grumbled in displeasure.

"That's my line!" Kyouichi bellowed at him. "Have you lost your will to live?!"

Soudai again turned his face away from him, staring again into the distance. "Is… is that…? No…, can it really be…?"

"I'm gonna count to three and then I'm leaving you here!" Kyouichi gave him a warning.

Not even when given an ultimatum would Soudai listen to him. Just when his younger companion was about to fulfill his threat, he heard a distant voice calling at them…

"Waaaaait~!"

It was a human-sounding voice that could belong to a young female. Both outsiders exchanged their surprised looks in the next moment.

"Stop~!" the voice sounded again, being a little louder this time.

Kyouichi's paranoia kicked in again. "Don't listen to that voice! It wants to lure us do our death!"

"Call me crazy, but I think… I've heard that voice before…"

"What?" Kyouichi couldn't believe him. "Heard it before…? You mean like your dead relative or something? Because if so, then we better resume our athletic course out of this goddamn place!"

"No… I can't quite remember, but it definitely sounds familiar. Who was it?" he asked himself as he kept staring in the direction where the voice came from.

"Somehow, I don't think I want to know." grumbled young Kyouichi with a tragic scenario playing inside his mind.

"Just hold on a bit and let me see that person." requested Soudai.

Unwilling, but obliging, Kyouichi stood by his side, even when all of his instincts were screaming at him do otherwise.

"F-fine…" his voice shook with a blend of anger and fear. "But if we're going to die now, I swear to every god I know that I'll be haunting you in your dreams forever…"

"And… how are you going to do that when I'll be dead too?" Soudai retorted with a bit of black humor.

"Well… uhh… then I'm gonna… I'm gonna… errr…" Kyouichi was unable to come up with any witty remark. "Aw, forget it! Let me at least make one last prayer…"

As soon as he said that, a human-shaped shadow appeared just several tens of meters in front of them, slowly and silently gliding through the air and becoming clearer. While Kyouichi had his eyes closed and muttering some sort of prayer, Soudai was more curious than scared.

He watched the shrouded figure approach him the whole time and was soon able to make out its features. As the voice suggested, it was a female figure with youthful appearance. She had very long, ankle-length light-purple hair. She wore a simple light-brown shirt and a dark-red pair of loose overalls. This unusual piece of clothing for a girl was even stranger due to the numerous rectangular red and white paper amulets that were randomly attached to it, probably as a form of decoration. Her impressively long hair was likewise tied by another number of these paper charms that highly resembled the ones Reimu Hakurei used as weapons. Even her shoes that matched the color of her pants seemed to be decorated by the same amulets.

She approached the two humans slowly, as she observed them curiously.

"You two must be from the village." she stated matter-of-factly.

Kyouichi interrupted his prayer and timidly opened his eyes. The young female floated even closer and slowly descended to the ground. She then looked left and right, as if to check if there wasn't anyone else besides the two lost-looking humans.

"Sorry…" the girl suddenly apologized, "I must have startled you a while ago…"

Soudai now realized why she seemed so familiar to him. He gave Kyouichi a gentle elbow nudge and whispered: "Dude! That's HER!"

The younger outsider looked puzzled. "Uhh… you two… know each other?"

"That's the girl who saved me…" Soudai elaborated. "She must have carried me all the way to Eientei…" He then turned to this mysterious young female and bowed slowly. "Eh… Thank you very much, young miss… I partly owe you one for still being alive."

The girl's face suddenly brightened up a little as she also seemed to remember Soudai's face.

"Ah~… I remember now. I found you wounded and unconscious lying on the ground. It looks like they managed put you back together, though. Sorry again that I scared you like that…"

Kyouichi slowly gathered the courage to speak to her as well. "Umm, excuse me, but what do you mean? We were scared by something else… A horrible, fire demon-like thing. It was chasing us just a while ago, but… I guess we lost it."

The girl let out a giggle. "Fire demon? You mean this, right?" She again floated up to approximately 5 meters above the ground and spread her arms wide.

A sudden bright-orange flash appeared behind her and in the next instant, a pair of large, intimidating wings made of pure fire grew out of her back.

This shocking revelation made both outsiders take two big steps back and open their mouths wide.

"W-what are you?" Kyouichi asked a bit crudely.

"Don't worry." the girl calmed them down. "I won't hurt you." Her ominous fire wings, however, made her words sound anything but convincing. As she saw the reactions of the two humans, she again made her wings disappear and once more descended to the ground. "I only use these to scare weak youkai away and as a light source in this dark forest…"

Both outsiders still wore the same freaked-out expressions, despite the fact that this young lady didn't seem to have any harmful intentions.

"The name's Fujiwara." she lightly nodded as she introduced herself. "Fujiwara no Mokou. Don't worry; I can get you out of this forest…"

"My name's…" Soudai was about to introduce himself in return, but Mokou raised a halting hand to cut his sentence.

"I don't care who you are… I don't really like to get involved with the affairs of you village folks." she said a bit coldly.

"Aww~… But I wanted to introduce myself to you…" pouted the more outgoing Soudai.

Mokou shrugged her shoulders with an indifferent look. "If you insist…"

Soudai's face brightened up with a smile as he got the chance to introduce himself. "I'm Asakura Soudai," he bowed once and pointed a thumb backwards at his friend, "and the shy one's Ishimaru Kyouichi…"

"Who are you calling a shy one?" he gave him a weak prod in the shoulder, although he had to admit that in comparison to Soudai, Kyouichi really seemed rather reserved.

Ignoring his friend's remark, the older of the duo went on with the introduction. "…and we're not your typical village folk per-se. We're from the outside world, you see…"

Kyouichi, who knew all too well how dangerous it can be to tell this information to a complete stranger in Gensokyo, angrily growled into Soudai's ear. "Why don't you tell her your shoe size too?"

His friend looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "What would I want to tell her that for? That's completely irrelevant to our situation…"

The young Ishimaru sighed resignedly. "Asakura, you're such a dumbass sometimes…"

"Uhh… please excuse my friend here…" Soudai again gestured at him like at some object, "he's a little nervous when dealing with the members of the opposite sex. He may be adult, but still not quite matured, you see…"

As Kyouichi listened to him, his facial expression was at first the same as Mokou's – unamused and frowning. Now he was staring daggers at him, his hands twitching a bit, as if in an attempt to strangle.

Soudai's lips, however, kept spewing more unnecessary and irrelevant words, much to Kyouichi's and apparently also Mokou's displeasure. "By the way, I'm 25 and single… Uhh… just in case you'd like to know. I have a younger brother, but he's an ass… Damn… now that I think about it, that little bastard must be hogging my PC all for himself now! Probably got it infected with all sorts of Trojans due to his dilettante manipulation and constant downloading of hentai and eroge… Not that I don't do the same, but hey, I at least know which sources are reliable."

While Kyouichi's hand slap against his own forehead echoed throughout the forest, Mokou, with an unchanging deadpan expression and crossed arms had next to no clue what this ridiculous human kept talking about.

"So… uhh… where was I again?" asked Soudai, who seemed to have completely forgotten that he was running away from this girl in sheer terror just a few moments ago.

Kyouichi clenched his fist and gently knocked it against the top of Soudai's head before he began telling his whole biography to this strange fiery girl.

"Ow… What was that for? I'm just being sociable." Then he suddenly gasped, as if he realized something. "Oh! Now I get it… Sorry, I forgot you had a thing for purple-haired girls, right, Kyou?"

"Soudai, please… Just… shut up already." Kyouichi begged him with a pleading gesture.

"Okay…" shrugged the older outsider nonchalantly.

"Finally…" muttered Kyouichi with relief.

Mokou spoke up again after being the silent sufferer for a while. "Very well… Now that you've told me all this trivial information, which I don't give a damn about and which I'll forget sooner than the sun sets, we could have already been on our way to the village…"

"See? I told you that this youkai lady isn't interested in any of your nonsense." Kyouichi provokingly spoke to his companion.

Mokou's face suddenly darkened with a scowl and her dark-red eyes narrowed. "Youkai? Youkai… Hm… I guess… I guess you're not exactly wrong about that…"

Kyouichi raised a questioning eyebrow. "Excuse me if I said something… inappropriate…"

"Perhaps I've changed so much from the way I used to be that people mistake me for a youkai… Can't say I blame them."

"If you're not a youkai, then…"

"I'm a human… Was." she suddenly corrected herself. "Perhaps a little bit of me still feels that way. Maybe a small trace of my former self still lives on inside me… and will live on… forever…"

"Forever?" Kyouichi repeated as a lot of questions came to his mind. "You're immortal… too?"

Mokou lowered her head and sighed with contempt. "You said "too"… So you must have met HER…" she said the last word with emphasized disdain. "You two are on your way from Eientei after all…"

"Excuse me, I'm a little lost here…" Soudai waved his hand to get some attention. "Who are you talking about?"

Kyouichi knew only about one resident of Eientei who openly proclaimed to be immortal. "Houraisan Kaguya-hime?"

"The Moon princess?" asked his older friend. "Uhh… why yes, we met her, alright. Both of us even got her autograph, see?" he searched his pocket and flashed a piece of paper with a signature. "Oh, wait… That one's from Cirno-chan… Ah, yes… this one… See? It's authentic!" he boastfully smirked as he showed Mokou his autograph card.

This time it appeared that Mokou was staring daggers… Not at Soudai in particular, but at the autograph card. Her breathing suddenly became more shallow and frequent, as if something had just angered her, but the mysterious girl managed to keep her cool. "Don't go exhibiting that thing so openly, young one… Something bad might happen to it…"

"Hmph… Okay…" Soudai shrugged and folded the card up, putting it back into his pocket.

"So if you've met that person," Mokou continued after a pause, "she must have told you a lot of interesting things…" she again laced the word "interesting" with an apparent dose of contempt.

"Uhh… well… not that much really." said Soudai after scratching his head. "She was a bit too busy to tell us anything more interesting than the fact that she was getting tired of all those patients… I guess that included us too."

"She? Busy?" Mokou asked incredulously. "Are we still talking about the same person?"

Soudai looked a bit puzzled for a moment before replying. "Why, yes… I'm talking about Kaguya-sama, of course… Ahh~, she's so beautiful… But as I said, she was too busy, because she was assisting Eirin-sensei with tending to the patients… But I'd watch myself around that doctor lady if I were you… Just saying…"

Mokou blinked twice and nodded. "I see… That's a bit… unexpected."

That's when Kyouichi stepped back into the conversation. "However, I've had the rare privilege of being invited to the princess's quarters where she told me quite a bit about her past…"

Soudai opened his eyes wide in an incredulous stare at Kyouichi. "What?! When did it happen? Why wasn't I invited as well?"

"Because you weren't around at that time."

"That's just not fair…" pouted Soudai with a regretful face. "We'll talk about that later, Ishimaru…"

"Yes, yes, Soudai… Later." Kyouichi nodded agreeingly as he brushed him off.

"So…" Mokou glanced over to the younger human. "You've heard her story… So you must know well who I am."

Kyouichi bent the side of his lips and raised his eyebrows, looking puzzled. "Uhh… No, I'm sorry, I don't know who you are, Fujiwara-san… Are you somehow related to Kaguya or…?"

"So she hasn't even deemed me worthy of mentioning, huh?" Mokou cut off his question with her own. "Hmph… I'd think she'd have at least enough respect to say a word or two about her arch nemesis."

"Arch nemesis?"

"Yes…" she drawled as she affirmed. "From time to time she sends assassins to get me if she's too lazy to go after me herself… But no matter how hard she tries, she cannot kill me. No one can…"

"So… does that mean you're another Hourai victim?" Kyouichi asked, referring to the elixir of immortality.

Mokou chuckled bitterly. "Nicely put… A victim… All those who ever drank of the elixir are nothing short of victims. Sometimes victims of our own folly, or curiosity, or despair… Our punishment is to live on and suffer in our fleshy husks for all of eternity."

"So you drank the elixir…" muttered the outsider. "What was your reason? No. More importantly… how did you get to it? And why does Kaguya hate you?"

Again Mokou gave out a weak chuckle, this time less bitter-sounding. "Kaguya doesn't hate me any more than I hate her. Our hatred is mutual. We often fight to the death. There's barely any greater satisfaction for me in this accursed life than to bring her as much pain as I can."

"That's horrible!" sounded shocked Soudai. "What has the Moon princess done to you?"

"It's thanks to her that I'm stuck in this undying, unaging body. I should have been dead, resting in peace for over thirteen centuries… if only she wouldn't have come down to Earth."

"Would you care to tell us more?" Soudai asked her to elaborate.

"It is not a story I often tell to strangers. And it's not very short either."

"So… uh… how far are we from the edge of the forest?"

"If you could fly like me, I'd say not too far." replied Mokou, looking somewhere into the distance over Soudai's shoulder. "But on foot… It's still quite a way."

"How about you told us a bit about yourself as we go then?" Kyouichi proposed a suggestion

"If you care to know that much about a person you're likely not to meet again, then fine." Mokou accepted. "Follow me then. The village is this way."

The immortal girl took the lead, heading in different direction than the two outsiders originally followed. Kyouichi and Soudai could only wonder where they would have ended up if they continued in their northbound course out of the forest.

"So…" Mokou resumed her speech. "You've heard the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, right?"

"Sure thing. It's a well known folktale after all." nodded Soudai, even though he only had the outside world version in mind.

"I have." confirmed Kyouichi tersely.

"Good." said Mokou as she walked onward. "Then you know well about the Five Impossible Requests, which that damned Lunarian used to reject all her suitors."

"Yes, go on…"

"One of those requests was to bring her the Jeweled Branch of Hourai."

"Oh, I would bring her ten Hourai branches if I could marry her…" murmured Soudai with a daydreamy look on his face.

Mokou scoffed at his remark. "Yeah… My father used to think the same way as you do now."

"Your father?" repeated both humans at the same time.

"Yes… Kuramochi no Miko, also known as Fujiwara no Fuhito… Believe it or not, I was born in a wealthy family."

"So your father was one of Kaguya's suitors?" asked Kyouichi.

"That's right. But as the Five Impossible Requests are called impossible for a reason, he naturally failed in his quest. That's when I decided to exact revenge upon her. I swore an oath to make her life as miserable as I could. But for a long time, I couldn't find any way to confront her personally. However, one day I caught a rumor that she planned to give some sort of present to the very emperor of Japan. I later learned that the emperor has ordered one of his servants, Iwakasa, accompanied by a group of soldiers to take Kaguya's gift to the very summit of Mt. Fuji for some odd reason…"

"The Hourai Elixir…" Kyouichi completed the information.

Mokou nodded. "I had no idea what was the content of that jar that was carried by the soldiers, nor the reason why they carried it there. My mind was set solely on revenge against Kaguya. I secretly followed the group all the way to Mount Fuji, which was said to be the tallest mountain in the country. My plan was to steal that jar if it meant meddling with Kaguya's intentions. Of course, I had no idea how would I steal that jar from the soldiers, but that didn't matter to me. After several days of following them and hiding like a bandit I grew very tired. By the time we've reached approximately four fifths of the mountain's height, I had collapsed from exhaustion. However, the man called Iwakasa knew that I had been following him and the soldiers. When I was at the limit of my strength, he walked up to me, bringing me food and water…"

"How nice of him." stated Kyouichi and let Mokou continue her story.

"That he was… After saving my life, he was trusting enough to let me go with him to the top of the mountain. When we were finally at our destination, I asked him why he was climbing all the way up to the top, even though he should be the one asking me that question. "Men have to obey their orders." he simply told me. I told him an absurd tale that I was following them, because I was a bandit, which actually wasn't far from the truth, since I did want to steal that jar. That only managed to elicit the soldiers' laughter. Even if I was what I had claimed to be, what threat was a single young girl to a band of armed soldiers? Iwakasa then ordered the soldiers to put the jar down on the ground. As I wondered what they were going to do next, they began tying a ribbon around it. They said that would make it easier to fling it far away and that they planned to toss the jar into the volcano's crater. I had no idea why would they do that. I thought that perhaps the emperor wanted to spite Kaguya too. Hmph… I had gone through all that trouble of following the soldiers and climbing up that mountain just to steal the jar, but all I could do then was sit by and watch what would happen to it… Then as the soldiers approached the edge of the crater, this strange woman appeared out of nowhere…"

"Oh, don't tell me that Yukari had her hands in this too…" Kyouichi interrupted the narration.

Mokou gave him a questioning look. "Who's Yukari…? Oh, wait a minute… Ahh~, but of course, I remember now… But no, that woman wasn't Yukari. It was the goddess of Mt. Fuji herself."

"Goddess of Mt. Fuji? You mean Konohana-Sakuya-hime?"

"That's what she introduced herself as." Mokou affirmed. "Princess Sakuya… Her sudden appearance had changed everything. The soldiers were taken aback. Some of them even bowed down before her. She said that it was her divine power that kept the volcano from erupting and she had told the soldiers not to throw the jar into the crater. Then Iwakasa told her that by the order of the emperor he was obliged to burn the contents of the jar in the sacred fires of Mt. Fuji. The goddess was, of course, not very happy to hear that. She gave him a warning that should he toss the jar into the crater, the volcano will resume its activity and not even she would be able to contain it. She said that the jar contained power even greater than that of a god such as her. Then she asked Iwakasa whether he even knew what's inside it.

None of the soldiers could actually answer that question. Even I knew only that it contained something that was left behind by Kaguya as a gift. And just as Princess Sakuya was about to answer her own question and reveal the jar's secret, Iwakasa halted her, telling her that she couldn't tell that to the soldiers. The goddess disagreed, saying that the soldiers deserved to know the truth after climbing all the way up here. She said that the jar contained the elixir of immortality. The soldiers couldn't believe their own ears. To think that by following Iwakasa's order they'd commit something to anger a god. In addition, the jar that they carried themselves all the way to the top contained the elixir of immortality… I was surprised too, of course. That such a thing even existed and that Kaguya had left it behind… And that such a thing was right there before me. The revelation had caused a great deal of unrest among the soldiers. As they found themselves unable to move, they couldn't throw the jar into the volcano. Despite this, Iwakasa attempted to light the jar on fire, but for some reason it just wouldn't burn. Having run out of reasonable options, they decided to spend the night on the mountain's summit, trying to figure what to do next. Princess Sakuya was originally a water deity with power to ward off fire. That's probably why Iwakasa's attempt to burn the jar ended up in failure. I had spent the remainder of the evening trying to get some more details from Iwakasa about his orders. I wanted to know why he had come all the way here to dispose of the elixir of immortality. He explained that the jar was a Hourai jar and its content, the Hourai Elixir. Kaguya Houraisan had probably left it behind before she returned to the Moon as a token of gratitude to the old bamboo cutter who had raised her, as well as the emperor, whose heart she had broken…"

"Perhaps she should have apologized to all of those who were turned down by her." speculated Kyouichi as he tried to keep up with Mokou's brisk pace of walking through the forest.

"An apology would have been a good start, but it would hardly make up for the pain she had caused not just to me, but dozens of other people…"

"So… wait. Are you saying you wouldn't hate Kaguya if she let your father marry her and became your stepmother? Is that really what you'd like?"

Kyouichi could only see her long veil of hair sway from side to side as she shook her head disagreeingly. "No… The fact whether or not she would let my father marry her was of no consequence to me. There is a big difference between turning down a proposal and sending people on a fool's quest, dishonoring them and even sending them to their death. Had she turned down my father with the tiniest speck of respect, I would have lived a happy life of a wealthy aristocrat's daughter and we wouldn't be having this conversation…"

"So your family pride is to blame too, huh?"

Mokou shrugged. "Perhaps so. I have always kept convincing myself that all the pain I had felt at that time was entirely her fault and that conviction fueled my lust for revenge."

"But thirteen hundred years have already passed since that event!" Kyouichi remarked. "Don't you think that's a long enough time for even the greatest of enemies to set aside their differences? I'm not talking about being friends… just… leaving each other alone and living your own lives, you know…"

"No." she replied coldly. "I don't expect anyone to understand… The two of us have already caused so much anguish and suffering to each other that we're stuck in an endless loop of mutual hatred. Killing Kaguya every time I get the opportunity is the only thing that brings me satisfaction in this accursed life. I'm fairly sure she'd say the same thing about me. And we'll hate each other even after all life on Earth will fade away."

Kyouichi frowned with great disdain at her ice-cold words. "Geez… Soudai was right. That's just plain horrible! Is there no way you could end your feud?"

"It's no use, young human." the immortal shook her head again. "There's no turning back for either of us, so please don't try to understand. I don't need anyone's compassion or understanding… Don't try to be a saint and give me lectures about the error of my ways. I don't believe my attitude towards Kaguya will ever change and vice-versa."

"I guess we better not get involved ourselves in certain matters." said Soudai to his friend with a concerned tone. "Besides, I still want to hear the rest of her story… What happened next? How did you get to drink that elixir then, Mokou-san?"

"Indeed… Some matters are better off left as they are." Mokou agreed with the older of the outsiders at least this time. "Now, returning back to the events that forever changed my life… Kaguya's adoptive father was an old man and said he did not want to live forever. The emperor likewise refused her gift, saying that he had no wish to live an eternity in a world without her. That's why he ordered his men to carry the elixir all the way to the top of Mt. Fuji and burn it. It was difficult for me to understand that the old man and the emperor would refuse such a thing. Iwakasa seemed to have anticipated the same level of doubt from the ranks of his soldiers. Worried that they'd be unable to carry out their order had they known the truth, he decided to keep the contents of the jar a secret. What if they were to catch each other in attempt to steal it and end up killing each other? What if someone would secretly replace the real elixir with a fake one? Those were the things that worried Iwakasa, so it was in his best interest not to tell the soldiers the details of their mission. As the night fell upon the mountain's summit, we all formed a circle with the jar in the middle. One could already tell the huge tension and mistrust spreading among the soldiers just by watching them guard the jar – always in pairs. Nobody fully trusted anyone at that moment. I was reluctant to fall asleep too, but the weariness of climbing the mountain has finally got to me. Then a voice woke me up… It was the voice of Princess Sakuya. I opened my eyes and was met with a grisly sight. Dead bodies of the soldiers lay scattered across the campsite in pools of blood. Only me and Iwakasa were left alive. Princess Sakuya told us that the men started killing each other. However, that just didn't add up. Some of the bodies were not just slashed or stabbed, but even burned to crisp. It must have been a very fierce battle and there was simply no way me or Iwakasa could have slept through that massacre."

"So… could it be that…?"

"Yes." Mokou nodded before Kyouichi even formulated his question. "It was without the slightest doubt Princess Sakuya who had killed them all. All except me and Iwakasa... I was quite sure that she let us live only because she had some intentions with us later. Iwakasa then knew that he could no longer fulfill his mission and he believed what the goddess had told him. She then said that the elixir was simply a tool to deceive foolish humans. Even though nobody said anything about it, all those around it fell into misfortune. She approved of Iwakasa's intention to get rid of the elixir, but she also clearly said that such a task was too much even for her, and that he should forget about throwing the jar into that mountain. Iwakasa then explained his mission to the goddess that he was supposed to take the elixir to the place closest to the Moon and burn it there. "Is there any place closer to the Moon than this? Any mountain taller than this one?" he asked her. Princess Sakuya answered that she knows of such a place. Located northwest of Mt. Fuji, there was supposedly even a taller mountain called Yatsugatake. She explained that Mt. Yatsugatake was the home of her elder sister, Princess Iwanaga - the goddess with the power over immortality and the unchanging. She said that the best place to dispose of the elixir would be that mountain. "But Yatsugatake isn't taller than this mountain, is it?" argued Iwakasa. But Princess Sakuya corrected him. "No, it was once in fact much taller than this mountain." She explained that long ago, there used to be a great dispute among the two sister deities…"

"Yes, I've heard that legend before." said the outsider.

"No doubt…" agreed Mokou. "But that was the first time both me and Iwakasa had heard about that. Anyway, the fight between Princess Sakuya and Princess Iwanaga is not that important… The important thing was the fact that we were told that the distance to the Moon may be somewhat shorter from the peak of Mt. Yatsugatake. Iwakasa then decided to immediately travel to that mountain to burn the elixir there. The goddess of Mt. Fuji disappeared as suddenly as she appeared, and as the new day dawned, we were already descending down from the summit. Iwakasa just kept on going forward, never even stealing a glance at me, not saying a single word for the whole time of our descent."

"Was it then when you seized the elixir?" Soudai asked impatiently, earning a frowned gaze from the immortal girl.

"It was all like a daze…" she continued after turning forward again. "It was all weighing heavily on me… The persistent silence, the unchanging scenery and the pointlessness of our ascent to Mt. Fuji… I kept switching my attention from the jar on Iwakasa's back to the steep rocky slope along which we were descending. Indeed, I remembered my original objective and the reason for following him in the first place. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to fulfill my goal. But even with these thoughts in mind, I bore no ill will against Iwakasa. He was, after all, the man who had saved my life. Could I have really brought myself to stealing the jar and simply run away? However, I simply couldn't get one thing out of my head. The words that Princess Sakuya said... It seemed no matter how little I'd care for the consequences, everything would somehow turn out over the course of eternity… Immortality… Before I even knew what I was doing, I had pushed Iwakasa down the steep slope in our path, took the jar and ran…"

"You killed him?" Soudai couldn't believe her words. "How could you?"

"I regret that I killed the man." Mokou admitted. "But I no longer cared about anything… I became what I am now. Later, when I learned that Kaguya, in fact, never returned to the Moon, I ran all the way here, to this very bamboo forest, to Eientei. No longer afraid of anything or anyone. I didn't have to worry about starving or about feral wild animals, or about the youkai. I could finally begin my payback against Kaguya. And I've been doing so for the past three hundred years… As for the Yatsugatake Mountain, you may see it as soon as we get out of his forest."

"You mean the Youkai Mountain?" asked Kyouichi. "Because I really don't understand how it can still be standing tall after Princess Sakuya broke it down to a smaller mountain range."

"Well, after that event, Princess Iwanaga grew tired of her younger sister's attitude, so she moved here, restoring her mountain in secrecy. Since she had the power over the unchanging, Mt. Fuji had lost its inextinguishable flame, which is why it is no longer an active volcano. And Gensokyo's Youkai Mountain is thought of as the original form of Mt. Yatsugatake before it was torn down." explained Mokou and concluded her story.

It wasn't long after that when the two outsiders noticed their environment getting a little brighter.

* * *

"We're getting close to the edge." announced the immortal. "We're almost out of the forest. From there on you'll go alone, but it's quite a safe area and the village is plainly visible, so you don't need to worry about getting lost."

"Excuse me if I'm too curious, Mokou-san." Soudai sounded timidly. "But… Why did you save me back then? And why are you helping us now?"

She turned back at him with a faint smile. "Because it's a part of what I do. Feuding with Kaguya, exterminating youkai, helping lost and injured humans and running a yakitori stand…"

"A yakitori stand?" he asked her with an amused tone. "Why didn't you say so earlier? I sure could go for a nice crispy yakitori right now…"

"Well that's a pity." Mokou shrugged. "I'm not opened today. But if I was, I probably wouldn't have met you and the two of you would be probably still hopelessly wandering around the forest."

"That's… true." Soudai had to admit. "Anyway, what's with those wings that you had? Where did you get such magic?" he kept inquiring.

"Over the course of my prolonged, unending life, I had encountered and battled countless youkai. Some killed me on spot, others I managed to drive away. Eventually I discovered that some of their power was transferred to me. It's basically the same way as with all of Gensokyo's native human inhabitants. However, whereas it took many generations of warriors and their families to gain enough power to rival the youkai, I never died, and so, the power had accumulated within me. Now, after over thirteen centuries I am able to defeat even the most powerful of Gensokyo's youkai. I can basically keep on fighting until I can no longer take the pain, and to that I've developed quite a resistance… My forte is manipulation of fire, as you might have noticed."

"That's awesome." Soudai remarked admiringly. "So perhaps even people like us could once gain some little magic power if we lived here long enough, huh?"

"That's doubtful." the immortal girl gave him a disappointing answer. "Well... Perhaps if you fought against the youkai every day and didn't get yourself killed, then perhaps in several decades, you could pick something up, but as I said, that's highly improbable… However, if you had any children born here, their chance to gain some powers would be slightly greater. And the next generation would be even more likely to learn some magic."

"That's… an interesting fact to know." said the older outsider with a hint of disappointment. "But not that it really matters if we're going to be leaving Gensokyo in three months, right Kyouichi?"

"Yeah." his younger friend affirmed.

"Leave Gensokyo?" Mokou asked with a genuinely surprised tone. "Isn't it going to be a problem with the Great Barrier in the way?"

"That's a longer story." Kyouichi gave an avoidant reply. "And I'm not in a mood to retell it again."

"Neither do I have the time to listen." noted the immortal pyromancer. "Look ahead. There's the end of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost." she pointed forward towards the beams of daylight that seeped through the last stalks of bamboo in their way. "And this is where we part ways." Mokou stopped and turned at the two mortals who followed her.

"You're not coming to the village?" Kyouichi asked her.

She shook her head in a negative response. "My home is here in this forest. In fact, I believe you must have passed by it just before I saw you running away from me."

"I see…"

"Life in isolation is my fate. I simply prefer it that way… I hope this was the last time I had to help you. You'd be wise not to wander into this forest again."

"Uhh, yeah, we'll try." Soudai reassured her.

Mokou paused for a while as she thoughtfully scratched her chin. "I'd ask you to say hello to Kamishirasawa-san for me, but you probably don't know her…"

"Kamishirasawa-san?" he repeated. "You mean Keine-sensei? Of course we know her. She's our teacher."

Mokou raised her brow. "Really? So she teaches you Gensokyo's history, huh?"

"That's right. And geography and a thing or two about the various youkai races... Is she your friend?"

"She's the closest person I have that still lives."

"Hmm…" Soudai seemed to be surprised. "I wonder why she never told us anything about you."

"Maybe because she didn't want to, you genius." Kyouichi jabbed at him. "Mokou-san's past and even her present life is not exactly… sinless. Keine-sensei most likely doesn't want to be openly associated with her or it could hurt her reputation…"

"I guess that makes sense." the older outsider admitted. "Don't worry, Mokou-san, we'll keep your relationship with Keine-sensei a secret from the public. We'll tell her that you send your regards."

It was probably the first time when both outsiders saw a warm, pleasant smile from this lonely immortal girl. "Thank you."

"No, we thank you." Soudai expressed his gratitude and together with Kyouichi, he bowed to her. "I wish your grim life would change for the better, but… that depends only on you and your choices. Farewell then."

And so, as Mokou silently made her goodbye nod, she floated up, spreading her fiery wings and disappeared into the deep dusky forest. The two outsiders were left without a guide, but they no longer needed one. The end of the forest was in their sight. With their spirits bolstered again, they jogged on towards the fading daylight…

* * *

"Holy shit, I think we actually made it!" Soudai expressed his joy as he was greeted with an open land.

"Bamboo Forest of the Lost, eh?" Kyouichi looked back at the mentioned forest. "Well, not anymore!"

"I think I can see the village!" called Soudai as he covered his eyes, which were still only adjusting to the brighter environment. He was pointing towards northeast at the distant formation of buildings.

"It looks like we're south of the crop fields." stated the younger outsider as he figured out his whereabouts. "Mokou-san changed our course… So if we kept heading north as we planned…" he paused as he stretched out his arm and roughly measured the northbound heading. "We'd probably end up somewhere near Kourindou… That Eientei is quite a distance from the village, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I wish I knew how to fly too…" said Soudai and resumed his walk towards the Human Village.

The farmlands belonging to the territory of the Human Village were stretching along the vast valley directly north of their current position. It wasn't hard to see the unmistakable architecture of the Temple of Myouren and the local cemetery lying no more than half a klick southwest from the said temple. The setting sun spreading its rays over the sky, painting the sky from orange to blue, was drawing long shadows of everything it shined on. With great feeling of relief and elation, the two misplaced humans were making their way towards the safest place in Gensokyo for the likes of them.

"I guess you could say we were lucky that we ran into that Mokou-san." said Soudai after spending some time in silent thinking.

"Maybe it was part of Tewi's good luck blessing." Kyouichi speculated. "While I'm not too sure what to think of Mokou, we both owe her one…"

"Well, we'd probably manage to find our way out of the forest anyway." shrugged the older one. "But we'd be quite a bit further away from the village. Not to mention that we could run into something really malevolent… like that invisible youkai that got me the other day."

Kyouichi sighed with relief. "Yeah… It's a good thing everything turned out okay and we got out of the forest unscathed."

"Uhh… Kyouichi? What about your knee then?"

The younger outsider only now brought his attention to the tear on his hakama, soaked with a little bit of blood. "Huh? Where did that come from?"

"Geez… Straight out of Eientei and you mess yourself up again." Soudai shook his head.

"Well, if I noticed it just now I can't be that serious, can it? Besides, I've got this…" Kyouichi reached into his backpack to draw out the bottle with potion that caused him so much trouble.

"Aw man, not this crap again…" Soudai frowned disapprovingly.

"One day, Soudai, you may need it too. It's quite convenient not having to wait to heal up naturally…" retorted his friend and took a light sip of the bottle's content.

Just as he expected, the wound and the area around it became increasingly more sensitive to the pain, which soon turned into a burning sensation. With gritted teeth he endured the unpleasant feeling until it faded away. As he pulled up his hakama to check on his knee, there was no trace of any injury.

"Even with that potion, we still better just be careful." Soudai gave a friendly advice. "I mean, look… You've already nearly wasted one bottle. At this rate you'll have nothing when the day of our return journey comes…"

"Then I guess I'll better pay a visit to Xeng-san once more." replied Kyouichi with an easygoing attitude. "Hmm… Now that I mention him, I think he had hinted to me that there were three more immortals besides him who live in Gensokyo… Guess that means I've already met them all."

"And that reminds me…" Soudai paused himself and cleared his throat. "How the hell come were YOU invited to Kaguya-sama's private quarters and I haven't?!" he yelled at him his question.

"It was all a sort of lucky coincidence." the younger outsider smiled sheepishly as he tried to explain the situation. "I'm sure she'd invite you too if you were there with me…" he tried to cheer him up, but that only helped to frustrate Soudai even more.

"Damn! Damn, damn, damn~!" he angrily bashed his fist against his palm. "Why didn't I go with you?"

"Sheesh, dude, calm down… You were most likely being examined by Eirin when that happened."

"Damn… Even if you say so… If I had known about this, I'd let some of those fairies to be checked up before me."

Kyouichi chuckled amusedly. "Would you? What happened to your "never trust an alien" creed?"

"Uhh, well… Erm…"

"Kaguya is just as Lunarian as Eirin and from what I've heard, those folks up there don't think of us humans or youkai as anything more than means to an end… That's part of the reason why they wanted to brew the elixir of immortality. To manipulate and to deceive."

"I just hope they're not planning an invasion or something…" muttered the older outsider.

"Well, it's not that they couldn't, but they see Earth as a very "impure" place to be, so it's more like they don't want to be here… Eirin and Kaguya are different cases, though, since they're both exiles." explained Kyouichi.

"No doubt because of conducting illegal experiments with shady drugs."

The younger outsider let out a weak chuckle at Soudai's last remark, despite the fact, or maybe because of the fact that it wasn't too far from the truth.

"That's not funny, Ishimaru. I'm being serious right now, you know…"

"Yeah, yeah…" Soudai was again brushed off by his friend. They walked the rest of the way to the village quietly.

* * *

As they reached the central market district, if one could even dare to divide such a small village into districts, Soudai suddenly stopped and looked at his companion. "Well, it's been quite some adventure during those past few days, wasn't it?"

"Yeah…" sighed Kyouichi with a tired voice. "One hell of an adventure, alright…"

"One can only hope for things turning out a bit better when we make our return to the outside world." commented Soudai and turned away from Kyouichi to one of the streets to the south. "I'd even call you for a beer or two, but right now, a good sleep and a good dinner is all that I'm thinking about… See you next Tuesday then… Club prez…" he smirked weakly as he said the last words to his friend. Of course, by next Tuesday he meant the regular weekly meeting of the so-called Transfer Students' Club held at the school library. Kyouichi's hospitalization made him miss the last one, but Soudai was absent for over two weeks. They both had some catching up to do and… new information to learn. However, to simply see each other again, they wouldn't have to wait until Tuesday, since they'd simply go back to school again tomorrow.

"Ah, that's right…" said Kyouichi as he remembered something. "You live like most of the folks from outside… In the militia barracks, huh?"

"Yeah… It's no Hotel Ritz, but we can get by. We pretty much don't need to worry about most of our living needs, be it food, lodging or clean clothes, but we take shifts with menial tasks like cleaning and cooking… All the things that the warriors don't like doing very much."

"Do you get along well with each other?"

Soudai shrugged with an ambiguous expression. "So-so, I guess… I can handle cleaning duties. I'm not that bad of a cook either… At least good enough for the standards of their mess hall. However, some of our folks don't like it there at all. Especially that girl… You know, she's your deputy in terms of our club's hierarchy… Iwakami-san."

"Midori." Kyouichi nodded, as he knew the person well. "Yeah, she told me about her problem long ago. I had already asked a… err… a friend of mine to let her stay in his house. She's been living there for almost as long as you've been absent and she seemed to like it there… oddly enough."

"Huh? Why oddly enough? Who is that so-called friend of yours?" asked the older outsider a bit pryingly.

"Well, uhh… He's…" Kyouichi had a bit of a difficulty choosing the right words, since he couldn't tell himself what exactly his relationship with the old Naota Tanisake was. "I guess I COULD call him a friend even if I don't agree with some of his opinions or his lifestyle. His name's Tanisake Naota and if he wasn't almost 80 years old, he could be our club's president."

"An outsider, huh? I see then…"

"Yeah." Kyouichi went on describing the old man in more detail. "An ex-carpenter. Partly self-taught. Got spirited away by the end of the second war… Ehh… The Second World War, not the Lunar one…" he specified, so that there wouldn't be a misunderstanding. "Now that he's in retirement, he's living his days peacefully here in the village, drinking sake and meeting his old friends. I think he's lived alone. I've been to his house once, but there wasn't anyone there besides him... But that all changed now that Midori moved in."

"So that's how it is…?" Soudai nodded understandingly as he listened. "But you sounded like you don't trust him enough…"

"Well…" Kyouichi shrugged. "As I already said, he drinks sake. A lot of it, actually. And he's sometimes… quite prejudicial. He doesn't seem to trust strangers easily and he stays away from any and all youkai. Honestly, I didn't think he was the best person for Midori to take example of, but… I guess I was wrong."

"Really? Why?"

"Don't get me wrong. I never said that he's a bad person or something. He has his good points. While Naota barely has more than a handful of friends in the village, he seems to be more open towards outsiders. We are all pretty much peers in Gensokyo after all… He showed the same level of openheartedness to Midori as he did to me. Not only that, but he seemed to limit his sake consumption and he also seemed to have… softened up a little… I don't know… maybe it's just me, but I think that he likes to take care of people in need. He even seems to be a bit… overprotective sometimes… he's been giving me all sorts of patronizing lectures… even slapped me a few times when I did something he deemed wrong."

"Hmm… Maybe he's just taken a liking to you." speculated Soudai with a thoughtful face. "Perhaps you remind him of someone close to him…?"

"I don't know…"

"Or perhaps he sees his younger self in you and doesn't want you to the same mistakes that he did."

"Yeah, perhaps so." admitted Kyouichi. "He's been a sort of a father-figure to me here in the village besides Saitou-san. He's got a lot of flaws, but… I can't help but to like him. And Midori never complained about him either. I just hope things haven't changed since then."

"Maybe you should pay him a visit again soon… Perhaps you might even want to introduce me to him." Soudai suggested nonchalantly.

"Yeah, you're right… I'll go see him again. As soon as I rest up a bit from our... "adventuring"."

Soudai laughed softly. "Then we should already stop standing around here, blocking the marketplace and go get some rest… Until next time then, Kyouichi."

"Yeah, be good, man…" the younger outsider informally saw his older friend off and casually waved his hand as he departed.

* * *

Leaving the still-crowded marketplace behind, the young Ishimaru entered the familiar street in the northern part of the village where the family of his caretakers – the Saitou family, had their residence. While he couldn't wait to see their faces again, a part of him was worried what their reaction to his week-long absence would be. Would they welcome him with joy and relief? Would they scold him and punish him? Or would they simply say "welcome home" without asking any questions? The answer to that question didn't matter to Kyouichi that much. The Saitous were almost like his family and no matter their reaction, he'd still return to them.

"I'm back…" he timidly announced his arrival as he let himself inside the house.

At first, there was no reaction, since there was nobody in the hallway, but as he opened the kitchen's door, he was greeted with Minako's astonished face.

"Ah~. How nice to see you again, Minako-san." he smiled at her warmly.

"Kyouichi-kun! Oh my god, are you alright?" she began asking him, as if she was his real mother. "What happened to you? I heard that you were taken to Eientei, but… When were you discharged? And… my… Look at your clothes… Don't worry, I'll mend them for you. More importantly, you must be hungry, right? Why don't you come in and have something to eat? You can tell me everything once your stomach's full."

"Easy there, Minako-san." Kyouichi gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, as you can see."

"But we were all so worried! When I heard the news that a caravan from Kazemura was hit and that several people were hurt, I almost passed out…"

"I'm sorry to make you worry so much, but… Really, you should also take it easier on yourself. It's not like I'm really your family or anything."

"How can you even say that?" asked the mother of the Saitou family, barely able to believe her ears. "You may not be my own, but me and everyone else already takes you as a part of our family."

Kyouichi frowned and gave Minako a serious look in the eyes. "You're already well aware that I'm not staying here forever. In fact, no more than three months. I've told you about that, didn't I?"

Minako copied his frown as she nodded. "I know… But still. It's not going to be so easy for me to say farewell to you."

"Time can take care of any heartache, Minako-san. And you are a strong woman. I bet you won't even remember me in a few years."

"Please, say such words no more." Minako pleaded him. "Just… please…"

"As you wish." the outsider obliged and said nothing more on this topic.

"Please, have a seat at the table, I'll tell Mizuto and the children that you've returned from Eientei." said the tailor and disappeared behind the corner. Her hasty footsteps echoed as she walked down the narrow corridor of her house to inform the other family members of the good news. Not long after that, her footsteps sounded again, accompanied by those of the rest of the Saitou family as they rushed into the kitchen where Kyouichi was already comfortably seated by the table.

"Kyouichi~!" sounded the deep voice of Minako's husband, Mizuto. He sounded quite thrilled as he greeted the outsider with a smile. "Glad to see that you're still in one piece. I knew that we can always trust the folks at Eientei with saving our lives, eh?"

"Ehh… Yeah…" the outsider replied hesitantly as he camouflaged his mistrust towards the mentioned institution.

"Onii-cha… I mean… uhh… ehehehe... Kyouichi-kun," the firstborn daughter, Chitose corrected herself as she welcomed him. "Welcome back. I've heard what happened. Did you really stand face to face against a vicious youkai?"

"Well, uhh… I don't know what you've heard, but it was more like I was just cowering behind…"

He left his sentence unfinished, since Tadao, the youngest child of the family interrupted him with a greeting of his own. "Good to see you again, Kyouichi. I'm interested to hear something about Kazemura. Did you see that latest archeological discovery they've made there?"

"Why, yes, I have actually…" Kyouichi began to explain, but was cut silent again by Minako.

"Kyouichi-kun has been through a difficult day, no doubt, so I think you should let him eat something first."

"Yes mom~." replied the Saitou siblings in unison and assumed seats at the table along with their father.

After Kyouichi filled his stomach to the point of satisfaction, he shared some his recent experiences with the curious children as well as their parents. Naturally, he didn't tell them everything, especially the parts regarding his daring escape from Eientei. In other words, he made up a few lies as he retold his story. After that, there was a session of questions and answers about the specific parts of his past several days. Their conversation went on until the late evening. Kyouichi had a feeling that his life in Gensokyo would again slow down and his days would be again peaceful, if somewhat stereotypical. However, he still had a few problems on his mind that he yet needed to sort out. One of them included finding himself a new job, since he decided to quit his old one in the bookstore. While he still had enough money saved up to live without worries for a week or two, he didn't simply want to waste it all on food and drinks. After all, he and all of the outsiders that joined the Transfer Students' Club, had some common responsibility. They all bound themselves to contribute a certain sum of yen to their fund in order to supply themselves for the hard journey that awaited them, and even as the club's president, Kyouichi was not excluded from this obligation.

When he returned to the guest room, which mainly served to store Minako's tailoring needs and materials, he almost felt as if he was returning to his own room in his own apartment in Tokyo. He already got used to this house and he couldn't deny it.

"Huh? I still haven't returned these, have I?" he asked himself as his sight fell upon the pile of 21 books, making up the entirety of Gensokyo Chronicle compilation. Since he was already steadfastly convinced that he would return to the outside world with Reimu's assistance, he felt that he no longer needed the books and had planned to return them to their owner. However, now that he looked at them again, he was having second thoughts. Not even knowing what rekindled his interest, but something subconscious urged him to pick up one of those books and browse through its pages.

"Hmph…" he chuckled weakly. "I guess that'll have to make up for the lack of television in this house." He said to himself as he opened up the book he took from the top of the pile – the latest in the compilation – Perfect Memento in Strict Sense. There he skipped right to the youkai encyclopedia section, and since he had the fairy incident on his mind, he decided to expand his knowledge about those creatures. It turned out that the articles about the youkai in the encyclopedia were rather short and simplified. Besides some simple trivia, he didn't really learn anything new about the fairies that he didn't already know. While the "Threat Level" and the "Human Friendship Level" colons were adding an interesting touch, the articles were rarely exceeding the length of one page and Kyouichi found their quality almost disappointing. He blamed that, however, on the fact that he was holding an unfinished test printout, not yet ready to be officially sold and distributed. The article about the fairies, of course, held no explanation for severe, aggressive behavior where the creatures would attack settlements in huge numbers in an almost organized manner, so even after reading the whole entry, Kyouichi wasn't a step closer to understanding the incident than he was when it began. With tired eyes blinking in the dimly illuminated room, he put the book next to his futon and prepared himself for sleep. He still had school to attend and he didn't want to oversleep after all…


	43. Counterfeit Excuse

The morning came rather quickly, or so it seemed to Kyouichi who had a feeling like he's only had about 1 hour of good sleep. He had a bit of a hard time recalling what day it was today and what books should he put in his backpack. It was already the 5th of Fuzuki (July) and it was already looking like one of his typical days in the village. After hasty preparations and light breakfast to start the day, he left the house together with the Saitou siblings and was on his way to school. Not long after that, he was already greeting his fellow outsiders in the hallway.

* * *

"Oi, good morning, Sayuri-san, Midori-san and you too Dan-san…" he greeted three familiar faces. As soon as they greeted him back, he felt a surprising smack on the shoulder and heard yet another familiar voice: "Whazzup, man~?" The voice belonged to none other than Kyouichi's acquaintance from Eientei, Asakura Soudai. The dark-haired young man was grinning at him with an almost mischievous expression. "Almost forgotten what this place looked like, eh?"

Kyouichi let out a light snort. "Yeah… It almost seems like I haven't been here for a long time. I wonder if anything changed during those days of our absence."

"It's good to sae you both back, guys, but you all need to work hard to catch up with the lessons." Midori informed them.

"Oh, Midori… Why so serious so early in the morning?" Kyouichi tried to tease the younger girl a bit.

"We're having a test tomorrow, so of course I'm serious." Midori maintained her tone and expression.

Soudai's and Kyouichi's reactions were identical. "Eeeeh~?!"

"A test? Tomorrow?!" Soudai repeated. "You can't be serious!"

"Ask Keine-sensei then." shrugged the short-haired girl, pretending to be indifferent.

"Geez… I guess she's not kidding." he commented as he beckoned at her.

This news didn't seem to have unsettled Kyouichi, though. "So what? I've only been absent for a week. I can catch up with that. Keine-sensei couldn't have given you too much to study in that time…" he speculated reasonably.

"Speak for yourself, Ishimaru!" Soudai exclaimed at him with a worried look. "YOU have been absent for a week. I have been absent for over two weeks! There's no way in hell I'll be ready for tomorrow's test!"

"Oh for crying out loud, people!" Kyouichi also raised his voice, addressing the words to every other outsider within earshot. "Why do you even make a fuss over some stupid test? We will all be back in Tokyo in three months anyway. What does it matter if you'll pass with flying colors or fail epically? It makes no difference. The only reason we still gather here is to coordinate our return journey. Nothing more; nothing less."

Midori clapped her hands in a mock applause with an unamused expression. "Bravo…" she saluted with a strong hint of irony in her voice. "Now I dare you to repeat those very words in front of Keine-sensei."

Kyouichi remained unfazed by her remark. In fact, he chuckled to it. "My conviction is stronger than a hakutaku headbutt…"

That comment managed to break Midori's serious mood and caused her to giggle heartily. "I've missed that humor of yours during the last week…"

"Hey, I'm glad to see you again too."

Midori smiled weakly. It was almost a bit sad smile that wasn't compatible with her usual energetic personality. "You're going to need that strong conviction and a bit of humor too, for I'm afraid things aren't going as well as we had planned…"

Kyouichi's smile gradually faded to a frown. "You're talking about our club, aren't you?"

A single nod from Midori was the answer.

"Oh, boy…" sighed the young man as he prepared himself mentally for some bad news. That's when Midori smirked again. "Don't worry. It's nothing tragic, just… a bit… inconvenient." she chose the word carefully. "I can tell you later. Now, let's get to the classroom already."

* * *

They made it all just in time before the teacher's arrival. The silver-haired half-youkai woman casually greeted the class, and without any further ado, she asked the class representative to collect homework from the students.

Kyouichi threw a puzzled glance at Soudai, then at Midori. "Well, of course I don't have it." he whispered to her.

"Then it's not me you should be talking to." she brushed him off rather bluntly.

"Um… excuse me, Keine-sensei." Soudai was the first to raise his hand. "I apologize for not having my homework as I was hospitalized in Eientei."

"Yes, me too…" Kyouichi also raised his hand.

Keine didn't look surprised or relieved to see two of her absent students back in the classroom. She just nonchalantly glanced over her list of students and scribbled something into it. "Ah, yes. Asakura-san and Ishimaru-san… Welcome back. You know that I never let any undone homework without some sort of punishment, don't you?"

"I think you didn't hear me well, sensei." Soudai spoke louder, as if a little angered. "I just said that we were recovering from some serious injuries in the House of Eternity. We were under a curfew… sort of. And we weren't visited by anyone that we know from school, so naturally we couldn't have even known about any homework."

"That's all true." admitted Keine with a nod. "Then may I see your excuses?"

"Uhh… Beg your pardon?" Soudai smiled dumbly.

"A written document signed by the doctor as a proof that you were in Eientei this whole time." the teacher elaborated.

Soudai opened his mouth, but no words came out. Of course neither he, nor Kyouichi had anything of that sort, since they basically ran away.

"This is a bummer." he whispered to his younger comrade.

However, young Ishimaru didn't give up on their defense. "Are you trying to tell us that we're lying?" he forwarded the question at the teacher.

"I would not dare make such an accusation, but such are the rules in this school." the teacher explained calmly. "Any absence of a student should be noted and excused by either a doctor or your caretaker, if the reason for absence was other than illness or injury. If I let you slip without an excuse, it would be very unfair to all of those students who had to present an excuse in the past."

"I… But… You must have been informed about our situation by someone. Even my classmates here know that we were both hospitalized there…" Kyouichi retorted, but he had a feeling that he was losing this argument.

"Yes, I was, but rules are rules. Now, do you have that excuse or not?"

"Duhh…" uttered the young outsider with a hopeless expression. He was desperately trying to brainstorm for any alternative that could serve as a proof that he and his friend have spent the recent days in Eientei. As he turned his face to Soudai he got a sudden idea.

"Hey, dude, do you still have that bill that says how much we owed for Eientei's services? That should be a good enough proof, since it was signed and it also has a date written on it."

Soudai's face immediately brightened up with hope, but faded to a frown in the very next instant. "No. We don't have that. Eirin never… uh… had the chance to give it to us."

"Damn…" Kyouichi whispered a curse.

"It's highly unlikely that Eirin-sensei wouldn't give you any document on the day of your discharge. Or have you possibly discarded your excuse by mistake?" she gave both students a suspicious look as she asked her question.

The outsiders exchanged their glances before they turned to their teacher again.

"Sorry, sensei, we don't have any…" Soudai was about to admit the truth together with his friend, but Kyouichi interrupted him.

"We don't have them here with us. Could we… uhh… bring them to you later?"

Soudai's surprised face was simply priceless. "Say what? Just what are you up to again, Ishimaru…?" he whispered quietly so only Kyouichi heard him.

"You've got time until noon." Keine was willing to give them a chance. "You'll find me in my office. Otherwise, I'll just give you some extra assignments, as I already said."

"We'll be there with our excuses." Kyouichi promised with a firm and convincing tone.

"Uhh… yeah, what he said." Soudai seconded, although with significantly less convincing voice. He still had no idea what plan his friend had and his uncertainty was apparent.

"Now, putting that little problem aside," Keine again spoke up, this time to all the students, "it's high time we started this lesson. Books, page 74. We're going to talk about religion and deities as the gods also reside in our little wonderland."

* * *

As the teacher began the lecture, Kyouichi was paying little to no attention. He was contemplating about what Midori said to him earlier. There was apparently some kind of problem going on in the Transfer Students' Club. So much could be expected, but it still wasn't pleasant to hear bad news right after recovering from an injury. Kyouichi had certainly thought that people would feel at least a bit of concern and compassion for him, but the reality differed from his expectations. Nobody seemed to care that much to see him or Soudai back in the village. When he gave it some thought, though, it was actually quite natural. Everyone had enough of their own problems to worry about.

He didn't even realize when the lesson ended. He was just shaken awake from his thoughts when the students began standing up and strolling about around the school corridors, as they always did during break. As he glanced into his notebook, he saw nothing but empty blue lines on a field of pure white paper. He didn't even take any notes today. But that didn't concern him at the moment. He turned back over to look at Midori, who was just switching her textbooks.

"So…" he tentatively spoke up to her, "What did I miss while I was gone?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know that too…" Soudai immediately pulled his chair towards them as he heard Kyouichi's question.

"We've had lessons about a youkai race called satori; we've had something to read about a place called the Nameless Hill and on our history lesson we learned about an event known as the Youkai Expansion Project…" Midori began naming the content of last week's lessons.

"I was more curious about the happenings in our club, Midori-san…" said Kyouichi. "Besides, I have already MET a real satori and I've read about the Youkai Expansion Project in the chronicle… So all that I have to catch up with is to learn something about that Silent Hill place…"

"Nameless Hill." Midori corrected him with a smirk. "It's supposedly somewhere south of this village and that big bamboo forest."

"Whatever." Kyouichi wasn't curious about geography lessons right now. "What was that bad news you wanted to tell me earlier?"

"Ah, that… Well, you see, when you were at our club's meeting the last time, we've had 18 active members, including you…"

"And?"

"Now this number is down to 13."

"Whoa!" Soudai exclaimed. "So five have died?"

Midori gave him a sidelong glance. "No, Asakura-san. They have left our club of their own free will."

"What made them change their minds?" wondered the club's president.

"Well," Midori's lips bent in a crooked smirk, "word has it that they have… found someone and have decided to stay here for good."

"Found someone?" Kyouichi repeated cluelessly.

"Yes, someone they've fallen in love with. At least such are the rumors. Love can make people act so irrationally…"

"Exactly what I've been trying to avoid this whole time." commented Kyouichi.

"Oh yeah?" Soudai seemed to have a different opinion. "Tell that to someone who'll believe you."

Kyouichi let out a weak chuckle. "It's true that I've met some girls that I've grown to like a lot, but… No. I have to stay neutral. Falling in love and staying here would probably be a decision I'd later be regretting for the rest of my life."

"I wish those five people who left us would think like you…" Midori sighed with contempt.

"Well, it's their choice and I accept it. I'm not going to try and convince them to change their decision."

"The saddest thing about it is that their relationships might not work out well and by the time they realize their mistake, we won't be here anymore." the club's vice-president commented.

"In any case, everyone already knows that Reimu can take people back to the outside world, so they can always attempt to return home individually."

"True." Midori admitted. "However, that's not all of the club's problems."

"Oh, great…" Kyouichi snorted. "What else?"

"The sudden decrease in the members' numbers has resulted in the decline of morale. In other words, the remaining members are starting to question the purpose of this club. Arguments have become more frequent and little progress is being made regarding our plan."

"I told you that we're not going to look for Yukari anymore." Kyouichi reminded her.

"I'm not talking about that old youkai. I meant our fund."

"What about our fund?" Soudai asked before Kyouichi.

"You, Asakura-san, are a part of the problem regarding our fund." Midori informed him.

"What did I do?" he asked defensively.

"You were absent two weeks, so all the members expect you to pay your due contribution. The same goes for you, Kyouichi, however you are only one week late…"

"Sure, I can pay up right tomorrow." he nodded agreeingly, since he had enough money saved up from his part-time job. "I don't know about Soudai, though…"

"Well… I still owe Ishimaru quite a bit, but I'll do my best to pay in the near future." promised the oldest of the three.

"Also…" Midori continued, "You all know Yuujin-san quite well, right?"

"Oh, that prick…" Soudai spoke without reserve. "I hope he's one of those five who left the club. But then again, who would be interested in him?"

"I'll have to disappoint you, Asakura-san."

"Just call me Soudai. Sheesh…"

"Well, then… Soudai…" Midori changed the way she addressed him. "As you know Yuujin too, he's having serious doubts as to where this club is coming to. He especially spoke about you, Kyouichi, that you are not a competent person for the status of the club's president. Of course I defended you and told him what I think about him…"

"I… uh… appreciate that, Midori." Kyouichi bowed thankfully, looking a bit surprised that she actually spoke in his favor during his absence.

"Don't mention it." the vice-president waved her hand. "I just hate it when people trash talk about someone who's not even there to defend himself. Besides, it was YOU he voted for."

"Well, I guess it's about time I took reins of our club under a tighter grip then." Kyouichi was thinking aloud.

"We don't want any dictatorship or tyranny, though." Soudai added jokingly.

"Right now, it seems our biggest concern is our financial situation." Midori knew exactly which way the wind blows.

"Why?" Kyouichi couldn't understand. "If all the members have been paying regularly, we shouldn't have any financial problems."

"That's what I thought too, but it seems that due to the recent forest fires, the prices of certain goods and commodities have gone up."

"That still shouldn't pose any problem. We have all calculated our fund to be sufficient to afford us everything we need and even leave us with some emergency reserve."

"Well, I guess you know what you're talking about." shrugged the short-haired girl. "But in any case, we'd have a much better idea about our financial standing if we knew exactly how big our expenses will be."

"Hmm… So we'll need to elaborate an accurate list of items that we'll be buying."

"I thought you already had that planned up in detail, prez…" remarked Soudai.

"No, Soudai, no I didn't." Kyouichi opposed him. "And even if I had, the situation has changed and now there's just 13 members, so our shopping list should also change accordingly."

"The chief secretary has a different opinion about the matter, though." Midori pointed out. "Nagahashi-san stated that we should still purchase the same amount of supplies as we would have if there were 18 people traveling… A certain reserve in case of emergency, he said."

"Still, I believe we will all be able to fulfill our goals and make our return journey as we have all agreed upon, on the first of Kannazuki." declared the president with firm belief in the club's success. "I'll try to work something out at home and we can devote the time of our tomorrow's meeting to elaborate our list of necessary supplies."

"As you say, Kyouichi." said Midori with an agreeing nod. "I hope that things will turn out for the better in the end… Oh! Which reminds me… Nagahashi-san had a very… interesting idea in case our financial situation worsened."

"Really? Like what? Rob a bank?" jested Kyouichi.

"Close." Midori smiled wryly. "Well, in essence, it's exactly like a robbery anyway… He spoke about taking a long-term loan, like a mortgage or that sort of thing, but we'd never pay back, since we'd already be back in the outside world."

"Ha!" Soudai expressed his approval with a wide grin. "That guy's a genius! Why didn't we think of this from the start and are working our assess off just so we could scrape together a handful of yen for our supplies?"

"For a whole list of reasons." explained the energetic tomboy. "The most obvious one is probably the fact that none of us outsiders have any permanent residence. The village council wouldn't be willing to offer any loan to someone who can simply decide to move from one household to another if they got the idea of never paying back. However, if at least one of us had some kind of immovable, that would be a different story…"

Just as Midori finished her sentence, Kyouichi was reminded of the old abandoned hunter's lodge standing alongside the western road just several hundred meters away from the farms and the Temple of Myouren. He heard that the village council wanted to raze it, since there were no people interested in buying it. Nobody could blame them, since it was in desolate condition, but that seemed like a perfect opportunity for the young outsider. Its price would probably not be very steep, and if he somehow arranged to make it his permanent residence, he could afford to ask the village hall for additional loans. All he had to show them would be a document about a regular income. In other words, he needed a full-time job. The idea seemed so good that his heart began to beat faster, just by thinking about it. An easy way to ensure the club's financial strength… That's what he thought about the old, falling-apart building on the outskirts of the Human Village. He was seriously contemplating about buying it.

"Thank you very much, Midori!" he bowed deeply to the surprised girl. "And Nagahashi-san too… I just got a splendid idea."

"Eh? What?" the vice-president was puzzled by Kyouichi's sudden change in behavior.

"Oh, Ishimaru and his ideas…" Soudai commented as he beckoned at him. "Speaking of which… I wonder what sort of idea you had in mind when you lied to Keine-sensei about our excuses from Eientei."

"Oh, that's right." Kyouichi returned back to reality. He took his backpack and searched its content, drawing out a piece of paper. "You still have Kaguya-sama's autograph, right?"

"Why yeah. And?"

"We're going to forge an excuse using that signature." he explained plainly.

Midori disapprovingly shook her head. "If you put the same amount of effort into studying that you put into cheating, you'd be a number one student…"

"Who cares about that?" Kyouichi laughed her off. "I'm just improvising, that's all…"

"You want me to devaluate my precious autograph from Kaguya-himesama?!" Soudai asked in disbelief. "No way!"

Kyouichi feigned indifference. "Oh well, suit yourself. It will be just you who's going to have to answer to the were-hakutaku for not having an excuse."

"But using the princess's signature…?" Soudai protested. "That's preposterous!"

"Why?" asked the younger outsider as he already began dipping his writing brush into a flask of ink, ready to make a fake document. "Kaguya is the head of Eientei after all. Her word is even greater than Eirin's, so I don't see a problem."

"That's not what I meant!" exclaimed his older friend. "This is my ultra-rare, one-of-a-kind, legendary autograph from princess Kaguya! I'll never meet her again and never get the chance to ask for another autograph if I defile this one. I… I can't bring myself to destroy a signature of such an extraordinary being…"

"You'll still have Cirno-chan's autograph…" Kyouichi said with utmost indifference in his voice.

"How can you even compare some fairy to a beautiful legendary lunar princess?!" Soudai burst out his question at him.

"Shhh~." he was hushed by Kyouichi who was already writing tiny kanji characters onto the piece of paper with Kaguya's autograph. "I need to concentrate, Soudai. It's got to look official…"

"Oh, I can't watch!" he moaned and looked away, as if the mere sight of the autograph's devaluation caused him pain. "It's not gonna work, Ishimaru, I'm telling you… Keine-sensei would never fall for some amateurish forgery like that. She must have already seen thousands of excuses from Eientei, whereas you haven't seen even one! And yet you think you can fool her with an improvised fake?"

"Well… yeah." affirmed the younger man bluntly as he painted the words as beautifully as he could. He had some skill from his part-time in Starlight Glyph, so the text that he was writing right now really invoked a sort of official-looking impression. It took him quite a few minutes to formulate the text of the "document". He paused many times to rethink his phrasing and expressions, so that the words would look believable. He tried to recall and copy the way in which the Moon princess spoke. It wasn't typically spoken modern-day Japanese. Her expressions and even syntax of her sentences was rather archaic, but still understandable. In such fashion, Kyouichi endeavored to write himself a fake excuse that would look just as if it was written by Kaguya-sama herself. Even Soudai shut up when he saw the finalized version of the forgery and was now silently staring at the piece of paper, intermittently switching his look from the text to its author and back.

"Ishimaru… You're starting to scare me. Perhaps even Keine-sensei won't see anything suspicious about it."

"That's what I'm hoping for…" said Kyouichi. "Kaguya-sama was working as a temporary nurse, so why not?"

As Soudai stared at the finished document, he suddenly changed his opinion. "Say… how about you made one for me as well?"

Kyouichi gave him a crooked smile. "For you, a special deal… 2500 yen."

Of course, his friend wasn't very agreeable. "Are you kidding me?! I already owe you over 10000! And I'm still without a job… Have mercy! Please…?"

"I wonder what made you change your mind all of a sudden." he remarked teasingly.

Soudai looked at him with a hopeless face. "Oh, come on! Don't be a smart-ass bastard, Ishimaru. I'm already in enough trouble as it is. I don't need any extra problems with Keine-sensei."

"So… Are you willing to sacrifice your precious autograph from Kaguya?"

Soudai clenched his fist as he had to resolve his inner dilemma. "Aaaaargh~! Damn it!" he shouted as he lightly smacked the desk. "Why does everything have to come with a price?"

"So is that a yes?" Kyouichi impatiently drummed his fingers over his desk, waiting for Soudai to hand over his autograph from the Moon princess.

"Damn this…" Soudai quietly cursed again as he was reluctantly reaching for the piece of paper with Kaguya's signature. One last stare, as if to say farewell to it, and he finally passed it to his friend.

His face looked determined, although a bit twisted with despair. "Get it over with… And quickly if possible, for I'm afraid my heart won't be able to take it…"

Kyouichi didn't wait too long before he took the paper out of his hands and began making a second forgery. "Do you really like Kaguya so much?" he asked while he was writing.

"This isn't just a matter of liking her." Soudai tried to explain his feeling. "I have never even imagined that I would have ended up in this place and meeting the people that I have met…"

"Yeah, you're not the only one." Kyouichi referred to not just himself, but every single outsider who made it to Gensokyo in its history.

Soudai continued. "And when we figured out that the nurse in Eientei was actually the Kaguya-hime from that old folktale, I just couldn't believe it… Then you asked her for an autograph and I thought to myself: "What a great idea!"."

"What are you guys talking about anyway?" Midori felt hopelessly lost in their conversation and none of the two gentlemen bothered to explain it to her.

"So now... when I thought I'd have some unique memento from my unbelievable experience…" Soudai went on, ignoring Midori's question, "I now sacrifice it just because I'm lazy to do some extra homework… I feel… somewhat… disappointed."

"Keep your chin up, Soudai." Kyouichi tried to console his friend. "It's not like your "memento" as you called it, is completely destroyed."

"I guess not…"

"And besides, we've got three whole moths ahead of us! We're sure to meet many interesting people here before we leave for good… The Tanabata festival is nigh. You said you're going too, right?"

"That I am." confirmed the older of the two young men.

"Me too!" Midori again tried to get their attention. She too had planned to visit the shrine on the 7th of Fuzuki. There were rumors that during the summer festival, almost two thirds of the village's populace went to the Hakurei Shrine to celebrate. Kyouichi could honestly not imagine so many people gathered there, but since it was more or less an old custom, it was most likely not a problem for the shrine yard to contain so many visitors. Midori had even bought herself a yukata for this special occasion. Only three days remained until the big event and many people around the village talked of nothing else recently.

"Oh, so you're going too, Midori-san?" Soudai looked at the club's vice-president.

"Of course I am." she pouted as she rested her hands on her hips. "What did you think? That you're the only two exclusive guests of the shrine?"

"No, of course not, Midori-san. We're both glad that you're coming with us, right Kyouichi?"

Kyouichi was just about to finish making a copy of the fake document. "Sure… I had even planned to visit you and Tanisake-san today and ask you if you were planning to celebrate the festival or not."

"Really?" she looked at him with a bit of doubt. "Aren't you just saying that to comfort me?"

"No." smiled the young long-haired man when he wrote the last word of Soudai's excuse. "It's the truth. I need to have a word with both you and the old man…"

"Well, I'm already here, so what you wanted to talk about?" wondered the curious girl.

"Every conversation is more pleasant over a cup of tea. Besides, the recess is almost over, so we don't have much time left to talk right now, Midori… Here you go, Soudai." he passed the excuse to his older friend. "I tried my best."

"Thanks man!" Soudai rejoiced as he received back his altered autograph card from Kaguya.

"Fine." shrugged the vice-president. "I'll tell Naota-san that you'll be coming for a visit today."

"Thank you, Midori." Kyouichi gave a thankful nod to her.

"No problem…" she mustered a light smile and returned to her desk.

"Say…" Soudai suddenly spoke up again. "It just occurred to me… Keine-sensei is most likely Mokou-san's friend, isn't she?"

"So?"

"And Mokou-san isn't on the best terms with Kaguya-hime…" continued the older outsider with slight concern in his voice.

Kyouichi raised his eyebrow at him. "And your point is…?"

"Well, I don't mean to sound like a paranoid pessimist, but what will Keine-sensei think when she sees this? She might despise Kaguya just as much as Mokou-san."

"Do I look like I give a damn about that?" asked the younger man dismissively.

"But…"

"Of course I can't predict what Keine-sensei's reaction will be. All I can do is hope that she'll believe it to be authentic… Fortunately, these papers are large enough to write in some text above the princess's signature. The fact that Keine-sensei hates Kaguya or not should not be a factor at all… I hope…"

"Well…" Soudai took a deep breath. "We'll see in a minute."

* * *

And just as he said that, Keine-sensei appeared in the classroom for the second time today to begin another lesson. Kyouichi had given Soudai a silent signal and they both stood up from their seats and stepped up to the teacher's desk with their forged excuses in their hands.

The were-hakutaku eyed them both with a curious expression. "What's this? I thought you said you didn't have your excuses with you…"

"We didn't, but we fetched them during the recess." Kyouichi quickly made up a lie.

"Did you?" she glanced at him with untrusting eyes. "You certainly got yourselves a move on… Please, go ahead. Show them to me."

Both outsiders exchanged their looks, and with their fingers crossed, they presented their forgeries to their teacher.

"Hmm…" hummed the half-youkai woman as she observed the documents lying in front of her. Both implied an unprecedented emergency situation and staff shortage in Eientei, due to which even Kaguya volunteered to apply whatever minimal knowledge and skills regarding medicine and treatment she had in order to help. That was what Keine had deduced from the formal and brief text and the title "temporary nurse" under Kaguya's signature. She nodded understandingly and again scribbled something into her class register. It seemed that she believed the documents to be genuine.

"Hmph…" she scoffed as she gave the papers a second glance. "That's so like her… To smear a huge signature all over an official document just to show everyone who's boss… Here, you can have these back... if you need to show them to your part-time employers." she said as she returned the papers. Soudai almost failed to hold back tears of joy as he was allowed to keep the princess's signature even when it was devaluated by Kyouichi's scribblings.

"Very well…" spoke the teacher again. "You are excused for not having your homework and to make things fair, you'll be writing the scheduled test on 11th of Fuzuki, which is next Monday. Now, unless you have anything else to tell me, you may return to your desks."

"No, that's all. Thank you very much, Keine-sensei." both outsiders bowed appreciatively.

A great burden just fell from their hearts as they now both had some time to catch up with their classmates on all the lessons that they've missed. With content smiles they took their seats, ignoring the cold gaze of Midori who didn't approve of their actions at all. What kept her quiet, however, was the fact that she knew that both of them were staying in Eientei for some time, but didn't have anything to prove it with.

The lessons went on like during any other day. This time even Kyouichi was taking notes properly. Even though he didn't consider studying Gensokyo and its various youkai to have any practical value for him, he at least changed his viewpoint and now saw it as a sort of pastime. Not for a moment was he willing to accept the idea that he would stay in Gensokyo permanently like some of his club members have decided to. He was more or less already envisioning himself back home, surrounded by the noises of the big city, reuniting with his family and all the people he cared for and returning to the lifestyle of a world which he was born into.

"I'm just on a three-month tour in a land of fantasy…" is what he always kept telling himself whenever he was in doubt of his future.

* * *

Now that the classes were over, the large group of outsiders referred to as "transfer students" was slowly dispersing, leaving only the regular students to stay for additional lessons. Soudai and Kyouichi were just packing their things up when Midori approached them.

"I just got an idea… How about you both stopped by for a visit today?"

Her invitation came as an unexpected surprise to Soudai. "What is this all of a sudden, Midori-san?"

"I just thought you two would be interested to copy my notes from the last week's lessons."

"What? Am I dreaming? Do my ears deceive me?" asked Soudai in jest. "Iwakami Midori, the prudent hard-working student is letting US copy her notes just like that? There has to be some kind of catch…"

"There's no catch. Just doing what a friend should be doing…" she said with a soft smile.

"That's… very commendable of you." replied Soudai, unable to change his surprised face.

"I'd also like to take this opportunity to fill you both in on the situation in our club in greater detail." Midori explained another intention behind her invitation. "In exchange, you guys could tell me what in the world happened to you for you to end up in Eientei."

"Then make a lot of tea and be prepared for long stories, because we have loads to tell you about our recent experiences…" Soudai gave a warning.

"I look forward to it then…" said Midori once she packed up her books. "See you in the afternoon."


	44. Paying a Visit

A couple of hours later Soudai and Kyouichi met up once more in the marketplace, deciding to buy a little present, so that they wouldn't come for a visit empty-handed. They didn't need to think for too long about what to buy. Naota liked sake and Midori liked sweets in general, so they bought her some cookies at one of the stands. Kyouichi again couldn't resist buying a taiyaki when he was already there.

"M-kay…" he nodded as he munched on his snack, "We've got all we need. We can see old Naota and Midori now…"

* * *

Without a word, Soudai followed him all the way to the house where the old carpenter from the outside world lived. After knocking on the door they could hear Midori's voice calling out: "I'll be right there~!"

Not a moment later, she was already welcoming them and inviting them in, as if she was the lady of the house.

"I'm just helping Naota-san with making dinner, so if you don't mind coming to the kitchen…"

"Why would we mind?" Soudai asked her and followed the girl along the corridor into a small, but nicely furnished kitchen. It was obvious that Naota had invested quite some money into his household. It was no wonder since being a skilled carpenter was a well paid job. The old man welcomed both guests with a nod as he was standing over a pot of soup. "Ah, well if it aren't our two patients from Eientei... Welcome to my house, youngsters. Just wait a few more minutes, will ya? The soup's almost done… Midori, please…" he looked over to the girl who now lived in his house, "pour something for our guests, okay?"

"Sure, Naota-san." Midori obliged. "I'll make some tea right away."

"Tea?" repeated the old man with a scoffing laughter. "No, open a sake bottle! One of the more expensive ones, alright?"

"As you say…" Midori shrugged and left the kitchen.

"But we've brought you some sake too, Naota-san." argued Soudai as he gestured at the bottle in his hand.

"Have ya, now? Let's see… Ah… Amaterasu's Silver… my favorite brand. You sure knew what to buy for me, lad."

"Well, I'm glad that you like it, but you should probably thank to the one behind me, since he told me what you drink…" Soudai pointed a thumb at his friend who was already sitting at the table. "By the way, I'm Asakura… Soudai Asakura. Kyouichi's and Midori's friend… I'm also from the outside world."

"Aye. Midori told me about you… I'm Tanisake Naota." he said as he took a light slurp of the soup from his ladle just to know if it tasted as it should. "I heard that both of you kids got into some serious trouble and had to be taken to Eientei."

"Uhh… yeah, well…" Soudai stuttered as he tried to come up with some funny reply.

"I guess I can now shake hands with both of you and say "welcome to the club", hehe…" chuckled the old man.

"So you were there once too, huh?" Soudai asked nonchalantly.

"If only once, my son! But, that was long ago, and I'm sure you're not in the mood to listen to my stories anyway."

"It's true that we both have enough of Eientei, but I'd like to hear some of your stories, Tanisake-san."

"I'll give you "Tanisake-san"…" Naota scowled at him. "Friends all call me Naota."

"I see… Didn't mean any offense, Naota-san." Soudai apologized.

"I suppose you haven't come to visit me for no reason. Am I right?"

Soudai embarrassedly scratched the back of his head. "Well, actually… We both came here so that we could copy Midori's notes from the lessons that we missed… But of course, I'd like to get to know you too, Naota-san." he quickly added as he saw the old man's frown not going away.

"Well, then let me know when you two are done with copying those notes so that we can finally have a drink and swap a few stories!" said Naota and took the soup pot off the stove.

"Will do, Naota-san, will do." Soudai promised to him and then he took a seat at the table, opposite of Kyouichi.

Midori was back with a sake bottle, but as she saw her two classmates sitting at the table and readying their notebooks, she figured that it was not yet time to drink.

"Alright, you two." she said as she put down the bottle in front of them. "I'll be right back with my notebooks… This might be a good chance for me to remind myself what we studied in the last two weeks, because unlike you, I have to write the test tomorrow."

"Thanks again for your help, Midori-san." Soudai called after her when she left the kitchen once more. "And good luck with your test tomorrow."

"Why bother wishing her good luck with a test?" Kyouichi asked jestingly. "She's Midori! She's one of the best students in our class. And even if she didn't prepare for the test, I'm sure she'd wing it without any problems."

"Just showing her a gesture of my appreciation, Kyouichi-kun." explained his older friend with a smile. "She's a great friend… I mean… she could have told Keine-sensei that our excuses were fakes, but she didn't. And now she's willing to let us copy her notes."

"Guess you're right." Kyouichi admitted. "And she's even been in charge of our club for a week…"

"Here I am~!" Midori announced her return and smacked four notebooks on the table. "So… Which subject should we go over first? Geography is quite easy… Or would you prefer to get the harder stuff over with first?"

"Geography's easy, you say?" Soudai gave her a puzzled look. "Let's do the easy stuff first then."

"As you wish~." Midori quickly opened one of the notebooks and put it up in the middle of the table, so that both of her friends could read its content. "Soudai-san, you missed two lessons, so in your case you'll need to copy the notes about Misty Lake as well as the Nameless Hill."

"Oh, I could tell you a thing or two about the lake." said Kyouichi with a bit of sarcastic tone, as he recalled his wet experience on his way back from the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"Dude! I envy you… You've been to places… And me? I've been mostly stuck in the village and later in Eientei…"

"There's not much to envy me for, though. Just look what happened to me when I was returning from Kazemura… And as for Misty Lake, I almost drowned in it…"

"Really?" asked both Midori and Soudai.

"Well, not really, but I can tell you that it's really cold to swim in it in the morning… And my little swim was followed by another… incident, when a photograph of me appeared in one of the local newspapers…"

Soudai didn't know what his friend was talking about, but Midori on the other hand, burst into hearty laughter.

"Ahahahaha~! So that's how you've become known as miko-miko Kyouichi… Hehehee~!"

"Turned out that I shouldn't have given into persuasions and simply kept my wet clothes on." Kyouichi commented while Midori was still laughing. When she finally got over her laughing fit she tapped Kyouichi's shoulder. "Okay, okay, sorry… I know it wasn't a pleasant experience for you but…" she interrupted her sentence with more snickering, "I'll never forget about that picture! It was priceless!"

"Gee, thanks…" annoyed Kyouichi grumbled under his nose.

"So anyway… I think it would be better if you both copied the notes about Nameless Hill first, so you wouldn't have to wait for Soudai to copy the notes about Misty Lake."

"Fair enough." acknowledged the older of the two males. "So… Nameless Hill… Is that really a name of the hill, or simply a reference to a location that was not named?"

"The former." replied Midori tersely and seriously.

Soudai made a snort. "That's… rather weird. It's as if I was called Anonymous… Which I am on many discussion forums on the net… But mostly, I just give myself some random nickname."

Midori exchanged her look with Kyouichi and asked him: "Does he always keep saying stupid things like that?"

"No, Midori, he usually says far crazier things to digress from the discussed topic."

"Ha! Aren't you two doing the same right now?" Soudai returned the blow. "So… What's so special about that hill that has no name?"

Midori sighed. "Only goes to show that you're not paying attention, Soudai. I already told you that the hill does have a name. It's called Nameless Hill. Savvy?"

"So why is it called like that?"

"Do you really expect me to spoon-feed you with all the information? It's there in the notebook. All you have to do is read it."

At first, Soudai looked at her with a serious scowling face, but in the next moment he chuckled and nodded in agreement. "I like that tsundere personality of yours, Midori-san."

"Don't treat me like an anime character." She pouted at his remark and stood up from the table. "Anyway… I still need to help Naota-san with the dinner. If you'll see something in the text that you won't understand or can't decipher, then let me know…"

"Don't worry," Kyouichi reassured her. "I've seen much worse handwriting…"

"Hmph…" Midori again pouted her lips and turned her back on the two boys. She still remained in the kitchen, though, just as she said.

"Way to give a compliment to a lady, Kyou-kun…" Soudai muttered to his friend.

"You know, hearing that from you doesn't have a very convincing effect." retorted the younger outsider.

"Hey… What was that supposed to mean?"

"Soudai, please… just focus on the matter at hand, will you? We've got tons of notes to copy and we ain't got all day."

"Okay..." Soudai shrugged as usually when someone reminded him that he was talking too much.

Finally their conversation was halted and replaced by silent scribbling of their quills as they read and copied Midori's notes into their own notebooks.

Both of them were learning new information as they read about a place called Nameless Hill. According to the text, the place was a meadow on a small mountain located opposite of the Youkai Mountain. It is a field overgrown with violet lilies-of-the-valley.

"Lilies-of-the-valley, eh?" Soudai repeated as he wrote down the notes. "Aren't those flowers usually white?"

"Hmm…" Kyouichi thoughtfully hummed. "Convallaria majalis… was it?" he murmured as he tried to recall what he read about it in the encyclopedia back when he still worked at Starlight Glyph.

Soudai blinked in a clueless expression. "Say what? Are you trying to cast a spell or something?"

"No, that's the Latin name of the plant." Kyouichi answered. "Indeed, its flowers are usually white, rarely pink. This is the first time I've heard of violet lilies-of-the-valley…"

"Oh? And since when were you a botany expert, Ishimaru?" Soudai jabbed at his friend.

"I've read a book recently… In that bookstore I used to work at. It was from the outside world, so I read it a bit."

"I see…"

"Anyway… if that place is on a mountain opposite of the Youkai Mountain, it means it should lie somewhere beyond the Bamboo Forest of the Lost."

"Ughhhhh~!" Soudai shuddered as chills ran down his spine. "Don't even say the name of that damn place! I think I've developed an aversion to bamboo thanks to that forest."

"Whatever…" Kyouichi again shifted his gaze to Midori's notebook. "Back to reading…"

And thus, both young outsiders learned that the field of violet lilies-of-the-valley was called "Nameless Hill" because it used to be a place where unwanted newborns were abandoned and left to die among the lilies' poison. Their bodies were subsequently either cleaned up by youkai or they were adopted by the youkai before they died and were raised to become one of them. This dark history from the pre-Hakurei Border era made this place rarely if ever visited by humans in the present days. Furthermore, at some point even most youkai have ceased to show up here as often as they used to, rendering this field to be nearly forgotten by the contemporary Gensokyo and becoming nameless in a more literal sense of word.

"Almost makes me wonder why we are learning about a place that nobody visits and has no major purpose in Gensokyo…" remarked Soudai as he made the final dot after the final sentence.

"Maybe because of its history?" mused Kyouichi.

"Could be..."

"Keine-sensei said that some youkai doll likes to hang out around that field…" sounded Midori as she was slicing up vegetables.

"A youkai doll?" both boys glanced at her curiously.

"Yes, a tsukumogami." she confirmed. "She's supposedly very dangerous for humans."

"Tsukumogami? An object that became a youkai after reaching its 100th year of existence? So she's like Kogasa-chan, huh?" Soudai recalled the youkai girl he met at Eientei.

Of course, that name didn't ring Midori's bell, since she never met the karakasa. "Don't know about any Kogasa-chan, but that doll on Nameless Hill is one of the major reasons why humans rarely ever go there."

"Well, at least we've met a much friendlier tsukumogami… Okay, let me copy the info about Misty Lake now."

"Then I'll take a look at the Youkai Typology." said Kyouichi as he grabbed another notebook from the small pile.

* * *

And so, they continued with their work, filling more and more pages with text as they went. In the end, Kyouichi didn't learn much new information about the satori race. According to Midori's notes, seeing a satori on the surface was considered as extreme rarity, if not an impossibility. Like the oni, they too were once feared and hated by the humans and have chosen to isolate themselves from the society, taking refuge in the underground. Even there their numbers remain scarce as they live their lives isolated not only from most of other underground-dwelling youkai, but also from the members of their own kind. The reason why these creatures tend to be loners is not their aggressiveness, but their innate mind-reading power. In fact, the satori are rather timid and reserved by nature. They like peace and harmony and highly respect other living beings despite being a powerful race of youkai. It is out of this respect for the minds of others that they choose to avoid contact with other intelligent beings. On the other hand, simple-minded and instinct-driven animals tend to be attracted by them and it is said that many satori have animal shikigami.

After nearly an hour of writing, the two boys finally finished copying Midori's notes.

"Phew…" Soudai exhaled out of relief as he put down his quill. "I hope all this work will be worth it…"

"If you take your time to reread those notes and try to comprehend them a bit better, then it surely will pay off when you'll be writing the test." answered Midori who was now cleaning the kitchen up a little, since she was already done with making dinner. "So you're both finally done, as I can see… How about some pork cutlets? There's plenty for all of us…"

The answer from both boys was as obvious as one could expect. "Of course, we'd like some!"

"So… Have you thought of what you wanted to add to our club's shopping list?" Midori got right to the point as soon as Kyouichi finished his meal.

"Right… We better get that over with first." he replied as he put away his plate and ripped off a blank page out of his notebook.

"Don't look at me like that." the vice president frowned at his reluctant attitude. "It was your idea in the first place."

"I know, I know." Kyouichi repeated and with a sigh he began writing down a list of necessary supplies. "Let's see… We'll need tents. Since there's 13 of us, I'd say we need at least four." He jotted down a number next to the word "tents".

"Wouldn't it be better to simply buy one big tent for all of us?" suggested Midori.

"A large tent for at least 13 people would be a bit too cumbersome to transport as well as to pack and unpack. Remember that we're not in the outside world anymore and the tents available here aren't as light and convenient as the modern ones with aluminum components and polymeric waterproof fabric. Unless you feel like dragging a 100 kilo tent across mountainous terrain, we should not buy one."

"Alright, I get your point already." Midori cut him off before he'd continue with further arguments. "But then again, do you really think that four smaller tents are going to be lighter than one large one?"

Kyouichi didn't really know that much about tents for a confident answer. "Hmm… Maybe; maybe not. The point is that it's much more convenient to carry four small burdens than lumber around with a big one. We'd probably need a handcart to move it around and we'll need carts for other supplies… And I didn't even mention that in case something happens to one of the tents, we'll still have three left."

"True, but then some of us won't be able to sleep at night." remarked Midori with a smirk.

"Of course some of us won't be sleeping at night!" retorted the president of the club. "We'll need someone to watch over the campsite at night too, so we should have people take turns to keep a lookout… at least in pairs."

Midori shrugged, having admitted that Kyouichi's reasoning was rational after all. "Very well… Four tents it is."

As Kyouichi was scribbling some additional notes into the list, Soudai slowly raised his hand like a timid young pupil in front of a teacher. "May I say something as well?"

"As long as it's on topic…"

"Just occurred to me… That you're making a list in order to assess our club's future expenses, right?"

"Good morning, Asakura-san." Midori jokingly remarked, since she had thought that the purpose of that list was as obvious as it could get.

"But…" Soudai continued, paying no mind to Midori's sarcasm, "do you guys even know how much does a tent cost here? And other items too… We should first learn the exact prices from the shops before we can start calculating."

"Wow…" Midori uttered in a state of slight surprise. "He actually said something reasonable for a change."

"That's why we're only making a rough version of this list right now." explained Kyouichi. "Once we have an exact idea about what we're going to buy, learning the prices of each individual item won't be a problem."

"Ahh, I see… I thought you wanted to make the definite list right here and now."

"Well, I estimate that we should have the exact sum elaborated by the end of this week."

"Knowing how much money we'll need to be ready for our return journey should calm things down a bit in our club…" Midori stated. "It may turn out that we'll be able to leave Gensokyo much sooner than expected."

"Or much later…" Soudai presented an unlikely, but quite possible worse case scenario.

"Don't be such a pessimist." Midori pouted at his words.

"Hey, I just remembered something." Kyouichi again recalled what Midori told him earlier today. "You said that we could get a loan from the village council, right?"

"Only if any of us would own some real estate and have it as their permanent residence." the vice president specified.

"I just got this interesting idea…"

"We're listening."

* * *

And so, Kyouichi briefly explained his idea to buy the falling-apart shack near the Temple of Myouren using the money which the club has accumulated so far. The said shack would then be written as the place of his permanent residence and that way he could ask the village council for a loan.

"Dude…" Soudai halted him suddenly. "I hate to be a killjoy, but seriously… Do you really think that buying that house will come cheaper than our traveling supplies?"

"I…" Kyouichi suddenly doubted his own idea. "I don't really know that. But that shack is in a terrible condition. I'm sure its price can't be too steep. I'll need to visit the village hall to learn its exact price… That gives us another reason to complete our list and calculate the final sum."

"Yeah, and we both need to find ourselves some work."

"So you all kids are serious about leaving Gensokyo after all…" the sudden sound of Naota's voice surprised the trio of classmates.

"Naota-san…" Midori uttered as she turned her head to the left.

"Sorry…" the old man lightly bent forward in apology, "but I couldn't overhear that little conversation you were having… About buying a hunter's cabin in order to get your hands on a loan from the council…"

Kyouichi wasn't very happy that Naota was now aware of their plans. "Geez… For an old man, you sure have some good ears…"

"Well, you weren't exactly keeping your voice too low either, kid." the retired carpenter retorted with a weak smile.

"Guh…" Kyouichi reluctantly had to admit that Naota was right.

"What would you kids say if I told you that I could help you acquire that old cabin?" came a surprising offer out of the blue.

"C-come again?" uttered the confused young outsider.

Naota widened his smile into a sly grin. "Let's just say that the owner of that hut was one of my friends. He's probably dead now, though… Anyway the thing is that I've been considering buying off his cabin myself in order to collect his belongings so that I'd have something to remember him by… You see, he simply took off on a journey one day and never returned. All of his things inside his cabin were left untouched. I had a feeling that something wasn't right when he hasn't returned even after several months. Now, it's been two years since I had seen him last. Like I said, he's most likely long dead, but somehow I always kept hoping that he might return any time… Heh, that's probably the reason why I still hadn't bought that cabin when the council assumed its ownership and offered it for sale. But now that I've heard about your clever little idea, I can't help but to feel that now is finally the time to do it…"

"So, what are you planning to do exactly?" Kyouichi asked hesitantly, almost as if he was afraid to hear Naota's answer.

"I'll buy it… and write your name as its owner."

"What?! I…" Kyouichi was obviously taken aback by Naota's offer, but he knew that everything had its price. "What do you expect from me in return then?"

"Hmm… Good question. What DO I want in return?" spoke the old man to himself. "Nothing actually…"

Kyouichi stared blankly at him, still paralyzed by his own disbelief. "N-nothing? Umm… how much sake have you drunk today, Naota-san?"

"None yet." the old man smiled at him. "Which reminds me that it's about time to open our first bottle, don't you think?"

"I don't understand… Why are you willing to do this?"

"Because it's convenient for me. You'll leave a testament when you leave Gensokyo, in which you'll state me as the heir of the cabin. No matter how suspicious will that sound, the council will have no choice but to acknowledge it. And while everyone will believe that you died, I will again legally become the cabin's owner... Then I'll probably sell it back, but in order to increase its value, it'd have to be renovated…"

Everyone kept staring at Naota in silent awe as he explained his idea to the group of young outsiders.

"That… actually makes a lot of sense." murmured Kyouichi as he gave Naota's words some thought.

"And you will help me with its renovation, Kyouichi… That is what I want from you in return. What do you say?"

The young man took a while to process Naota's offer. It seemed almost too good to be true, but he knew that an opportunity like that does not arise every day and that it would be a sin to let it pass him by.

"I… Of course I'll help you with anything regarding the cabin's renovation." he wholeheartedly accepted the terms of the old man's offer. "But…" he suddenly raised a finger, "you know that I'm not very skilled at manual work."

Naota only scoffed at his remark. "Than take that work as an opportunity to learn something new, kid."

"I'm at a loss for words, Naota-san… It would seem that no matter what I tell you now will fully express my gratitude."

"Hey, don't go all emotional on me, kid. Like I said, I'm doing this for my own benefit as well. Buying off the cabin will be killing two birds with one stone."

"Ishimaru…" Soudai suddenly spoke up again as he turned at Kyouichi, "you one lucky son of a gun… No. I think we're all lucky this time. And all thanks to your acquaintance. Naota-san, we owe you a big one!"

"Glad I could cheer you young folks up a bit. How about a toast to err… commemorate this event?" asked Naota as he was already holding a full bottle of sake in his hand.

The three young outsiders exchanged their meaningful looks, but none of them had anything against a bit of sake.

"Cheers~!" echoed the voices of four people along with the clinking of their sake cups as they had their first dose of alcohol today.

* * *

They moved from Naota's kitchen to much greater comfort of armchairs in his living room. Everyone's mood seemed to have improved, now that they had some real hope of early return back to Tokyo. Naota, on the other hand, was glad that he finally made a decision he's been postponing for nearly two years.

"Man, I knew that coming over to visit Naota-san today was a good idea…" said Kyouichi after he finished another cup of good sake. "Now if only finding a new job would be so simple…"

"I'm sure there are some folks in the village that could use an extra hand." Naota reassured him. "You could always just check out the village hall and see what jobs are available."

"Yeah… I just hope I'll be qualified for at least something… Unlike my part-time job, I'll need some specific skills to apply for a full-time job, won't I?"

The old outsider shook his head. "Not necessarily. It depends on the work. Why, you could even ask Shimizu-san to accept you as a full-time assistant and you'd be doing just what you used to do in that bookstore…"

"Not gonna happen." Kyouichi resolutely disagreed.

"Hm? What's wrong, kid?" Naota asked curiously, since he had close to no idea about Kyouichi's reason for quitting his job at Starlight Glyph. "Had enough of books?"

"Haven't I told you already? I had a run-in with one of your former apprentices… Yukiyama Hiroto."

"Huh? Hiroto? What happened?" It seemed that the old man really didn't recall what Kyouichi had told him earlier.

"Don't you remember? It happened on that rainy day… And I'm fairly sure I clearly told you that Hiroto started the fight… But of course, you were more concerned by the fact that I was talking to Yuuka-san."

"Who's Yuuka-san?" Soudai whispered a question at his friend.

"Not now, Soudai." Kyouichi again brushed him off.

"Of course I was concerned." Naota grumbled back. "You never know whether the local rumors about youkai are true or not until it's too late."

"So, she's a youkai, huh?" Soudai murmured to himself as he kept on listening to their conversation.

"Oh, come on!" Kyouichi gave Naota a condescending look. "If she didn't show up when she did, well… I'd probably have the opportunity to see Eientei a bit sooner. It turned out that the ones we should be wary of the most are us, humans…"

"Hmph… You know… You're probably right." Naota nodded to Kyouichi's last statement. "I might have overreacted back then… I don't know any youkai personally, but I have my own reasons. Perhaps you won't have a reason to avoid every one of them like I do… I'm sorry to hear that Hiroto picked a fight with you too. One would think that after all those incidents he got himself into, he'd learn his lesson."

"He hates all outsiders. No exceptions. He even said that about you. Working with him was like a punishment. I'm telling you, the best thing I could have done was to quit working in the bookstore."

Naota let out a sigh of contempt. "If only I paid you a bit more attention then…"

"And you'd do what?!" Kyouichi angrily shouted back. "Look… There's no reason for you to take any responsibility for me or Hiroto. Our little dispute is over, because I'll do my best never to cross paths with him again. Live and let live… I do hate him, but I'm not that big of a bastard to try and sue him now. Hatred will only bring more hatred and I don't feel a need to drag my ass over law courts. If someone else sues him for something, or if he gets himself killed by some youkai, fine. I don't care. My point is… I'm not going to work at that bookstore as long as he is working there too."

"Then I wish you luck in finding a more suitable workplace, kid. If the village hall won't help, just ask the people. There's always something that needs to be done around the village and people aren't all xenophobes."

"Maybe so, but I doubt they're going to employ someone without any practical skills."

"Surely you must have some kind of talent." said the old man to boost Kyouichi's confidence.

"Talent? Me?" he chuckled, "Well, sure… I can swim pretty well. I can even swim a 30 meter distance underwater. But I guess there are no sponsored swimming competitions in Gensokyo. What a pity… Hey, maybe I could do a lifeguard at the fishing colony…" he added with a sarcastic tone and laughed at his silly idea. "Yeah, right…"

"That can't be the only thing you're good at." said Naota seriously. "Perhaps there's something that you've always wanted to become…"

"Hmm…" Kyouichi scratched his chin as he thought. "Well, besides swimming, English is my biggest forte, but here? Quite useless I'd say. The only foreigner I know here is Dan and he probably knows Japanese better than English…"

"English? Really?" Naota seemed to nod admiringly. "The last time I heard that language was when I watched the news about Americans dropping their bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki… Not long after that I found myself here… Anyway, you should be glad that you know a worldwide-used language."

Indeed, English was one of the few things which young Kyouichi was good at. He didn't travel anywhere outside of Japan, but he was still heavily influenced by the western culture. Songs, movies, books, comics, PC games and the Internet – all of these things helped him learn English ever since he was a grade-schooler. And unlike most of his classmates, even his accent sounded like that of a real American speaker and nobody could make fun of his "Engrish" in class or anywhere else.

"I still believe that the knowledge of another language would best suit a job in a bookstore." muttered the old man under his nose.

"Heh… And I once dreamed of becoming a voice actor." continued the long-haired youth. "I can sort of imitate some voices too… Perhaps even sing when I'm drunk enough."

"Oi, really?" Naota grinned widely. "Then have another one, sonny!"

And Kyouichi's cup was again full of sake and he didn't hesitate to drink it.

"So… Let's see if you can sing, kid. Come on."

Kyouichi was a bit embarrassed, but he didn't mind if those laughing at him would be his friends. "Alright then…" he straightened up and cracked his knuckles, "but what should I sing so that even you'd recognize it, Naota-san?"

"Maybe some oldies…" said Soudai, even though his suggestion was pretty obvious, since Naota lost contact with the outside world in 1945.

"Hmm… Besides the folk songs, the oldest songs I know are those from Elvis…"

"Heck, I don't care what you sing; I just want to hear you try." Naota shrugged indifferently.

"Yeah, do Elvis!" Midori cheered him on.

"Oh, I can't wait to hear this…" Soudai crossed his arms and threw a doubting glance at his friend.

"Then here goes nothing…" Kyouichi wasn't really serious about it and only wanted to have some fun. He took a deep breath and put his semi-clenched hand in front of his mouth, as if holding an imaginary microphone and started singing and imitating: "Love me tender, love me sweet, never let me go~ . You have made my life complete, and I love you so~ …"

"Dude, that doesn't sound like him at all!" Soudai interrupted him before he even got to the second strophe.

"What do you mean?" Kyouichi asked jokingly, because he knew that Soudai was right. "You ever heard Presley singing?"

"I did. And I'm saying this because NO ONE can compare to the King!"

"Pretty good." Naota gave his little praise, "Even though I don't know any "King"."

"Eh? You don't know Elvis?" Soudai looked unbelievingly at the old man.

"Of course he doesn't." said Midori matter-of-factly. "Elvis was only 10 when Naota-san got spirited away… As for your singing attempt," she turned over to Kyouichi, "Sure… No one can compare to the original, but it wasn't bad. Not good enough for a standing ovation, but a tad better than some of the so called "popular singers" that you can see nowadays…"

"Uhh… why thanks, Midori. And you're right… I better leave singing to those who actually CAN sing. I just wanted to have some fun, that's all. I hope that Elvis isn't rolling over in his grave due to my performance…"

"Guess not, but… I don't think you'll make a living out of it here in Gensokyo." Soudai expressed his opinion.

"Yeah… My earnings would be about as high as Reimu's donations." he commented as he laughed. "Well, so much for my useless talents. I will have to make do with any job opportunity that I'll get. Guess we'll pay the village hall a visit tomorrow, eh, Soudai?"

"The sooner the better." he agreeingly nodded in response.

"Now…" Naota sounded again as he was already pouring another round of sake for himself and his guests. "I've been holding my curiosity on a tight leash for quite a while now, but now that we've put all the mundane talk behind, it urges me to ask you two about what made you visit, or to be more exact, be carried to Eientei."

"Well…" said both young outsiders at the same time, as each had their own story to tell. They both began laughing at their identical and simultaneous reaction.

"Alright, you first." Kyouichi left Soudai the privilege to start. "You're my senior after all…"

"Then let me wet my whistle first." said Soudai and emptied another cup of sake, which seemed to have elicited a pleased smile on Naota's face.

"So… There I was, on my way with the rest of the woodcutters to the bamboo forest like every morning…"

* * *

It took over half an hour for him to fully recount his frightening experience from over two weeks ago in the dreaded Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Despite his humorously toned narration, everyone got goosebumps as soon as he got to the thrilling part when the whole group of workers became the target of a youkai attack that was only preceded by rustling sounds of disembodied footsteps on the forest floor.

"Damn… I think I got attacked by the same thing once when I was about your age." remarked Naota with a serious face. "Nearly got killed that time… It was also in the same forest and pretty much at the same kind of work."

"Maybe it's a guardian spirit of the forest that attacks those who chop down bamboo trees." guessed Midori.

"You know… This attack…" Naota paused himself for a moment and shook his head, as if he was disapproving something. "It only shows us all how stubborn people are. Even after the same situation happens time and time again, there will always be those who keep doing it... until it kills them. I too was once young, inexperienced and foolish. Even more so than you, kids… I thought that because we were a group and escorted by Ryuuken, we couldn't be attacked by any youkai. I quickly learned that Gensokyo doesn't work that way. One would have a hard time finding common sense even here in Human Village. Everything beyond its premises only goes gradually crazier… As soon as I recovered from that attack, I've been hearing more and more stories from people who worked outside the village about their experiences and dangerous youkai encounters. Statistically, nearly two thirds of people who ever ventured outside the village were attacked by a youkai at least once. It didn't take much time to tell myself that going so deep into the forest wasn't really worth it. Ever since then, I stopped gathering materials for my work, and instead, started buying them. Sure, it wasn't cheap, but at least I didn't have to risk my neck. And once I mastered my craft, the extra expenses didn't even matter anymore. I had enough money to afford three fine meals a day at the Uzume, the finest clothes and the best sake in the village… But…" he let out another heavy sigh, "no money can buy you happiness, or love… or… a human life."

"Is there something you'd like to share with us, Naota-san?" wondered Midori after the old man went silent, just blankly staring into his half-empty sake cup.

"Hm? Oh… no, no…" he quickly shook his head, as if he was just woken up from a nap. "Just got a little lost in thought for a moment…"

"Really?" she leaned a little closer to take a better look at him. "Seems like you recalled something sad…"

"It's nothing, lassie. Don't worry about it." He denyingly shook his head and finished off the rest of the sake in his cup. "And what about you, Kyouichi? I only heard a short version of what happened to you on your way to the village. Care to tell me your version of the story?"

It was obvious that Naota intended to change the topic of the conversation to divert the attention from his own problems which he wanted to keep only to himself.

* * *

Now it was Kyouichi's turn to talk and so, he explained the details about his journey to Kazemura and back and how he ended up in Eientei. Of course, he omitted the part about the visit he paid to the immortal youkai alchemist.

"So that's how it was, eh?" Naota nodded as he was already opening a new bottle.

"Hmph…" Kyouichi smirked weakly after finishing his story. "I'm a little surprised that you haven't slapped me yet. Or even scolded me for being foolish and irresponsible…"

"Because this wasn't your fault. You were on a caravan escorted by warriors. You were careful, just really unlucky. And from what you told me about your injury, it's really a miracle that you recovered completely. Eirin-san sure is amazing, eh?"

The two young men again glanced at each other with the same thing on their mind.

"Err… well…" Soudai had very mixed feelings about Doctor Yagokoro now.

"Soudai…" Kyouichi quickly put a palm on his shoulder and gave him a silent stare. He didn't wish to reveal the fact that they both literally escaped from Eientei before they were officially released.

As if he could read his mind, Soudai slowly nodded and remained silent.

"What? What? Did I say something wrong?" Naota couldn't explain the boys' strange reaction to Eirin's name.

"Oh, nothing~." Kyouichi denyingly waved his hand and faked a smile. "Sure, Eirin-sensei is really something… Right, Soudai?" he winked at his friend as a signal for him to play along with his little charade.

"Uh… Yeah…" he replied unconvincingly. "Say, Naota-san… You seem to have an issue with all youkai, but you're completely fine with aliens?"

"Hahahaha…" Naota was quite amused by his question. "At least the Lunarians don't eat our flesh mixed with ramen."

"Oh, so they prefer to spit-roast it instead, huh?" asked Soudai mockingly, which only made Naota laugh even louder.

"If that were true, people would rise up with torches and pitchforks and burn Eientei to the ground instead of visiting it regularly for their medical needs, which is really admirable due to the fact that they all technically risk their lives on their way to Eientei and back."

"Tell me about it…" murmured Soudai under his nose so that Naota couldn't hear it.

"Well, now that I've heard you all tell me about your recent experiences, I suppose it's only fair if I told you some of my own stories from when I was young. That is… only if you're interested."

* * *

And so, as the Monday afternoon gradually shifted to evening, the old mater carpenter began telling stories of his first days in Gensokyo, his first youkai encounter and first near-death experiences. However, as he went on, and as he drank more and more cups, he digressed from his stories to local gossip, his hobbies and his favorite brands sake. And even though nobody paid much attention to him anymore, they let him talk until he ran out of sake and had nothing more to say.

It was already late evening anyway and the sun had set behind the horizon several hours ago. It was just about time for the guests to leave, and so, Kyouichi and Soudai finished their last drinks and thanked both Naota and Midori for their hospitality and assistance. Tomorrow would be another important day when the next steps of the Transfer Students' Club would be decided and when Kyouichi and Soudai would see if there are any suitable job opportunities for them to apply for.

When they were already standing at Naota's doorstep, Kyouichi looked at the old carpenter one more time with a question on his lips.

"I probably know what your answer is going to be, but I'll ask anyway… Are you going to visit the shrine during the summer festival?"

The answer that came from Naota was as blunt and clear as he had expected: "Not a chance."

Of course, festival means lots of visitors and lots of visitors means a significant number of them being youkai. Everyone was already aware of the old man's attitude towards youkai, so his answer didn't really cause any level of surprise.

"Alright then…" chuckled Kyouichi as he was turning his back to the house and its occupants, "See you again soon, Naota… And you even sooner, Midori…"

"Yeah, stay out of trouble, kid." the retired craftsman bid him goodbye. "The same goes for you…" he addressed the second sentence to Soudai who only nodded in response.

As the door of the house finally closed behind them, the two young men were slowly heading up the street until they reached a crossroad leading to the marketplace, where their ways would part.

* * *

"Hey, Kyou…"

"What?"

"So who exactly is that Yuuka-san that you mentioned?"

Kyouichi let out a sigh and answered with a question. "Persistent with your questions, are you?"

"Is she pretty?"

"Geez… How I knew you were going to ask that…"

"Is she?" Soudai didn't let himself be brushed off this time.

Kyouichi knew that Soudai would not leave without getting an answer, and so he answered, simply and truthfully: "Absolutely beautiful."

"Ohoho~! Really?" he grinned widely. "Then I gotta see her too… Where does she live?"

"Don't know." Kyouichi shrugged. "Not in the village, that's for sure. She just said that she originally comes from a place called Mugenkan... Get this… there are apparently several other worlds like Gensokyo that exist independently, but are somehow accessible from here."

"So how have you met her then?"

"Used to see her nearly every day visiting the flower shop opposite the bookstore where I worked. One day I simply greeted her as she was leaving and… well, that's it."

"At the flower shop, eh?

"Yeah, usually around noon."

"When we're all either at school or work…" Soudai pouted disappointedly. "I only hope that there will be any work for us in the village… Preferably one that doesn't require us to leave the village."

"We'll just have to see and find out. See you in the morning." Kyouichi waved at his friend and continued onward to the house of the Saitou family.

"Sure…" said Soudai and made a turn to the left, headed for the training grounds of the village's peacekeeping force known as the Ryuuken. It was a place where all those outsiders, who were unable to find any other place to stay in the village, were accommodated.

The night sky was clear and the air was pleasantly warm. Everything suggested that the weather would remain the same even on the day of the Tanabata festival, but in a season like summer and in a land like Gensokyo, one can never know…


	45. Could be Better; Could be Worse

The following morning didn't start off too well for Ishimaru Kyouichi. He drank a lot with Naota and others yesterday and his head reminded him that with strong throbbing pain.

"Oh, man… If only I could skip school today…" he wishfully thought.

But no matter how much he despised getting up early in the morning, he had a responsibility on his shoulders. As the elected president of a club that he had founded nearly a month ago, it was his task to make a list of necessary items which the whole club, or whatever was left of it, needed in order to survive in the mountains as they'd make their way to any nearby human settlement in the outside world. With great surprise he just found out that as he got distracted by the conversation with his friends and Naota yesterday, he didn't even finish that list. What's worse, the club's meeting was soon to start and he just barely got out of his futon. As he was eating toasts with his one hand, he was hastily scribbling down additional items to the list, including clothes, food and water supplies and medicine. Of course, he didn't have enough time to calculate how much of each commodity would the club need, so he was at least content with the fact that he even made the list.

"Are you going to look for work today, Kyou-kun?" Minako curiously asked as she watched him folding up a piece of paper and putting it inside his leather backpack.

"M-mf? Wyea…" mumbled the youth incomprehensibly with his mouth full.

"Then good luck. And don't pick anything too hard or too dangerous, okay?"

"I'll try." he reassuringly nodded as he was standing up from the table and thanking her for the meal.

* * *

"Damn…" he cursed quietly as he trotted down the street. "Why am I always late for the club meeting?"

As soon as he saw the clock on the school building, however, he exhaled with relief and slowed his pace down, because he still had over 15 minutes left.

"Heeey, Kyouichi~!" a girl's voice called from somewhere behind him. "Wait for me~!"

"Ah, good morning, Midori. I was in a bit of a hurry, since I thought I was going to be late."

"Which you usually are…" she teasingly pointed out.

"I know, that's why I wanted to break my streak of late arrivals today."

"Have you brought that list with you?"

"Yeah… But I'll leave the calculations to somebody else. I've just named what I thought we'd need the most."

"A small, but very important step towards any kind of positive progress for our club…"

As the two of them finally made it inside and headed up the stairs to the library, they could already see a bunch of their fellow club members waiting in front of the locked door.

* * *

"Okay, everyone, make way~!" Midori called out with her arm stretched up, holding a key to the library.

Kyouichi followed her and greeted everyone with silent nodding. As soon as Midori opened the door and the group began pouring into the library, Kyouichi noticed that there were several papers stuck to the door. One of them was a notice about the opening hours of the library, the other was some kind of child's drawing with two girls standing on a meadow and the last one was a newspaper cutout…

"Oh… Don't tell me… Not again…" he stopped in front of the door with a frowning face. It was the front page of an old issue of Bunbunmaru where Aya took a shot of him in Reimu's outfit. "What the hell is this doing here?!" he asked loudly so that everyone could hear, but the only response he got was a unanimous laughter.

It seemed that Midori was the only one who was considerate enough not to laugh. "Sheesh… I mean come on, people!" she gave the other club members a disdainful look. "This was funny perhaps two weeks ago, but it's really starting to get old!"

She unstuck the newspaper cutout from the door and waved it over her head. "Whoever keeps doing this should seriously reflect upon their actions."

Another wave of laughter ensued. Kyouichi just resignedly waved his hand and entered the library, pretending that he didn't care anymore.

"This… really… needs to stop…" spoke Midori abruptly as she was sticking the paper back to the door as soon as Kyouichi shifted his attention elsewhere. Everyone who could see her was trying their best not to give her away by another outburst of laughter. As soon as she was done and closed the door, the laughter subsided and was replaced by a quiet chattering among the seated members of the club.

Kyouichi was expecting a much tenser atmosphere, but it seemed that everyone was quite open to the idea of his list. He also added that anyone was free to add more items to the list, should they think they would prove necessary for the journey.

"…And now that we've cleared up what things we are saving our money for, I believe it would be a good time to plan on HOW we are going to undertake our journey. Namely, how we are going to move our supplies and ourselves to the Hakurei Shrine without drawing any suspicion from the militia. As you all well know, the elder has decisively stated his disagreement with the notion that any outsiders should be allowed to leave Gensokyo via the shrine's gateway due to possible dangers, which he didn't specify. And while you all know what I think of his "safety precaution", it would be in our best interest to make our departure from Gensokyo in secrecy."

"That's easy to say, but how are we going to transport all our supplies to the shrine without being noticed by the Ryuuken?" asked Sayuri with a raised hand.

"At first I thought we could use the caravan wagons to smuggle the supplies to the shrine, but as all caravans are always escorted by an armed patrol, this idea is out of question. There's always a stationary patrol set up at each of the roads leading from the village, usually consisting of two sentries. Their job is to keep an eye on everyone and everything that comes in and out of the village. However, outside the village is a different story…"

"Where are you getting at?" sounded the voice of Yuujin, who was surprisingly quiet today.

"Has anyone of you heard of a shop called Kourindou?" answered Kyouichi with a question.

A mixture of whispers echoed over the room, but nobody apparently heard of that place.

"It started originally as an antique shop at the edge of the Forest of Magic, but nowadays it offers a variety of items that have found their way to Gensokyo from the outside world. This includes clothing, food and snacks, electronics, power tools and even literature."

"Wow…" uttered Midori admiringly. "I wonder if they also have the latest volume of One Piece manga."

The club members chuckled at her remark.

"Jokes aside, this mixed goods shop is the perfect place to start looking for our traveling supplies. It's quite a way from the village and the Ryuuken patrol that road only scarcely. It's also easy to get to the Hakurei Shrine from there. And as the summer festival is going to take place at the shrine very soon, I'm going to take it as an opportunity to try and convince Reimu-san if she'd let us use her storage shed to temporarily house our supplies."

"And what if this Kourindou place won't have all the necessary things?" Daniel raised a good question.

"Mmm… Yes, it's a very likely outcome."

"Then we'll just buy the rest here in the village." Midori answered his question, but Dan already had a counter-argument.

"And how are we going to smuggle those things past the Ryuuken?"

Kyouichi didn't dare to answer that question, since there were several factors in play, the development of which he could not yet predict. "I did say once that we could simply attempt to sneak out of the village from anywhere where there are no roads, but if we'll be forced to carry a large amount or a particularly heavy burden, we might get suspicious in the eyes of common villagers who could subsequently inform the militia and that's not what we want."

"I also recall you said something about possibly bribing some of the guards." the blonde-haired foreigner reminded him his own words.

"That was merely a suggestion…" replied Kyouichi. "A sort of last resort kind of solution… And quite risky at that, because we have no idea of knowing how the guards will react to a bribe offer."

"I've heard that the Ryuuken are among the most well-paid professions to be had in the village." Hikaru contributed his bit of wisdom to the discussion. "They say that the only more lucrative positions are those of the village council and the elder… This means that we're either going to have to dig pretty deep in our wallets if we are to make them interested, or not even attempt such a thing at all."

"Then how about we ask Reimu-san to buy those things for us?" Sayuri thought up an interesting solution. "The Ryuuken wouldn't be suspicious of anything if Reimu-san simply bought the supplies and had them delivered to her shrine…"

"That… is a very clever idea, Hayashi-san." Kyouichi gave her an approving smile. "But it has a bit of a flaw…"

"A flaw?" Sayuri questioningly tilted her head to the side.

"I know Reimu-san a little better than any of you and… Well… let's just say I'm not sure what would happen if we suddenly gave her all of our club's funds."

"You're worried about her embezzling our money?"

Kyouichi let out a weak chuckle while denyingly waving his palms and shaking his head. "No, no, Sayuri-san… It was more of an inappropriate joke on my part. Reimu would most likely slap me if she heard me right now… I think it's an idea worth trying out. I'll have a word with her and see if I can convince her to assist us. Guess that means that coming to the shrine for the festival has turned out to be a personal obligation rather than just a pleasurable waste of time."

"This time I'll be there with you as well." said Midori with a light smile, indicating that she was looking forward to the mentioned festival.

"The festival is such a big event, that most of the people in the village don't even go to work." stated Yuujin in a by-the-way manner, "Which means that most of us hard-workers will have a day off as well… I might as well take a look at that shrine too."

Of course, since the festival was going to be a much grander event than the little hanami session which Kyouichi experienced a few weeks ago, all visitors were welcome and didn't need any invitation. It turned out that each of the remaining club members was going to join the villagers on the 7th of Fuzuki to be a part of the Tanabata festival and at least enjoy their otherwise not too bright time in Gensokyo.

As the club's meeting was drawing to its end, Kyouichi bowed to the other members, thanking them for their attention and loyalty to the club and let everyone do whatever they wished until the school bell rang, announcing the beginning of their classes. It seemed that everyone decided to take this little amount of time to go over their notes from previous lessons, because they were going to write a test today. Only the club's president and one certain Soudai Asakura could sit calmly in their chairs with their hands behind their heads and their legs rested on top of a reading desk, as they were both excused for being absent due to their hospitalization in Eientei. If Keine-sensei saw them now, however, things would most likely turn out much worse for these two…

* * *

As the final lesson was over, the students were slowly leaving the premises of the school by smaller groups. One of those groups consisted mostly of outsiders. As they were leaving the corridors, their faces were an abundant mixture of emotions, like mirrors of the feelings that each single one of them had from writing the test. Some were more than pleased with themselves and expected to get a high score. Others were donning faces of indifference, taking things easy no matter what the outcome. However, there were a few among those students whose disappointed frowns and angry scowls foreshadowed their failure.

Kyouichi only hoped that he wouldn't be copying the same face in a week when it would be his time to write the same test. As he curiously wheedled the information out of Midori about what questions the test consisted of, she elegantly brushed him off by telling him that it's for his own good that he should take his time and study for the test properly, just like everyone else.

Since the school was over for today, Kyouichi didn't waste any time and together with his friend, Soudai, he decided to check out the selection of available jobs in the village hall.

"I swear its eyes were different when I passed around it yesterday…" Soudai commented the color of the eyes on the bronze dragon statue standing just several meters in front of the village hall. It appeared that they were now glowing in a cold bluish light. Kyouichi, who knew what purpose those two gemstones had, wasn't very happy to see their current color.

"I just hope this impending rain isn't meant to fall on the day of the festival…"

"Huh?" Soudai gave both the statue and Kyouichi a confused look. "I didn't know that the dragon statue was actually a barometer."

"More than that, it is also a worshipping idol and an indicator of unusual incidents, or so I heard… But if all those crazy things that are going on in Gensokyo right now still aren't enough to affect the dragon's eyes, then I don't even want to know what sort of things had to be happening here when they turned red."

"It probably rained fire." Soudai joked as he was opening the main gate of the hall. "Or maybe blood…"

* * *

"Aaah, long time no see, Ishimaru-san." the friendly voice of the village elder, Toshimi Fukukane greeted him as he entered his luxuriously furnished office. Kyouichi was really surprised that the elder still remembered his name.

"And you must be Asakura-san, am I right?" he glanced over at Soudai who entered just after Kyouichi.

"Why yes, I haven't changed my name yet." Soudai jested even when confronted with such an authority as the village elder.

"Hehe, I see…" the bearded man chuckled lightly. "So, how can this humble old man be of service to you today?" he asked while bowing down.

"Two words, Fukukane-san. New job…" said Kyouichi very tersely.

"Got tired of working at the bookstore, eh?"

"No comment."

"That bad, huh? And what about you, Asakura-san?" the elder measured Soudai up. "Are you also looking to try a different career? Or is it something else?"

"The same as my friend here."

"Then let me take a look at what sort of part-time jobs are available for you…" said the elder with a smile as he turned his back to the two outsiders, searching the shelves on his wall.

"Actually, I'd like to get a full-time job." Kyouichi specified his request.

"Oh? Are you serious about that, Ishimaru-san? Don't you still have a school to attend?"

"Ugh… well…" Kyouichi was in a bit of a loss for words. The elder was right. There most likely weren't any full-time jobs that offered a flexible work time like he had at the bookstore. He was now seriously considering the thought of quitting school.

"And if you're thinking about quitting school, than I regretfully inform you that elementary education is compulsory and governed by the law ever since year 92." added the elder, as if he heard Kyouichi's thoughts. "However, there are some jobs that wouldn't conflict with your current timetable. Although, with your level of qualification and education, I'm afraid the selection will be extremely poor…"

"If there is such a job, I'll take it… I'll take anything… Unless it's something dangerous, that is."

"Hmmm…" the elder only let out a low humming sound as he was browsing through the papers. "I have one... oh, here's another one… aaaand… it would seem that's all that fits the bill…"

"So what are our two only options?" Soudai beat Kyouichi in asking that question first.

"Oh, so you're interested in working full-time as well, Asakura-san?"

"If it wasn't obvious from the early part of our conversation, then now I'll make it clear: Yes!" replied the older of the outsiders with resolve in his voice.

"In that case, gentlemen, your two options are: A – a position of a dishwasher in the tavern Uzume, or B – a position of a supplementary labor force at the village farm. I know that they don't sound very appealing, but this is all I can offer, given the circumstances." The elder frowned with compassion, although his polite manners seemed to be a little forced. Whether his compassion was sincere, or if he was merely faking it, was of no importance to either Soudai, or Kyouichi. The two young outsiders now stood before yet another important decision in their life. To pick the lesser of the two evils.

"I think the choice is quite obvious." stated Soudai with a bitter smile on his face. "Who would want to slave away on the fields? Thank the gods that there aren't any automatic dishwashers in Gensokyo."

Kyouichi, however, wasn't as absolutely certain about this decision as his older acquaintance was. "And… what sort of work would I be doing if I took the position at the farm?" he asked the elder.

His question apparently came as a great surprise to Soudai. "Eh? You're seriously considering the farms? Do you know how hard it is to be working there?"

"The offer doesn't specify the tasks or the exact working conditions, I'm afraid." replied Elder Fukukane negatively. "It only states the payment of 400 yen per hour and that it has a flexible work time…"

"That's not bad at all." said Kyouichi. "It's a 100 yen per hour more than I earned at the bookstore."

"Ha, I bet the position at Uzume pays at least as well as the one at the farm." Soudai opposed him.

The elder, however, wiped his self-confident smirk off his face. "Unfortunately, Asakura-san, it appears that Uzume tavern is only offering 350 yen per hour for this position."

"Look, Ishimaru…" Soudai placed a hand on Kyouichi's shoulder and seriously gazed into his eyes. "Those numbers may look more attractive to you now, but think of it in the long run. While I'll have a nice and easy job at the tavern, you'll probably be on the verge of exhaustion, cursing the day you were born after the first week at the farms. And besides, Midori-san works at the tavern too. We'll have someone to talk to when we won't have much work to do…"

Kyouichi knew that his friend only meant him well, but he was thinking about things from a completely different point of view.

"You may have a point, Soudai, but please hear me out as well… This job… the farms…" he stole a quick glance at the elder, who was now a bit preoccupied with his myriad documents. "This is perfect for our… interests…" he said with a hushed voice.

Soudai wasn't in a mood to interpret his friend's subtle hint. "What the hell are you even tal…" he stopped himself suddenly before finishing the sentence. It seemed that he got the idea now, although with a bit of a delay. "I… I guess so… Never thought of it that way… But even so… the work is going to be hard."

"Do you want to go home or not?" Kyouichi whispered just loud enough for Soudai to hear his question.

"Ugh… I do, but…"

"Then I believe you know what to choose."

Soudai inhaled and took a longer moment of deep thinking before he exhaled again. "I hope we're not going to regret this, Ishimaru." Turning at the village elder, he nodded and cleared his throat to get his attention. "We'll take the work at the farms, Fukukane-san."

"Will you?" the elder finally shifted his gaze from his papers to his two visitors. "Then you know the drill… Your signatures here, here aaaand here…"


	46. Tanabata

Kyouichi and Soudai were a little relived to know that their work didn't start immediately, and they both had some free time to enjoy the festival. And as the big day was finally here, they both put on their best clothes and decided to wait for Midori in front of Naota's house. Another good thing was, that the dragon statue's forecast of rain was most likely not meant for today, as the skies were clear and blue, and even in the morning, the temperature was pleasantly warm.

"Sorry to keep you waiting~!" called out Midori's voice as she opened the door. She changed almost beyond recognition. Her hair was now trimmed by a pair of decorative chopsticks and she was clad in a green yukata with darker green leaf and pink sakura pattern.

"Oh~! Wow… Midori-san…" Soudai opened his mouth in awe when he saw her. "Is that really you?"

"Who else would I be?" she retorted and closed the door behind her. "Looks like most of the people from the village are already headed for the shrine…"

"And I don't even see any Ryuuken…" remarked Kyouichi as he watched the crowd of people slowly moving up the street, planning to take the northern road out of the village to get to the shrine.

"Well, since the natives are all capable of magic, they have more than a chance to defend themselves from any possible youkai attack." Midori speculated.

"I've even been to the Temple of Myouren this morning." Kyouichi informed his friends. "Byakuren-sama gave us another one of her blessings that would make us less likely to be attacked."

"Really? Why didn't I go there too?" Soudai asked himself as he followed the crowd, slowly nearing the northern entrance of the Human Village.

"Hey, don't worry. Once we're at the shrine, we won't need to worry about dangerous youkai anymore… I hope…"

"I'm curious to see this Hakurei person." said Midori. "She seems to be quite popular around the village."

"Apparently being popular doesn't necessarily mean that her shrine gets many visitors during normal non-festive days."

"But you've been to her shrine several times already, haven't you, club prez?"

"Because I was more curious than wise. I've learned my lesson, though…" said Kyouichi and rolled up his left sleeve to reveal his scars – the memento of his injuries caused by a young youkai of darkness. "But back then I didn't have these…" he took out a few of Reimu's amulets from his pockets. He never had to use them ever since, but he always had them in his pocket just in case…

"Is the shrine a long way from here?" Midori asked, apparently much less worried about any possible dangers.

"About a half an hour of walk. But at this pace, I don't know… Perhaps it might even stretch to a whole hour."

"Well, it's not like we're in a hurry anyway, right?"

"Hey, Kyou, we're probably going to spend a lot of cash at them stalls, right?" Soudai lamented over his lack of finances. "Could I… borrow some from you?"

"And what do you think? That I've got a money printer in my pocket? I've already given you quite a bit for your hospitalization." It wasn't that Kyouichi wouldn't like to lend some more money to his friend, but he was also getting worried of not having enough money himself.

Midori sighed in response. "You're so helpless, Asakura… I suppose I could spare a coin or two…"

"Midoriiiii~!" Soudai couldn't hide his happiness and the best way he could think of to express it was giving Midori a tight hug.

"Ughhh… Excuse me… Can I breathe?" the yukata-clad vice-president struggled for air.

"Thank you so much, Midori-san! I'll pay off all my debts to the last yen. It's a promise!"

"Hey, calm down, you two." Kyouichi threw a quick look over his shoulder to see what Soudai was doing.

"I'm pretty calm." replied Midori as she got finally released from Soudai's grip. "Not sure about your friend here, though."

"Oh, and one more thing…" Kyouichi raised a finger to give his friends a little warning. "If any stranger starts asking you who you are, do not, I repeat: DO NOT let them know that you are an outsider."

"Eeeh? Why would we want to keep that fact a secret from others?" Midori didn't understand.

"Because you never know if the person you're dealing with is not a hungry man-eating youkai, Midori-san. For such individuals, we, the outsiders, are like free pizza."

"I don't think that any of the dangerous youkai would dare to even go to the shrine, now that it's crowded with people…"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Midori."

"Fine…" shrugged the girl indifferently. "So I'll just pretend to be one of the natives then."

"Yeah, you do that… I'm only saying this, because I once let that fact slip out of my mouth, and the youkai who I was talking to happened to have a taste for some human flesh…"

"But you're still alive, I see." Soudai pointed out.

"I wonder myself how I managed to talk my way out of that one…" Kyouichi chuckled as he was recalling his little encounter with Mystia, the night sparrow. "Oh, yea, and the other day, Soudai too let this fact slip out of his mouth in front of a complete stranger. Needless to say that I wasn't very happy about it…"

"Me? When?" Soudai looked cluelessly at his younger friend.

"It happened just a few days ago and you've already forgotten? Why when we met Mokou-san, of course!" Kyouichi refreshed his memory.

"Ah, that… But she wasn't a youkai."

"Yeah, but what if she was? How could you trust her so easily?"

"Well, because I remembered her bringing me to Eientei. She couldn't be a bad person if she bothered to drag me all the way there."

"Hmm… Okay, you have a point, but still… Be careful who you spill your guts to, okay?"

Soudai made a funny grimace, mimicking a thoughtful contemplation. "It's going to be hard, but I'll try…"

"You can fully trust Reimu, though…" Kyouichi added as a matter of fact. "Not too sure about some of her acquaintances, but… the shrine maiden is on our side."

"Hey, hey…" Midori again called for attention and changed the topic of the conversation. "I've heard that there's going to be some new attraction this year."

"Really?" Kyouichi curiously raised his eyebrows. "I don't know anything about that…"

"Guess we'll see when we get there." said Soudai.

* * *

After something over 45 minutes, the long line of villagers has finally reached a well known crossroad, just several tens of meters in front of the stone steps leading to the Hakurei Shrine.

"Are we there yet?" Soudai impatiently demanded an answer, since he couldn't explain why the mass of people in front of him suddenly slowed down.

"Pretty much." replied Kyouichi tersely. "We'll just take a turn to the right and we should already see the shrine's torii."

And when the outsiders finally scaled the stairs and walked under the bright-red torii, they found themselves in a very crowded shrine yard.

"Whoa!" uttered Soudai as he tried to stand on his toes and look into the distance. All he could see, however, was the shrine's tile roof. "There's barely enough room to move around here…"

"How many people do you think are here?" wondered Midori.

"Well, the village has something over 2000 inhabitants, but surely not all of them are here…" said Kyouichi as he tired to make his way to the shrine. "However, I don't think that I'll exaggerate when I say that one half of today's visitors are not human…"

"So where's the shrine maiden?" asked Soudai as he followed his friend closely, so he wouldn't get separated from him in the crowd.

"I don't see her yet… Right now, I'll be happy if I'll see anyone familiar besides the two of you."

And as Kyouichi kept slowly progressing forward, prodding and pushing other shrine visitors and subsequently apologizing to them, he suddenly felt that his stomach hit something hard and sharp…

"Ungh~! Youch! Damn it… What the hell…?!"

"Kyah~! Hey~! Watch it!" sounded a high-pitched girl's voice from somewhere close by. For some reason it sounded very familiar and Kyouichi immediately turned his attention to its source…

As he looked down, he noticed a short ginger-haired girl with a pair of branch-like horns coming out of the sides of her head, decorated by several ribbons. Not another second was necessary for Kyouichi to recognize this girl. It was Suika Ibuki, an oni who could be often seen near or inside the Hakurei Shrine. She was one of Reimu's closer friends, but prior to that, she was once a source of an incident that forced the shrine maiden to stand against her in battle…

"Oh~!" Kyouichi's face brightened up when he saw her. "Sui-chan~!"

Suika's expression followed suit as she recognized the person who just bumped into her. "Haha~! Kyouichi~!" she exclaimed with a joyful face and raised her infinite sake gourd into the air like some sort of greeting. "I see that you recovered from your injury…"

"And I see that word travels fast around Gensokyo."

"Reimu told me… Anyway… it's festival~! A festival~! Let's drink and eat and drink and drink~!"

"Who's this?" Soudai whispered into Kyouichi's ear as he saw Suika. "I like her attitude, but… is she even allowed to drink?"

"Oh, this is Suika. Suika, this is Soudai and this girl is Midori… basically the same species as me – a human from the outside." Kyouichi introduced his friends to Suika and vice-versa.

"P-pleased to meet you…" uttered Midori somewhat shyly.

"Wait a sec…" Soudai gave his friend a confused look. "You told us just a while ago that we shouldn't go revealing our identity as outsiders to anyone and now you…"

"Relax, Asakura… You can trust those that I trust… And I do trust Suika."

"O-okay…" he shrugged and kept curiously admiring Suika's most distinguishing mark. "So, Suika-san is…"

"She's an oni, so she's perfectly fine with drinking." Kyouichi explained briefly. "Besides, her age doesn't quite match her appearance…"

Suika confusedly tilted her head. "It doesn't? This is how most oni look like when they're around my age…"

"And… how old are you, Suika-san?" Midori got a bit curious.

"That's a se-cre-t~!" the oni replied with a smile.

"So…" Kyouichi resumed his conversation with her. "You said that Reimu told you about my injury… How does she know about it then?"

"Because she's been there too~. In Eientei, I mean. Hey… how about a drink?" she generously offered her gourd to the trio of outsiders.

"Wait… She's been there too? What happened to her?"

"Oh, she's not hurt or anything. She's just been working on that crazy fairy incident and to find out what was wrong with them, she agreed to catch some of those fairies and let Eirin study them… Guess that's when she saw you laying in one of the beds… Now, have some sake~!"

"Sure!" Soudai happily accepted the offer, but Kyouichi halted his hand reaching for Suika's gourd.

"Not so fast, buster! Remember. We're on an important mission here today."

"Eh? We are?"

"Of course we are… Say, Suika, do you know where we can find Reimu? There's something important that we want to ask her… Then we can drink."

"Oh, come on!" Soudai called out in protest. "It's just a bit of sake. It's not like I'm gonna get drunk from a few cups…"

"Trust me." Kyouichi gave him a serious look, "This sake is unlike any you have ever drunk before. You'll get a taste and you'll end up asking for more… and more… and more. And it's much stronger than your typical sake too."

"Oh, boy~!" Soudai rubbed his palms in anticipation. "Fine, so let's get the serious business over with first. Then I want to taste what kind of sake the oni drink…"

"Reimu's in the back, a little busy with organizing the tournament, but if it's really important, then you should meet her right away."

"Organizing the tournament, you say? What sort of tournament?"

"Oh, you haven't heard yet, huh? This year, to sort of advertise her shrine and the Tanabata festival itself, Reimu has decided to organize a fancy danmaku tournament."

"But… that requires quite some room, doesn't it?" Kyouichi pointed out.

"Sure, that's why she's in the back of the shrine. There's certainly more room than here, even with all those stalls."

"It's going to be quite a challenge getting there, though…" said the outsider as he looked around, seeing hundreds of people gathered in front of the shrine.

"Don't worry~!" Suika cheerfully smiled and waved her hand. "I'll take you there soon enough… Why don't you grab my hand and follow me?" she offered her right hand, which Kyouichi accepted without much hesitating, but he'd never guess what Suika would do afterwards.

"Hold on tight~!" she chimed happily and leapt into the air.

"Just a second… Waaaaaaaaaiiiiii…!." Kyouichi's scream faded into distance as Suika literally took him over the shrine's roof in a single bound, holding him only by one hand.

"Soudai and Midori were quite shocked by Suika's stunt as well, and were only hoping for their friend's safe landing once he disappeared behind the roof.

"You think we should follow him?" Soudai raised a question at Midori, his eyes still focused on the sky.

"We could try, but… We're not in a hurry anywhere, are we?"

"So, what do you want to do?"

"Well, I don't know… Have fun, maybe?" she asked in a sarcastic tone. "It's a festival… the like of which we won't ever experience again. Let's enjoy it to the fullest! Here, I'll share some money with you, as promised…"

"Ah, almost forgot about that, hahaha~!" Soudai laughed embarrassedly, but he gladly accepted Midori's offer. "Thanks again, vice-prez…"

"I'll expect every single yen back, though…" she gave him a cold and menacing glare.

"Hehe… Of, course, of course…" he laughed nervously and nodded repeatedly. "Like I said, I always pay my debts…"

"Good for you."

And as the two of them were slowly proceeding towards some of the stalls that lined the boundaries of the entire shrine yard, the young Asakura spoke up again.

"Man… I sort of envy Kyouichi…"

"Hm? Why?"

"…I want to be kidnapped by a cute oni girl too!"

Midori sighed in response. "Boys will be boys… Let's go buy something to eat, shall we? All this walking has made me hungry."

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Hakurei Shrine, Kyouichi was slowly standing up from a crouching position – the result of his and Suika's not-so-soft landing. Luckily for him, he landed on his feet and even managed to avoid falling on the ground right afterwards due to the force of momentum.

"Nice landing there~…" Suika praisingly smirked.

"It would be a pity if I got my freshly washed clothes all covered in dirt, so I gave it my best… I thought that when you said "follow me" you meant "follow me"… "

"Why waste time and patience in a slow-moving crowd of people when you can travel faster?" retorted Suika with a question. "Anyway… There's Reimu." she pointed at a red-white clad, dark-haired girl standing near a wooden stage, looking at something that resembled a notice board. Suika gave Kyouichi an encouraging tap on his shoulder, even though she had to stretch up a little to reach it, and with words: "Drink with ya later~!" she sent him off after the shrine maiden.

The area behind the shrine was truly much larger in comparison to the front, and even with all the people constantly flowing there from the front yard, there were plenty of vacant square meters and there was nobody standing on the stage yet.

Since she was facing the notice board, Reimu didn't notice Kyouichi approaching her. The outsider wanted to surprise her a little, so he quietly walked up to her until he was standing right behind her back. As he glanced over her revealed shoulder, he saw that Reimu was looking at something that very much reminded him of a spider chart, like the ones that are often seen at various sports events. It consisted of many branches, gradually thinning on the way to the top, ending with only one empty colon which would contain the winner's name. At the very bottom of the pyramid, there were over a dozen names and it seemed that Reimu was momentarily in a process of adding new names to the list of competitors. What Kyouichi found rather strange, however, was the fact that the shrine maiden's name didn't figure in the chart. On the other hand, he could clearly see that her friend, Marisa Kirisame was already listed there.

"A good day to you, Reimu-san." he greeted her politely and pleasantly.

The shrine maiden responded by a quick glance over her shoulder with a completely unamused face before she turned her attention back to the chart in the very next second.

"Sheesh… What's with that formal attitude?" she grumbled under her nose. "You're about to ask some favor from me, no doubt…"

Kyouichi was taken aback by Reimu's not-too-pleasant reaction. "Guh… Cold start, huh? I hope nothing bad happened to you since the last time we've seen each other."

He honestly expected a bit warmer welcome from someone he thought was quite cheerful and friendly, and who he hasn't seen for a while.

"Not really…" she replied without even bothering to turn around. "If you don't count the zillion fairies that wanted to kill me, then no… Nothing bad happened to me so far."

Interested to find out the reason behind Reimu's cold attitude, but careful not to pry, Kyouichi decided to change the topic by asking her an innocent question.

"So… You're organizing a danmaku tournament, huh?"

"Yeah… It starts in the evening, so you ought to do something to kill time until then."

"Aren't you going to compete too, Reimu?"

Reimu sighed and lowered her head, as if the question caused her annoyance. "I don't know yet…"

"Why not? Wouldn't you want to promote your fighting skills in front of such a large crowd to attract even more visitors next year?"

"I just think it would be a hassle to compete in the tournament and coordinate it at the same time." explained the shrine maiden, still holding the writing brush in her hand.

"Ha? Oh, come on… You could just ask somebody else to coordinate it."

"Like who? Marisa? She's going to compete too, so I doubt it…" Reimu answered her own question. "Or Suika? Yeah, right… She'll get roaring drunk before the tournament even starts. Out of question… Besides, some of the competitors aren't even here yet, so I have a bad feeling that this tournament ends up in a fiasco."

"But you just said yourself that there's plenty of time until it begins." Kyouichi opposed. "As for the coordinating part: why not ask someone who is NOT going to compete?"

"And I'll ask you again: WHO?"

Kyouichi smiled suggestively. "You were right at the beginning of our conversation…"

"Hm? What are you talking about now?" she gave him a confused look.

"I actually did come to ask you a favor."

Reimu smirked for the first time today in front of Kyouichi's eyes. "Hmph… I've been doing the job of a shrine maiden for quite some time. I can already tell when someone comes to me just to chat and have some tea, or to ask for assistance."

"That's more like it…" the outsider widened his smile in response to Reimu's. "A smile suits you much better than a frown, Reimu."

"Does it, now?" she asked a bit teasingly, but her faint smile still remained on her face. "So what is it that you've come to ask?"

"I've come to ask if you'd let us use your storehouse to store some of our traveling supplies. It would be of great help if you did. In return, I'd volunteer myself with helping you coordinate that tournament of yours. A favor for a favor. What do you say?"

Reimu let out a chuckle of doubt. "You? Do you even know the fundaments of Spell Card rules and danmaku duels?"

"Not much, but I'm a fast learner." Kyouichi still insisted on helping Reimu out a bit.

"Not to mention," Reimu continued, "this tournament is going to have slightly different rules from typical duels."

"Please, tell me more about the tournament."

The shrine maiden took a deep breath. "If you insist… Fine… So, the tournament consists of four categories: duels – that's the main event, survival – the goal is only to dodge a Spell Card attack and stay unhit for as long as possible, then there's team duels – the same as normal duels, except the competitors fight 2 versus 2, and finally, the visual contest – simply put: the most beautiful Spell Card pattern wins."

Kyouichi let out a whistle of admiration. "I'm guessing this is going to need more than just one arbiter or referee or whatever term you prefer… Especially those team battles."

"That's self-evident, isn't it?" replied the miko bluntly. "And if it was that easy to find any suitable candidates, I would have done so long ago."

"You could still at least give me a try, though."

"Look, I don't think that you're the right person to…"

"Ayayayaya~!"

Reimu's and Kyouichi's conversation got suddenly interrupted by a very distinct call and voice that could only belong to one person.

"Good afternoon~! Gensokyo's number one reporter, Shameimaru Aya is here~!"

A brief glance at the sky revealed a floating figure of a young-looking female crow tengu, Aya, armed with her ever-present camera and notepad. Even now she held her tool of trade in front of her face, briefly snapping shots of the whole area, then focusing mostly on Reimu.

"I was wondering when you'd show up…" Reimu greeted her without any polite phrase.

When Kyouichi saw her, his instinct drove him to take a few steps to the side and hide himself behind the notice board out of fear of becoming a victim of another one of Aya's articles.

"What's the matter, Kyouichi-san? Why are you hiding from me?" wondered the tengu reporter as she descended and touched the ground.

Kyouichi figured that his pitiful attempt to hide from the eyes of a tengu was of no use, so he just resignedly lowered his head and stepped out from behind cover.

"It's not like I'm going to eat you~." said Aya with an innocent smile.

"That's the least of my worries…" murmured the outsider with mixed feelings in his heart.

Fortunately, Aya's camera lens seemed to avoid capturing his image and remained focused on the most prominent person of the day – Hakurei Reimu.

"I've come a bit later, because I've just been at the Moriya Shrine." Aya explained her delayed arrival. "Sanae-san's just as busy as you are with all those visitors, even though there are almost no humans among them, but that's understandable… Her shrine is a lot harder to get to for humans."

"So… are you going to make a report and return to the Moriya Shrine or are you going to stay for a while?" asked Reimu.

"I'll stay. You've gone as far as organizing a danmaku tournament this year. I simply cannot let a chance to make an exclusive scoop about this event just slip away like that, can I? I'll leave the Moriya Shrine to Hatate and her Kakashi Spirit News. She doesn't need to fly too far from her home to get there."

"Moriya Shrine…?" Kyouichi repeated the name of apparently another place of worship in the Shinto religion that existed in Gensokyo besides the well known Hakurei Shrine.

"Yes, the second of the only two shrines standing in Gensokyo." Aya offered an explanation. "It stands on a plateau on the Youkai Mountain, a little higher than my village. The waterfalls that come from the nearby lake go all the way down, forming a river that flows into the Misty Lake. Since today is the Tanabata festival, the shrine gets a lot of visitors, but like I said: barely any humans."

"So this… Sanae-san is…"

"Kochiya Sanae. Gensokyo's second shrine maiden." Aya answered before Kyouichi even formulated a proper question. "She keeps up the peace, resolves incidents and fights against troublemaking youkai just like Reimu does… Oh~! That's right… She's an outsider, just like you. Perhaps you'd get along…"

"Really? An outsider? But you say that she fights youkai and resolves incidents?" Kyouichi found Aya's statements rather contradictory to what he's been told by everyone.

"Yes, but she's special, you see…" added Aya with a raised finger. "She's a distant descendant of a goddess and has inherited quite some magical potential. I think that's also the reason why she moved from the outside world to Gensokyo."

"And the first thing she did was showing up at my shrine, telling me to close it down…" said Reimu as she was recalling her first encounter with the girl in question. True, their relationship has changed for the better later on, but like with nearly all of Reimu's friends, Sanae also had her dispute with the Hakurei shrine maiden.

"Why would she do that?" wondered Kyouichi.

"A long story..." Reimu dismissively waved her hand, apparently not being in a mood for storytelling.

"Anyway, since I'm here for the tournament, I have a little bit of a dilemma right now…" said Aya while scratching the back of her head.

"What? You want to compete or just take pictures?" the miko asked her.

"That's the dilemma, Reimu… I'd sure like to try my luck and see how well I do, but then who would be taking the pictures? Sure, I've taken countless shots of various youkai and humans as they unleashed their danmaku at me, but… You know, I'd also like to have a picture of me taken while dueling."

"So, should I write your name in?" Reimu prepared her writing brush and again turned to face the tournament chart.

"Hmm… Okay then~!" Aya decided after a while of thinking. "I can still take plenty of pictures when I won't be fighting."

"And when you will be fighting, then I suppose I could snap a few shots of you…" Kyouichi wanted to be a solution to Aya's dilemma. "But I guess you're gonna just say no like Reimu when I offered her assistance with organizing this tournament…"

"Eh? I think that's a good idea…" said the black-haired reporter. "You must know how a camera works, right?"

"Ehh… yeah… unless yours is some special kind…"

"Well, you could say it isn't your ordinary human-brand camera, but it takes pictures in the same way as any other one that you've seen. Just push the big button on the top side while holding a steady focus on your mark with the finder~… So I'll let you borrow it for the time when I'll be dueling. Anyway, why would Reimu refuse your help with organizing the competition?"

"Because I don't really know the rules of danmaku duels… She'd surely like to compete herself, but with things as they are, there wouldn't be any judges to decide the winners and losers and keep the competition fair and square. And there should be more than just one person doing this, so I thought I could help a bit… But I guess I'm not cut out for this kind of thing…"

"Oh? Why not?" Aya curiously tilted her head to the side. "The rules are not that hard to learn, even for someone who is not capable of magic. We could be a part of the tournament staff together, I don't mind. Why don't you sign up for the tournament as well, Reimu?"

The shrine maiden only shook her head lightly in disagreement. "Even if we DID teach Kyouichi the rules and even if you would be a judge, Aya, we'd still need more people. I don't think that I could manage being a contestant as well as a judge at the same time. Besides, that should not even be allowed…"

"Hmm… well, that's true." agreed Aya after a moment of thought. "Unless all of the contestants would partially be judges at the time when they won't be dueling…"

"Yeah…" Reimu gave out a hopeless sigh. "I guess I'm not going to… Wait a second…" she opened her eyes wide all of a sudden, as if someone just spilled a bucket of cold water on her head. "What did you just say?" she leaned her face close to the tengu reporter.

"Ehe~… What do you mean? That all the contestants should take part in organizing the tournament?"

"Exactly that!" exclaimed Reimu while pointing a finger right at Aya's nose. "That might actually work… somehow."

"See? I sometimes get good ideas too~." Aya smiled warmly.

"We'll need to let all the contestants know about this before the tournament starts."

"Leave it to me, Reimu-san~!" Aya energetically raised her hand, as if ready to take off. "Oh, but before I go, I guess I should ask you who the contestants are."

"Here…" Reimu passed her a folded piece of paper. "It's the list of all of those who should be competing today. But not all of them are here yet…"

"Not a problem for the fastest flyer in Gensokyo~!" said the tengu reporter with a boastful smirk. "Let's see… Mmhm, 24 contestants… Should take about an hour to inform them all..."

"That's some bold estimation…" noted Kyouichi.

"Well, by the looks of this list, I'm likely to find the contestants together in smaller groups on various places. Like these for instance…" she briefly showed him the list. Some of the names were already familiar to the outsider; the others were not. "These 6 girls will surely be together in the Temple of Myouren…"

"Ah, yes, Byakuren-sama…" Kyouichi recognized one name, "I think she's still giving her blessings to the people who are leaving the village to go to the shrine."

"See? One hour might even be an exaggeration. Why would I be wasting so much time anyway?" Aya muttered the question to herself. "I still want to have a few drinks with Suika-san after all."

"Oh, but of course." Reimu waved her hand, as if she was already trying to tell Aya to get going. "You drunkard of a tengu…"

Aya just giggled at Reimu's remark. "Just hope not to see your own drunken face in the next issue of Bunbunmaru, Reimu-san~ ."

"Yeah, yeah…. Just go and inform the contestants about the new terms, will you?"

"I already said that I would…" the reporter soared slowly upwards. "See you soon~!"

And in another second, she was gone. It almost reminded Kyouichi of Sakuya's ability to teleport. Aya was truly lightning-quick. His eyes barely caught the direction in which she flew.

"Yeah, take your time, Aya." muttered the miko as she put away the writing brush, ignoring Kyouichi and heading towards the shrine to take a seat on its elevated wooden floor.

"Oh, hey, wait a minute, Reimu. Reimu~! Hey!" the outsider called as he trotted after her. "You still haven't told me if you agree with helping me~!"

He followed her and sat down next to her – not too close; not too far.

"So… can we use your storehouse?" he repeated his question after a while of looking at her.

For some reason, Reimu still seemed somewhat apathetic and just sat there with a blank expression, staring into the crowd of people.

"Hey… what's wrong with you, Reimu?"

The shrine maiden responded with nearly a three second delay. "Huh? What? No… nothing, nothing… What are you talking about?" she denyingly shook her head and smiled, but Kyouichi could see that she was faking it.

"Who are you trying to fool, Hakurei?" he asked her with a more serious tone.

"It's nothing, okay?!" retorted the miko loudly.

"Can't tell me, huh? Fine… Suit yourself." Kyouichi crossed his arms and looked away from her. "But I ain't leaving you alone until you give an answer to my previous question."

"Fine…" muttered Reimu almost inaudibly.

"What was that?" Kyouichi put a palm to his ear so he could hear her better.

"I said fine. You can use my storehouse… Hey… What do you want to use it for anyway?"

"I can see that you're not being yourself today, Reimu, so I'll repeat it for you…" smiled the outsider and explained his intentions with Reimu's storehouse. At least she paid attention to his explanation and nodded understandingly several times as Kyouichi went over the details of his plan.

"So you're going to stash your traveling supplies from Kourindou in that storehouse?"

"Yes, that's the idea I had…"

"I don't really mind, but that means I'll need to make some room in my storehouse… Clean the place up a bit and… It's out of question today…"

Kyouichi laughed heartily after hearing that. "Nobody ever said that you should get it done today, Reimu. There's still plenty of time until the end of summer."

Reimu exhaled with relief. "Oh, good… I honestly couldn't even imagine myself cleaning that place up today."

Kyouichi was glad that his negotiation attempt with the shrine maiden wasn't in vain, but he'd feel even more at ease if he knew what was bothering her today. For a while he just sat there with her, quietly watching the ever-shifting crowd of people gathering in the back yard of the shrine.

"Hey…" he suddenly broke the silence again. "Since it's Tanabata today, I was wondering if you had also set up a wish tree for tanzaku papers."

"Mhm…" Reimu nodded. "Want to write a wish?"

"Yes, I'd like to."

"Alright, come with me then." said the black-haired shrine maiden while standing up. "It's right there in the front, close to the donation box. Haven't you noticed?"

"With such a crowd, I'm glad that I at least noticed where the shrine was standing."

"So, the bulk of the villagers has already arrived, huh? Good… Follow me."

"Hold on…" Kyouichi suddenly stopped and gave Reimu a worried look. "It's going to be a bit of a problem getting to the front yard… I hope you're not… going to… uhh… do what Suika just did…"

"What are you talking about?" she looked at him confusedly and opened the back door of her shrine. "We're going through the shrine, of course."

"O-oh! Through the shrine… Hehe… yeah, that's a good idea…"

"And don't forget to take your sandals off." she called at him after she entered the building.

"Yeah, yeah…"

* * *

As the two of them emerged from the front door, they found themselves right in front of the donation box and the immensely long line of worshippers waiting to pray. Even the shrine maiden herself was surprised to see so many people gathered in her shrine yard. As soon as the people saw her, they started calling at her, greeting her, and saying various words of praise. On one hand, she was happy to have so many visitors, but on the other hand, she was also equally annoyed. She has just come out to show Kyouichi where she had the wish tree set up, and now she didn't know who she should respond to first.

"Okay, everyone, please excuse me, I still have a lot of work to do." Reimu announced to the shrine visitors and beckoned at Kyouichi, giving him a signal to keep following her. And he did so without a word. There, just a few meters away from the shrine, stood a branched bamboo shoot with numerous colorful paper strips tied to it. According to the custom, people would write their wishes onto the papers and tie them to the wish tree in hope that their wish gets fulfilled. As he walked with Reimu towards the tree, he could hear her muttering…

"Man… Just look at that bunch of hypocrites… They barely ever visit the shrine and now, they're acting like we're all best friends… Seriously…"

Kyouichi couldn't suppress a chuckle after hearing her complaint. "And isn't it hypocrisy when you put up a cheerful, friendly face in front of them when you don't even care about them?"

"Don't act like you always understand everything, Ishimaru Kyouichi." she retorted with a hint of anger. "If I acted like a jerk in front of all these people, they wouldn't visit my shrine at all."

"So you're admitting that you're usually acting like a jerk?" he asked her provokingly.

"Like I just said: don't act like you understand everything…"

"I don't. That's why I'd appreciate a little explanation for your current behavior… Is it your typical behavior, or has something happened to you recently that triggered it?"

"Here, take this..." She passed him an ink-coated quill and a thin red paper strip called tanzaku that people use to write their wish on. She probably did so just to silence him for a while and to avoid answering his question. It seemed to work… for the time being.

"Ah, thank you~!" he smiled, grabbed the paper and scribbled down his most desired wish.

"May I take a look?" Reimu peeked over his shoulder.

"Sure, why not?" shrugged Kyouichi. "It's not like it's a big secret or anything…"

"I wish to return home…" the shrine maiden read the short wish aloud. "It must be really nice…"

"What?" the outsider didn't quite understand her last comment.

"To have a family…"

"Well… it's not a complete family that I live in, but… at least they're all alive."

"Good for you. I barely even knew my family… Died when I was just a little kid…"

"What happened?"

"Don't really know that myself, but what else than being killed by youkai comes to mind? Before the Spell Cards… well… you know how things went in Gensokyo…"

"It must have been really tough for you. Who took care of you after that?"

"Funny…" Reimu let out a bitter chuckle. "I don't even know. I can only recall my past as far as when I was five or six… And by that time I was already working as a shrine maiden. Not hunting youkai yet, but selling ofuda, trinkets, doing basic blessings, basic exorcism… Paradoxically, I used to get more visitors back then and sometimes even at the shrine on the other side…"

"You mean the one standing in the outside world?"

"That's right." she confirmed. "It used to have visitors too once upon a time… Sometimes people would even leave food and sake as offerings, which sometimes found their way to this shrine here, in Gensokyo, at times when the barrier was shifting. That way I didn't need to buy as much food and I could drink sake without anyone's permission."

"Hahaha~!" Kyouichi was amused by Reimu's attitude. "Naughty, naughty Reimu… Well… not that I wouldn't do the same…"

"Anyway… Since you've already put your wish on the tree, let's move on before this crowd surrounds us." she commanded and headed again for the back yard, but this time around her shrine.

Kyouichi again obediently followed, and as he walked, he curiously observed the whole setting of the festival, the people's clothing, the food at the stalls and even the decorative lanterns…

"Is that why you're so weird today?" he threw another question at the miko. "Because you miss your family?"

"No…" exhaled the exasperated shrine maiden. "That's not it…"

"Then what is it?" thought the outsider quietly. Apparently, Reimu didn't want to share her problems with him, so he didn't even bother asking about it any more. But even if he couldn't get an answer out of her, Kyouichi was determined to at least help her take her mind off whatever was troubling her.

"Say, Reimu… Don't you think there are a bit too many food stalls standing here?"

She shrugged at the question. "Don't know… But we're expecting Yuyuko to visit as well…"

"Yuyuko-sama?" Kyouichi immediately changed his carefree expression to a worried one. "In that case, there's hardly enough!"

For a second, he thought he could hear Reimu snicker at his remark. Once they were again in the back yard of the shrine, Kyouichi suggested another idea to her.

"About the tournament… I figure I could call some of my friends and ask them if they'd like to be a part of the staff too. I'm sure at least a few of them would like that…"

"What friends?"

"Outsiders, just like me. They've nothing better to do here anyway."

"If you could convince more people to help, then maybe I could try and explain the rules of the tournament to you. I just hope that you and your friends will be able to comprehend them."

"We've already had the basics covered at school and during my previous visits. Even saw a couple of duels firsthand. Have more faith in us outsiders, Reimu… We're all humans after all. We can adapt fast and learn new things. I'll be back soon…"

"I'm not gonna hold my breath, but… do as you wish."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Kyouichi was already marching towards the designated location where Reimu was still making preparations for the upcoming danmaku contest. Six eager people followed him. Iwakami Midori, Asakura Soudai, Hayashi Sayuri, Daniel Morrison, Saitou Chitose and Hieda no Akyuu. He managed to find all of these people in the crowd with a certain deal of luck. Not all of them were outsiders, but he knew them well enough to trust them, and they knew him well enough to agree with his suggestion. Now they all stood before Reimu, offering their help with managing the tournament.

"That was rather fast…" the shrine maiden commented with a hint of surprise reflected upon her expression.

"Ahaha~! Reimu-samaaaa~!" Chitose couldn't hold her excitement back any longer. As a great admirer of the shrine maiden, it didn't take any convincing for her to agree with helping her in any way she could. Reimu, however, apparently had some misgivings regarding the team that should be managing the tournament.

"Umm… I still don't think that this will work very well."

"You can never know that unless you give us a try." said Kyouichi and gestured at his group of friends.

"And… Akyuu-chan?" Reimu was puzzled by the young chronicler's presence in this group. "Do you really want to help with the competition too?"

"My work is to record history of Gensokyo. And you, Reimu-san are now making another mark in it. You just might have founded a new Tanabata tradition. It would be my pleasure and honor if I could be a witness to your innovative festival attraction." explained Akyuu with a smile on her face.

"Furthermore," Kyouichi continued, "Akyuu's special ability makes her more than a perfect candidate to be one of the judges. And even if we forget some of the rules that you'll be explaining to us, she can simply remind us any time…"

Reimu took a while to consider her options, but in the end she accepted everyone's assistance. Perhaps her desire to compete as well was greater than her doubts.

"Okay, everyone, I… I'm glad that you're all willing to help me with this…"

"No problem, Reimu. We're sort of just paying off a favor for you taking us across the barrier when we'll be ready… Oh, by the way, Soudai, yes, you've guessed it. This is our salvation, Hakurei Reimu."

"She's beautif… err… I mean… Pleased to meet you, Hakurei-san." Soudai bowed to the shrine maiden.

"I'm not really used to being called by my family name." said Reimu.

"Hey, Ishimaru…" Soudai whispered to his friend. "…you never said that she's so beautiful…"

"Well… she is, I'll admit." Kyouichi murmured his reply back. "Shrine maidens are often very attractive…"

"You think it's like one of the hiring criteria?"

"Hehe… could be…"

"Hey, you two…" Midori reminded them of her presence. "Have some manners… Sheesh… Please, forgive them, Reimu-san. Uhm… by the way, I'm Iwakami Midori. Nice to meet you in person."

"Likewise." the miko replied tersely.

"So, how can we help with this tournament?" Midori asked her.

"First we need to wait for all the contestants to arrive. Then we can start explaining the modified rules. Basically, you'll be in a role of judges, but it's not as easy as you'd think. You'll need to look sharp and have a constant overview of the situation even with all that chaotic danmaku flying in all directions… I hope you can handle it."

"We'll give it our best, Reimu-san." Midori showed a thumbs up.

"Then find something to do to pass the time. The tournament starts in the evening and I don't even dare to estimate when the contestants arrive."

"And when they arrive?" Soudai asked.

"Then there's going to be a call for judges, followed by a danmaku signal…" Reimu pointed her finger at the sky and demonstratively launched a white, brightly glowing shot of divine energy upwards that burst into several fragments each of different color.

"Wooow!" exclaimed the young Chitose. "Once more, once more…"

Reimu paid her little attention and went on with her explanation. "If you won't hear the call, then you'll see this… If you do, gather here and you'll receive your detailed instructions. Don't be late and don't disappoint me…" she added the last sentence like some sort of warning.

"R-Reimu-sama?" Chitose probably never saw the shrine maiden so deadpan serious before, and truth be told, neither did Kyouichi, but for now, he knew better than to provoke her with further questions.

"Come, Chitose… Reimu is not in her best mood today, so let's just leave her alone for now and give her time to finalize the preparations."

"Kyou-kun? What's wrong with Reimu-sama?"

"No idea." he shrugged. "Guess that's not for us to know… Come on… Let's go."

* * *

And so the group has again dispersed into the crowd, leaving Reimu to do her work… whatever that was right now…

"So… that was the shrine maiden that is going to get us out of here, huh?" Soudai asked as he and his few friends got mixed into the crowd again. "Pretty, but a little bit too… I can't even find the right word… Serious? Strict? Bossy maybe..?"

Kyouichi shook his head. "She's not usually like this. Something must be bothering her, but what, I have no idea."

"Haven't you talked to her about it?" Midori spoke up. "Aren't you friends with her?"

"Friends… Yeah. And I've known her for how long? A month? I've got childhood friends who I know better than their parents do, and still we don't share all of our problems with each other… Asking her didn't get us anywhere. One month is just too short period of time to label someone as a close friend."

"But you've known her for as long as we know each other and I wouldn't hesitate to call you two my close friends…"

"Actually, I've known her for a few days longer than I know you, Midori, but I don't really consider myself as one of her close friends."

"A friend in need is a friend indeed." Dan mentioned an old saying.

"True…" Kyouichi admitted. "And in this aspect, Reimu truly is a friend by helping us… The actual reason why I dragged you guys into this tournament business is so that I could at least somehow repay her for her willingness to help us… And to take her mind off her problems… Whatever those may be…"

Soudai gasped and mockingly made a shocked grimace. "Did you hear that, Midori-san? We've been tricked into this! Just kidding, of course… I'm 100% with you on this one, Ishimaru. Who knows, maybe if we'll prove to be good tournament judges, we could make Reimu-san a little happier…"

"I still think you should try talking to her and find out what the problem is." said Midori with concern.

"Easier said than done, though…" retorted the glasses-wearing young outsider. But Midori's suggestion did give him an idea… While he had doubts that he could make Reimu talk, he could ask one of her closest friends to do the talking instead.

"You know what? You're right… I need to find Marisa."

"Marisa?" Soudai blinked in confusion. "Who's he talking about now?"

Not bothering with any explanation, Kyouichi simply prompted his friends to follow him and help him look for a person they didn't even get a basic description of.

"No, seriously… Who the hell's Marisa?" Soudai couldn't rest until he got an answer, which came surprisingly fast.

"Ah, there she is!" Kyouichi called out and pointed at a familiar figure with blonde hair, dressed in a black and white witch outfit. She was currently standing near one of the food stands, having a lively conversation with the vendor.

"THAT is Marisa?" Midori raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "She… she's dressed like witch…"

"Not just dressed. Marisa IS a witch."

"Wiiiiitch~!" Soudai jokingly exclaimed in response.

"Yeah, don't startle her." Kyouichi played along. "Everyone, kill your light!"

"What are you talking about? What light?" Midori didn't get the reference.

"Obviously, you haven't killed enough zombies in your life, Midori-san…" Soudai chuckled at her reaction.

"Oh, you're talking about some game again, aren't you?"

"No, real life." he retorted with sarcasm. "Of course we're talking about a game…"

"Alright, enough fooling around." Kyouichi got serious again. "Let's go greet her."

And as he said so, he moved onward to meet her.

"You still haven't explained who she is and why were we looking for her." Midori reminded Kyouichi as she tried to keep up with his brisk pace.

"Maybe she's Reimu-san's friend." Soudai made a guess.

"I applaud your sharp wit and perception, detective Asakura." Kyouichi jokingly confirmed the correctness of his guess.

"Whoa! Really?" he couldn't believe it himself.

"Hi there, Marisa-san~!"

The magician quickly turned around as he called her name and her reaction was similar to Suika's, or the opposite of Reimu's…

"Ohoho~! What a surprise… I thought you were still in Eientei, Kyou." she stepped a bit closer to have a better look. "Um… and it's a good thing that you still remember me, ze… After being hit in the head and all... By the way, have you met Reimu yet?"

"Uhh, yes. Unfortunately..."

"Unfortunately? Why? Something bad happened between you?" Marisa looked at him with puzzled face.

"Heh… I was kind of hoping you could tell me. She's been acting weird from the moment we met today."

"Really? I've talked to her several times today and she seemed okay to me. Haven't noticed anything weird about her, ze…"

"Hmmm…" Kyouichi was surprised by Marisa's words. "Well, if you haven't noticed anything, then whatever happened to her must be something very recent…" he speculated.

"And… how was she acting weird exactly?" the witch wanted to know more.

"Well, for example, she hasn't even greeted me when we met, she's been spacing out and she seemed kind of… distant. Something's troubling her, but when I asked, she just brushed me off, saying that nothing's wrong."

"Maybe she's just nervous about the success of the tournament." said Marisa.

"Maybe that's all there is to it, but I wanted to ask you if you would please talk to her. Don't be too pushy or straightforward about it, but I guess you know her much better than I, so I don't even need to tell you that…"

"Okay then… I'll try to find out what's bothering her and help her if I can. Thanks for telling me."

"No. I thank you." Kyouichi bowed to the blonde girl. "If there's someone who can make her talk and help her, it's you, Marisa."

"Hey, what are friends for? I'll talk to her, but I wouldn't worry about her too much. If you'd know her a bit longer, it wouldn't surprise you that she's sometimes grumpy, insensitive or even outright cold. Couple that with a bit of arrogance and overconfidence and you'll get something very close to Reimu when she's dealing with youkai or people during an incident resolution."

"Aaah…" Kyouichi nodded understandingly. "So maybe her mood has something to do with the current incident. She hasn't resolved it yet, has she?"

"No." Marisa let out a sigh as she shook her head. "Not that there's been any trouble since our Grand Fairy Regulation Initiative near Kazemura, but I highly doubt that's the last time we've seen any crazed fairies. I'd be sleeping better at night if I was certain that we've dealt with the problem, but I'm afraid we only managed to delay another attack…"

"Wait a minute… What's the Grand Fairy Regulation Initiative?"

Marisa giggled. "Oh, sorry… I thought just about everybody in Gensokyo knew about it already. It happened several days ago. Around the time when you were brought to Eientei, I think… Byakuren came up with the fancy name when Aya was interviewing us. In short, it involved us – that is me and Reimu and eleven more girls, and just about every single fairy that lived near the quarry village. It was a tough battle. Our original intention was only to bring a few live specimens for Eirin's research, but our presence near Kazemura must have caused the crazy fairies to go into an all-out attack. But that's not entirely a bad thing. We somehow rallied together and exterminated them all, so there shouldn't be any fairy attacks for at least a couple of days. But since we still have no idea what the source of their madness is, it's just a matter of time before we get to fight the swarms all over again."

Kyouichi let out a weak whistle. "Sounds like Gensokyo is going through some hard times."

"Yeah… One would think that with all the past incidents, this is just a minor annoyance, but it turns out that the supposedly weakest youkai are causing the biggest of problems, ze…"

"But you can resolve this situation, right?"

"Sure. Once we get any solid lead where to start looking… So far it all depends on the efforts of Eirin and Patchouli, but how long it will take them to yield any results, I dare not say."

"Guess I shouldn't be surprised why Reimu is acting like that." Kyouichi noted.

"Reimu isn't always very friendly. To be frank, I'm a bit surprised she accepted you so well when we first met. But I'm guessing that your donation had something to do with that. Otherwise she'd just tell you something like: "Aw, damn those annoying outsiders…" or something like that… Not that I'm a shining beacon of politeness or anything, hehe~. Guess that goes with the line of work that we do. You won't drive away any youkai with nice words."

Even though the outsider had a different opinion and experience to back it up, he just remained quiet and nodded.

"Don't worry…" Marisa smiled reassuringly. "I'll try to figure out what exactly is on Reimu's mind."

"Or at least keep her mind focused on something else…" added Kyouichi.

"That shouldn't be a problem. She's got a tournament to run after all. Hope you'll come to watch. I'm going to compete too, ze…"

"Not just watch, but I've already volunteered myself to be one of the judges. Along with these people here…" he pointed his thumb backwards at his friends.

"Really? Wow… I didn't expect that…" said the witch as she eyed the group of outsiders. She then leaned closer to Kyouichi and whispered: "You really care about Reimu, don't you?"

"Don't get any false ideas. I'd be equally worried about any of my other friends."

Marisa chuckled in response. "Is that right? Well, no matter… it's nice of you to try helping her. I'm sure she means well, but she's got a lot of things on her mind today. I'll let you know when I manage to cheer her up a bit. See you around~!" she raised her hand and headed off towards the shrine, disappearing in the crowd. And just when Kyouichi was wondering what he'd do next, somebody called at him.

"Hey! Are you going to block my lamprey stand all day, or are we going to do business?"

He instantly recognized the voice, and as he turned around, he only now noticed that the vendor, who Marisa was talking to just a while ago, was none other than Mystia Lorelei, a youkai night sparrow.

"M-Mystia-san?!" he almost jumped from the surprise. He knew that this particular girl, although harmlessly-looking, was a predator that sometimes preyed on humans. "What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like? I'm selling fried lamprey. Only 200 yen." she added with a warm, but deceptive smile.

"Oh, Kyou…" Soudai tapped gently on Kyouichi's shoulder. "You know this girl too?"

"Yeah, but I wish I hadn't…"

"Why?"

Before Soudai got his question answered, Mystia impatiently drummed her clawed fingers on the counter of her stand. "So, are you going to buy some or not? There are others waiting in the line behind you, you know."

"We're not hungry, thank you!" Kyouichi hastily answered, bowed and was already dragging his friends away from the lamprey stand. "Come on, people why don't we go play some games while we're here? Or maybe buy some souvenirs…?"

* * *

"What's gotten into you all of a sudden?" Daniel asked.

"To put it simply; stay away from her."

Soudai chuckled as he tried to guess. "What? She didn't try to kill you or something, eh? Hahaha… Haha… Ha?"

But after seeing Kyouichi's deadpan face, his laughter subsided and he copied his friend's nervous expression. "Don't tell me that I'm right…"

"Yes, Soudai, you have a knack for guessing things correctly."

"Damn! What did you do to her, man?"

"We crossed paths."

"You… crossed paths?" he repeated his words in an asking manner and stole a glance at the distant lamprey stand. "That's not something to kill someone for."

"Usually not… Unless you're a human-eating youkai."

"Wait… THAT girl eats humans?! Holy crap! What are such dangerous youkai even doing at the shrine?!"

"Welcome to Gensokyo…" shrugged Kyouichi as he was increasing the distance between himself and Mystia. "It wouldn't even surprise me if I saw Rumia here today…" he muttered to himself.

"We should inform Reimu-san about this…" Soudai continued talking. "I don't mind enjoying a festival with youkai, but having man-eating youkai selling food here? That's nothing that I support, man… But… hey, if she tried to kill you, Ishimaru, what are you still doing among the living, huh? You sure you aren't just pulling our leg here?"

"Pulling your leg?" Kyouichi finally stopped in the middle of the crowd and turned to face Soudai. "Just take a look around! You've got all sorts of youkai here! Even those that you'd best steer clear of… Like… that vampire over there…" he pointed at a bat-winged humanoid figure standing not too far from his position, immediately recalling that he already knew this person. "Wait a second… That's Remilia-sama. Oi~! Remilia-sama~!" he shouted and waved his hand in the air to get her attention. Before his friends could even react, he was already walking towards the eternally young vampire.

"…the hell?!" Daniel confusedly stared at Kyouichi's distancing back. "Didn't he just say to stay away from youkai such as vampires?"

"I think our club prez likes to act in contradiction to his own statements." Midori humorously pointed out.

Soudai crossed his hands and shook his head. "I ain't following him…" he declared resolutely, but as he saw that Dan and Midori were already going onward, he changed his mind. "Hey, don't leave me all alone~!"

The outsiders regrouped just as Kyouichi got noticed by the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

* * *

"Well, well, well…" said the vampire, smiling mischievously. "If it isn't the fresh blood from the outside..."

"Ah, Remilia-sama..." Kyouichi returned a smile and bowed respectfully. "Just who I wanted to meet…"

As expected, Remilia was seldom seen without the company of her loyal human maid, Sakuya, and this time was no exception. Since it was still only afternoon, the maid's main job for this time was holding a parasol over her mistress's head to shade her from any possible harmful effects of direct sunlight.

"Uhh… hello to you too, Sakuya-san…" Kyouichi greeted her a bit nervously. For some reason he couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling whenever he was near her. He didn't even have any reason to fear her, but he did anyway… Not even he knew why exactly.

"Good afternoon." she reciprocated the greeting and bowed elegantly.

"Oh? You actually wanted to meet me?" Remilia asked. "For what reason?"

"Forgotten already? For the same reason you invited me to your mansion in the first place." he reminded her.

Of course, Kyouichi was still expecting some sort of payment for keeping his agreement with the vampire and carrying out an investigation in the village of Kazemura.

"Ah, but of course…" she nodded understandingly. "Patchouli told me about the report."

"Isn't Patchouli-sama with you today?"

"She's still in the library, trying to uncover the mysteries that you've brought from that mining village. She told me to go on ahead without her, so I expect her to show up around evening."

"Well, I've done what you asked of me. I expect to be compensated accordingly."

"Although you could have carried out your investigation more thoroughly, you at least brought some pieces of information that can move us a bit forward."

"Yeah, I didn't find any culprit if that's what you're getting at." admitted Kyouichi.

"You stopped there for just a few hours. That's barely enough time for any consistent investigation…" Remilia pointed out, her tone sounded almost accusingly. "Nevertheless, fate has led you to discover a crucial piece of the puzzle that has yet to fit into the whole picture… And I will keep my word, human. Sakuya…" she turned to her maid as she called her name.

The maid didn't need any explanation to know what to do. "Yes, my lady." She reached inside the pocket on her apron and took out a thin paper envelope, passing it to the young outsider.

"Sometimes it's not a complete waste to hire some extra help." Remilia commented as she watched Kyouichi taking the envelope. "With little luck, I might even be able to solve this incident before the shrine maiden does."

"If you have a common goal, shouldn't you two be working together instead of competing?"

"Who ever said that we're competing?" giggled Remilia. "It just so occurred to me that my mansion was probably the first target of the fairies, months before it became known to Reimu. And since we've been trying to resolve it much earlier than her, I just thought if would be natural if we managed to do so before her."

"But apparently, the situation got a bit… out of hand."

"It is only a matter of time before we find out the source of the fairy attacks and put a definite stop to them." replied the vampire calmly. "I don't really care if it will be me, Reimu, Marisa or anyone else who solves it… But of course, I'd feel happier if it was me to…"save the day" for once. It'd make the revenge for attacking my mansion all the sweeter." she slowly licked her lips, exposing one of her vampiric fangs.

"Heh…" Kyouichi let out a weak chuckle. "Can't you trace the source of this mess with your "fate vision"?" he asked a bit provokingly.

"Oh? And you started to believe in fate all of a sudden?" she retorted with a question. "I've already told you that my vision is limited. Even when I stared at the fairies that attacked my mansion some time ago, I barely saw any fate lines… Probably because I'm unable to see a person's fate beyond their life, and as you might have guessed, the lives of those fairies weren't very long as soon as Meiling made it to the scene…"

"So, are you just going to wait until Patchouli or Eirin find out more about the attacks?"

"That's right. Patchouli mentioned that she planned on visiting the ruins personally in the following days. Even said that she was assembling a team for that… I'm sure she'll find out what's causing the fairy attacks."

"I wish you all luck then. But… have there been any attacks on your mansion lately?"

"Hmmm…. Now that you mention it, not a single one for almost a whole month… Instead, the attacks have spread southwards and to the southwest. Maybe it's just an erratic behavior of crazed minds, but maybe there's a pattern to it. A forest near Kazemura, a grove near the Hakurei Shrine, Alice's house in the Forest of Magic… But not my mansion. Maybe whoever is responsible finally learned their lesson and is trying their luck elsewhere."

"Perhaps." shrugged the outsider, accepting the probability of Remilia's theory. Then he hesitatingly opened the envelope he just received and found a thin bundle of 1000 yen notes inside. "Wow… I didn't expect such generosity from you…"

"Generosity? You haven't yet seen a smallest fraction of it. The money I paid you is merely loose change to me… But IF I find any further need for your assistance, I might hire you again. But that's highly improbable."

"Even if you say so… Thank you, Remilia-sama… This will help me a lot."

"Good… Both parties satisfied… more or less. I don't suppose there was anything else you wanted to meet me for, was there?"

"Well… We could have an idle mundane conversation…" Kyouichi said more out of jest than seriously.

"Hmm… Okay." Remilia agreed unexpectedly.

"R-really? I didn't think you'd actually agree to that."

"Why not? I have nothing else to do anyway."

"Wait… so you aren't here for the tournament?"

"I am, but there's still plenty of time until evening. Me and Sakuya are going to win the double duel category for sure." she said with strong confidence.

"But mistress," Sakuya spoke up, "What about Meiling-san? Didn't you say you wanted to try teaming up with her once?"

"Ah~. That's true." admitted the vampire. "Meiling… We've already fought alongside each other once, haven't' we, Sakuya? But that's exactly the reason why I picked you. We'll have a greater chance to win when we already have some experience with double dueling."

"Didn't you tell me yesterday that you've just come to have fun and that you don't care who wins?" asked the maid.

"W-what? When did you hear me say such nonsense?" Remilia denied with an embarrassed tone.

"Just yesterday, my mistress…" Sakuya smiled sweetly at her.

"I… I'm sure you must have heard me wrong… What good is participation in a competition for when you don't win anything?"

"It saddens me to remind you, but as far as I'm informed, there aren't any prizes for the winner of this tournament. Its purpose is purely intended to be a means of entertainment…"

Sakuya's words have left her mistress speechless for a good while, so she added a few words of comfort as well.

"But if it puts your mind at ease, my lady, I'll still do my best to help us win."

Remilia was still struck dumbfounded by the fact that the tournament had no prize to win.

"No… no prizes? There are no prizes…" she murmured to herself as she stared into the ground. "I need to have a word with Reimu about this…"

"Ah… well…" Kyouichi bashfully interrupted their conversation. "I don't think it's the best idea to see Reimu right now. She's busy with the festival; not just the tournament. But don't worry; she'll give us a signal when she wants to talk to us…"

"What do you mean "us"?" Remilia blinked at him in confusion. "You're not a contestant."

"Nope, I'll be one of the judges."

"A judge? You?" the vampire tried her best to hold back her laughter. "Oh, I get it, it's a joke! Haha… You're joking… right?"

"Now you almost sound like Reimu… She doesn't think I'm up for the task either. But in the end, she agreed."

"What is that shrine maiden thinking?" Remilia asked a rhetorical question.

"Yes, I wish I knew what she was thinking about too…" Kyouichi muttered, referring to Reimu's troubling thoughts that she didn't wish to share with him. "In any case, she said something about the tournament having modified rules of danmaku dueling, so she'll summon us all to explain."

"A human outsider judging danmaku duels? That's preposterous!" Remilia crossed her arms and gave Kyouichi a disapproving stare.

"Now, now… There's no need for any racist comments." Kyouichi tried to reassure her. Perhaps I won't even be a judge… The truth is, I just suggested the idea to Reimu, because she was hesitating to enter the tournament herself. She said that managing the contest would make her too busy to compete in it."

"So that's how it is…?"

"Yes… And it seems Aya-san got an even better idea, when she suggested that all the currently non-dueling contestants are going to assume the task of judges, so in the end, there might not be any need for us outsiders after all…"

"Hmm… Well… at least we won't be just idly sitting and watching other contestants when we won't be dueling. But still, we should also bring up the issue with there being no prize. A tournament should definitely have one."

Kyouichi shrugged in response. "And what would you like to win, Remilia-sama? You're wealthy enough to afford almost anything…"

"Hmm…." the vampire again protruded her left fang in a thoughtful expression. "I got it!"

"You do?"

"Aya's idea just gave me an idea…" she smiled pridefully. "When all of the competitors are going to be their own judges, why not have each competitor add a little something from their possession as a prize?"

"Sounds very interesting." said Kyouichi. "I think it's a good idea. Even though, I'm not the one organizing the contest…"

"I don't recall myself ever having bad ideas, do you, Sakuya?" Remilia turned to her silver-haired servant.

"…" the maid answered her with a silent gaze.

"Sakuya?"

"Ah… Excuse me, my mistress, I was just thinking about something and didn't catch your last question." Sakuya apologized politely, but Kyouichi would have sworn that she simply chose to purposefully and elegantly evade answering by pretending to space out for a moment.

"Geez, Sakuya… What are you daydreaming about? By the way, have you already bought some sweets for Flan?"

"Just as you asked, my lady."

"Oh, that's right…" Kyouichi got reminded of Remilia's younger sister. "How is Flandre doing? Isn't she here with you?"

"Oh no, heavens forbid…" replied Remilia with an oddly serious face.

Kyouichi, who knew basically nothing about the Scarlet family was naturally surprised by that answer and wanted to know the reason. "Why?"

"Let me put it this way… The last thing Gensokyo needs right now is another disaster."

"I'm afraid I don't understand…"

"I'm not usually the one who warns humans or protects them from danger, but with Flan, I have that odd… perplexing sense of… responsibility."

Kyouichi was still wearing his puzzled expression. "I'm afraid I still don't understand you any more than a while ago."

"You've met my sister once, haven't you?" she suddenly asked him.

"Yes." the young human replied with a smile. "You have a very nice younger sister, Remilia-sama."

"Ehh…" Remilia sighed heavily. "Well, yes… and NO." she gave an ambiguous answer.

"No? Why? She was very sweet and cute."

"Listen, Kyouichi." Remilia looked him straight in the eyes. "What I'm about to tell you is very important."

"I'm listening."

"I know that you've made a little… promise with Flandre about taking her to Human Village, should your attempt to return home before winter fail..."

"Hm? You know? And what about it?"

"Yes, I know… Flandre keeps reminding me that almost every day, constantly asking me if it's autumn already, and happily awaiting the time when you fail and keep your promise."

"Really? So… what do you want me to do? Take her there before I leave?"

"On the contrary…" the short vampire girl shook her head. "I want to ask you that should you ever pay another visit to the Scarlet Devil Mansion in the future, stay away from her."

"Whoa... I didn't know I had THAT bad influence."

"That's not the issue here. I just want you to avoid seeing my sister again."

"Okay." shrugged the outsider, still confused about Remilia's request. "I don't plan on paying another visit to your mansion anyway. No offense…"

"Please! I'm serious about it." she kept her scarlet eyes intensely focused on him. "Forget about what you promised her and stay away from the basement."

"Uhh… Hello?" Kyouichi waved a hand in front of her face. "Are you even listening to me? I just said that I won't visit your mansion… EVER! The only reason why I broke my habit and made that promise is because I knew that I wouldn't have to keep my end of the bargain. I'll be gone and home by the end of summer after all. That's what I and your sister agreed upon. If I go, well, tough luck, but no hard feelings…"

"Please keep what I just told you in mind anyway." said the vampire with a strange look in her eyes. As if she could see something that the young human could not. But what made her so concerned about her sister's innocent little promise with him? Kyouichi couldn't understand…

"Fine." he shrugged again as he agreed to Remilia's request. "But may I at least ask why you are so insistent about it?"

"Your encounter with my sister was a mistake... A one that I should have anticipated and taken steps to prevent from happening… But it happened anyway. Not even Sakuya expected her to come out of her basement at that time."

"I swear I didn't do or say anything bad to her." Kyouichi defended himself.

Remilia chuckled bitterly. "No… Of course you didn't. I was surprised that she didn't do anything of that sort to you."

Kyouichi was still blinking at Remilia in confusion, but he was slowly beginning to understand what she was hinting at. "Is there… something about your sister that I should know about?"

"Yes, I believe there is something about Flandre that you should be aware of… For your own good and for the good of others…"

Kyouichi's silence was a cue for Remilia to continue explaining.

"She may be my younger sister, but… Flandre was born with power that by far surpasses my own, and I'm not talking about the ability to see the strings of fate. Vampires are naturally some of the most powerful beings, which you may already know… But Flandre… well… she puts most of our race to shame."

"That powerful, huh?"

"You couldn't even imagine…"

"But even if she has immense power, she's very sweet and friendly."

"But immense power wasn't the only thing my little sister was born with." Remilia continued. "She's ill… Mentally... Highly unstable, highly… unpredictable."

"Really?" Kyouichi raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I didn't even notice that."

"While it's true that her state has been slowly getting better over time, she still poses a great danger to her surroundings. Fortunately, she's very obedient… to me at least. Her obedience is the only thing that has helped me to prevent her from causing havoc all over Gensokyo. I've been keeping her existence a secret for well over 495 years until THAT incident…"

"What incident?"

"You've heard about it, I'm sure." Remilia smiled slyly. "The red mist that I used to obscure the Sun. My first encounter with the local shrine maiden. And finally… Flandre's little… misbehavior that made her no longer a secret of mine…"

"Now that you mention it, I think Marisa said something about her and your sister "playing a game of danmaku"."

"Both Marisa and Reimu had the chance to test their skills against her. And if it hasn't been for the Spell Card Rules that were just recently introduced at that time, they wouldn't stand a chance."

"Wait…" Kyouichi interrupted her. "You've been keeping your sister locked up in the basement for five centuries?"

"Not locked up. She preferred to stay down there of her own volition. She could have left anytime if she wanted. And even if she WAS locked up, there's no door, no wall, no cage sturdy enough to resist her magic."

"But to me she seemed to be interested in the world outside the mansion's walls." Kyouichi pointed out.

"Indeed… Lately, Flandre's interest in the world around her and in humans seems to have increased greatly. Ever since she met the witch and the shrine maiden… And her recent meeting with you hasn't helped either."

"But why not at least give her a chance? You said yourself that her health has been slowly getting better."

"I don't want to take any chances." Remilia disagreed. "Flandre's behavior was worse, true… Sudden outbursts of rage, seizures, split personalities… In the last hundred years, however, she became more… manageable. Now she merely resembles a child who cannot quite tell the difference between what's wrong and what's right. I don't want to risk the chance of her destroying the village."

Kyouichi smiled weakly. "And since when you cared about the well-being of humans?"

"Ever since the Human Village became my main source of food, of course." replied the blue-haired vampire.

"Ah… well, that makes sense." acknowledged the outsider and chuckled. "Have you tried finding someone who could help her?"

"I've been doing my best to teach her step by step all the things about the world, life, nature, humans, youkai… Patchouli too, of course, but Patchy hasn't always lived in my mansion, so I've been Flandre's teacher for much longer time than she has."

"That's amazing, Remilia-sama… I mean… your love, patience and dedication has managed to partially cure your sister's illness."

Remilia has rarely heard words of praise or admiration coming from a human. Perhaps that was the reason why she was silently staring at Kyouichi with flushed cheeks as her only response. Since she wasn't used to that, she didn't quite know how to react.

"And what about Eirin-sensei?" Kyouichi asked another question that brought Remilia back to reality. "Could she possibly help your sister?"

"Uhm… The Lunarian? I don't know… I don't know her or trust her well enough to let her take care of Flan. And I doubt she'd want to help anyway. Besides, we're not on the best of terms with each other. I think it's best to leave things as they are."

"Then I wish you good luck. You've already made great progress with your sister by yourself. Perhaps one day you'll bring her up to be a wonderful young lady such as yourself."

"I… I hope so… But that will yet take a lot of time. It's too early for Flan to be independent, but we'll be working towards that goal no matter how long it takes." concluded the vampire with a determined look and optimistic smile.

And just as she said that a sudden explosion of colorful lights erupted over the shrine's roof. It was doubtlessly Reimu's signal, calling all contestants and judges to gather near the stage.

"Looks like it's just about our time…" said the outsider, looking over his shoulder at the fading colorful sparkles that were not too visible in the broad daylight. At least the noise was loud enough to get some attention.

"Let's go, people!" he called at his few friends that were patiently standing by his side the whole time.

* * *

Remilia and her maid followed them too, since they already said they would compete. And once they saw the unmistakable red and white of Reimu's outfit, they could already see some familiar faces. The number of the persons gathered, however, wasn't even a half of the expected number of contestants. Besides Reimu, Sakuya and Remilia, there was Marisa, Aya, Alice and Meiling. There was also Akyuu, but she wasn't going to compete.

"Okay, is everyone here?" Reimu checked the paper she held in her hand and the small group of people standing around her. "No? I think we can begin anyway..."

She took a deep breath and began explaining. "I've gathered you here so we could go over the rules of this tournament, since we'll be using modified Spell Card Rules. First, however, I should let it be known, that due to slightly hasty planning, some aspects of the tournament have not been entirely thought through. The greatest issue regarding the staff shortage was fortunately resolved by an idea that Aya came up with, so I'd like to thank her in this regard…" she made a light applause and other contestants followed suit.

"Good work, Aya~!"

"Thanks for saving the tournament, Aya-san!"

"Long live the crow tengu, ze~!"

"Aw, come on~!" the blushing crow tengu waved her hand. "It's not like I've made some amazing discovery."

"But thanks to you, Reimu can compete now, right, Reimu?" Marisa pointed out as she shifted her gaze from Aya to the shrine maiden.

"Moving on…" Reimu continued, evading Marisa's question, "Aya's idea simply means that all of the contestants are going to fill in the role of arbiters at time they will not be dueling themselves. Those who get eliminated early in the tournament shall take on this role for the whole duration of the tournament. In other words, those who lose first are going to be "punished" by being permanent judges until the end of one discipline or the tournament itself."

"That's… interesting…" echoed the whispers in response to Reimu's announcement.

"Due to this solution," the shrine maiden glanced over at Kyouichi, "the voluntary help of other people is not required… You can simply enjoy the festival and do what you like. But thanks for your offer anyway…"

"See?" Kyouichi whispered to Remilia, who was standing right next to him. "What did I say? You don't need to worry about me judging the contestants…"

"It looks like our plan was for naught." commented Midori with slight disappointment.

"What are you talking about?" Kyouichi raised his eyebrow at her. "It went even beyond my expectations. Reimu can happily compete in the tournament herself, and what's more, she doesn't even need our assistance. That ought to bring her mind to some happier thoughts…"

"By the way…" Soudai sounded after a moment of silent observation. "Does anyone else besides me find it a little… unusual that all of the present contestants so far are female?"

"I don't." his younger friend shrugged.

"I guess it's only for Reimu-san's friends." Midori speculated.

""Friends" is a very tricky word here…" remarked Kyouichi as he took in the faces of the girls surrounding Reimu and listening to her instructions.

"Well what are they then?" wondered Midori as she crossed her arms.

"I'd bet the whole content of this envelope," he waved the mentioned envelope which he received as payment from Remilia, "that each and every one of these young ladies has first met Reimu in battle."

"I don't see how that is a reason for them not being friends now." she retorted.

"Yes, true… It all depends on your definition of the word "friend"."

"So what do we do now, when we're no longer needed?" asked Soudai.

"You can do whatever you like" is what she said." replied Kyouichi. "And right now… hmm… I think I still want to learn something about these rules of danmaku. Just curious, that's all…"

"Alright." shrugged Soudai phlegmatically. "But after that I want you to find that oni girl so we could have a drink or two."

"Sounds like a plan." Kyouichi grinned approvingly and opened his right palm.

"Yeah, I'll high-five you on that one!"

Midori just exhaled and looked away from the two, as if she was embarrassed to admit to be their friend. "Getting drunk… Is that all you two care about?"

"Ha? What's wrong with that?" Soudai turned his face to her.

"Don't you want to play some games? Or buy some souvenirs?" she reminded Kyouichi of his own words from not too long ago.

"Sure. But we'll have plenty of time for that yet, Midori-san. Why not enjoy some sake too while we're at it?"

"Well… I suppose there's nothing wrong with a few cups." she admitted. "But you should know your limits… I… umm… once… ehh…" she blushed in embarrassment. "You know what? Never mind."

"Ohohoho~!" Soudai gave out a forced melodramatic laughter. "You let something slip out of your beautiful lips, Midorin… There's no use trying to hide anything now. Hmhmhm… So… you said something about you doing something once. What was it? Don't tell me that you got drunk senseless!"

Midori lowered her head to hide her reddened face from him. "That… that's none of your business, you know!"

"And don't tell ME that Soudai has made another blind, but spot-on guess." said Kyouichi as he was amusedly listening to their conversation.

"Looks like we've hit bull's eye again." Soudai grinned almost maliciously. "But I thought you said you were 16. You can't drink without permission."

"I… Of course I was drinking with permission." Midori answered, confirming Soudai's guess. "I can't buy alcohol yet, but I already drank a few times… It was my birthday after all, and dad said it was okay to have a taste."

"You've got a benevolent dad." Soudai remarked. "Mine would probably strangle the life out of me, even if I'm turning 26 this year… He says that alcohol is the blight of mankind. Tsch… What does he know?"

"Mine would probably just shrug it off…" said Kyouichi, with his father on his mind. "…like my entire existence…"

"But what happened on your birthday party?" Soudai continued interrogating Midori. "You got more than just a taste, didn't you?"

Midori sighed resignedly and showed her exasperated and disgruntled face again. "You just don't know when to stop, do you?"

"And neither do you, it seems." Soudai retorted. "How much did you drink then? A bottle? Two?"

"Four…" she murmured in little voice.

"Whoa…" both Soudai and Kyouichi whispered in amazement, exchanging their surprised looks.

Midori's embarrassment was again dyeing her face bright-red and paralyzed her tongue.

"Respect!" said Soudai and bowed to the girl in front of him.

"She's a natural…" added Kyouichi and followed suit.

"I never would have said that about her. Our honor student…"

"Oh, cut it out, you two!" she pleaded them with a lowered voice. "Straighten yourselves up!"

"Alright, alright…" muttered the oldest of the group as he obliged Midori's request. "But damn… downing four sake bottles in one evening? That takes some stomach!"

"Those bottles were small, alright? It only happened once and I don't ever wish for it to repeat itself." pouted Midori.

"I need to challenge you sometimes." jested Kyouichi.

"Not a chance."

"But you won't mind one cup, will you?"

Midori didn't answer.

"I'll take it as a yes then."

"Shhh…" Soudai suddenly hushed him and gestured at Reimu. "I think she's already explaining these rules that you were curious about."

"Oh… Okay. Thanks…" Kyouichi thanked him and took a few steps towards the shrine maiden and the small group of girls she was talking to.

* * *

"…So unlike the classic danmaku battles, we're going to limit the Spell Cards to 3 per round. Also, to make things quicker, whoever lands 3 successful hits against their opponent will be declared a winner. In the final match of a discipline, the number of hits and Spell Cards will be increased to 5." Reimu explained. As for the survival category, each contestant is going to get a random opponent who will use one Spell Card, which they can keep up for as long as their energy lasts. The contestant must dodge and stay unhit for as long as possible. If they remain unhit when the Spell Card runs out, they get a bonus to their score. The surviving contestants are going to duel each other in the same fashion. Is everything clear so far?"

"I think so…" said Alice as she glanced over at Marisa.

"Yeah, that's simple, ze." confirmed the witch.

"And what about this… visual contest?" asked the red-haired Meiling as she was studying the tournament charts.

"Oh, that… I've added that just for fun." replied the shrine maiden. "Simply choose one of your Spell Cards that you think is visually the most appealing and present it on the stage. Then we'll have the people vote for the most beautiful pattern."

"That could be fun." nodded Aya.

"Oh, by the way, Aya, where are the others? I thought you went to tell them to come to the shrine."

"But I did. It's just that they still have some things to do. But they all said that they should be here before sundown. I didn't go to the underground or to the Netherworld, though…"

"If the rules are that simple," Alice raised her hand, "why do we need multiple judges?"

"Because we need to keep things as fair as possible." the black-haired shrine maiden replied. "Surely each of us can take more than just three shots to go down, so the judges are here to make sure that the battle doesn't continue once somebody gets those three hits. Also… The room for dueling will be limited to the boundaries of the shrine yard, so we need someone to keep an eye that none of the contestants crosses this boundary. If they do so, they are automatically disqualified."

"Hmm, fair enough." shrugged Marisa. "But what about lasers?"

"Lasers?"

"Yeah… How many hits does it count as if you're hit by a beam-like danmaku?"

"Hmm…" Reimu hummed thoughtfully, since she didn't expect such a question. But Marisa did have a point. Laser danmaku was not an uncommon practice in Gensokyo. In regular duels, being hit by a beam wasn't any worse than being hit by any other projectile. For the purposes of this tournament, however, Reimu would have to devise some kind of special rule for this type of danmaku.

"Okay… so… With beams, each second in its field will count as one hit. Any objections?"

None of the girls seemed to have anything against the suggestion.

"Fine. That should be all for the rules then… Have a good time and enjoy the festival. See you in the evening."

"Wait a minute." Remilia stepped forth along with Sakuya who still held the parasol over her head. "I wanted to discuss prizes."

"Prizes? We don't have any…" Reimu began explaining, but was cut off by the vampire.

"And that's the problem! There should be some kind of prize! Like each of us contributing a little something… Like an entry fee."

The last words certainly caught Reimu's attention as well as interest. "An entry fee, you say? Hmm… But that also means that I have to throw in something as well…"

"What's the matter?" Remilia asked with a teasing voice. "Are you perhaps… afraid that you'll lose? Don't worry about it~! I'd be too if I were in your place and had to fight against me."

"Pfff… Yeah, right." scoffed Reimu. "Fine… Whoever wins the tournament can have…"

"Your donation box?" Marisa asked jokingly.

"Your gohei?" Alice played along.

"A picture of you taking a bath?" Remilia joined the girls in guessing.

"My lady, that's a bit too…" Sakuya tried to warn her that she wasn't being very polite.

"Meh, I already have that…" Aya waved her hand.

Everyone turned their face at the crow tengu reporter with their eyes wide open. Especially Reimu's look wasn't what you'd call friendly.

"What did you say?"

"Ehehe… Nothing, nothing." Aya feigned innocence.

"…Really?"

"Really, really." Aya nodded repeatedly. "Must be your imagination."

"Alright… I think I've decided what to offer as a prize."

"What is it then?" Marisa tilted her head.

"10 percent of my donations." replied Reimu.

"Eh?" the blonde witch was somewhat surprised by the answer and so were some other girls.

"That's like dividing zero by ten!" laughed Remilia.

"I meant today's donations."

"Oh… That's right." Marisa's face turned serious again. "You're going to rake in some serious donation money today. Ten percent, huh? That could be worth something, I guess…"

"But not nearly as much as I could offer." the vampire pridefully declared as she raised her head.

"Really?" the magician looked at her curiously. "How much are you offering then?"

"I never said I'm offering a monetary prize, though."

"Not it bothers me or anything… I'd be happy with just a few books from your library, ze…"

"The library is under Patchouli's jurisdiction, so you'll have to wait for her until she arrives and decides what to offer."

"Then you could offer Patchouli as a prize. Hehehe..." Marisa grinned wryly and rubbed her palms until Alice loudly cleared her throat.

"Not quite, Marisa." Remilia shook her head. "I'm willing to contribute one full sack of my most prized red tea to the winner."

"You can keep it…" muttered the disappointed witch quietly. "I want Patchy… Ouch~!" she exclaimed as Alice's palm landed on the back of her head. "What was that for?"

"That's for being an idiot."

"Patchy's books! I meant to say Patchy's books, ze!"

"U… Umm…" uttered Akyuu with her childlike voice and tentatively raised her hand.

"Yes, Akyuu-chan?" Reimu was the first to take notice.

"You said that you no longer needed anyone else's help, Reimu-san… But… Can I still record the tournament into my diary?"

"Why of course you can, Akyuu-chan. And if you want, you can be the main judge."

"How's main judge different from the other judges?" wondered Marisa.

"Main judge is a main judge." replied Reimu without giving any explanation.

"Oh~! Now I see." said the witch sarcastically. "I didn't know that."

"Hey, Marisa…" Kyouichi whispered to her.

"Huh? What is it?"

"Reimu looks a bit friendlier now, doesn't she?"

"Uh…yeah… to Akyuu-chan at least…"

"So, did you find out what was bothering her?"

"Well… not yet. But I did notice that she's quite tense. She seems to talk less than usual and yeah, she spaced out a few times as well. She's like that from time to time; there's nothing you need to concern yourself about. She'll get over it."

"Maybe she just needs to relieve some stress, have some sake…"

Marisa smiled amusedly. "Hehe, well if you can convince her to drink now, then by all means, go ahead and try."

"You think I'm not going to do it?" Kyouichi looked at her daringly. "Then watch!"

The tall outsider stepped out of the shadows, walked nonchalantly right into the middle of the small circle of girls and stopped in front of the shrine maiden.

The raven-haired girl gazed at him with surprised eyes silently, waiting for him to explain his sudden action.

"What's that human doing?" muttered Remilia as she watched the scene, being no less surprised than Reimu.

"It appears to me like a proposal, my lady." guessed her silver-haired maid.

"Eeeeh?! A proposal? This is a bit too sudden to be…"

"Ahem…" Kyouichi cleared his throat and waved both arms over his head to get everyone's attention. "Excuse me! Your attention, please! Thank you…"

"Oh my, he really is going to confess to her." Remilia disbelievingly stared at the two people standing in the middle of the circle.

"And in front of everyone…" added Sakuya as she clasped her hands, "How romantic~…"

"Okay…" the outsider continued, once the sights of all nearby people were focused on him. "So… now that the process of the tournament has been more or less decided, I'd like to take this opportunity to invite you all for a few rounds of sake. Let the good times roll!"

Dead silence.

For an eternity-lasting ten seconds, none of the girls showed any reaction to his words. They just stared with blank expressions like a circle of statues. Then, all of a sudden Marisa's voice broke the awkward atmosphere.

"Sounds like a good idea, ze~!" she winked and showed a thumbs up.

"Ayayaya~! Count me in~!"

"Sure, I don't mind." shrugged Alice.

"Mmmm… I haven't had good sake in a long while." said Meiling.

"Can't disagree with that!" Soudai called out.

"Oh, yes you can…" muttered Midori.

"I can, but I don't want to!"

"Hmm…" Reimu was considering the offer for a while. "Fine, but just a few drinks. I've still got a lot of work to do."

"Umm… Are we going after Suika-san now?" asked the worried chronicler of Gensokyo's history.

"You bet we are." Kyouichi confirmed her worries.

"Then please excuse me for a…"

"Hold it right there!" he halted her before she turned around and left. "You're coming with us, of course."

"That's what I was afraid of…"

"What's to be afraid of? You'll enjoy a few pleasant cups of sake with your friends."

"But I shouldn't be drinking. I don't want to end up like last time."

"Sleeping in Reimu's lap? That was rather cute." Kyouichi teasingly commented.

"But… I have to record this festival into the chronicle." she argued. "I can't do that properly with my senses clouded by alcohol."

"Nobody is going to force you to drink more than you can take… Reimu will make sure of that, right, Reimu?"

The shrine maiden nodded twice.

"See? Don't worry; even if you get a little dizzy, I'm quite sure it will pass until evening."

The little chronicler sighed resignedly. "You like to sway people with words, don't you?"

"Just a little." smiled Kyouichi. "Besides, I know all too well that the majority of your chronicle is not based on your direct observation, but rather on relayed information from various other sources. You said that yourself, after all."

"That… that's true…" the purple-haired girl admitted. "Fine… But like Reimu-san said, just a few cups… small cups for me… And I hope my parents won't catch me drinking; they're here too, you know…"

"I knew you wouldn't let us down, Akyuu-chan. Okay then, everyone, let's go find that oni!"

"Let's hunt her down~!" Marisa excitedly raised her arm in the air.

"I think you need to calm down a bit…" Reimu chilled her down.

"No, no. YOU need to cheer up, ze!" the blonde countered. "Come on! Suika can't be too far."

* * *

And as the group was set into motion, Remilia's maid just shrugged at her mistress's questioning gaze and said: "Well… that was quite possibly the weirdest proposal I've ever heard, my lady."

"As if you've heard any proposals before… Seriously… you read too many romance novels, Sakuya."

"But my lady likes reading them too, if I'm not mistaken."

"Hmph… I don't know what made you think I indulge myself in such lowly literature."

"What about that pile of books I've stumbled upon when I was cleaning up your bedroom, my lady?"

"U… auuuu~! T-those were… you see… yes! Patchouli must have forgotten them there! That's right!"

"And what would Patchouli-sama be doing in your bedroom, mistress?"

"Uhh… No, no! It's not what you think, Sakuya! She umm… forgot them in the dining hall… so I took them and intended to return them to her later…"

Remilia's poor excuse, however, was no match for Sakuya's wit. "But mistress… Patchouli-sama rarely ever leaves her library. And I never saw her reading any books on those rare occasions when she was in the dining hall… And even if she forgot her books there, the library is much closer from there than your bedroom…"

"Uuu~… Alright… I did check a few of those books. Not that I'd be particularly interested by the genre… It's just that I was bored out of my mind and…"

Sakuya's giggle interrupted her mistress's last sentence. "You don't need to be shy about it, my lady."

* * *

"There she is~!" Marisa's sudden call attracted their attention. The blonde magician was levitating a few meters above the crowd of people and pointing her finger at one particular place below her. "Oi~! Suikaaaa~! Time to drink~!"

Not a moment later, the short, horned oni girl ascended above the crowd as well, with a cheerful expression as usual, and with one arm raised over her head as a sign of agreement and excitement.

"Yaaay~! Let's get smashed~!"

"We don't want to get smashed just yet, but a few gulps wouldn't hurt… Let's get inside the shrine."

"Let's call Reimu and friends too."

"She's already with us, waiting inside." the magician gestured towards the shrine building as she was looking for a place to land.

Suika happily followed her into the living quarters of the Hakurei Shrine where she saw a group of familiar faces. Everyone was already seated on cushions around Reimu's kotatsu and the shrine maiden was just taking sake cups from her cupboard.

"This is why I love festivals so much!" Suika smiled widely and tapped her hand over her magical sake gourd. "Hurry up, Reimu! Don't keep us waiting."

"Don't get too excited." she replied to the oni. "We're only having a modest amount for now. We can't have a good danmaku tournament if we get drunk…"

"Well, I for one would have a hard time dueling when sober." remarked Suika. "You should all feel lucky that I didn't sign up for it."

"Would you look at that, Sakuya..." Remilia glanced at the oni as she addressed her maid. "This little braggart of an oni thinks she could take us all on."

"Not just think, Remily-chan…." she addressed the vampire endearingly. "None of the listed contestants would stand a slightest chance against my raw power."

"It apparently escaped your attention that the tournament has rules to allow everyone a chance to win. And besides, even if we all returned to the old ways and forsook the Spell Card Rules, you'd still have to give it your best to be a match for me."

Suika's laughter echoed inside the shrine as a response. "Oh, Remi… You're so funny! Looks like you already drunk something before you got here. It's obvious that you've never faced an oni in a real fight… otherwise you wouldn't be among us anymore."

"Nor have you ever faced a vampire in a serious fight, my little horned friend." retorted Remilia.

"That sounds like a challenge. You really want me to sign up? We'll see whose arguments are stronger."

"Go right ahead if you're ready to bear the shame of defeat." the vampire made a dare.

"As you wish then… But don't cry if I win the whole contest… Reimu~!" Suika called at the miko. "Sign me up!"

Reimu curiously eyed her oni friend up for a while. "Okay…"

Even though the oni were rumored to be a god-tier youkai, nobody seemed to have the slightest concern about Suika joining the tournament. Nobody was really afraid of her.

"But remember…" Reimu raised a finger. "You still have to fight according the rules. Otherwise you're both disqualified." she gave Remilia the same warning look.

"If it means teaching a cocky vampire child what her place is, I don't mind being disqualified…"

"All those centuries of drinking sake have obviously taken their toll on your mind, oni brat. Expect no mercy."

"You'd be both in violation with the Spell Card System." Reimu announced calmly as she was putting the sake cups on the table.

"And what would you do, Reimu?" Remilia asked provokingly. "Without the rules you are no different from the rest of humans – weak and fragile. Think you could stop us from settling our score? You'd die before you knew it."

The shrine maiden just giggled amusedly. "And you'd risk the collapse of the barrier? You wouldn't just have to go up against me, but against every single human and youkai who value the balance and the very existence of Gensokyo. That includes Yukari too and she could erase you both from existence by a mere thought."

"Yukarin's my friend…" muttered Suika thoughtfully. "I wouldn't do something that she'd be against…"

"Your gap youkai friend is not even here! I doubt she cares for Gensokyo any more than this human here…" she randomly pointed at one of the outsiders – particularly Soudai Asakura.

"Me? Oh… uhh… I do care for Gensokyo! I do… As long as I'm here at least…"

"Oh cut it out already!" Reimu couldn't take it anymore. "Both of you… You want to fight each other? Fine! But at least leave it until the tournament! We're here to enjoy the festival, are we not?"

Nobody dared to say any funny remarks when the Hakurei miko raised her voice.

"I ask you both… Don't break the rules. Isn't there already enough trouble with those mad fairies everywhere? Does Gensokyo need more chaos caused by a youkai rebellion?"

"You're my friend too, Reimu…" said Suika after a long pause. "And I honor our friendship. Don't worry; I was only trying to provoke Remi-chan a bit… Right?" she smiled and winked at the vampire.

Remilia, who also valued her friendship with the shrine maiden, had to agree with Suika. "We won't break your rules, Reimu… But we will fight to the best of our abilities."

"Good." Reimu smiled and finally took a seat at the table. "Let's drink already."

"Yes, yes, coming right up." Suika nodded as she was opening her gourd.

"Thank you~!" said Marisa as she watched the oni pour sake into her cup.

Next was Akyuu's cup, but she didn't want to have her cup fully filled. "J-just a little for me, Suika-sa… yaaaah~! Not so much~!"

"That's just an appetizer, Akyuu-chan~! Now… one for Reimu… And one for… uhh…"

"Soudai…"

"Yes, yes, Kyouichi's friend… Soudai-san… there!" smiled the oni and poured a bit too much sake into his cup, the excessive amount spilling over.

"Whoa, easy there!"

"Aaand Aya! You should have probably brought a soup bowl instead of a cup…" jested the horned girl, as she knew that Aya had a very high alcohol tolerance.

"Don't worry; I'll pull out the bowl after the tournament."

"And one for you, Alice… don't look so sad~!"

"I'm not sad…" shrugged the blonde dollmaker as she was holding the cup, or to be exact, as she was making her doll hold it in midair.

"Oi, Shanghai… Aren't you a bit too young to drink? Hehehe…"

The doll silently shook her head in response and then she gestured drinking the content of Alice's cup and patting her stomach afterwards.

"Oh really? But Alice is probably not going to share, is she?"

Shanghai shrugged and flew back to her owner, passing her the cup and then staring at her with pleading eyes. Alice's free hand was making very subtle movements, controlling the doll's every motion and making her act like a living being. Right now, she was making Shanghai act as though as she wanted a taste of Suika's sake.

"And one for Meiling…" Suika continued serving the sake to everyone. "And you too Sakuya… I don't envy you, being always bossed around by her." she gestured at Remilia, who was sitting right next to her.

"I heard that." grumbled the annoyed vampire.

"And one for you, Remi. Enjoy while you can…"

"Yes, I'll enjoy one last drink with you, Suika… You'll be missed…"

"It's not even certain that you two will end up fighting each other in the tournament." remarked Reimu. According to the chart, your first opponent should be Satori. And Suika will first have a duel against… wait I need to add her name into the chart…"

"Who decided on the opponents?" wondered Remilia.

"I did." replied the shrine maiden bluntly. "Is there a problem?"

"Not really. Did you just randomly pair the contestants or…?"

"I didn't really sort the names according to any pattern. Why?"

"I just hope you didn't do the same thing with double duels."

"No… But… Hey, that's not such a bad idea." said the shrine maiden after a thoughtful moment. "How about we randomized the dueling pairs in double duels category as well?"

"No~! Don't do that~!" Remilia protested, looking somewhat childish now.

"I think it's a good idea too." Aya supported Reimu's idea, which was actually inspired by Remilia's question.

"So we're going to have a lottery, huh?" Reimu muttered to herself. "Fine, I'll get a piece of paper…"

"I can spare a page…" Akyuu volunteered to tear off a page from her diary.

And while Reimu was tearing the paper into strips, Suika continued to pour her sake to the rest of Reimu's guests.

"And finally, one for you… she filled up Kyouichi's cup and took her seat next to Aya and Reimu. She was the only one without a cup, since she drank directly from her gourd anyway.

"Hey, Reimu, you can do this thing later, can't you?" she asked as she raised her gourd. "It's impolite to keep your guests waiting, you know."

Reimu sighed and reluctantly put the paper strips aside, grabbing her sake cup instead. Her face was telling everyone that she wanted to get this drinking over with as soon as possible.

"Fine… So… uhh… a toast to a peaceful summer, good health, a plentiful harvest… and… for more donations!"

"May we meet like this on the next year's festival too~!" called Suika.

"I hope she didn't mean us as well…" Kyouichi whispered to Midori.

"Cheers~!" everyone raised their cups and drank. Some finished them in a flash; others took just a small sip to better enjoy the taste.

"Damn, this stuff is great~!" Soudai expressed his first impression.

"This is no ordinary sake, is it?" Midori asked right afterwards. "I can tell it's stronger than any brand I've tasted."

"Hehe~! You won't find this kind of sake in Human Village, I can guarantee." chuckled Suika.

"Uhmm…. Could I please… have one more?" Soudai apparently liked it, since he was asking for another one.

"Don't be rude…" Midori chided him, but Suika obviously liked to share.

"As much as you like~!"

"Really?"

"Hey, how about a dare?" the oni grinned mischievously.

"What kind of dare?" Soudai wondered.

"Can you drink up this entire gourd?"

The said gourd didn't look particularly large. Its rough volume could be 1.5 up to 2 liters at best. However, the outsider had no idea that the gourd in fact held an infinite reserve.

"This thing? Are you sure? I mean… not that I couldn't drink it all, but… what about your guests?"

"First of all, they're not MY guests… They're Reimu's guests." Suika corrected him. "I'm also one of them… And second… don't worry~! We'll always have more, hehehe~!" she indirectly hinted the impossibility of her dare.

Kyouichi knew about this interesting property of Suika's gourd, but for the fun of it, he remained silent and just amusedly smiled at his friend who was about to get really drunk.

"You must be an idiot…" Reimu muttered to him.

"Oh, come on, Reimu~!" Suika looked at her pleadingly. "Don't spoil the fun."

"And what do I win if I drink it all?" asked the unsuspecting human with confidence.

"A nice big… hangover." grinned Kyouichi.

"Pfff… I ask you! Even if it is a little stronger… Suika-san has already poured us at least a half of this gourd's volume."

"So, Soudai-san… Are you ready?" Suika asked and passed him her most precious item.

"I was born ready!"

"Hey… Midori…" Kyouichi turned to his classmate with concerned look. "Someone is going to have to take care of him afterwards."

"And why are you telling this to me? You're a man. You take care of your drunken friend."

"Like that's exactly what I always wanted to do on a summer festival…" he grumbled back. "Maybe we should stop him before it's too late."

"Aaaand go~!" Suika has already given Soudai a signal to start.

Midori gave Kyouichi a doubting look. "You think one little gourd of sake is going to get him seriously drunk?"

Kyouichi just silently nodded as he watched his friend gulping more and more sake. "It's been nice knowing you, Asakura…"

Marisa, Suika, Aya and Meiling were cheering him on and laughing at the same time. The expression on his face was gradually turning into a "what the hell?!" kind of look. No matter how much he already swallowed, the sake just kept pouring on.

"Come on, Sou-chan~!" Suika teased him. "You're almost there…"

The stubborn human clenched his fist and kept on chugging sake, as if his life depended on it.

"For crying out loud, Soudai, stop!" Kyouichi called at him. "You know how long it is to Eientei from here? Do you really want to return there?"

Suika giggled. "Don't spoil the fun, Kyouichi~!"

"I'm trying to stop him from killing himself."

Soudai still thought that he could actually empty the gourd and showed no signs of stopping.

"Umm… You really should obey your friend, Asakura-san…" Akyuu worriedly advised him.

Finally… after over a minute of hard struggle, Soudai parted his lips with the mouth of the gourd and spat out the last mouthful of sake as he began coughing.

Reimu was not amused at all. "You're going to clean this up. Now."

"What is this treachery?!" exclaimed the surprised Soudai as he incredulously observed the gourd in his hand.

"I'll have that back, thank you." muttered Suika nonchalantly as she reclaimed her sacred artifact.

"There's just no end to the sake!"

"Exactly…" confirmed Kyouichi.

"You knew it all along didn't you?" he stared accusingly at his grinning friend.

"That's why I was trying to tell you to stop."

"Damn…" Soudai cursed and glanced back at Suika, who was using her sleeveless shirt to wipe the gourd's throat clean. "Where can I get me one of these?"

"In your dreams..." Kyouichi jabbed sarcastically.

"Hehe~! In the Ancient City, deep underground…" replied Suika. "But you'd have to be born as an oni."

"Man… If I had such a thing, I could open my own tavern! And I wouldn't even need a supplier."

"Yeah, yeah, Soudai… IF…"

"So… Did Suika-san made a dare with you too?" he changed the topic.

"Sure… only she was merciful enough to tell me that I'd stand no chance. I drank 15 cups and had enough… You must have drunk at least twice as much right now."

"Ho-leee craaap!" Soudai exclaimed and fell on his butt, right into the small pool of sake that he spat out.

"Looks like it's already starting to take effect."

"Are you alright, Asakura-san?" Midori looked worriedly at him.

"You didn't have to clean it up with your butt, though…" commented Reimu.

"Don'… don't worry about me…" Soudai tried to act cool, but Suika's sake was starting to get the better of him. "I just… did that on purpose…"

"Hey, I got a new dare for you now." said Kyouichi. "To walk straight…"

"Screw you, Ishimaru~! Ugh… Oh… hello there, pretty young miss…" he suddenly spoke to Reimu, who just happened to be in his field of vision. "What a cute ribbon you have…"

"And this…" Midori pointed at the drunken Soudai with her thumb, "is one of the main reasons why I don't ever want to get as drunk as I did on my birthday…"

"What, you started flirting with shrine maidens?" Kyouichi asked a ridiculous question.

"Since I don't even remember the rest of that day, I can neither confirm, nor deny that." answered the female outsider.

"Hey, Aya!" Kyouichi suddenly called at the tengu reporter. "Why aren't you taking pictures now? This is definitely a newspaper material here…" he gestured at his intoxicated friend.

"Well, I could snap a shot or two." she admitted. "But this still isn't as interesting as a man wearing a shrine maiden's dress."

"Yeah, of course… Did you hear her, Soudai? You're not interesting enough. Hurry, put on some of Reimu's old miko dresses!"

"But he's still conscious." Suika pointed out. "We can't enjoy that surprised look on his face like we saw on yours. Besides… your hair is long, so we could even fix a ribbon."

"This conspiracy against me will not be easily forgotten, Suika. And you too, Reimu… Don't give me that innocent look… I'll never take any shady pills from you! And you, Aya… Fine… taking a funny picture is one thing… But why putting it on the front page, damn it?!"

"Because I'm Aya~!"

"Hey, at least you didn't catch a cold." Reimu justified her action.

"Oh, so I should be grateful to you girls for making me publically known as some kind of lunatic? And what are you snickering about, Midori? Do you think I was laughing when I was returning to the village dressed up like that?"

"Ahahahaha~!" Midori couldn't hold back her laughter anymore. "Sorry, sorry… I just can't get that priceless picture out of my head."

"Can't say I blame you." muttered Kyouichi. "The only people in the village who aren't giving me strange looks when I pass them by are those who don't read Aya's newspaper."

Aya raised her eyebrows. "Eh? There are still people in the village who DON'T read Bunbunmaru?"

"Not sure…" shrugged the outsider. "Maybe they all do, but some of them just didn't recognize me… or didn't care…"

"There… Finished…" announced Reimu and showed a pile of paper strips with names. "It's time to arrange the matches in random order. Akyuu-chan is here to make sure this lottery is not manipulated in any way. Let's shuffle these names up a bit… and time to draw!" she took the liberty of being the first one to draw two names.

"And the first duelists are: Hijiri Byakuren and… Lorelei Mystia."

"Hell, I wouldn't wanna be in Mystia's shoes now…" commented amused Marisa.

"Hey, maybe Mystia will surprise us all and win." argued Alice.

"You don't believe it yourself, Alice." said the ordinary magician.

"By the way, what discipline are we talking about now? The Single Duels or the Survival?" Marisa wanted to be sure.

"The main event of course." Reimu replied matter-of-factly.

It was now Marisa's time to draw two names from the pile, so without further ado, she did so and passed the strips to the shrine maiden.

"In the next match we'll see: Shameimaru Aya and Konpaku Youmu…" Reimu announced the second pair of contestants.

"A duel of the fastest… how fitting." the witch kept commenting. "Here, Alice, you draw… And make an interesting match."

The dollmaker, as expected, sent her doll to the pile of paper strips and made her take out another pair of names.

"Thank you, Shanghai." said Reimu as she accepted the papers. "So let's see… hmm… Toramaru Shou will go up against Reisen Udongein Inaba…"

In this fashion, all contestants in the room took turns in drawing the names, but since there were now 25 contestants in the list, it was impossible to pair everyone up.

"Hmm, maybe we should find one more person willing to compete." thought Reimu aloud.

"But who?" asked Marisa. "Want to compete, Akyuu-chan?"

The chronicler shook her head in disagreement.

"Yeah, I thought so…"

"Anyone knows if folks from Eientei are going to visit the shrine today?" asked Alice. "Besides Reisen, I mean…"

"Eirin-san said she might show up here even with the moon princess herself…" Aya replied. "But not even she knows when exactly."

"Well, look!" Marisa again turned everyone's attention to herself. "There's tons of people and youkai gathered here today. Surely we could find at least one more willing person…"

"I agree." said the crow tengu. "Furthermore, not everyone from the Temple of Myouren has signed up, so maybe we could persuade Nazrin for instance…"

"And didn't Satori say she'd come together with her sister?" Marisa gave a questioning glance to the shrine maiden.

"Did she?" Reimu tilted her head to the side. "Well, as long as it's not certain that she's going to show up, I cannot add Koishi's name into the list yet."

"Guh… guess we… can't volunteer ourselves to… help you with this… ungh… problem…" mumbled Soudai with obvious difficulties.

"No, Soudai, we can't." Kyouichi confirmed his assumption. "Hey, come on… Let's go get some fresh air… That might make you feel a bit better."

"Ehehe… please excuse us." Midori bowed with a shy smile to the other girls as she accompanied Soudai and Kyouichi out of the shrine.

"Don't forget to come here after the tournament~!" Suika waved her hand at them.

* * *

"You don't have… to… ugh… carry me home, guys…" Soudai continued to ramble as he was being escorted by his friends out of the shrine. "I… I'll order a taxi…"

"Yeah, if you can order us a taxi that can take us all the way home, I'll forgive you your debt."

"Aaah… screw you, Ishimaru~!"

"Yeah, yeah, I like you too… Come on… you need to drink some fresh water.

"You won't take my Kaguya-chan away from me… unemfermf…"

"Asakura... Hey, Asakura!" Midori gently slapped him on his cheek to help him stay awake. "Whatever you do, don't fall asleep here. People would trample you… We must get you somewhere where you can rest."

"And somewhere where he won't be eaten." added Kyouichi. "Somebody will have to stay with him until he gets better."

Midori gave out a heavy, reluctant sigh. "I know…"

Together with Kyouichi's help, she managed to drag Soudai away from the center of the crowded shrine yard and made him sit down on the grass, propping his back against one of the nearby trees.

"Idiot…" Midori muttered at the drunken young man with contempt. "You had to stimulate your ego and keep drinking… Couldn't you tell that something was not right with that gourd?"

"I'm sorry, Keine-sensei." he muttered in his delirium. "I've forgotten my homework today... Please don't leave me after school…"

"Heh! Keine-sensei… If only she saw you in this pitiful state. She'd leave you after school for a whole year!"

"Alright, Midori." Kyouichi turned his face at her. "I'll bring him some water. You stay with him, I'll be right back…"

"Hey, wait… Why do I have to stay with him?"

"Oh… You're right." Kyouichi nodded and reached inside his pocket. "Here… If some youkai would threaten you, use this." he gave her one of Reimu's amulets.

Midori puzzledly looked at the amulet in her palm. "What is this thing?" But before getting an answer, Kyouichi already disappeared into the crowd.

"Geez… What does he expect me to do anyway?"

As promised, Kyouichi was back in less than five minutes, carrying a glass of water.

"Oh, you're back already?" Midori was a bit surprised. "Where did you get the water from anyway?"

Kyouichi pointed his thumb back over his shoulder. "From the well, of course. And I borrowed that glass form Reimu, so try not to break it."

"Tell that to your drunken friend."

"Here, Soudai, drink this." he held the glass in front of his mouth.

"No more sake~!" Soudai protested as he lightly thrashed about.

"It's water, dude. Fresh, clean water." Kyouichi reassured him and took the first chance when Soudai opened his mouth to make him drink. Of course, he managed to spill some water over Soudai's clothes in the process, but none of them cared about that.

"Gaah… That was a good drink, man~!" sighed Soudai with a blissful expression.

"Well, at least he looks like he's not suffering." stated Midori as she watched him.

"But we still can't just leave him alone like this."

"So what are you going to do? Stay by his side the whole day?"

"I can't really think of any other idea." Kyouichi shrugged helplessly.

"Well, I can!" Midori crossed her arms. "Go to the shrine and ask Reimu-san if we could leave Soudai rest in her shrine until he gets better."

Kyouichi had his doubts about that. "Well, I don't know…"

"And you won't know until you try. Now go there and negotiate!"

"Y… yes, madam!"

* * *

Inspired, or to be more exact, intimidated by Midori's dictatorial attitude, Kyouichi directed his hastened steps back into the living quarters of the Hakurei Shrine to try his luck. Of course, he did this also in his own interest and the interest of his friend who drank more than he could take. As he entered through the sliding door, he saw that some of the contestants have already left the room. Only those who he thought to be Reimu's closest friends have remained seated at the table. The shrine maiden herself was there too, of course, but she was now standing at her stove, reheating some food. It was already lunchtime after all.

"Sorry to intrude again." Kyouichi apologized as he let himself in. "Reimu… I… I'd like to ask another favor of you."

As expected, Reimu was not exactly glad to hear another request, but despite that, she at least wanted to hear him out.

"What now?"

"It's about Soudai… My friend…"

"The drunken one?"

"Yeah, him." he nodded to confirm. "We're worried to leave him sleeping outside, so…"

"Bring him here then." said Reimu before Kyouichi's sentence was even finished.

"A…are you really okay with that?"

"I already let you sleep in here a few times, didn't I?"

"Well, true." admitted the outsider. "And I wasn't exactly sober either…"

"Tell your friend to come here. He can rest over there, but he better not make any mess."

"Thank you very much for this, Reimu!" he bowed appreciatively and left the room as suddenly as he entered it. Reimu agreed to oblige his request almost too easily for him to believe it. Not that he intended to complain about it.

* * *

"Back already?" asked the surprised Midori, who was expecting to hear bad news, since Kyouichi returned so soon. "So… what did you find out?"

He didn't answer directly to Midori. Instead, he looked down at Soudai and called out loudly: "On your feet, Asakura! You're going to take a nap in the shrine."

"So Reimu-san agreed…" muttered the girl in yukata. "You better thank her properly and apologize to her when you come back to your senses, Soudai… You've caused us quite the embarrassment back there."

"He probably doesn't even perceive what you're telling him, Midori, but I think he should have at least enough honor and courtesy to know that himself when he comes to. Now… Would you please help me get him on his feet?"

"Sure." she smiled and took Soudai's left arm. On the count of three she and Kyouichi lifted him from the ground into upright position.

"You are my best… *hic*… friends forever…" Soudai uttered in a half-sleepy state as he was being literally dragged back into the shrine.

"Oh, so first you say "screw you" and now we're your best friends?" Kyouichi scoffed at his delirious ramblings. "This just keeps getting better and better…"

"Uh-oh…" Midori worriedly looked ahead. "Stairs…"

There were two small steps connecting the ground with the elevated floor of the shrine building. For a healthy person this was, of course, no obstacle, but with a 75 kilogram lump of dead weight called Soudai Asakura, Kyouichi and Midori had to exert themselves to overcome this problem.

"Some… umpf… cooperation… would be… appreciated, Soudai…" complained Kyouichi as he slowly helped him climb the wooden steps.

With great effort and patience, the two sober outsiders finally made it inside and put their already sleeping friend on the floor where Reimu had shown them. She was even kind enough to let him sleep on one of her futons.

"Well, at least no hungry youkai should take advantage of him now…" Kyouichi remarked.

"No youkai has ever eaten a human near the shrine." opposed Reimu.

"Oh really? So that Rumia or whatever you call her just wanted to play with me back then?"

"That… that was…"

"What?"

"That was the first time she ever dared to attack someone so close to the shrine. That was very daring for a weaker youkai."

"You know what they say: There's a first time for everything… I wouldn't leave Soudai sleeping out there alone. Not after what happened to me… Once again, thank you for letting him stay."

"Don't mention it." she waved her hand and continued stirring the content of the pot.

"But if he causes you any trouble, don't hesitate to use some Spell Card on him." added Kyouichi in jest.

"By the looks of it, he won't be waking up any time soon, though."

"Yeah… He wanted to make some good memories of this festival, but now it will be a surprise if he'll even remember that there was any festival in the first place."

"How did you meet him anyway?" wondered Reimu.

"Didn't I already tell you? He's the same as me and Midori here… An outsider… We all got spirited away while riding a subway... if you know what that is…"

"Well, I was only asking because there are a few outsiders who have been living in Gensokyo for a longer time."

"Well, Soudai is not one of them…" Midori cleared up any possible misunderstanding.

"That's right." nodded Kyouichi. "And since you've already brought up this topic, Reimu, I can't help but to complain about a little problem that we're currently having."

The shrine maiden suspiciously glanced at him for a moment. "Another favor that you want me to do for you?"

"No, you can relax. It's nothing that you could help us with anyway."

"Oh really?" she asked with doubt in her voice. "So why are you even bothering to tell me about it?"

"Sheesh, I don't know… I just felt like talking. You know… to help me ease my mind. Don't you ever talk to Marisa when something's bothering you?"

"I guess I do."

"See? There's nothing unusual about it."

"So what problems could you guys possibly be having?" wondered the peacekeeper of Gensokyo.

"You've already mentioned that a few outsiders have already lived here for quite some time. That is, of course, no news to me. But what really puzzles me is the reason why they decided to settle here. If they really wanted to return so badly, they could have done so long ago, using the same way that we are about to use in three months… What actually made those outsiders decide to settle here? I just don't understand… I'm not talking about those who had no idea that there was a way out of here. I mean those outsiders who knew they could return back, but decided to stay here of their own free will."

"Hmph…" Reimu shrugged her shoulders. "You should probably try asking them instead of me. I've never really been in the outside world any further than my shrine. You come from that place, so you should know what it's like to live there and compare that to the life in Gensokyo. Perhaps it's more peaceful here, perhaps the air is fresher and life is calmer, perhaps the people who settle here didn't have any place to stay in the outside world, perhaps they just wanted to run away from there in belief that Gensokyo is a better place. Maybe they found someone special and discovered a new meaning of life here… I don't know… Besides… why would it be troubling you anyway?"

"Because quite a few people who originally planned on leaving Gensokyo with us together have suddenly and unexpectedly changed their minds and decided to stay… I just didn't know what to think about it. I'd probably understand it easier if they told me that they don't trust my leadership or something, but it was just so sudden and without any explanation… Now there's just 13 of us who are still firm in our decision to leave. Heh… lucky 13… Or unlucky? Who knows?"

"Well, if someone decides to live their life here, there really isn't much you can do about it." admitted Reimu and tasted the food that she was reheating.

"I know… I just hope that the rest of my friends won't abandon me in the same fashion. Or worse yet, that I myself end up with a decision to stay…"

"That's entirely up to you." said Reimu wisely.

Marisa, however, seemed to have a different opinion. "Well, if Yukari has any further intentions with you people from the outside world, that it's no longer a matter of your personal choice."

"I'm afraid… no… I'm GLAD that this is most likely not the case." said Kyouichi. "According to Patchouli, over two dozen outsiders spirited away to Gensokyo on the 28th of Satsuki were found dead in various locations all over Gensokyo. I could have been one of them… This makes me believe that Yukari has no further interest in us. Not in our well-being at least…"

"She's not a mindless killer, though." Reimu pointed out.

"If I was Yukari," Marisa began to theorize, "I'd probably justify this by saying that I was making a natural selection of individuals… Those who survive can prove useful to me later."

Both Kyouichi and Reimu silently blinked at the witch with confused faces.

"That doesn't sound like something she'd do." the shrine maiden disagreed. "But then again… it's Yukari we're talking about, so even you may be right this time, Marisa."

"Come on, Marisa." Kyouichi looked at the witch. "Don't destroy our hopes with your theories."

"Oh, don't take me too seriously." she chuckled and dismissively waved her hand. "For all we know is that Yukari is not in Gensokyo and that she's been away for more than six months."

"And you think that the fairies have gone crazy as a result?" Kyouichi wondered.

"There may as well as may not be a connection between these two occurrences." the blonde admitted. "Remilia told us a while ago that Patchouli is working hard on deciphering the signs on the ruins and that she's planning to go to the site personally with a research team."

"Yes, I know about this directly from Patchouli."

"Well, then you know that we won't be able to tell if we're facing one or two different incidents at the same time, until she can translate those writings."

"Or until we get some other clue." Reimu complemented her statement.

"A new fairy invasion, you mean…" Marisa humorously corrected her. "I almost feel sorry for those little creatures. They aren't even realizing that they're being controlled."

"At least they have no hard feelings if we vaporize them time and time again with danmaku."

"It would be better if we could somehow prevent the fairies from entering that dangerous area."

"Eirin is researching the incident too…" remarked Reimu. "Maybe she'll make a drug of some sort that will cure their madness…"

"Then she would have to make a lake of that medicine in order to treat all the fairies."

"Remilia also said that she wanted to be the one to resolve the incident." Kyouichi revealed what the vampire told him today.

"If an incident becomes a general annoyance to everyone in Gensokyo, it's only natural for them to want to take action." reasoned the shrine maiden. "Which is definitely not a bad thing… There have been times when incidents got resolved by youkai. It's nothing unusual…"

"Well, I just thought you might want to know…"

"Hey, if Remilia thinks she can solve this incident and do all the hard work by herself, then by all means… let her do it!"

"So if I understand this right, you'd trust her with this incident?"

"Our motives may be different, but our goals are the same, aren't they?" answered the shrine maiden with a question. "It's quite likely that this incident will be resolved by teamwork."

"It already IS being resolved by teamwork." Marisa slightly corrected Reimu's statement. "So far, all of us are waiting for the results of Patchouli's and Eirin's research."

"Yeah… They better work fast, or then I'm taking radical steps."

"Isn't that what you usually do?" Marisa jabbed at her.

"Yes, I'm just being very optimistic, so I'm giving them both some time to try and solve it their way."

"Hey, by the way, Reimu…" sounded the witch again. "Have you already checked your donation box today? Maybe you should go withdraw the money so that people could put in more…"

"Hey, I know that I just said that I was an optimist, but I'm not that naïve… I've never seen my donation box full to the brim."

"You know, you've been acting somewhat… strange today. Any other day, you'd be racing out of the shrine to see if someone even accidentally dropped a single coin there… But now… you look like you're… tired. And it's not just me who thinks so…" she briefly threw a glance at Kyouichi.

"Maybe it's because it's so hot today." replied Reimu as she yawned. She looked as though she had barely enough energy to hold chopsticks in her hand as she ate her lunch.

"Not sure if the summer heat is the only thing to blame, though…" the witch remarked as she scanningly watched her friend.

"Hey, even you get tired from time to time, don't you?"

"Sure, I do. But at least I can always tell why. For instance when I skipped breakfast or when I'm feeling sick. Or when I just returned home after a grueling danmaku fight… If you're feeling unwell, I could fly home and bring you some of my homebrewed medicine…"

"You can relax, Marisa." Reimu silenced her before she said anything more. "I don't feel sick."

"Well, I'm a bit relieved, but…"

"Just concentrate on the festival and the tournament, okay? You too have a lot of work to do. Remember what you promised last week."

"Sure, sure, hehehe…" Marisa chuckled bashfully. "I haven't forgotten. I was supposed to help you make those dumplings. But "helping" doesn't really mean that I do all the work for you, Reimu."

"Perhaps so, but you can start… At least you shouldn't be able to burn them in the first stage of preparation." the shrine maiden poked fun at Marisa's infamous cooking skill. "And remember, even if your cooking can't kill Yuyuko, Eirin, Kaguya or the fairies, the rest of us are still mortal, so make sure you follow the recipe properly."

"Yeah, ha, ha…" Marisa unamusedly pretended to be laughing and walked up to one of Reimu's cupboards to prepare the necessary dishes and ingredients. "But shouldn't you have made these yesterday?"

"I was busy with other things with greater priority."

"Have you now? Such as?"

"Such as a trip to Kazemura and back for instance…"

"Wait… What?!" the magician almost dropped a bowl she was just holding. "You've been there yesterday? Why? Did something happen that I don't yet know about?"

"No, but I just wanted to make sure. I've made a preventive reconnaissance flight around the village, making sure that the fairies weren't massing up for an attack somewhere… Luckily, none of my worries were confirmed."

"Oh, so you actually did a bit of preventive work? Unusual for you, but I approve. Better safe than sorry, right? But going alone? Not even telling me? What if you ran into a huge swarm like the last time? What would you do? You wouldn't stand a chance against such numbers."

"Having you there with me wouldn't make any difference, Marisa."

"You could have asked me to do it for you! These fairies don't just raid and pillage, they intend to kill. Our only luck is that none of them succeeded in the latter yet… Going up against them alone is like returning to the times before your Spell Card System. In other words – putting your life on the line. Now, I know that you solved a couple of incidents like that too, but… to be honest, I'm a bit worried about you as well…"

"Hey, I'm not a kid anymore… I can tell the difference between a challenging and an impossible fight. If I startled a swarm, I'd flee before they could get close to me."

"Well, at least your thinking is still quite reasonable…" praised the blonde witch.

"I thought you know better than to worry about me… Really…"

"Oh, I still do." the magician bent her lips in a confident smile. "We may still end up fighting each other today, so you better be prepared."

Reimu giggled a bit forcedly as she pointed one of her chopsticks in the direction where Marisa was standing. "Such brave words for someone who has troubles with fighting certain ice fairies…" she made an obvious reference to Marisa's alleged duel against Cirno, in which Marisa claimed to have been bested.

"Hey, trust me, don't take that ice fairy too lightly either." the blonde spoke in serious tone. "You'll drop that smile of yours once she starts freezing your amulets in midair…"

"We'll see if she even makes it past her first match."

"Yeah, we'll see… Maybe this hot summer air has weakened her somehow."

"Oh, and you guys…" Reimu put down her already empty bowl on the table as she looked over at her neglected guests from the outside world. "Just to let you know, there's a bunch of performers who are going to perform their acts before the tournament if you're interested… Alice will be there, Mystia will be there and the famous Prismriver sisters are going to play too."

"Well, thanks for telling us." thanked Kyouichi. "I'd sure like to see Alice-san's performance. Not too sure about Mystia's, though… And pardon my ignorance, but this is the first time I've heard of these… Prismriver sisters…"

"Them?" Marisa raised her head to respond. "They're a trio of poltergeist performers. A violinist, a keyboardist and a trumpeter. They're quite popular around here and have a very… distinct and unique music style that you probably won't hear anywhere else…"

"Wait, did you just say poltergeist?" Kyouichi halted her to make sure he heard her right.

"I did." Marisa confirmed with a nonchalant expression. "They wear quite distinctive band outfits, so you can hardly confuse them with other bands around here."

"You said one of them plays a keyboard? That's quite a modern instrument for this place…"

"But not so uncommon in the outside world." the blonde witch pointed out.

"So they're outsiders too?"

"Well, technically, yes… They and their mansion must have come from the outside."

"Wait… Don't ghosts live in the Netherworld?"

"They're not ghosts." Marisa corrected the outsider. "I said "poltergeists". There's a world of difference between them."

"Well then, please, enlighten me…"

"Well, let's see… In layman's terms, ghosts are basically the souls of the deceased, whereas poltergeists are a phenomena caused by living persons. Well, in this case, however, the person who is "responsible" for the existence of the Prismriver sisters is long since dead, which is not a common thing. I'm sure someone like Patchy would give you hours of lectures about the differences between ghosts and poltergeists, but to satisfy your curiosity, I think that's all you'll ever need to know."

"Maybe I'll give their performance a shot… as long as it doesn't make me night-blind like Mystia's songs or something."

"Hey, don't worry about that little sparrow. She's harmless."

"Yeah, for you maybe…"

"You know what her fried lamprey business is like? She roams the roads of Gensokyo while singing songs that make the passerby go night-blind just a few seconds before they run into her lamprey stand. Then she tells them that her magical lamprey is a perfect cure for night-blindness. And most of the time, people are desperate enough to believe her, even if that's an obvious lie and their night-blindness would eventually disappear anyway."

"And she occasionally eats someone, right?" Kyouichi completed the information.

"Even so, you don't need to worry about that here."

"I wish I could actually trust those reassuring words of yours."

"You can trust us. There's not going to be any incident at this shrine today! The shrine yard's crowded with people and there's quite a lot of Ryuuken too… Today, this place may very well be the safest one in Gensokyo, even if it may not look like it."

"Hey, Marisa…" Reimu suddenly got up from the table. "Are you going to just talk or are you actually going to help me make those dumplings?"

Only now did the witch realize that she hasn't done anything more than putting the necessary ingredients and dishes on the table. She was too distracted by the conversation to even start working.

"Oh, where was I? Oh, yeah… the dumplings… Sure, sure, hold on a moment…"

"Well, then don't let me disturb you." said Kyouichi and bowed, ready to take his leave. "Come on, Midori. Let's go get some yakitori or something…"

The young girl silently nodded and bowed to the owner of the shrine as well, before she followed Kyouichi out of the shrine.

* * *

Several hours have passed and Kyouichi spent them mostly in the company of Midori and his other friends from school. He checked out all of the various food, souvenir and game stands that were set up around the whole shrine yard. All except one… Mystia's Fried Lamprey. Despite what Marisa had told him, he didn't trust anyone who once threatened to kill him. Aside from that, he got himself quite a few souvenirs as a keepsake and spent a decent sum on various food and snacks too. By now, the majority of the shrine visitors were concentrated at the big stage, meaning that the front yard was less crowded. Kyouichi and his companions decided to take this chance to make another prayer here. The line in front of the shrine wasn't too long, so they didn't have to wait for longer than 10 minutes until their turn. Kyouichi took a peek into the donation box before he threw his few coins in. There was quite a pile of money inside. Not just coins, but some of the visitors have left more generous sums as offerings to the god of this shrine. The prayer which the young outsider made this time was not a plea to return home safely. He already put that on the wish tree after all… Instead, he prayed for the resident of this shrine to be happy and to have even more donations during the next festival. His friends also made some prayers, but nobody spoke of what they wished for. As they were returning to the stage, they noticed that Reimu was standing on top of it and saying something to the people that had gathered around.

"It looks like the opening ceremony is just about to start." said Midori and gestured to the other outsiders to follow her to the stage. The area around the stage was so crowded, that it was nearly impossible to get at least within earshot of Reimu's voice.

"This way…" Kyouichi called at his friends when he found a small unoccupied area that was relatively close to the stage.


	47. Let the Festival Begin!

Once they all found some place to stand, they focused their ears at what the shrine maiden was saying.

"And so… I'd like to welcome you all to the annual Tanabata festival, here at the Hakurei Shrine. This year, as you might have already heard or read, I prepared a spectacle that will hopefully become a traditional part of this festival for the next years to come. Yes. I'm talking about the Hakurei Shrine's Summer Danmaku Tournament, which I hope you'll all enjoy. But before we begin the tournament proper and other performances that you'll see here today, it is my duty and pleasure to officially begin this year's Tanabata with a traditional dance to express gratitude to all the gods that we were given yet another chance to gather here and celebrate. So… without any more unnecessary words, let the 125th Tanabata Festival begin in all its glory~!"

A loud applause and cheers echoed all over the shrine yard as the young black-haired miko raised her gohei over her head. The drummers began to make a rhythm, joined by the melodic sounds of koto, and finally, the high and low-pitched voices of flutes blended into the mix to form one wholesome body of music that was playing during Reimu's beautiful ceremonial dance. With graceful movements full of symbolism, she used nearly every square meter of the stage in her choreography. It seemed that her circular motion was meant to symbolize the Great Hakurei Border and the creation of Gensokyo, or perhaps only Kyouichi's imagination was too wild. In any case, Reimu's dance was a lovely spectacle and once it was over, a loud applause spread all over the shrine yard.

"Reimu-sama is amazing~!" sounded a girl's voice from somewhere nearby.

"Huh, Chitose?" Kyouichi turned his head in the direction of the voice he just heard. "There you are…"

"Ah, Kyou-kun~!" the young daughter of the Saitou family cheerfully waved back at him. "Isn't Reimu-sama wonderful?"

"Yes, that she is…" he nodded affirmatively. He didn't admire her just for her looks, but for what she was doing and for the fact that she was willing to help him leave Gensokyo. Chitose apparently admired her even more.

"I hope you're not sad about not becoming one of the tournament judges, Chitose-chan…" Kyouichi spoke to the girl who was now like his little sister.

The girl shook her head in negative response with a bright smile adorning her face. "Being here to see Reimu-sama is enough for me~!"

"Her dance was beautiful indeed…"

"Now, according to the program, Alice-san's Magical Bunraku is up next." said Chitose as she looked into a leaflet she was holding in her hand. "Alice-san is amazing too. I've seen her show last year and it was breathtaking. She controlled over 20 dolls simultaneously! And each of those dolls performed something different. That takes some real skill."

"And magic proficiency…"

"Of course. Alice-san is a magician after all."

And just as the crowd's applause for Reimu faded, the shrine maiden announced the following performer.

"Thank you, thank you… Now that the festival is opened, what would it be without Alice's Magical Bunraku? This time, the Gensokyo's most talented puppeteer has prepared a show that slightly hints at what will be taking place on this stage later this evening… This time, her show will feature an incredible number of 50 dolls, all of which were handmade by her, and unfortunately for all her fans, are not for sale. Too bad… But I digress. Ladies and gentlemen, humans, youkai, gods, ghosts, fairies and other undefined beings, I present you Alice Margatroid~!"

Again the crowd wildly cheered and applauded as the young short-haired blonde in light blue dress with pink ribbons was stepping up to the stage and taking place by Reimu's side, followed by a plethora of her magically controlled dolls.

"Yes, thank you…" said the dollmaker as she bowed to the audience. "As Reimu-san already suggested, this time, I've prepared a performance with more than twice the amount of dolls that I used last year. I hope that you'll like it. The performance is called War of Heaven and Hell."

"Music, start~!" Reimu called at the musicians that were standing just below the stage.

After that, the shrine maiden stepped down, allowing Alice to use its entire area for her performance. Despite being the person who pretty much organized the entire festival, she didn't know exactly what kind of performances were going to take place on the stage at the back of her shrine. That's why she was also waiting in anticipation for what Alice had prepared this time. She only vaguely heard from Marisa that Alice's performance was going represent some sort of battle, but no further details…

As the crowd's cheers went silent, Alice raised her left hand and 25 dolls from the group flew to the right side of the stage. As she raised her right hand, the remaining half of the dolls took their position on the left side of the stage. At first, it was hard to tell which side of the "battlefield" represented Heaven and which was supposed to symbolize Hell, since all the dolls were wearing the same dark-blue dresses with white aprons. That all changed when Alice snapped her fingers on her left hand. The respective group of dolls instantly changed their dresses to dark-red with black aprons and red headbands with tiny demonic horns. Each doll now had a pair of demon-like wings and held miniature black pitchforks as weapons. Their hair-color also changed to either red or black to match their dresses. For some reason they reminded Kyouichi of Patchouli's familiar, Koakuma.

Then the puppeteer snapped her fingers again, this time on her right hand. The opposing side of the dolls changed to resemble little angels. White dresses, small feathery wings and headbands with tiny halos attached. They were armed with tiny maquettes of flaming swords made of hardened paper. The only thing that these dolls kept from their previous appearance was their hair color.

Now that the scene was set, Alice raised her hands slightly higher, giving command to both armies to take off from the stage and hover roughly one meter above it. To the melody of the music playing, Alice waved her hands in the air like an orchestra conductor and her dolls began their performance in response. It all looked like synchronized swimming; only that it was synchronized flying. A spectacular ballet in midair with both sides performing their movements in different formations and patterns, but in the same tempo. This part was probably meant to represent the "peaceful time" before the actual battle.

Then the two factions slowly drew closer and closer to each other until one of the angel dolls and one of the devil dolls collided. At that moment the music stopped and both groups of dolls froze in motion. After a brief pause, the music changed to a bit more serious tune. The two dolls that bumped into each other exchanged their stares followed by the devil doll mimicking an angry reaction. The angel doll tilted her head to the side in response. The devil continued her angry gesticulation, waving her tiny fist at the little angel. The white-clad doll only scratched her head, as if unable to understand what the other doll was so angry about. This seemed to have provoked the devil doll into pushing the angel, making her hit another doll belonging to the faction of Heaven.

Now there were two angles involved in this trivial incident. The two of them decided to teach the little troublemaker from Hell a lesson, and in joint effort they returned the push. The little devil flew some distance and bumped into two of her own kind before she stopped. Needless to say that the two devils in question didn't leave this situation without a response. Together they flew towards the two angels and provokingly poked them with their pitchforks. The angels answered by a light poke with their swords. Not long after that the conflict was gradually joined by more and more dolls, escalating into a full-scale incident.

The first of the devil dolls gestured saying something angrily at the group of angels while raising her weapon high, then turning to her own kind and rallying them back at the end of the stage. Similarly, one of the angels raised her sword and turned back, rallying her sisters on the other side. A war was declared. Now, instead of pretty formations, the opposing armies arranged into ranks and files, and slowly drew close to each other to the melody of a military marching song. Finally the two groups were about to meet. They pointed their weapons forward and at the change of music, they engaged each other in a furious battle.

Well… furious was perhaps an exaggeration. The dolls might have represented two warring factions, but their battle was rather cute than violent. At first there was chaos on the battlefield, but then the music became more melodic again and the dolls all began "dancing" with their opponents. Each angel held one devil by the hands, they made several turns, then exchanged a few blows, all of which were blocked. This theme repeated itself for a couple of times, before the musicians switched the tempo to a fast one, again resulting in a chaotic melee.

One of the angels who lost her sword in a fight was attacking a devil doll with her fists. On the other hand, one of the disarmed devils was perched atop one of the angel dolls, looking like she was trying to bite her. The panicked angel ran back and forth while flailing her arms desperately. Another pair of opponents was struggling to get their horns and halo unstuck from each other, while some combatants were using their wings to exchange slaps.

Some of the dolls have "fallen" in this battle, with fire swords and demonic pitchforks stuck under their armpits. Several of the dolls pretended to be injured, holding a certain part of their body, as if in pain, and not continuing the fight. The remnants of both armies again flew back from each other, then as they reached the ends of the stage, they unleashed their danmaku. The audience seemed to like this performance very much. The devils had their shots colored in red and orange, while the angels fired blue and white magic bullets. Again, Alice's amazing dexterity made her battling dolls move to the tempo of the music in beautiful patterns, like she did at the very beginning of her show. Except this time, her dolls were now firing danmaku at each other. Even more amazing was the fact that Alice calculated the timing of the dolls' actions so precisely that their danmaku barrages never hit any of the dolls, flying right through the gaps in their formations. A clockwork precision on Alice's part. Even as the dolls' formations and their danmaku patterns kept changing, they never hit each other. Kyouichi thought that such coordination could be only achieved by using a computer program, so he was naturally amazed by the puppeteer's talent. But then to everyone's surprise, Alice made her dolls actually hit each other.

From the remaining armies of Heaven and Hell only a handful of dolls survived the final danmaku salvoes. It seemed as though they even ran out of their magic and stopped shooting. They descended to the ground, mimicking movements, as if they were panting for air out of exhaustion. Since none of the remaining dolls had any will or energy to continue in their war, two negotiators from each world tentatively approached each other, while other dolls formed a circle around them. The two dolls in the middle slowly extended their hands to each other and after a short dramatic moment, they shook their hands as a sign of peace.

After this moment, the other dolls raised their hands up, celebrating the end of their war. The angel dolls then "resurrected" their fallen warriors and the devil dolls did the same. Once all of the 50 dolls were up and standing again, they threw away their weapons and gathered near Alice. The youkai girl passed them a small box and had her dolls open it. Inside were miniature tables, chairs and tea sets. The dolls quickly arranged the tables and chairs and took their seats. Now instead of a war, the devils and angels were having a tea party. And as the music was getting to its finale, the dolls all stood up from their tables and formed a long line as they stood next to each other, holding their hands and bowing to the audience.

A great applause for Alice followed.

"Amazing~!"

"That was incredible, Alice-san~!"

"So cute~!"

"Great show!"

Those were just a few shouts of praise coming from the crowd of spectators. Even Alice herself seemed to be surprised to receive such an applause.

"How does she even do that?" Midori couldn't understand the secret behind Alice's skill.

"Magic…" Kyouichi came with the most obvious of answers.

"Duh…"

Now that her performance was over, Reimu again stepped up to the stage to announce the next performer.

"And that was Alice and her Magical Bunraku! Now to take a little break, and ease up the stress, we're going to enjoy the soothing sounds played by the popular band from the Human Village that you may know well from the tavern Uzume. Presenting the Flawless Raindrops!"

The majority of the people apparently knew this band of traditional musicians and gave them a loud, cheerful welcome as they stepped up to the stage with their instruments. After a few minutes of tuning, they began playing a beautiful and soothing melody that just perfectly fit the festival atmosphere. Kyouichi took his time to listen to two or three of their songs, but his feet were already tired from the constant standing and he decided to find some place to sit down. He figured that the shrine's elevated floor was just the right place to take a rest. As he made his way to the shrine, however, he saw a person which he didn't quite want to encounter. And that person noticed him as well…

* * *

"Reisen-san…"

"Well hello there, Ishimaru-san." the Moon rabbit greeted with an amused smile. "So, how was your walk through the bamboo forest?" she teasingly asked him about his escape from Eientei, though she didn't seem to be upset about it.

"Look, I had my reasons for that…"

"According to the letter that you left us, you acquired some kind of medicine from some hermit alchemist."

"I didn't want Eirin-sama to interrogate me like a prisoner. I know that the alchemist in question may be responsible for the greatest leak of top secret information in the history of the Lunarian society. I simply didn't want to be seen as an enemy in Eirin's eyes."

"And so you ran away."

"Yes, I ran… I can understand Eirin's interest in the potion, so I at least left the letter describing its origin. If she really wants it so badly, let her deal with the alchemist herself. I don't want to be involved. I'm just a customer."

"Rest assured that Eirin-sama doesn't see you as an enemy. Neither does she see herself as a part of the Lunarian society anymore. But you are right; she was very interested in the potion. And very surprised when she found your message… and even money for your hospitalization."

"That potion could help save more lives if Eirin-sama knew how to make it or at least, could buy it… That's why I decided to reveal the truth. Now it's all up to her and that half-snake. Though I honestly can't imagine them cooperating…"

"Only time will tell..." Reisen remarked wisely. "By the way, what about your friend?"

Kyouichi looked at her, puzzled. "My friend?"

"The one who escaped Eientei with you… Asakura-san."

"Oh, him…" Kyouichi nodded. "We both made it safely to the village somehow. He's here too. Although he… ehh… overdosed himself with alcohol. Now he's sleeping in the shrine. Hopefully he'll be fine before evening."

Reisen scoffed lightly and reached into the pocket of her shirt. A moment later, she pulled out a thin paper bag filled with some kind of powder and gently shook it as she held it between her fingers. "This should do the trick."

"What's that?"

"A remedy that suppresses the effects of alcohol intoxication. Just mix with water or tea."

Kyouichi was both amazed and amused by this Moon rabbit. "Do you always carry medicine in your pockets Reisen-san? And such a specific medicine at that…"

"Not really, but this is a festival after all. I know all too well how things go at festivals. Having a good supply of this remedy is a must."

"That's very predictive of you."

"Not predictive; preventive. I already have some experience with festivals and excessive alcohol consumption that you people seem to be so fond of… Here, take it. Say hello to your friend for me when he recovers." said Reisen and passed Kyouichi the bag with the remedy.

"Thank you, Reisen-san."

"No problem." smiled the Moon rabbit.

"By the way, Reisen-san… Where's Eirin-sama?"

"She's still in Eientei, tending to the last few of her patients. She should be here to watch the tournament, though. You wanted to talk to her?"

Kyouichi profusely shook his head. "No, no, no… I just want to avoid her if possible."

"I already told you that you don't need to fear her."

"I'd rather not meet her anyway. I'm not in a mood for being interrogated."

After a longer silent pause, Reisen nodded. "I understand… But I can do little to help you avoid her. She's coming to the shrine in a few hours, so keep that in mind. Fortunately, it's easy to hide in this huge crowd, so you're not likely to run into her anyway."

"Yeah… Thank you again for the medicine in Soudai's name. Now excuse me, I'll go and see if it can actually help him even in his current condition."

"In that case, see you later, Ishimaru-san."

* * *

And after the young outsider bowed to Reisen, he hurried to the shrine with a remedy for his drunken friend.

"Soudai~! Oi, Asakura~!" he shouted at the sleeping young man just as he barged into the shrine.

"Why are you yelling like that?" Reimu scolded him right away.

"I've got a remedy for him and I need him to drink it."

"Where'd you get a remedy?" asked Marisa who was standing at the table and mixing the dough for the dumplings in a big bowl.

"I met a rabbit from Eientei."

"Reisen?"

"Yup. She really got me when she pulled this out of nowhere." Kyouichi showed her the bag with the drug. "Could I ask you for another glass of water, Reimu?"

"Sure. It's up in that cupboard. And… you already know where the well is." the miko lazily directed him from her comfortable sitting position at her kotatsu.

As Kyouichi fetched the glass from the cupboard, Reimu yawned and looked again into her tournament chart. "Since Reisen is already here, I guess I should write her in… Has anyone seen my brush?"

"I haven't…" Marisa replied negatively.

"Somehow I doubt that you'd say otherwise even if you knew where it was." Reimu jokingly poked at her.

"I didn't steal it." the witch steadfastly insisted. "Maybe Akyuu confused it with her own and took it."

"Akyuu-chan, huh? Well, if it's her then I don't mind it… that much…"

"By the way, Reimu… How long are you going to stay under that kotatsu? If you're so worried about me messing up the dumplings, you should lend me a hand."

"What could you possibly mess up at making dango? Seriously… You'd have to be Cirno to ruin it now."

"Was that supposed to mean that you're not going to help me at all?" asked the blonde.

"You did everything just as I told you so far, right?"

Marisa nodded twice.

"And you used no other extra ingredients than the ones I told you to?"

Again the magician nodded repeatedly while staring at her best friend.

Reimu blinked in slight confusion. "Wait, was that a "yes, I did use extra ingredients" or a "yes, I didn't"?"

"The latter. I used only what you told me to."

"Than the dumplings should be just fine. All you have to do now is to shape the dough into dumplings, boil them, skewer them and add topping. How hard can that be?"

"But there's a ton of this dough! It'll take me long before I shape it into balls... Or perhaps I should make one huge dango and throw it into boiling water as it is…" the witch speculated.

"Just do it how it's supposed to be done. You don't have anything else to do right now anyway."

"Well, if you're not going to help, that surely means I can eat all these dumplings myself."

"If you're in a mood for making another batch afterwards, fine by me…" muttered the tired shrine maiden and stretched herself on the floor with two thirds of her body hidden under her kotatsu.

"Tsch… Is she trying to teach me how to cook by letting me do everything by myself?" grumbled Marisa quietly as she began the chore of shaping the huge mass of dough into small ball-shaped dumplings.

"I'm back…" Kyouichi announced his return, holding a glass filled with fresh water from the well. "Now to see if this magic powder can work its magic on this human wreck here…" he beckoned at the sleeping Soudai, who in response, mumbled something incomprehensible out of his sleep.

"Hey, don't worry, Asakura, I only meant that as a joke." said Soudai's friend and tore open the bag of medicine which he received from Reisen. He then emptied the content of the bag into the glass of water and watched the fizzy reaction that it made.

"I hope it's not one of those shady medicines with some radical side effect like that cold medicine you gave me back then." he addressed his words to the relaxing shrine maiden.

Reimu, however, completely ignored his teasing remarks and was just rolling over to the side.

"Oi, Reimu… Are you sleeping or what?"

"Ah~! There it is!" she suddenly exclaimed and opened her eyes wide.

"What is where?" Kyouichi asked in confusion.

"My brush! I dropped it over there, near the door." she pointed her finger near the rear entrance of the shrine. "Somehow, I doubt that Akyuu-chan would confuse my brush with hers, since she remembers everything perfectly… Could you pass it to me, Kyouichi?"

"Sure… Just say the magic word." the outsider smiled nicely at her.

Reimu blinked a few times, trying to figure what he meant by that. "Umm… Spirit Sign "Fantasy…"

"No, no, no…" he quickly interrupted her before she said the name of her favorite Spell Card. "The OTHER magic word."

"Then… Dream Sign "Evil-Sealing Circle"?" Reimu named another of her Spell Cards.

Kyouichi sighed resignedly. "You know what? That's close enough… Here you go." he amusedly smiled as he passed her the brush.

"Ah, thanks… Now what was I supposed to do again?" she paused for a moment to search her brain for the memory of what she intended to use the brush for in the first place. "Ah, that's right~! I wanted to add Reisen's name into the list…" she rolled over to her stomach, grabbed her chart and the brush, ready to write Reisen into it, when suddenly… "Does anyone know where have I put my ink flask?"

"She's hopeless today…" muttered Marisa from the table. "Maybe Yukari stole it from under your nose just to spite you!" she called a humorous remark at her.

"I wish you were right, Marisa…" sighed the miko and finally forced herself to abandon the comfort of her kotatsu and stand up on her feet. Even though she knew that Marisa was only joking, Reimu would feel much more at ease if she had known that Yukari has not completely abandoned Gensokyo after all. However, the reality spoke to the contrary now, and Reimu had no other choice but to silently deal with it.

"Now I see it. It's over there in the corner. How silly of me to leave it there…"

"If you'll be absent-minded like that for the whole day, I'm not sure if it's a good idea for you to participate in that tournament after all…" Kyouichi expressed his concern.

"I'm not absent-minded, I'm just…"

"Oh, yes you are." he didn't let her finish. "I bet you don't even remember what's today's date."

"Of course, I do… it's… wait a second… one, two, three… Oh, nice try there, Kyouichi. Everyone knows that it's Tanabata!"

"I was asking about the date, though, not the name of the holiday."

After another moment of brief hesitation Reimu exclaimed: "The seventh of Fuzuki! Do you take me for an idiot or what?!"

"No, I just feel like something's bothering you and without you telling me what it is, there's nothing I can do or say to help."

"Then resolve the fairy incident for me, will you?" she teasingly asked him. "What? You still here? I thought you wanted to help…"

Kyouichi realized that this conversation is not going anywhere and definitely resigned his attempts to help Reimu snap out of her bad mood. "O-kay, forget I said anything…"

Instead, he now shifted his attention on giving Soudai the alcohol remedy.

"She's just tired after patrolling the northeastern part of Gensokyo to make sure that the fairies aren't massing for another attack." Marisa entered the conversation, explaining the behavior of her closest friend to the outsider.

"You were patrolling?" Kyouichi raised his brow as he glanced once more at the shrine maiden. "That must have been exhausting."

"Less exhausting than having to stand against half a million fairies in a battle to the death." replied the last living Hakurei in Gensokyo.

"I was surprised too when she told me." admitted the blonde witch. "But, when I think about it, Reimu's always restless when there's an incident."

"And this one is taking me the longest time to resolve." Reimu added with a lowered voice.

"You're wrong, Reimu." Marisa corrected her. "The one with the long-lasting winter took you over two months. And the one with the weakened border between Gensokyo and the Netherworld still remains unresolved for over six years!"

"Now you make it sound like I'm incompetent or something." grumbled the displeased shrine maiden.

"Not at all, Reimu. All I'm trying to say is that some incidents can't be solved in a single day. Some can't be solved by a single person. And finally, some incidents, even resolve themselves."

"What kind of nonsense are you talking about now, Marisa?"

"Just hinting at the facts… We haven't seen a single crazed fairy ever since that day when the forest fires broke out. Maybe that was it for the whole incident, however anticlimactic it sounds… Maybe the culprit was one of those many fairies and we got her in that battle."

"Have you eaten some of those weird mushrooms that grow in your forest again?" Reimu asked her as she tapped her finger at her own head. "Just because there hasn't been any attack in a while, doesn't mean the incident is over. On the contrary, I think it's just the quiet before the storm. Bigger storm than we've seen a week ago. That's why I decided to make regular patrols to prevent another large-scale attack. I don't want my shrine to be burned down like Alice's house."

"In that case, you should probably ask some of the girls to make regular patrols as well. Just as a precaution until Eirin and Patchy learn more about the nature of this incident." advised Marisa.

"I already told Aya and she was all hyped up about it as usual."

"So you told her about it before you informed me?" Marisa was a bit surprised by Reimu's answer.

"The tengu have better eyes than humans. That's why I told Aya first."

"Hey, I'm not going to lose to some tengu. You can count on me patrolling around Kazemura as well, ze… We'll keep the fairies in check if we don't give them any time to regroup."

"I'd rather be going right after the person responsible for this," admitted the shrine maiden, "but this is all we can do for now… Okay, let me roll some dumplings too."

"Oh, so you're going to help me after all? I had already given up hope…" jested Marisa.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kyouichi was trying to make Soudai drink the remedy. "Hey, wake up, Asakura. I've brought you some medicine."

As expected, Soudai was too smashed to react to mere words of his friend, so Kyouichi lightly slapped his cheek to bring him back to his senses.

"Mnunmf… What the hell d'ya want? Can't you see I'm meditating here?" sounded the hoarse voice of Soudai, who at least showed some reaction to the slaps on his cheek.

"Good, you're still alive." Kyouichi smiled at him wryly. "Here, I need you to drink this."

"Wha…? Is that you, club prez? Sorry, I haven't found any new info about *hic* Yakumo Yukari…"

Again, Kyouichi couldn't hold back and amused chuckle. "You got my identity right, but you're in the wrong timeline. We're no longer looking for her…"

"Eh? How long have I been hybernatin'?"

"Three or four hours maybe…"

"Hey… club prez… Where the hell am I? Eientei?"

"No. Hakurei Shrine. It's Tanabata festival, remember? Now come on and drink this already, I ain't got all day to waste on you…"

"Drink? Hell no! I've had enough sake!"

"It's not sake, you blockhead. This remedy should make you feel better. Or put you out of your misery…"

"I *hic* suppose it can't get much worse than this… Give it here…"

And as Soudai slowly forced the dissolved remedy down his throat, Kyouichi made sure that he drank everything in the glass.

"Well done, Soudai, your momma would be proud." he mockingly applauded. "Now, I'm not sure how long it will take for this thing to take effect, so you can return to what you were doing."

"Mhm…" murmured Soudai with a sleepy voice as he returned to his previous horizontal position.

Kyouichi waited for a while, but after seeing no change, he figured that the medicine needed some time to kick in, and decided to leave his friend alone for now.

"Hey, Ishimaru…" the drunken outsider uttered at him, just as he was about to exit the shrine.

"Hm? Did you say something?"

"Thanks, man…"

Kyouichi smirked lightly. "Hm… Just hurry up and recover while this festival still lasts. After that our fun times are over and it's just blood, sweat and tears from then on…"

By his last words, Kyouichi was merely referring to his and Soudai's new job, which as they both could guess, was not going to be easy. That's why enjoying this festive day to the fullest was one of the top priorities to these two humans from the outside world.

* * *

Not longer than fifteen minutes, Soudai sat up, and with sober senses, he scanned his surroundings. The interior of the room seemed vaguely familiar to him, as did the pair of a blonde witch and a black-haired shrine maiden who were rolling dumplings.

"Oh, looks like he's already awake." stated Marisa nonchalantly.

"Oh… my… god…" uttered the outsider as he was slowly beginning to recall how he ended up here.

"Nah, you can simply call me Marisa." joked the blonde witch and with great amusement watched the expression of Soudai's confused face.

Soudai certainly felt better physically, but now he was starting to feel miserable in his heart.

"Damn! I sure got myself smashed… Where's that little horned one?"

"Suika? Somewhere outside…" shrugged Reimu. "But I think you better stay away from her for your own good."

"Don't have to tell me that again… And where did Ishimaru go?"

"I'm not his babysitter. Why don't you go look for him in that crowd outside?" the shrine maiden suggested bluntly. "More importantly, you should at least be a bit grateful for me letting you sleep here…"

"Ehh… Sure. Yes! Of course I'm grateful… uhh…" he paused in a desperate attempt to remember Reimu's name. "…Miss shrine maiden…"

"It's Hakurei Reimu. Try to remember it…" she poutingly re-introduced herself.

"Ah, yes, yes, I haven't forgotten your name, Hakurei-san, ehehe~… Sorry for causing you trouble."

"If you're really that sorry, you can make up for it by helping us roll these…"

But before Reimu finished her sentence, Soudai was already on his way out of the shrine and with words: "Please excuse me, I'll be going now…" he took his leave and wanted to reunite with his classmates and fellow club members from the outside world.

"That was one smooth escape he just made." giggled Marisa just as Soudai walked out through the door.

"Less talking and more rolling, Marisa."

"Yeah, yeah…"

* * *

Evening was slowly but certainly falling and Gensokyo was gradually being immersed into deeper dusk. Reimu lit the lamps inside her shrine before she resumed making dango with Marisa. They both still had a lot of work, having processed only about one half of the huge mass of dough. These dumplings were supposed to be for all of Reimu's guests, so she needed to make an appropriate amount. Marisa was already growing more tired and frustrated from the monotonous activity and so was the shrine's resident. They reluctantly glanced over at the remaining mass of dough in the bowl, and with heavy sighs, they kept making more dumplings, not caring much about their size or shape anymore. That's when they heard a knock on the door.

"Sorry to intrude~!" greeted a well known girl's voice as soon as the door opened. A short, silver-haired young female clad in green entered and bowed to the two girls she saw inside.

"Youmu~!" Marisa exclaimed and her face brightened up. "Man, am I glad to see you! Please, please, come right in!" she invited her, as if the shrine was her home. "We need some assistance here, you see…"

"Oh, hi there, Youmu." Reimu simply nodded, since bowing would require more energy.

"Oh? You're making dango? Sure, I'll help. Let me just put my swords down somewhere…"

And as Youmu was unstrapping her sword sheathes, Marisa began asking. "Where's Yuyuko?"

"Lady Yuyuko is just outside, taking a good look at the whole shrine yard. She's really excited and full of energy today… I'm having a tough time keeping up with her, so I thought I'd take a break here."

"I wonder what she's so excited about?" said the witch. "It's the same scenery as every year: tons of people and youkai, lots of flags, lanterns, wish trees, performers on the stage, food stalls everywhere…"

"Yes, THAT is probably her main reason." nodded the smiling half-ghost girl.

With a valuable reinforcement to the dango-making team, the remaining mass of dough was turned into neatly-shaped dumplings in no time.

"Wow, thanks a lot, Youmu!" Marisa appreciated the extra help. "Without your help, we'd be rolling these till midnight."

"Why didn't you start making them earlier then?" Youmu scratched her head.

"Ask her." the witch pointed a thumb at Reimu.

"I was busy with other things, okay?" the shrine maiden defended herself. "Come on, Marisa, let's put the first batch into the pot. We don't have much time before the tournament begins."

"Ah, yes, about the competition…" Youmu wanted to know a little bit more about it, since she wasn't there when Reimu explained the details. "Have all the contestants arrived yet?"

"Not sure." shrugged Reimu. "Maybe they're here and having fun outside like your mistress, or maybe they still haven't arrived. I hope for the former, though…"

"I think I saw Hijiri-san outside when we arrived here. But besides her, I didn't run into any familiar faces."

"Well, at least someone showed up."

Not long after Reimu said that, another person entered her shrine, not even bothering with such trivialities as knocking.

"Oh, there you are, Youmu~ ." called the sweet voice of Yuyuko Saigyouji, the ghostly princess of Netherworld. "I've been looking all over for you."

"Yuyuko-sama… I already told you that I was going to greet Reimu-san."

"When was that, I wonder~."

"Just the moment before we split up." the half-ghost replied with a smile.

"Okay… So now I can definitely write Yuyuko into the list as well…" the shrine maiden absentmindedly murmured to herself.

The pink-haired ghost girl suddenly widened her eyes and took a few whiffs of the air. "Oh my~. Are you girls cooking something~?"

"They're making dumplings." her loyal gardener explained tersely.

And after Yuyuko curiously peeked over Reimu's shoulder into the pot and at the pile of freshly rolled dumplings that were only waiting to be boiled, she couldn't help but to ask a very important question.

"It seems that you've made a lot of dango this year, Reimu-san… But aren't you going to make some for yourself as well?"

"As if they were all for you!" retorted the outraged shrine maiden.

"Oh, so is this the prize for winning in that tournament of yours~?"

"No."

The ghostly princess looked disappointedly at her. "Why not?"

"Because these dumplings are for ALL the guests. Besides, nobody but you would be interested to win such a prize."

"And… how many guests are you expecting?"

"If all the contestants arrive, that should be 26. Plus if that bunch of outsiders decides to stop by here again, that should be about 30 or more." Reimu made a rough calculation.

"All these dango… divided by 30?" Yuyuko grudgingly imagined how many dumplings would that make for one person and the result didn't please her at all.

"Luckily we thought ahead, right, Youmu~?" she sweetly addressed her multi-purpose servant.

"If you're referring to that big food basket, Yuyuko-sama, I've left it just outside the shrine next to the door… But haven't you eaten enough food from all those stalls that you visited?"

"I was only having a little taste…" Yuyuko smiled innocently.

"I'm not sure if ordering an extra large menu from each of the vendors could be considered "having a little taste"." remarked Youmu satirically.

"Wait…" Marisa halted the conversation. "So you're telling me you've only had one menu from each of the stalls? Are you on a diet, Yuyuko?"

"Not to worry, Marisa-san~. It's only early evening. I'll pay the stall vendors at least one more visit today."

"You must be a real celebrity for them."

"They are all very nice people~." acknowledged the ghost. "Mystia-san even let me have two portions for free… Then she said she had something urgent to do and disappeared somewhere. I wonder what business she had. She looked kind of nervous."

"Well, she better be there when the tournament begins, or I'm disqualifying her from all the categories." said Reimu while stirring the dango in the pot. "Have you prepared the toppings yet, Marisa?"

The witch was arriving just on time with large flat platters full of various toppings for dumplings. "Coming right up, ze!"

Soon, with Youmu's help, Reimu and Marisa finally finished their work.

"Phew…" the blonde witch wiped sweat off her forehead. "It's finally done."

"And just in time too…" added Reimu. "Fine… Everyone, follow me!" she commanded and headed for the door. Only one hour remained until the official beginning of the danmaku tournament and Reimu didn't even know if all of the contestants were here. She needed to make sure.

* * *

A band of actors dressed up in some fancy outfits, wearing youkai masks was just stepping down the stairs as they were leaving the stage after their act. Reimu figured that before she gives the signal to summon the contestants, she should at least go up there and announce the next performer. Looking into the program, she saw only one colon that remained before the main event.

"Wait here for a moment." she told the trio of girls as she hurried up to the stage.

"I wonder who's going to be up next~." sounded Yuyuko with her eyes anticipatively focused on the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for my absence, but now that I've done everything that I should have, I can fully concentrate on hosting the festival properly. Coming up next is a group that needs no introduction. But in case you've been living under a rock, have just recently been released from the depths of Makai or recently spirited away into Gensokyo, that by some chance you DON'T know who I'm talking about, let me tell you~! The band that plays music that is able to touch your very soul. A group that can play any kind of music without sounding unoriginal. Lunasa, Lyrica and Merlin! I present you the Prismriver Ensemble~!"

A tremendous applause swept across the area near the shrine as everyone cheered for the arrival of the famous trio of poltergeist musicians.

The ghostly princess excitedly clapped her hands. "Oh look, Youmu, my favorite performers~!"

And shortly after Reimu's call, three figures ascended above the crowd and above the stage. As they floated towards the center of the stage, they performed a little air show, by flying in a symmetrical formation and spinning around one central focal point, all the while facing the same direction. And once they made it to the center and into the light of torches and lanterns, they became fully visible. One interesting thing about them was the fact that none of the girls were holding their instruments. Instead, they floated in front of them, similarly like Youmu's ghostly form always accompanied her physical one. On the left side of the stage stood the eldest of the sisters, Lunasa, the violinist. She had short blonde hair and was dressed in her typical black band uniform with white and red trim. Her hat, which was also part of the uniform, vaguely resembled Keine-sensei's in its shape and its color matched the uniform. Its tip was also adorned by a small red crescent moon decoration. Some people who saw her for the first time could confuse her with Rumia… The middle of the stage was occupied by the middle sister, Merlin, the trumpeter. The tallest of the girls had short light-blue hair and her band uniform was light pink with black and blue trim. Her pink hat sported a small blue sun-shaped decoration and her brass instrument was mysteriously hovering by her side. To some people she looked very similar to Remilia Scarlet… Finally, the right side of the stage belonged now to the youngest of the three, Lyrica, the keyboardist. Lyrica's hair had a very light shade of brown. So light, that from certain angles it looked as though she had white or silver hair instead. The band uniform which she was clad in was red with black and pink trim and her red hat held a green comet-shaped decoration attached to its tip. Her instrument was the most modern in the band. A floating winged keyboard with her initials written on it.

"Doesn't that remind you of something, Reimu?" Marisa asked her friend as she watched the band's descent to the stage.

"Yeah…" the shrine maiden tersely agreed. "Just like during the incident with missing spring. Except back then they were also littering the sky with their danmaku… Now that I think about it, that was the first time I met you two." she turned her face at Yuyuko and Youmu and smiled weakly.

"That's right~. They were invited to play at Hakugyokurou, but they never arrived. Instead, you showed up and did what you did…"

"Did you really expect that nobody would mind having winter all year round?" Reimu asked, still looking at the person responsible for the said incident. "What goes around comes around, as the saying goes…"

"Oh, I think you're misunderstanding me, Reimu-san… I already told you several times that I'm glad you showed up and stopped me from doing something… unwise. It's funny how life can turn things around, isn't it? Because of my curiosity and forgetfulness, I planned on doing something very foolish, unaware of the possible outcome. In order to achieve that, I needed the essence of spring, but I couldn't get enough of it in the Netherworld. Then I asked Yukari to weaken one boundary for me and she did exactly that... It turned out that the very means to my goal turned out to be the biggest flaw in my plan, as it allowed a living trespasser to enter the world of those who are dead. But a flaw in an already flawed plan is actually a fortunate occurrence. One that I wasn't aware of until I was formally defeated. Of course, then I remembered a lot of things and so, I'm actually grateful for you daring to stop me back then. Thank you, Reimu-san~ ." the cheerful and whimsical Yuyuko then took Reimu into a sweet embrace, simply because she felt it would be a fun thing to do.

"Kyaah~! Hey! What are you doing?!" asked the surprised shrine maiden as she unexpectedly found herself in Yuyuko's grip. But even though her words sounded like a protest, her body didn't put up much of a resistance. That was because this situation reminded Reimu of someone close to her. She remembered this kind of surprise hug from behind and couldn't hold back a smile as she recollected the memory.

"Have we come here to reminisce about past incidents?" asked the ordinary magician. "How about we just enjoyed the show?"

"That's right~!" agreed the pink-haired princess as she released Reimu. "But I wonder who made the request to invite the Prismriver sisters here?"

Reimu looked at her with crossed arms. "What do you mean "who"? How many hosts do you think this festival has?"

"But they usually play at youkai parties and accept invitations from humans rather rarely." argued Yuyuko.

"That's because not all humans take the experience from hearing their music too well." Youmu complemented the information.

It seemed that this bit of information was unknown to even the host of the festival. "Really? I didn't feel bad when I was listening to some of their songs."

"Well, I've invited them countless times to perform for me." said the ghost. "And they told me that the tones they play are not real, but simply phantoms of sounds. That's why they are not perceived by ears, but by the soul. However, Lyrica-san's keyboard is different. You can perceive its sounds with your ears… I recall them saying that some human listeners experienced states of depression and melancholy during their live performances, while others were said to display signs of hyperactivity similar to getting drunk. They said that their music should not be listened to by children and those with faint hearts."

"Oh…" uttered the shrine maiden with a strange feeling of guilt building up inside her. She certainly didn't want to endanger the human portion of the shrine visitors by subjecting them to this kind of music. "Maybe I should have given a warning about that…"

"I'm sure most of the people here are grown up and healthy enough to listen." Marisa tried to ease up the tension.

"And what about Akyuu-chan?"

"Well, technically, Akyuu-chan's spirit is over a thousand years old, so she should be just fine, ze."

"Oh… You're right." Reimu nodded affirmatively and exhaled with slight relief.

And once the audience was getting tired of cheering and clapping, the three poltergeists began their intro.

"Good evening, everyone." the eldest sister greeted politely with her mellow voice. "It is a great pleasure to be performing for such a large audience. Since the festival's tournament is going to take place on this stage in an hour, we decided to compensate for this by playing the second half of the concert after the competition. Tonight we will also play a few new songs featuring a popular vocalist, Lorelei Mystia-san."

The crowd went wild again as Lunasa made this announcement. It would be for the first time that the Prismrivers performed with someone else and everyone was filled with anticipation. However, for now, the trio of phantoms proceeded to play their songs without any vocal support, just as they had it written in their schedule.

"Let's start with the concert, shall we?" sounded the voice of Lunasa and her floating violin suddenly played a short melody.

"I am Lunasa Prismriver, the leader of this ensemble. My violin can outclass even the famous Stradivarius in terms of sound quality. Please enjoy its melody."

Yuyuko spread open her paper fan and covered her soft giggle with it. "And they always say these kind of lines before each of their live performances~."

"Makes you wonder if there's any truth to those lines." remarked the down-to-earth half-ghost.

"Well, it's true that I have no idea how would a Stradivarius violin sound like in the first place…" the Netherworld's princess admitted and returned her attention to the stage.

Next, the audience could feel the resonance emitted by the floating trumpet belonging to Merlin. After playing a few tones it went silent again, allowing its owner to say a few words as well.

"Greetings! I'm Merlin, and like my big sister said before me, I'm very excited about playing for a big crowd like this. Hope you'll enjoy the sounds of my trumpet, despite it being the phantom of a fearsome instrument that has taken the blood of many jazz trumpeters in the past." she added with an uncanny smile.

The crowd responded with another wave of applause, some of her fans even called out her name repeatedly.

"And finally…" sounded the shortest and the youngest of the band and her instrument played a short melody made of some very unique sounds. "I, Lyrica, will play my keyboard, a phantom of an instrument owned by once a famous artist who created new sounds that were too peculiar, so the keyboard never sold and fell into obscurity. I hope that won't be the case when I start playing it, though, hehehe~!"

"Let's prepare the atmosphere for the danmaku tournament and set the mood just right." spoke the band leader again. "Here we go…"

Despite being a solely instrumental band, the popularity of the Prismriver Ensemble was unrivaled in all of Gensokyo. Even those who saw their performance for the first time in their lives quickly understood why. It was the feelings that their music brought. A well balanced blend of calm, but passionate melody from the violin accompanied by the dynamic and fresh tones of the phantom trumpet, completed by the catchy rhythm of unique sounds played by Lyrica's keyboard… All of these things worked together to make the audience get the feeling of overwhelming awe. The feeling could be perhaps compared to a sudden takeoff into the sky during a thunderstorm, then falling full-speed down into a raging ocean and immediately ascending again. Truly an experience to remember, not just for the first-timers.

* * *

After the first song ended, Reimu snapped out of this trance-like feeling and realized that she wanted to summon the contestants. She launched a signal into the sky that for a moment got everyone's attention. Some spectators even mistook it for ambient effects for the concert of the Prismriver Ensemble and began cheering for the trio even louder.

"Now this will be fun…" muttered Marisa to her best friend. "…if nobody will show up when the tournament begins."

"That won't be fun. That will be a fiasco." Reimu corrected the statement.

"Then the four of us would need to have several rematches." Marisa kept joking around even despite Reimu's frown.

Fortunately, the shrine maiden's signal was well interpreted after all and some of the tournament participants began gathering.

"Is there something wrong?" asked Remilia as she arrived to the designated spot. "Why have you called us here so early?"

"Because I need to see if everyone who signed up for the tournament is actually here."

"Oh, I see…" the vampire understood Reimu's reason for concern and turned around, urging someone to hurry. "Come on, Patchy, Reimu needs to see us all…"

"So she's finally here." the shrine maiden commented the arrival of the youkai sorceress.

Marisa's reaction was slightly more cheerful, if not a bit exaggerated. "Patchy~! Come here, you…!"

"Yaah… Marisa…" the short girl struggled for air. "Let go of me."

"Yes, let go of her." Alice's voice from behind Marisa's back seconded Patchouli's request.

"Alice-chan~!" Marisa threw her arms around the puppeteer instead. "Good to see you again…"

"Hey… We've been away from each other for only a few hours, you know."

"Maybe it's Marisa's tactic to soften some of the girls up, so that she'd have the advantage in the tournament." Remilia made a humorous speculation. "Too bad that won't work on everyone, eh?"

"What is it Reimu~?" Suika came running to the stage with a curious look. "Is it time for another round for everyone?"

"It seems she has already forgotten that she actually signed up for this contest too." Remilia giggled at the oni's question.

"Good evening to you all." came a greeting from a more mature-sounding voice. Byakuren Hijiri has just found her way to the stage, followed by some of her loyal youkai companions.

"Ah, hello, Byakuren… and company." Reimu greeted everyone and ticked off their names on the list she was holding. "So there we have, Shou, Minamitsu, Ichirin and Nue… What about that mouse?"

"Nazrin's with us too, but she decided not to compete." the youkai monk explained briefly.

"I see… Well… what about the others?" she asked and took a careful look everywhere around.

"Boo!" a sudden call spooked the surprised shrine maiden into jumping. "I surprised you, didn't I?"

"Don't… do that… again… Kogasa." Reimu threateningly glanced over at the youkai umbrella, and with slightly unsteady hand, she ticked off her name in the list.

"Hehe~! I'm not hungry anymore…" said the smiling teal-haired girl with dichromatic eyes.

"Being hungry is truly one of the worst feelings in the world…" declared Yuyuko and turned her attention to the basket of food that was resting near the back entrance of the shrine.

"Resist the urge, Yuyuko-sama." Youmu tried to tame her whim. "You're not really hungry, you know…"

"Sorry if I arrived a bit late…" another voice could be heard nearing the group. "And good evening to you all…"

"Oh, Kamishirasawa-san. Good evening." Reimu raised her head and bowed to the teacher, despite the fact that she never attended her school. Everything that she knew, she learned from her parents and from life itself. That, however, didn't change the fact that she respected Keine and her job. "You're not late, but I need to make sure that everyone who signed up for the tournament is actually here."

"Is that so~?" sounded a childish voice coming from somewhere left of Reimu's position.

Rumia, the little youkai of darkness appeared almost as suddenly as Kogasa. Why was she even here boggled everyone's mind. She was standing there with her hands spread wide, wearing a happy smile.

"What do you think you're doing here?" Reimu couldn't believe her eyes. "You're not welcome here."

"What do you think she is doing here, you IDIOT~?!" another childish voice, belonging to none other than Cirno, the ice fairy shouted daringly at the surprised shrine maiden. "She came to sign up, of course!"

"Yes, Rumi-chan is our friend." declared the just-arriving night sparrow, Mystia. "Why shouldn't she compete when we can, huh?"

"Shut up!" Reimu rudely silenced both of them before turning her angry gaze at Rumia. "So… first you go hunting for humans right here at my shrine and then you just nonchalantly come here, as if nothing happened?"

"But I'm not hungry today…" the little red-eyed blonde defended herself.

"That's not the issue here! You crossed the line and right now, I'm using all of my willpower to keep myself from exterminating you on spot!"

"But the human ran away…" Rumia tried to make herself sound less guilty.

"Only after he fought for his life to shake you off."

"I don't understand…" the puzzled darkness youkai scratched her head. "I was only told that I shouldn't eat humans from the village even if I defeated them in Spell Card duel… But that one was not from the village. Smelled differently… No Spell Cards… Weak and tasty… Just like the ones I always used to feed on…"

Reimu wasn't as much displeased by Rumia's mass murder confession, as the fact that Rumia made her shrine yard her new hunting spot. It was like the worst kind of insult for the shrine maiden. "If I ever catch you hunting near this shrine, I'll tie you to a tree and make you eat Marisa's tamagoyaki for a whole month!"

This rather… unconventional threat elicited uncontrolled laughter from some of the girls who were watching the scene, while a certain ordinary magician pouted in response.

After a while, Marisa cleared her throat and decided to resolve this situation peacefully, which was quite unusual for her. "Hey, Reimu… Why don't we let this cannon fodder sign up too? I mean… she'll get beaten up anyway. Either way she'll get what she asked for."

"Hmm…" the red-white couldn't really argue with Marisa's idea. It took her a good while of hesitation, but in the end, she gave in to her friend's advice. "Very well…" she snorted as she picked up her list and a writing brush, as if she couldn't believe that she was doing this… She wrote Rumia into the list of contestants. "You're lucky that the number of our contestants is odd and that we need to make it even. You're in the tournament now… Hope you're ready." she leaned over Rumia's not too tall figure and grinned almost wickedly.

Rumia, however, despite being just a child by youkai standards, didn't have a very long list of things that she feared and the shrine maiden's current facial expression was not on that list.

"Yaaay~!" she again cheerfully spread her arms wide, like some sort of victory pose and put on her typical childish cutesy smile.

"Yaaaaay~!" her fairy and night-sparrow friends joined the cheering.

"What's all this commotion about?" an unexpected male voice diverted everyone's attention.

Kyouichi Ishimaru, a human outsider arrived to the scene, lured by Reimu's signal danmaku.

"Oh… uh… hello, everyone…" he bashfully greeted the gathered contestants. "Sorry to bother… I just saw your signal and wondered if you didn't make any sudden changes to the program." he explained to Reimu. "I know that you no longer need volunteers, but I just got curious, you see…"

In the meantime, the three young youkai girls took this momentary situation to their advantage, and with hushed giggles they disappeared somewhere in the crowd.

Reimu sighed and gave him a short briefing of the situation.

"Ah, so that's how it is… Thank goodness, I was worried that you'd change the program or something... Again, I'm sorry that I interrupted you all so rudely. I'll be on my way…"

"Hey, nobody's forcing you to leave." Reimu halted him. "You can stay here and watch if you like. Though there's nothing interesting going on here yet. Like I said, the tournament starts in an hour."

"What do you mean, nothing interesting is going on now?" Marisa threw a question at her. "We've just had a very dramatic exchange of opinions here just a moment ago, and with a dramatic music played by the Prismriver sisters in the background… We have a live musical here, ze!"

Kyouichi quickly shifted his eyes to Marisa, then back to Reimu. "Are you two arguing about something again?"

"No. Just making the final arrangements before the tournament."

"Okay… I'll just… step aside and let you mind your business then."

"Good. So, where was I?" the distracted shrine maiden again skimmed through her list. "Hmm, I thought Aya would be here… I wonder where that tengu ran off to…"

"Ehrm…" Aya cleared her throat and waved her hand to make herself more easily noticeable. "I was here this whole time, Reimu. Open your eyes."

"Oh, there you are… Well… that still leaves us with the Eientei bunch and the Komeijis…"

"So… is Eirin-san on that list as well?" asked the outsider cautiously.

"That's right." Reimu nodded. "Hope I won't have to cross her out of this competition and find a substitute…"

"How about you gave the summoning signal once again? Maybe she's here and just mistook it for ordinary fireworks." Marisa gave her an advice.

Once Kyouichi's worries were confirmed, he decided to distance himself away from Reimu and watch the whole situation from a safer spot, where he easily blended with the other shrine visitors.

"Oi, where are you going?" Marisa called after him.

He didn't respond and kept heading his way until he was in a safe distance from the gathered group. Then he saw Reimu pointing to the sky again and launching another bright-red orb that scattered shining amulets as it exploded above the shrine's roof. Soon after that, from the other side of the shrine, shadows of three figures could be seen making a slow flight over to the back yard.

"Oh, I think I can see someone coming." said the blonde witch. "Over here~!" she shouted at the three shrouded figures to navigate them. As they were beginning to descend, Kyouichi clearly made out the image of Reisen, Eirin and even the mistress of Eientei herself – Kaguya. As Reimu greeted them and gave them a short explanation of what she summoned them for, Kyouichi felt someone pulling on his hakama.

* * *

"What the hell?!" he quickly turned his face to the source of this sensation and saw a short black-haired youkai rabbit. "Oh… Tewi! How nice to see you again."

"Still trying to stay out of Eirin's sight, I see." she giggled through her palm. "And I see that my good luck enchantment worked if you've made it through the forest."

"Yes, I… Thank you very much for that. And yes, I think I better not cross paths with Eirin if I know what's good for me. But… wait… shouldn't you hurry and show yourself to Reimu if you want to compete?"

"I haven't come to take part in the tournament." Tewi shook her head. "I'm just here to watch and have fun."

"Do Reisen and Eirin know that you're here?"

"Of course they know. I was the one who urged them to hurry up and get going. Once I managed to convince the princess, the other two were much easier to convince."

"So are there still some patients left in Eientei?" asked the curious outsider.

"A few, yes. No serious cases, though. They don't require Eirin's nonstop attention and care. Even a doctor needs to take a break from her work sometimes…"

"Gotta agree with that… By the way, do you know anything about Eirin's research progress regarding the insane fairies?"

Tewi looked puzzled and slightly embarrassed, since she couldn't give an answer. "Sorry, I haven't really been paying much attention to what exactly she was working on… You'd have to ask her yourself, which I'm guessing you're not going to."

"On second thought, this information is not THAT much relevant to me. Just thought I'd ask since you're already here…"

"Well, I could ask Eirin about that in your stead." the Earth rabbit offered kindly. "But as I know the shrine maiden, she's surely asking her the very same question right now."

Though it was hard to tell what were Reimu and Eirin discussing right now, they both looked like they had a lot to tell to each other.

Kyouichi smiled lightly and nodded. "I guess so… You're a very smart girl, Tewi." he gave her a soft pat on the head.

Tewi closed her eyes for a moment and enjoyed the pleasant caress, but then she suddenly pointed forward. "Oh, look… Looks like the princess and the doctor are going somewhere."

And indeed, it seemed that way. Kaguya was waving at Eirin to get a move on, while Eirin was lightly bowing to Reimu, and taking her leave. Reisen then asked Reimu something, and as she got the answer, she nodded and followed her superiors into the crowd.

"Kaguya-sama wanted to see the concert of the Prismriver sisters at least once, so she probably wants to get to the stage as close as possible now." Tewi commented the situation.

"I see…" said the outsider and looked at the stage. The three poltergeists were just finishing up their second song.

"Well, even after hearing only one and a half song from them, I have to say they are amazing."

"The music can make you feel really weird sometimes, though, so make sure you're always perfectly healthy and in good mental condition before you decide to listen to their performance." advised the little youkai rabbit. "They haven't been in Gensokyo for too long, but somehow they ended up being the most popular band. I've been near their mansion a few times, but never had the guts to actually go in and pay them a visit."

"So you say there is another mansion besides the Scarlet Devil Mansion?"

"Yes, and not too far away from it, actually. You can find it just a bit to the southwest of the Misty Lake. If you go from here, through the Forest of Magic and take the old path to the northwest, you may come across it just before you leave the forest. Like the vampire's manor, their house was also spirited away from the outside world. Although the Poltergeist Mansion was here a bit sooner… It's a bit tricky to find, since it's mostly surrounded by dense forest, but you can often hear the sisters practicing. That's why if you hear the sounds of a violin a trumpet and other strange tones, and have an eerie feeling while walking in the middle of a forest, you know that you're near their house."

"That's sounds quite creepy." remarked Kyouichi. "But how did their house appear in Gensokyo in the first place?"

"I don't know that. Better ask either the sisters personally, or someone who knows Gensokyo's history a bit better than I."

"I doubt they'd let just anyone come to them and interview them after the concert, so I guess I'll just have to ask Akyuu…"

And just as Kyouichi was contemplating about the possibility of transporting entire buildings into a sealed off magical world, he heard his name being called.

After a few turns of his head, he noticed a waving arm sticking above the heads of other spectators, and a second later, several outsiders stepped out of the crowd and walked up to him. Leading the group was none other than Kyouichi's good old companion, Soudai.

"There you are, Ishimaru." Soudai pointed a finger at him. "Where did you run off to? And… hey… I've seen you somewhere." he shifted his extended index finger to Tewi.

"This is Tewi."

"That's the one who took your suspicious potion?" he gave the rabbit a mistrustful glance.

"And the one who helped us run from Eientei, let's not forget…" Kyouichi said in her defense.

"Oh…" Soudai paused himself in thought, recalling the reason he and Kyouichi ran from the House of Eternity. "Okay… Uhh… We appreciate your help, but… you've caused us some trouble too…"

"A lot of people tell me that." replied the innocently smiling Earth rabbit.

"By the way, why did you disappear on us all of a sudden, Ishimaru? I thought you wanted to see this concert."

"But I can also see it from here." he pointed out and gestured towards the stage, which was pretty well visible even from this place. "I only got curious why Reimu fired her signal just a while ago?"

"Why would you care? She already said that she doesn't need any volunteers."

"I know, but I was curious anyway…" Kyouichi explained his actions. "It looks like she only needs to make sure that all of the contestants are here, and by the looks of it, it seems that almost all of them have already arrived." he pointed at the group of girls standing near the shrine.

"Oh…" the older outsider opened his eyes wide as he observed the group with great interest.

"Hey, guys…" the foreigner, Daniel broke the short silence. "Is it just me or is that music making you feel like standing naked in a freezer?"

"You're not the only one…" Midori agreeingly nodded and rubbed her hands against her arms in an attempt to make herself feel warmer.

Kyouichi chuckled at his friends' reactions, because he felt exactly the same way now. "Takes a while getting used to, but I think I just have a new favorite band."

"You won't hear THAT kind of music on MTV…" said the pale-haired outsider.

"Or on any other channels and radio stations…" added Soudai. "But about those contestants… They really are ALL girls. All of them."

"Yup."

"Strange…"

"What's the matter, Soudai?" Kyouichi asked teasingly. "Don't you like girls?"

"That's not what I meant… I'm just surprised… Pleasantly surprised, that is…"

"Look, even Byakuren-sama is going to take part in it." Kyouichi pointed at the well known female youkai Buddhist monk. "And that beautiful girl over there… is Yuyuko-sama."

"Where?" Soudai sharpened his senses and focused his sight in the direction where Kyouichi's finger was pointing.

"Wait... Yuyuko-sama? But she's a…"

"A ghost, yes. But she's very, very nice and sweet, so no worries."

"Dude! Didn't we learn about her on Gensokyo's History at school?"

"That's right." Kyouichi positively replied to Soudai's question. "I was even more surprised than you are now when I first met her…"

"A real ghost… Then is it really true?"

"What do you mean, Asakura?"

"That she's the closest friend of Yakumo Yukari." Kyouichi's senior specified.

"Even if that is indeed true, regretfully, she probably won't be able to help us get any closer to finding the youkai than anyone else… Just forget about Yukari Yakumo. In three months we'll be out of here anyway. Reimu is the one we should look up to for this. She is our way home."

"And don't forget to thank her for letting you sleep in her shrine, you drunkard!" Midori scoldingly reminded him.

"Hmm… I guess I wouldn't want to leave a bad impression on Reimu-san. But she looks rather busy at the moment."

"No excuses, Soudai. Apologize properly, okay?" The female outsider braced her hands against his back and began pushing him forward towards the shrine maiden.

Kyouichi didn't want to miss a promisingly entertaining scene, so he followed them.

"Alright, alright, I'll go willingly; stop pushing me already!" Soudai tried to calm Midori's impatience. And once he was standing right there in front of the Hakurei shrine maiden herself, he began formulating his apology and words of gratitude.

"Yes, have you forgotten something in the shrine?" Reimu shot a questioning glance at him, but as she saw his other friends standing right behind him, she figured that was probably not the case.

"Maybe he wants another round." Suika giggled behind Reimu's back.

"No, Reimu-san… Uhh, sorry to interrupt your work, but… I've come to properly thank you and apologize for the trouble I've caused. Is there any way I could repay you?"

"Sure, go and make a prayer. And don't forget to throw some money into the box."

"Actually, we already did that." Kyouichi replied before Soudai.

"Have you?" Reimu's brown eyes brightened up a little. "Perhaps I should really check that donation box and make a withdrawal… But since you already prayed here, I guess that's all I want form you… for now."

"R-really?" Soudai blinked incredulously.

"Yeah, just try to stay away from this one here if you can." she stepped aside to fully reveal Suika. "If there's an opportunity for her to get everyone around her drunk, she'll take it. And don't ever think of accepting any of her challenges. Most importantly, don't make bets with her."

"O-kay… I'll keep that in mind."

"You can stay here with us if you want." Reimu continued, this time addressing the whole group of outsiders. "There's still a few contestants that haven't shown up yet, so it's not like you're interrupting anything. We're all just waiting here anyway."

"Well, if you don't mind us here, I'd really like to sit down for a while. My feet are killing me." said Midori and seated herself on the shrine's raised floor. Not long after that, she was already getting herself acquainted with some of the youkai girls.

"Wow… I've never seen so many youkai before." Soudai pointed out as soon as he took a good look at every tournament participant.

Kyouichi silently agreed with his friend's statement, as this was his first time he has seen such a large gathering of Gensokyo's residents. Since he was always a bit shy about talking to strangers, he took a seat next to someone he has known at least a little bit.

* * *

"Good evening, Youmu-san. Mind if I sit here for a while?"

The shorter half-phantom girl graced him with a pleasant smile and moved aside by a slight bit. "Not at all. Please, go ahead."

"Well if it isn't Ishimaru-san." Yuyuko sitting next to Youmu peeked out. "Good evening~."

The outsider was overjoyed by the fact that she even remembered his name. "Good evening to you as well, Yuyuko-sama."

"How do you like the festival so far?" the pink-haired ghostly beauty asked him.

"I really liked every part of it… The Prismriver Ensemble is great, isn't it?"

"That's right~. They are my favorite band as well. I invite them to play a private performance for me at least twice every year."

"I heard they come from the outside world."

"Yes, their house was moved to Gensokyo, just like Remilia-san's mansion."

"Was that by any chance Yukari's doing?"

"Yukarin? Well, the truth is, not even I know exactly…" sighed the Netherworld's princess. "She's not responsible for every spiriting away to Gensokyo, you know."

"I know. That's why I asked."

"But that isn't even of any importance, is it, Kyouichi-san? The important thing is that they are here now and playing for our enjoyment. I love their songs so much~."

"I wonder if they have a fan club or something." Kyouichi made a non-serious remark.

"Of course they do~." Yuyuko surprised him with her answer. "Several fan clubs even… The sisters sometimes make solo performances, and thus, there's a fan club of each of the Prismrivers."

"And there I thought I was being funny for a while." Kyouichi chuckled upon hearing this interesting piece of information. "Maybe I should join the fanclub then… But I already am in one club and it's not easy, let me tell you. Though if they sell one of them black t-shirts with band-name imprints, I'd buy one. I'd definitely buy one…"

Yuyuko put on a very curious expression and tapped Youmu's shoulder. "Umm… Youmu… Do you know what a t-shirt is?"

"It's probably something that is usually worn in the outer world, I believe."

Yuyuko's reaction stimulated Kyouichi to laugh again. "Oh, sorry, Yuyuko-sama, I'm just rambling as usual. But… I have to give Youmu-san some credit for her knowledge. She's right."

"Youmu goes out more often than I do, so she knows a lot of interesting things." Yuyuko smiled and praisingly patted Youmu's silver hair.

The half-ghost threw a sidelong glance at her mistress. "Umm… Yuyuko-sama? I know that information from one of your conversations with Yukari-sama…"

"Is that right~? I must have forgotten about it~. Maybe they sell some of those in Kourindou, yes?"

"Even I had one on me when I got here." recalled the outsider. "Unfortunately, it got shredded by danmaku and combined forces of friction and gravity."

"What a pity…"

Kyouichi sighed as he remembered his first day in Gensokyo. "It must be really nice there… In the Netherworld. You probably don't have to deal with crazy fairies there…"

Yuyuko leaned over Youmu's shoulder so she could look into Kyouichi's face and smiled as warmly as only she knew. "You'll surely see it, Kyouichi-san~. If you're that curious, I could arrange that even now."

"Y-Yuyuko-sama?" Youmu looked at her with a shocked look in her eyes. "Please don't abuse your power on poor outsiders. He's still young and has his whole life ahead of him…"

Even Kyouichi now figured out the meaning of Yuyuko's offer and shuddered at the mere thought. As a princess of the Netherworld, and even before she attained that status, Saigyouji Yuyuko was known for her unusual power. A very dangerous power, in fact. It was the power to invite any living mortal beings to their death. If using this power was Yuyuko's idea of giving Kyouichi a tour of the Netherworld, he certainly didn't feel like nodding to it.

"Don't be silly, Youmu~." the ghost reassuringly smiled at her servant. "I was merely referring to the fact that Netherworld is in fact accessible even to the living."

"Oh…" Youmu uttered as Yuyuko cleared up a misunderstanding.

"While I'm glad that you don't want to kill me here and now, I think I'd rather stay right here."

"Well, at the moment, I believe this place is somewhat livelier than my garden…" Yuyuko nodded in acknowledgement. "But it's a nice place. So calm, yet so bustling… And no, we have no crazy fairies there, unfortunately~."

"Why unfortunately, Yuyuko-sama?" Youmu scratched her head in puzzlement. "Be glad that we don't have them."

"I'm saying so because if we had that kind of fairies in the Netherworld, you wouldn't cut down so many ghosts with that sword of yours and you'd be busy keeping the fairies away instead."

Striking at Youmu's sensitive strings in a teasing way was one of Yuyuko's favorite hobbies, and reminding her servant of her bad habits was one way to achieve an insecure expression on the half-ghost's face.

"Like I said, Yuyuko-sama." spoke the silver haired girl in response. "Be glad we don't have to put up with such annoyances."

"It's still a sad thing what happened to Alice-san, isn't it?" remarked Yuyuko, slightly changing the subject.

"It's really a shame…" Youmu agreed with her mistress for a change. "Though the fairy incident does not concern us directly, we better keep a closer look on the development of the situation."

"Are you sure you're not just looking for an excuse for visiting Gensokyo more often so you could avoid tending the gardens and listening to my musings~?"

"No, Yuyuko-sama." Youmu's voice reflected the seriousness of her expression. "I'm talking about both of us. We should come here more often than just during festive days. At least until the incident gets resolved… And if need be, I'm willing to aid Reimu and others in its resolution."

"Oh my~. Such dedication. Do you owe Reimu a favor or something?" the whimsical princess continued in her teasing attempt, but Youmu was prepared with a counter-response as sharp and true as her blades.

"Yuyuko-sama… This incident very likely involves Yukari-sama, and if my memory serves, the two of you have been best friends for over a millennium. Reimu-san is likewise a very good friend of Yukari-sama's, as far as I know. Now tell me, Yuyuko-sama, is it really so unusual if two friends help each other out in a time of need?"

A rare moment when Yuyuko actually couldn't think of any funny retorts to ridicule Youmu took place. Her smile faded, giving way to a serious expression, not often seen on her face. Youmu's words apparently took their effect on Yuyuko's psyche. Despite the fact that there was no physical heart beating in her chest, she still had it and much kinder than most living humans.

"Youmu…" she gently whispered her gardener's name as her typical sweet smile stretched over her lips again. "I'm so glad that I have you. Of course… you are right. Friends should be a support for each other. And while I'm fully confident in Reimu-san's ability to resolve the current incident, I'll be there to help her, should she need it."

"I'm sure she'd appreciate it." Youmu copied the smile of her mistress and even her ghost half brightened up a bit.

"But that doesn't mean we'll let her win today's competition easily~." Yuyuko playfully remarked and covered her mouth with her fan as she giggled.

"The matches including the team battles are completely randomized, though. We might even end up standing against each other, Yuyuko-sama."

The ghostly beauty seemed to be pleasantly surprised. "Really? But that's even more interesting, Youmu~. What will you do if that scenario indeed happens? Perhaps you'll hesitate, or perhaps you'll want to vent your pent-up anger on me and attack me without mercy…"

"Was that supposed to be a joke, Yuyuko-sama?" Youmu quizzically eyed her mistress. "Sometimes I just completely fail to understand you. Why do you think I should be angry at you?"

Even though she has served her for several decades as her loyal gardener, bodyguard and swordsmanship instructor, the thought patterns of Princess Yuyuko always seemed to be far beyond her own logical grasp. While Yuyuko-sama in many aspects resembled her youkai friend, Yukari; Youmu, on the other hand, was much more of a straightforward, down-to-earth personality. Mutual misunderstandings between the two were pretty much a daily stereotype, but despite them, or perhaps because of them, Youmu learned to like her mistress and her personality. Yuyuko always seemed to have treated Youmu as someone more than just a mere servant and even when she enjoyed verbally teasing her, she deeply cared for her.

As Kyouichi kept listening to their conversation, he realized that a certain similarity existed between them and the pair of Remilia and Sakuya. Perhaps the saying "opposites attract" was more truthful than one would think…

* * *

"Oh, look, Youmu~!" the ghost princess suddenly pointed her fan slightly above the level of the stage. Three humanoid shadows, barely visible in the dark evening sky were making their way through the air towards the shrine. They arrived from the east, which would indicate that they came from "beyond the barrier", if the Great Boundary was a physical field of invisible force. However, even Kyouichi knew that was not the case. And even despite the fact that the shrine marked the easternmost edge of Gensokyo, one could still venture eastwards from there, although with serious navigation difficulties… If one was to take this knowledge to the extreme, than it could be incorrectly assumed that even the back yard of the Hakurei Shrine with all the spectators and performers on stage was in fact already behind this border, and thus, technically outside of Gensokyo. But the barrier's true nature was pretty much still mostly shrouded in mystery to most of Gensokyo's denizens. Few knew its secrets, and fewer still knew their way around the borderline areas.

As the trio of shadowy figures drew closer to the shrine, attracted by all the lights, sounds and smells, Aya was already waving at them. The tengu's eyes had apparently no problems recognizing these mysterious figures even despite the lack of natural light and the significant distance.

"The last of the contestants are finally here, it seems." Youmu commented the situation.

Once they were close enough, even the short-sighted Kyouichi recognized at least one of them before they made their landing.

A shorter girl, not too dissimilar to Youmu in both her height and hair length made a careful descent onto the sacred shrine ground in sync with her two companions. Clad in a light-blue blouse and light-pink flower-patterned skirt, this purple-haired girl was unmistakably the resident and mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits – Satori Komeiji. Who were the other two girls, however, Kyouichi dared not even guess. Then Reimu's voice interrupted his moment of contemplation.

"What the HELL?!" she shouted out and pointed at one of the girls standing next to Satori.

The tall girl responded with an innocently puzzled expression. "Unyu?"

She had a very interesting appearance that made her stand out even among the youkai. Aside from her impressively tall stature and waist-long hair as dark as the night, a pair of large black feathery wings protruded out of her back. She wore a white short-sleeved shirt with green hems along the buttons and collar, a short green skirt and a large hair ribbon of the same color. Her long cape was probably the most eye-catching piece of clothing Kyouichi has ever seen. Its outer side was plain white, but its inner side looked like a window to space – a beautiful starry sky pattern could be seen whenever this girl lifted her wings up a bit. As if that wasn't already enough to make her easily noticeable, right in the middle of her chest she had a red oval-shaped gem about the size of an open hand. The outsider wasn't quite sure whether this gem was a part of the girl's shirt or her body. At first glance it appeared that she was holding some sort of ocher hexagonal rod, but a closer look revealed that this mysterious object was attached to her right arm and gave away the impression of some sort of weapon. Finally, after shifting his gaze lower and admiring the beauty of her legs, the outsider noticed that her right foot was encased in something that looked like dried concrete, while her left foot, was being orbited by some tiny bluish particles of energy. She'd be really hard to miss, even if she was standing in the middle of the crowd of youkai and humans.

Reimu didn't look just surprised to see her there, she looked as though as her worst nightmare has come to life.

"Satori! You were supposed to come here with your sister and your cat. Why have you dragged HER here?!" she shouted the question at Satori while pointing unsteadily at the winged girl.

"Yes, I know and I apologize." replied Satori and bowed lightly to the shrine maiden. "But unfortunately, Koishi wanted to go to the Moriya Shrine and brought Orin along with her. So as an alternative, I took Okuu and asked Yuugi-san whether she'd like to come to the surface…"

The other girl with long straight fair hair was obviously a youkai as well. A single red horn extended roughly 30 centimeters out of her forehead. Her clothing consisted of a short-sleeved red-trimmed white shirt and a purplish semi-transparent skirt with red vertical stripes and trim. She wore a pair of geta sandals on her bare feet and both her wrists and ankles were shackled, but the chains on those shackles were torn apart or broken. Judging by her appearance, Kyouichi assumed she was an oni, which was confirmed just a moment later. Suika came running to her with her arms spread wide. "I can't believe it~! Yuugi! Hahaaaaa! You came up to the surface! This calls for a celebration!"

The shrine maiden, however, didn't feel much like celebrating. On the contrary, the presence of the winged black-haired youkai girl didn't please her at all.

"I can't let her compete in the tournament; she'll vaporize my shrine!" Reimu loudly protested.

"Don't worry, Reimu-san. I've told her to behave well." Satori defended her intentions. "Isn't that right, Okuu?"

"Yes, Satori-sama~!" replied the tall girl obediently and excitedly waved her wings up and down while putting on a lovely smile.

"Just like you told her last time when she got out of control and wanted to blast her way to the surface?"

"I've already told you that Okuu learned to control her new power better and I helped her control her temper."

"But she's still the same birdbrain as ever! Letting her fight a danmaku duel would end up worse than letting all those crazy fairies ravage Gensokyo as they pleased."

"I assure you that Okuu won't harm anyone or destroy anything while under my supervision." Satori promised.

"Oi, come on, Reimu~!" Marisa stepped into the argument. "You've already let Rumia compete despite your misgivings. Show some sportsmanship and let her sign up too. We already have one crow in the tournament anyway…" she glanced over at Aya.

The shrine maiden turned to the witch and sighed. "Look, I have nothing against a good battle, but with this one, these battles should really be held in areas with minimum possible collateral damage."

"It seems they don't trust you, Okuu…" Satori said to the winged girl. "Remember what I taught you about humans and their trust?"

"That it's hard to earn and easy to break?" Okuu answered a bit uncertainly, but correctly.

"That's right." muttered the mind-reading youkai and asked Okuu to lean forward. When the tall girl did as she was asked, Satori then praisingly patted her head, as if she was her pet.

Okuu closed her eyes and smiled widely. "Unyuuu~ ."

"And do you remember, Okuu, about the last time that I scolded you?" Satori asked another question.

"The last time you scolded me… Yes."

"Tell me, what did I scold you for?"

Okuu thoughtfully hummed for a while and then as her expression suddenly changed to an excited one, she replied: "That I shouldn't use Giga Flare for reheating food…"

"Ehh… no, Okuu-chan, I mean BEFORE that."

"That was… erm… uh… about not using my power to set the surface world on fire?"

"Yes, exactly that." Satori made a confirmatory nod. "You've tried to do something very bad, Okuu, that's why now Reimu-san doesn't trust you. But I know that you are not a bad girl, Okuu. You only needed to be shown the right way, since you didn't know what to do with your immense power. You might have broken Reimu's trust, but not mine."

"What should I do then, Satori-sama?"

"Exactly what I told you today. I can help you take your first step, but to show Reimu-san and everyone else that you are a good girl, you must keep your power as weak as possible…"

"I can do that, I practiced~." declared the winged girl proudly, again flapping her wings excitedly.

"I'm going to convince Reimu with words, but you, Okuu, you need to convince her with actions." and after saying those words, Satori turned to Reimu who was just in the middle of an opinion exchange with Marisa.

"I've already told you, Marisa, I don't want to risk a disaster!"

"There already are several youkai in our tournament with at least equal power to that bird. And I'm sure the spectators will enjoy seeing her in action."

"Provided there will be any spectators left alive."

"Sure there will!" Marisa reassured her. "Yuyuko is already dead, Kaguya and Eirin are immortal, and so are all the fairies, hehe."

"I bet you wouldn't have such funny remarks if the tournament was taking place behind YOUR house."

"Um… excuse me." Satori stopped the arguing girls.

"What now?" Reimu looked down at her with crossed arms.

"Perhaps a demonstration of Okuu's danmaku will convince you to allow her to participate."

"I don't even want to…" Reimu was about to resolutely protest against Satori's suggestion, but the young mind-reader spoke again before the shrine maiden could finish.

"Who said that this demonstration has to take place here? Let us ascend high into the sky if you fear for the safety of your precious shrine so much. Even though that is completely unnecessary…"

Satori's suggestion certainly made Reimu's mind race as the young shrine maiden began weighing her options. Though she still dreaded the thought of her shrine being burned down, a Spell Card demonstration in high altitude sounded reasonable enough to make her agree after a long while of thinking.

"Fine…" she threw a mistrustful glance at the tall winged girl. "I'll allow you to demonstrate, but if your spells will turn out to be too dangerous, you can forget about participating."

"I'll show you that I don't need to use full power to win danmaku duels." said Okuu confidently and jetted off into the evening sky. Satori and Reimu followed suit and rapidly ascended until the distance to the ground below them was approximately two thousand meters.

"I think we're about to see some lovely fireworks, Youmu~." Yuyuko remarked with her eyes fixed at the three tiny black dots in the sky.

"I think they are a bit too high for us to see well." Youmu dismissively waved her hand and resumed watching the concert of the Prismriver sisters.

"If the tournament battles are all going to be like this, I might as well buy myself a telescope." said Kyouichi as he blankly stared at the sky.

What he was about to witness, however, would probably be better observed with a welding mask rather than a telescope…

* * *

"Alright, hell bird…" Reimu scornfully addressed Okuu as they faced each other. "Show me what you've got!"

Satori was hovering further away, watching the two girls with anticipation.

Okuu grinned at the taunt and her red gem began glowing brighter. "One fried shrine maiden, coming right up~!"

Figuring that she probably shouldn't stand so close to her opponent, Reimu instinctively flew backwards to get herself to a safer distance.

Okuu didn't wait to demonstrate her first Spell Card. "Atomic Fire "Nuclear Fusion"!"

The activation of her Spell Card triggered a loud repetitive blaring sound sound that Reimu couldn't compare to anything. It was loud enough to be heard even from the shrine yard.

"Did I just hear some kind of claxon?" Kyouichi curiously tilted his head to the side so that his ear would be a little closer to the sound source. Not that it helped him, though.

A bright glowing sign in the sky was also created by the card's declaration. While illegible from the ground, Reimu clearly saw it shining behind her opponent.

The sign read: " CAUTION! "

As the card in Okuu's hand turned into a bright-orange orb, tens of similar orbs began appearing around her and slowly began moving towards the shrine maiden. At first, this pattern didn't look dangerous or difficult, but that quickly changed as the fiery orbs kept swelling and accelerating. Just a few seconds was all it took for them to glow as brightly as miniature suns and Reimu quickly felt the rush of adrenaline as several of these orbs missed her by mere centimeters. In addition, dozens of much smaller bluish energy orbs were being shot out into all directions from the place where Okuu held her open-palmed hand raised.

"Whoa, whoa~! Okay, that's enough!" she shouted at her opponent after dodging another tight formation of mini suns. "There's no way I'm letting you compete with this! Your danmaku will surely burn my shrine!"

* * *

From the ground, Okuu's spell didn't look any less impressive and dangerous. Even the Prismriver sisters stopped playing as they turned their sights upwards at the series of dazzling flashes that were firing up the sky.

"Oh… my… god!" Kyouichi uttered with his mouth ajar. "The doomsday is finally here."

Yuyuko happily clapped her hands at the sight of the spectacle. "Lovely fireworks, aren't they, Youmu~ ?"

The half-ghost didn't find the light show in the sky as lovely as her mistress, though. "If that's supposed to be "keeping one's power as weak as possible", I don't even want to think what that youkai is capable of when she fights seriously."

"The lights are so pretty that it's making me hungry~!"

"Ugh… here we go again…" sighed Youmu with a tired-looking smile.

"Say, Youmu-san…" Kyouichi whispered into the half-ghost's ear. "How often do you have to cook per day?"

"Despite the way it seems, It's not that terrible. I simply cook more food at once. Just enough to feed a family of five… And even Yuyuko-sama cooks the food sometimes, though she always says…" Youmu's sentence was unexpectedly completed by the ghostly princess who overheard their whispering.

"…Youmu's cooking is much tastier than what I cook~."

The silver-haired girl instantly straightened up in shock. "Y-you heard me?!"

"Of course, my dear Youmu~!" she replied with her sweet melodic voice. "You can always hear well those who are close to you… Right~ ?"

Youmu's face reddened up slightly.

"Although I wonder what Reimu-san has to say to that other girl~."

* * *

Meanwhile, about two kilometers above the shrine, the intense danmaku fest continued. Okuu didn't stop her Spell Card even after Reimu's repeated requests. The shrine maiden was already running out of patience and thought that she had no other choice but to fight back and break the youkai's spell. But that's when Satori stepped into the fray and did the most unexpected thing…

"Don't worry, Reimu-san." she briefly shot a glance at Reimu with a faint smile spread over her lips. Then she threw herself into the infernal barrage and disappeared among the blazing orbs.

"What the hell are you doing?!" the shocked shrine maiden shouted in disbelief to what she just witnessed. Did the young satori maiden just commit a suicide? However crazy this idea sounded, it appeared just as if it indeed happened.

"Satori!" Reimu shouted hopelessly into the fiery chaos and as she feared, received no answer.

"Stop it already, you stupid raven!" she yelled at Okuu as she was reaching for her own Spell Card. "How dare you kill your mistress?! Dream Sign "Duplex Barrier"!"

Two large purple squares of light appeared around Reimu as she raised her hand and activated her card. These squares were not harmful danmaku, though. They simply outlined Reimu's barriers. The size of the smaller square could be around five meters, while the larger one could have its sides three times as large. Once the two barriers were in place, Reimu unleashed a very dense spiral pattern of red and white square charms. As soon as they touched the outline of the inner square, they disappeared and appeared on the inner walls of the outer square, flying towards Reimu. Then as they made contact with the inner square's outer wall, they finally appeared on the outer wall of the larger square, flying in dense wave-like formations in all directions. Additionally, Reimu was sending out short streams of these charms directly at her opponent to increase the hit probability of her spell. But that spell wasn't enough to break through Okuu's card. That's why Reimu needed to get close to her and "seal" her within one of the two squares to assure a certain hit. But doing so would put the shrine maiden at a great risk of being hit by the many blazing orbs. Focusing herself as much as possible on the trajectories of the nearest enemy danmaku and reading the paths of the further projectiles, Reimu weaved her way through all that hell, and with a bit of luck, she managed to get close enough to see Okuu's figure. One final daring push forward, and the dangerous youkai found herself trapped in the Duplex Barrier, receiving countless hits from Reimu's charms. With one loud *poof* the blinding fire orbs were no more and Reimu exhaled with relief that the giant ball of fire that was just about to hit her disappeared harmlessly.

Okuu, however, remained flying, as if nothing happened. She looked only a little puzzled.

"Unyu? So you wanted to demonstrate a card too?"

"Idiot!" a stinging slap of Reimu's palm landed on the youkai's cheek. "What have you done?! She always loved you and took care of you… and you just… you just…"

"Umm… hello? I'm over here, Reimu-san." Satori's voice came from behind the surprised shrine maiden.

"S-Satori?!" now the poor young miko was utterly confused. "I thought you were… And why did you even…? And now…" she couldn't formulate a single coherent sentence as her brain struggled to grasp what just happened.

"That hurt…" muttered the winged girl, who Satori addressed as Okuu as she rubbed her cheek.

Satori found Reimu's state of mind and facial expression as quite amusing. "To answer your question, I purposefully let myself get hit by Okuu's danmaku to show you that while it looks just as dangerous as ever, its power has been decreased to nearly harmless levels. Basically, nothing would happen even if you received repeated hits. Nothing worse than some light singes, anyway… At first I thought that letting Okuu use her Spell Card would be enough to convince you, but since you weren't getting hit, I decided to demonstrate on myself."

Reimu's words still remained stuck somewhere halfway between her brain and her mouth, as she just silently listened to Satori's explanation.

"Why don't you try getting hit by one of Okuu's shots as well if you don't believe me?"

"You can't seriously mean that…" Reimu finally spoke up again only to protest. "But since you got away unharmed…"

"Give her a chance. Please…" Satori pleaded with a humble expression.

"I think the craziness of those fairies must have rubbed off on me." the shrine maiden muttered to herself. "Hit me."

Satori's lips bent to a soft, but happy-looking smile, and as she gave a confirmatory nod to the raven youkai, another Spell Card was declared.

"Blazing Star "Fixed Star"!"

The same repetitive blaring sound echoed over the sky and the same warning sign appeared for a while behind Okuu's back.

Eight blinding fire orbs, similar to her previous spell, appeared around the caster. Immediately, they began moving in two separate orbits, becoming especially nasty to those who had problems with focusing on facing their opponent while evading sideways shots. To make things even harder, Okuu generated a steady stream of smaller yellow orbs in a symmetrical spiral-like pattern. While these individual patterns might not have been too difficult to evade by themselves, their combination was a real pain even for experienced danmaku fighters such as Reimu.

This time, however, the Hakurei shrine maiden decided not to make a slightest movement. She just hovered there, waiting to get hit by the first projectile that would come her way. And she didn't have to wait long. One of those giant mini-stars collided with her and completely enveloped her in its immensely bright light. It was a hot and not very pleasant sensation… But Reimu didn't end up with any injury on her body. Even her dress seemed to be still intact, not even catching a darker shade after the exposure to the fiery danmaku.

"Has the hell raven finally learned the fundamental idea behind the Spell Card battles?" thought the surprised shrine maiden as another dazzling orb of light approached her. Again, Reimu felt as if she had suddenly jumped into a hot spring, and her head became dizzy for a moment, but physically she was perfectly fine.

"You can stop already!"

And to Reimu's great surprise, the youkai girl ceased powering her spell.

"Alright…" the shrine maiden nodded to herself once her eyes readjusted to the darkness of the sky. "Let's get back to the shrine. I need to add you both to the list of contestants…"

"Unyu? Does that mean…?"

"You convinced her, Okuu." Satori flew over to her and gave her another praiseful pat on the head. "You can compete too. I'm so glad for you, Okuu."

"Yaaay~! Now I can fight in the tournament and burn the whole world down~!" Rejoiced the raven girl childishly.

Satori shook her head as she breathed a sigh. "Uhh… Maybe I should have left you stay in the underground after all…"

"Why? Satori-sama?" Okuu asked as she followed her mistress in a fast descent back to the ground. "You don't want to burn the world down?"

"Of course not! What's with that idea anyway? From what I see, you heard some voice in your dream… But the voice said nothing about burning the world down."

"The voice…" Okuu repeated and dove into her thoughts. "It spoke only once… Before I got my amazing power. It told me how to gain it… and how to use it…"

"Yes, I know." muttered the young satori, who knew well about Okuu's dream and her rise to power. "But you already know how to put your power to good use. And whoever that voice was, it didn't want you to destroy. It wanted you to fuel creation…"

"And to win a danmaku tournament~!" Okuu cheerfully completed the statement, already looking forward to the duels that awaited her.

Satori giggled weakly. "If you combine your power with the right strategy, you just might…"

"Umm… Satori-sama?" asked the hell raven timidly, just a while before they would reach the ground. "What's a strategy?"

* * *

"And they're back already…" said Youmu as the three girls landed where they had taken off from.

"I can already guess that the tall one is going to be banned from the tournament." Kyouichi made his assumption based on what he saw taking place in the sky.

All he saw now, however, was Reimu walking towards the shrine. She went to fetch her list of contestants, and as she was passing by, Kyouichi couldn't help but to ask her what happened.

Reimu's reply was terse. "We can begin after the concert."

"Wait… you're letting that… Armageddon girl participate?! What about our safety?!"

"No worries…" she waved her palm as she entered the shrine.

"No worries?! What the hell?!" Kyouichi couldn't understand Reimu's calm and carefree demeanor. "Did Satori just mind-control her or something?"

"Good evening…" the mind reading youkai greeted the group of girls as she was walking towards them. She also wanted to take a seat on the shrine's porch. The tall black-winged girl followed her with a happy-looking face and also greeted everyone.

"Who is that youkai anyway?" Kyouichi muttered his question.

"I don't know." Youmu shrugged cluelessly. "I don't even know who the other two are."

"Can we take a seat next to you?" Satori politely asked Yuyuko.

"Why of course you can~ ." the lovely ghost welcomed her heartily. "Nice to meet you~. I'm Yuyuko and this is…"

"Konpaku Youmu…" Satori finished instead of Yuyuko and bowed to the half-ghost.

"Oh~. Youmu, why didn't you say you already knew this girl~?"

"Because I don't…" she replied as her face slightly reddened from the awkward moment.

"Komeiji Satori." smiled the short purple-haired girl and bowed once more. "Nice to meet you both."

"Uh… h-hello, Satori-sama…" Kyouichi shyly peeked out from behind Youmu's ghostly half to greet her.

"Ah, we already met once… Ishimaru Kyouichi." Satori immediately recognized the human's mind and appearance. It didn't take her long to read his current thought process and give an answer to his yet unasked question. "But I've already told you about Okuu, I'm sure of it…" she said as she gestured at the girl standing right behind her.

"Unyu?" Okuu tilted her head to the side as she donned her puzzled, but quite endearing expression.

"Have you?" the outsider was just about as confused as the tall youkai.

"It's there, alright…" the satori pointed her slender finger at his head. "Search your memory a bit."

"Hmm…" Kyouichi tried to recall the time when he met the mind-reader from the underground for the first time. "Okuu… Okuu… Didn't you say she's your… ehh… pet?"

Satori's light smile confirmed his uncertain recollection. "The yatagarasu hell raven. Her real name is Utsuho Reiuji, but I always just call her Okuu. She provides the heat for the furnace in the Hell of Blazing Fires."

"I… I think I remember something… faintly."

Satori giggled at the thought that played out in Kyouichi's mind, since his mental image of a hell raven was nothing like what he saw standing and smiling behind the mind-reading youkai.

"I can see some intense fear in your heart, Kyouichi…" she continued her observation of his mind. "Stay calm. Okuu is actually harmless, unless provoked."

"If you say so…"

"Hello to you too, Okuu-chan~ ." Yuyuko sweetly smiled and waved her hand. "I liked the fireworks that you made a while ago. Why don't you both take a seat next to us?" she invited them and softly tapped the wooden floor by her right side.

"Thank you, Yuyuko-san." Satori accepted and seated herself next to the ghostly princess. Immediately, a lively conversation between them ensued. Even when Yuyuko figured that her mind was being read, she still kept talking and explaining everything like to any normal person. It was nice seeing complete strangers becoming acquainted so quickly and naturally.

"Oh… So this is really your first time at a festival~?" Yuyuko surprisedly looked at Satori and her pet.

"Mhm." nodded the mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits. "And I haven't been much above ground either, unlike my younger sister."

"I used to play above ground from time to time." Okuu picked up on the topic. "When we were little, we often went on adventures with Orin together. It was before we met Satori-sama."

"Well, it's true that I don't come to the world of the living very often, but I love festivals~."

"And food." added Youmu.

As time went by, the conversation progressed to the point when they began discussing their personal lives and interests. Then Satori suddenly widened all of her eyes as she saw an interesting fact in the mind of the ghostly princess.

"Excuse me, but… You really are… Yakumo Yukari's best friend…"

"Yes~ ." she replied positively.

"The one that made an agreement between underground and surface youkai… And the one that I was asked to find with the help of an amulet by Hakurei Reimu."

"Oh, you know Yukari too~? How wonderful…" the princess joyfully clapped her hands. "I only wonder what better program she has that she isn't interested even in coming to this wonderful festival."

"I'm afraid that not even I know the answer to that." said the satori thoughtfully.

"And she used to love festivals, and flower viewings, and moon watching too…" Yuyuko continued with a spacey look. "Hope she comes home soon… Oh…" she suddenly turned away from Satori and focused her hearing sense. "They're playing my favorite song~. Let's get closer to the stage, Youmu."

"As you wish, Yuyuko-sama." the samurai half-ghost would follow almost any order and whim of her beautiful mistress.

"Aren't you going to take a closer look too, Satori-san?" asked the pink-haired ethereal princess. "The Prismriver Ensemble is the best music band in Gensokyo."

Satori hesitated for a moment, but made a positive nod and followed them to the stage.

* * *

Now it was just Kyouichi and the yatagarasu hell raven sitting on the shrine's wooden walkway. Despite Satori's reassuring words about her pet, the outsider felt very insecure to be even near her. From her danmaku demonstration, it seemed that this youkai could be about as dangerous as an unstable Russian high-yield nuclear warhead. The fact that she noticed him now and stared at him in silent curiosity didn't help either. He immediately stood up and trotted after the distancing figures of Yuyuko, Youmu and Satori.

"Wait a sec…" he uttered when he caught up with them. "D-don't leave me alone with this thing…"

"Wait for me, Satori-sama~!" Utsuho apparently didn't want to be left alone and followed her mistress.

"On second thought," spoke the human, turning on his heel, "I think I better stay close to the shrine."

"Unyu? Did he forget something?" Okuu wondered as she watched Kyouichi's sudden change of mind.

* * *

The young outsider ran back to the shrine in hope of evading any potential danger. He saw his friends standing under one of the many lantern stands talking to some of the tournament contestants. At first he was overcome by an unnerving thought that they were making some dangerous friends, but when he saw that they were getting acquainted with Byakuren-sama, he sighed with relief. Byakuren Hijiri was known to be a very nice person, even considered a youkai messiah by many of the followers of her temple. There was apparently a larger group of youkai and humans surrounding her. Since Kyouichi never spoke with her personally, or even saw her up close, he wanted to take the chance and have a look as he approached his friends.

"What's up, people?" he addressed Dan, Soudai, Midori and other members of the club.

"Oh, there you are, club prez." Asakura Soudai beckoned at him as he spoke to the youkai monk. "Now we're complete. The so-called Transfer Students' Club… Or what's left of it anyway. Kamishirasawa-sensei came up with the name, you see… We were all desperate to find a way back home, so we needed to organize ourselves somehow. A school club seemed like a good idea, and so… here we are."

"That's very interesting." said Byakuren as she listened to Soudai's story. Kyouichi silently observed her with reverence. Not only her deeds were worthy of one's respect, but her beauty as well. Now Kyouichi realized that her hair was actually gradient. Purple near the scalp and light-brown over the remaining length of her hair. When he saw her for the first time, he also noticed this anomaly, but thought it to be caused by the purplish light radiating from her magic scroll which she used in her ceremonies.

"Good evening, Byakuren-sama." Kyouichi quickly remembered his manners and snapped out of his reveries. "A real pleasure to meet you in person…" his greeting was followed by a deep bow.

"Likewise." Byakuren smiled and returned her greeting. "So you are the president of the club consisting only of people from the outside world?"

"Yes, Ishimaru Kyouichi, unless my friends here already mentioned my name… And I hope that Soudai wasn't bothering you too much."

"When was the last time that I bothered ANYONE, Ishimaru?" Soudai poutingly asked his friend.

"Well, think a little. It wasn't too long ago..." Kyouichi murmured a retort which no one else could hear.

"No, it was a very interesting story." Byakuren shook her head in response to his last statement. "I feel it to be my duty to be helping others in a time of need, but regretfully, I do not know how to get to this… Tokyo place. And I have never met Yakumo-san before, so I can't really help you much with that either…"

"That's alright, Byakuren-sama, there's already someone helping us with our little problem." he replied and shot a short glance at the Hakurei Shrine. "But we appreciate your good will."

Byakuren understood who that person was. "Hakurei-san, huh?"

"Yes…" the outsider and his friends nodded affirmatively. "Now that I think about it… You two have almost identical roles in Gensokyo, don't you? But, of course, the religion you follow is different… Do you get along or…?"

"You are indeed correct that our roles are similar." the Buddhist monk expressed her agreement with a smile. "Both Reimu-san and I are mediators between the gods which we serve and the people which believe in them. Sometimes even to those who don't believe… Another trait that we share in common is that we treat everyone equally."

"Really?" Kyouichi raised his eyebrow. "I probably wouldn't have claimed that about Reimu…"

"The truth is that I feel the same amount of love for everyone, human or youkai. Reimu-san also treats everyone equally, though her ways and perception of others differ from my own, just as our religions do."

"Perhaps I just know her too little to testify that. True, I've seen her get along well with some youkai, but not with all of them, that's for sure."

"Oh, but the way we treat individual people has only little to do with how we get along with them, Kyouichi-san. The same thing is true for me, as it is true for you, or Reimu-san, or anyone else… It's not just about how you perceive others, but about how they perceive you and how they act to you that determines your relationship with them. Even when I treat everyone the same, it doesn't mean that I get along well with everyone."

"And do you get along with Reimu?" Kyouichi returned to his unanswered question.

"I have nothing against her. In fact, I believe our relationship has improved slightly in the light of recent events. What she thinks of me, however, I do not know with certainty…"

"Recent events?" the outsider wondered which events could Byakuren be referring to.

"The forest fires, the trip to the underground and the Grand Fairy Regulation Initiative." the beautiful monk specified. "I cooperated with Reimu-san during these events… The fact that I even received an invitation to the festival and the tournament tells me that Reimu-san's opinion of me must have changed for the better, despite what happened in our first meeting."

"Why does she have to fight everyone first before becoming friendly with someone?"

"Because she treats everyone equally." Byakuren repeated what she already said.

"Guess I can count myself lucky that I haven't received the same kind of treatment when we got acquainted."

"Reimu-san has no reason to treat anyone with hostility unless she suspects them of something, or unless someone stands in her way during an incident."

"I should keep that in mind…" Kyouichi made a note to himself, since he knew that Reimu still hasn't resolved the fairy attacks or Yukari Yakumo's disappearance.

"From what your friends have told me, you people plan to leave Gensokyo with Reimu-san's help, but the village council doesn't approve of that…"

"We are currently working on a plan to get to the shrine undetected by the militia. I also managed to convince Reimu to use her storehouse over there to stash our traveling equipment. That should make things easier."

"In that case, I wish you all a safe trip home." said Byakuren to the entire group of outsiders. "Make sure you all stop by the Temple of Myouren so I could give you my blessings on the day of your departure."

"We will, Byakuren-sama, we will." Kyouichi nodded to her suggestion. "It just occurred to me, but… why is your temple called the Temple of Myouren? Why not Temple of Byakuren?"

"Because Myouren Hijiri was my dear younger brother. We were both monks working together. But when he unexpectedly passed away, I became… uncertain. I even began to question some of Buddha's teachings and did something which could be considered "straying from one's path"… I began studying magic and dark arts… I delved so deep into the magic, that I could no longer be considered human. But even when I learned how to use magic to my benefit, I was concerned that even that power might eventually fade away. That's when I began searching for youkai and those who needed help, I assisted. My intentions were not completely selfless. I was afraid to die. That's why I tried to find all the secrets of longevity or possibly eternal youth. Since youkai were known to live much longer than humans, I wanted to learn their secrets… I led two lives from then on. On one hand I was a monk, preaching to the people and claiming to be a youkai exterminator, and on the other hand I was protecting the youkai from humans who hunted them. I tried to keep the latter part of my life in secrecy, but it was only a matter of time before the truth about me would surface and become widely known. While I did achieve what I strived for, I became shunned, later feared and finally hated by the humans."

"You became a youkai to prolong your life?"

"That's right. Through the study of magic, I became a youkai magician. Perhaps you've heard of Alice Margatroid-san or Patchouli Knowledge-san… In essence, I'm the same as them."

"And the humans hated you because of that?"

"Oh, yes." Byakuren smiled wistfully. "They didn't share my visions of peaceful coexistence between humans and youkai and since I was a youkai myself, they naturally took my words as an insult... as blasphemy. As a punishment for my sins, they had me sealed away in the world of demons – in Makai. I was supposed to remain there forever, but… things happened and now I'm here."

"I heard about that incident from one year ago." Kyouichi nodded knowingly. "The Palanquin Ship… That ship was converted into the Temple of Myouren. I also read about it in the chronicle."

"Yes, the chronicle… I needed to study it too, since I spent the last thousand years in Makai." the female monk remembered her reintegration into the world. "It turned out that I owe my freedom to not only my loyal youkai followers and Reimu-san, but also to a certain youkai from the underground…"

"From the underground? Satori-sama?"

"No." the smiling monk shook her head gently. "You could see her up in the sky not too long ago…"

"Wait… You can't possibly mean…"

"Reiuji Utsuho-san."

Kyouichi disbelievingly opened his mouth. "H-how in the world did a hell raven help you break out of Makai?"

This time Byakuren shot a puzzled glance at him. "Didn't you just say that you studied the Gensokyo Chronicle, Kyouichi-san?"

"Not thoroughly." he admitted humbly.

"I see. Well, in that case, I can tell you a short version of an incident that preceded my liberation…" Byakuren took a deep breath and began her very own short history lesson.

"Two years ago, in 123, a new geyser erupted from the underground, not too far from here. That would be nothing unusual if the hot water and subterranean gasses were the only thing that made their way to the surface. Lots of evil spirits emerged from the geyser as well, and naturally, it didn't take long for the Hakurei shrine maiden to notice them and trace their source. She decided to investigate the underground in order to stop these spirits from swarming the area. During her way down, she came across the Ancient City and eventually the Former Hell. By the way… I've been there too recently, so I know… At the center of Former Hell, there's a mansion known as…"

"The Palace of the Earth Spirits." Kyouichi finished Byakuren's sentence. "So that's probably when Reimu first met Satori… And battled against her…"

"Yes, but Satori-san was not the cause of the trouble Reimu spoke of. It later turned out that one of her pets, a certain hell raven has suddenly gained an incredible new power that has reignited the Hell of Blazing Fires. The geyser near the Hakurei Shrine was a result of this hell raven's activity. The earth spirits, which still remained in Former Hell, had free access to the surface. But these souls wouldn't know about it, had they not been deliberately sent to the surface by another one of Satori-san's pets."

"So Reimu had to take care of these two troublesome pets, huh?"

"From what I read in the chronicle, only one pet was truly troublesome, though. The other one, a kasha, Rin Kaenbyou, was tasked by her mistress to oversee the spirits in the Hell of Blazing Fires and to do what all kasha do best - carry the corpses of sinners down to Hell and burn them to keep the fires lit. This kasha, being a good friend with the hell raven, was terrified by her friend's new power and her insane plan, so she drove the earth spirits to the surface in order to stir up an incident and get some powerful youkai to come down and help her."

"And that "youkai" was Reimu."

"Even when Reimu-san was no youkai, she still managed to do her job well and prevented the hell raven from achieving her plans of conquering the surface world."

"And now that hell raven is here… What was Satori-sama thinking to bring her here? And even let her fight…"

"Who knows?" Byakuren rested her finger on her chin in a thoughtful moment. "But if it hadn't been for Reiuji-san, I would still be sealed away in Hokkai."

Kyouichi's mind was still rather confused. "I still don't see how does that earth spirit incident relate to the Palanquin Ship incident."

"Simply." the youkai monk bent her lips in a smile. "The sudden rise of temperature in the Former Hell caused the geyser, which flushed out the sealed-away Palanquin Ship along with its crew up above the ground."

"Uhh… Oh…"

"Still confused, I see." Byakuren commented the look on Kyouichi's face. "I bet you're asking yourself: "How did a flying ship end up in the underground in the first place?""

"Good guess, Sato… uhh… I mean, Byakuren-sama." the outsider quickly corrected himself.

Byakuren's eyes appeared to be staring at some unknown point in the distance as she dove into her memories. "The history of that ship and of my beloved youkai friends dates back to the times when I could still be called a human being… My youkai followers are all here, but most of them are randomly wandering about, probably having fun at some game stalls or perhaps they're somewhere in that crowd under the stage… This is Shou Toramaru…" she placed her hand on the shoulder of a youkai girl standing by her side. Like Byakuren, Shou's hair color was also rather intriguing. Her short blonde hair had occasional black stripes like the hide of a tiger.

"Nice to meet you all." she nodded and put on a smile brimming with confidence and charisma.

"I appointed Shou to serve at a temple dedicated to the god Bishamonten in order to gain the trust of the youkai dwelling in the mountains. Later on, a servant was assigned to Shou by Bishamonten… a mouse youkai called Nazrin… I bet she's scouring the shrine yard for dropped coins now… Then there's also Ichirin-san… If you see a girl followed by a strange pink cloud that appears to have a human face, you know you've met Ichirin Kumoi. She's a youkai who can communicate with and control nyuudou. Her companion, Unzan, follows her faithfully for many centuries. The origin of the Palanquin Ship, however, is connected to another of my followers… Minamitsu Murasa. Back when I was hiding the fact that I was a youkai from the humans, I was sent on a mission… That mission was to stop a vengeful ghost on the seas, who had gained much infamy for capsizing numerous ships. I boarded a ship and set sail to the open sea to confront the restless spirit… Minamitsu-san once told me that she had known that a famous monk was on her way to exterminate her and that by sinking my ship, she'd gain the power to spread her influence even farther or perhaps even break her connection to the ocean and would become able to attack the humans on land as well. When she appeared for the first time, she didn't talk much. She summoned her ghostly floating anchor and breached the hull of our ship. And as the water was flooding the ship's hold, she floated over to the ship's mast and used her ladle to flood the deck. Our ship went to the bottom like a brick. But I had known all about Murasa-san and her tragic death and knew that a direct battle with her would have been pointless. I wasn't proud of what I did, because on that day, the whole crew of my ship was lost to the sea. All except me."

"Whoa! That's harsh…" stated the outsider. "But how did you manage to survive?"

"I was already a youkai, remember?" the monk reminded him. "So Minamitsu-san sank the ship… I used my magic to hold my breath for long enough to reach the bottom and to build a shining new vessel which I intended to give the to the ghost as a gift. I built it in the shape of a ship that she died on and offered her to become its captain. She accepted the offer and became one of my most loyal followers."

"Wait a minute. So you let her sink your ship and kill the entire crew so that you could magically build a new ship for her and bribe her to join your cause? I think I'm starting to understand why the humans sealed you away…" his impression of the "youkai redeemer" now changed significantly.

"Kyouichi…" Midori gave him a warning look so that he wouldn't be rude to Byakuren.

"It's okay, Midori-san." Byakuren smiled reassuringly at her. "He's right… Because of this, I think that my imprisonment in Hokkai was well deserved. But sometimes you simply can't avoid making sacrifices, Kyouichi-san."

"You just said that you treated everyone equally. Why didn't you try to help those drowning people?"

"It was a very hard choice, believe me. But it was for the greater good."

"Greater good? What are you talking about?"

"A sacrifice that had to be made. Those sailors had all volunteered to take me to the ghost of Minamitsu Murasa, even when they knew about the danger that this voyage meant. Fighting the ghost would only serve to arouse her wrath, so there really was no hope for any of the crew members…"

"You knew that it was going to happen. You had this planned from the beginning, didn't you? If you knew that your ship was going to sink either way, why didn't you tell those men that they shouldn't come with you?"

"Because of two reasons, Kyouichi-san." replied Byakuren with a trace of guilt in her voice. "I knew nothing about sailing or navigation, so I couldn't get to Murasa-san on my own. And secondly, even if I could do it by myself, insisting on sailing to the open sea alone would make the people suspicious and I didn't want my youkai identity to go public."

"Then you could have simply declined that mission and save those sailors' lives." Kyouichi told her off like a condescending parent scolding a child.

"And allow the vengeful ghost to haunt the seas and capsize as many ships as she could?" Byakuren retorted flusteredly. "No! This was the only way and my only chance to put an end to her capsizing spree. The only chance to put her spirit at ease… And if you think that I'm not sorry for those sailors, you're greatly mistaken."

The outsider suddenly ran out of words. While he shunned Byakuren's act, he also silently admitted that her choice was more than well justified. It was really hard for him to imagine what must it have been like for the monk to make that decision and even harder to imagine how would he decide, were it him in Byakuren's position. Perhaps he was just a naïve idealist, thinking that there is always a way to resolve a conflict with both parties satisfied. That there always is the "golden middle path", that life wasn't merely about choosing the lesser evil… A very foolish, utopian idea of life, as he came to realize... And it was this conversation that had opened his eyes to the truth. Then he recalled when he was first told about Byakuren by the father of Marisa Kirisame… He was told that Byakuren had always strived to achieve peaceful and harmonic coexistence between humans and youkai. And he even remembered that he was skeptical towards this vision. No… Kyouichi was not an idealist. Right now, he was more or less being a hypocrite. Blaming Byakuren for letting her ship crew die in the ocean so that she could save hundreds or perhaps even thousands of lives in the long run was quite childish on his part. To judge others without giving their actions some thought – a trait common for most humans. The world was never a perfect place and neither were the people inhabiting it. Making mistakes has always been an inevitable part of life, and sometimes life traps people in a situation when they need to choose between making one mistake or an even bigger mistake.

"Would I really have what it takes to do the right thing? To make the right choice?" these and similar questions were resounding in Kyouichi's mind. "What gives me the right to pass judgement over others…?"

Everyone's a sinner. And the only ones with the true right to judge are the gods.

"I… I'm sorry, Byakuren-sama…" he bowed to her in apology.

"It's alright." Byakuren didn't seem to take his previous words as any form of offense. "I have no reason to hide the truth about my past from anyone. The good deeds and the bad ones. I'm really glad that people and youkai in Gensokyo were kind enough to accept me and still see me as a spiritual leader in spite of my past mistakes… The ship that I made for Minamitsu became later known as the Palanquin Ship."

"And this Minamitsu… she no longer kills humans?"

"She became a captain of her own ship and found a new meaning to her existence. No longer a slave to her grudge from the fate that she met at the sea, Captain Murasa became indebted to me. However, after my banishment to Makai, she suffered similar fate. Her ship was buried, and since her soul was tied to it, she became sealed away as well. But after the events in year 123, things were set into motion… It was she who navigated the ship through the skies of Gensokyo, through the depths of Makai, in order to free me… After I decided to settle down, and the ship was rebuilt into a temple, Minamitsu's duty became maintaining and protecting the temple. She even cooks for us every now and then… You'll see her in the tournament too. But right now it's just me, Shou and Nue standing here…"

"Nue?" Kyouichi shifted his look towards the shorter black-haired girl standing close to Byakuren and the tiger youkai.

"Hello there~! I'm Nue~!" she cheerfully smiled and waved her hand as she introduced herself. She almost seemed a bit mischievous for some reason. Then she revealed her asymmetrical wings which she was hiding behind her back in order to surprise the onlooking humans from the outside world. Some of the outsiders gasped in shock.

"Nue!" Byakuren looked at her scoldingly. "Please behave yourself."

"What the hell is that?!" Soudai took a step back.

"T-those are the second most intriguing-looking wings I've ever seen…" Kyouichi commented Nue's most distinctive body parts.

"Eeeh?! Second?" the girl was slightly surprised by his statement. "Who am I losing to?"

"I didn't mean that you're losing to someone…" Kyouichi tried to defuse her sharp glance. "I simply meant that I saw one vampire who also had a very interesting pair of wings and since I met her before you, I said that your wings are the second most interesting that I've seen…"

"I see…" the surprised youkai girl seemed to understand and sulked a bit.

"What about Mokou-san then?" Soudai reminded him of yet another person with a pair of wings that was certainly worthy of mentioning.

"Oh, yes… her…" Kyouichi nodded agreeingly. "Those wings were so "interesting" that they made us run for our lives…"

"Wait a minute." Midori joined the conversation. "Wasn't there a legendary creature called nue?"

"Like I said, I'm Nue~." the girl reintroduced herself, indicating that Midori's assumption was correct.

Midori thought that there was a slight misunderstanding. "No, I'm talking about a monster with the head of a monkey, body of a raccoon dog, legs of a tiger and a snake as a tail."

"Oh you mean like this?"

*poof*

A sudden flash of light and a cloud of white smoke appeared where Nue was standing and in her place… stood the mentioned beast from the legends, sitting on its hind legs and wagging its serpent tail like a dog.

"Yaaaah~!" the frightened Midori almost tripped and fell as she stepped back in terror.

"Uhh… should we run now?" Soudai asked Kyouichi as they exchanged glances.

"What did I tell you about behaving yourself Nue?" Byakuren crossed her arms as she talked to the beast.

*poof*

The beast was gone in a flash, returning back to her previous shape. "Come on~. It's not like I'm hurting anyone. It's been a while since I was playing that charade, hehe…"

"You're the mythical nue!" Midori still couldn't believe her own eyes and words.

"Hehe~." Nue giggled amusedly. "This used to be one of my favorite disguises, but some humans took my pranks a bit too seriously and began hunting me. Many humans have nearly killed me, so I chose to don other "masks" to save my life. But eventually, like a lot of dreaded youkai, they sealed me away in the underground, and like the flying ship, I was flushed up to the surface by a geyser…"

"Yes." Byakuren confirmed by a nod. "Nue-chan is an old youkai, but she's the most recent of the temple residents."

"I followed the ship out of curiosity, not originally knowing what was its crew planning. It turned out that they were on their way to revive Byakuren and for that they needed to assemble two treasures. The sacred pagoda of Bishamonten and the fragments of Tobikura. But as I said, I had no idea of that at that time. I just wanted to play a little prank so I planted the Seeds of Unknown Form into the fragments of Tobikura that subsequently scattered into the air. Then I saw a shrine maiden following the ship and collecting these fragments, thinking they were… something else. I just watched and occasionally showed up as a shiny orb to surprise her, but she was persistent… Then one of the ship's crew… the mouse youkai, found one of the treasures, while the shrine maiden had the other necessary part. And even though she intended to prevent the crew's plan, she decided to unseal Byakuren herself. Perhaps she was curious, perhaps she was paranoid… I don't know… But that day, Byakuren Hijiri was released from Makai and made her way to Gensokyo. Then I learned what kind of person she was… Treating all with kindness, even youkai such as myself… I became hesitant whether I should try to meet her, because my pranks might have even foiled the plan of her revival. But she really is a nice person." she paused and turned at the monk with a thankful smile. "And she kindly accepted me to live in the Temple of Myouren. Thank you again, Byakuren-sama."

"My pleasure, Nue-chan." Byakuren returned the smile and patted the youkai girl's dark disheveled hair. "But seriously, your gags might scare away some of the temple visitors…"

"But it's fun~…"

"So you're a shape-shifting beast?" Kyouichi still wasn't exactly sure of Nue's true nature.

"A youkai~! Not a beast." she corrected him poutingly. "But I can change into any form I want."

"So what you showed us a while ago is your original form?"

"Nooo~!" she vigorously shook her head and flailed her arms in denial. "Weren't you listening? That was just one of my many disguises… THIS is my true form~!"

"Oh… cool." he showed an approving thumbs up "But since you are the youkai from the legend… "nue" is your ehh… species; not your name right?"

"It's my name~. Nue. Houjuu Nue."

"And her species, yes…" added Byakuren with an affirmative nod.

"So in other words, you are a nue… called Nue." Kyouichi repeated just to make sure he got things right.

"Yes~!"

"A Nue-nue…"

"That's right~."

Kyouichi couldn't hold back his urge to chuckle any longer. "Hahahaha… Now who does this only remind me of?" he asked with a sarcastic tone. "Maybe you should shake hands with Satori-sama, since she is, who would have guessed it, a satori!"

"Already met her, yes…" Nue waved her palm. "We didn't talk much… At least I felt like I didn't need to talk much…"

"Hehe, yes, since she already knows what you're going to say. But I'd never think I'd meet another person who's name is identical with her youkai species."

"Well…" the youkai girl shrugged. "Here I am."

"Nue-nue… Hehe…" Kyouichi really liked the sound of it and found it somewhat cute. Then all of a sudden he began singing: "Nue-nue kyun, nue kyun, nue kyun-kyun~ …"

Nue stared at him with her mouth ajar and a blank expression. "…What… was that?"

"I suddenly see an image of Nue-san wearing a maid costume in my mind…" muttered Soudai, who recognized this short part of the song.

"Okay, sorry that was bad…" the outsider quickly apologized to her. "I just couldn't resist… But thank you all for bearing with us and telling us your story. It's really amazing how one thing can lead to another, isn't it?"

"That's right." said Byakuren. "Life really knows how to weave events together. I still haven't properly thanked Utsuho-san for causing that incident that led to my return…"

"Then you can do that tonight."

"Yes, I think I'll take this opportunity."

"I better keep my distance from that hell raven after seeing what she's capable of…"

"If you follow this kind of logic, Kyouichi-san, then you should probably keep your distance away from us too…" replied the Buddhist monk. "Not that I'd intend to frighten you… It's natural that people fear some youkai. Even more understandable in case of people who were born into a world that openly rejected the existence of magic. But at least I would like to be an exception for people like you that not all youkai need to be feared."

"Yes, we understand your point, Byakuren-sama." Soudai seemed to partially agree. "But since we are new here and don't know much about the youkai and their nature, we fear them all by default… As a sort of precaution… Even the club prez here constantly keeps reminding us not to address anyone we are not familiar with. Especially if they are youkai."

"And I perfectly understand your situation." said the monk and bestowed her compassionate smile upon the whole group of outsiders. "It must be a really tough place for people like you… But do you know how the locals sometimes call Gensokyo? Paradise… Really, it's true. They even sometimes refer to Hakurei-san as "the shrine maiden of paradise"… I once had a vision where youkai and humans lived together in peace and wanted to make at least the first step to make that impossible dream at least a little closer to becoming reality… But when I learned of how things go in Gensokyo, it warmed up my heart. It's almost like I had imagined my vision… almost. It's not perfect and I know that it can't be, but it's much better than how it used to be in the past. For people born in Gensokyo, the youkai don't necessarily represent mortal danger thanks to the Spell Card System. For people from the outer world, however, it's an entirely different story. That's the greatest flaw in the system and in Gensokyo itself, but like I already said - nothing can be perfect. I understand your desire to return to your homes, but know that some youkai may turn out to be better friends than humans ever could…"

"So basically, since we have no magic whatsoever, we are not included in any of the rules of the Spell Card System that forbids the youkai from eating even defeated humans." Kyouichi made a terse recapitulation. "In other words; what is not forbidden is allowed, and so, the youkai who love humans in gastronomical sense are not restricted by any means from hunting us and consuming us."

"That's the sad truth, Kyouichi-san. And thanks to meeting you, people, I realized that I still have a lot of work to do in order to change things for the better. For the sake of all the unfortunate spirited-away outsiders, I should do my best to make Gensokyo a less dangerous place."

"You really are a very sweet person, Byakuren-sama." Midori was touched by her kindness, even when she was trembling from Nue's show of power just a while ago. "But wouldn't it be better if people like us would have no way of being spirited away in the first place?"

"That, I'm afraid I cannot change, my child." Byakuren sadly lowered her head. "I can, however, try to use whatever influence I have to make at least some of the youkai more… open-minded and less hostile."

"That's… really commendable of you." Kyouichi also admired Byakuren's good will and determination. "I hope that future generations of outsiders will have less things to fear… But for me at least – the more things to fear in Gensokyo, the greater the motivation to return home."

"Still, this meeting with you people was very meaningful for me, and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor."

"As we wish you the best of luck in yours, Byakuren-sama…" Midori respectfully bowed before the monk and the other outsiders followed suit.

Byakuren was truly glad to have met these people and set herself yet another goal to strive for.

"Now that we all became acquainted, are you going to root for me in the tournament~?" she asked in a playful way.

"Of course!" feeling that she had just found a new idol in her life to follow, Midori exclaimed without hesitation.

"Heck, I'll be rooting for everyone!" Kyouichi replied more diplomatically. "Unless I get blasted away in the process. Stray danmaku seems to like me for some odd reason…"

"Oh~!" Nue suddenly pointed at him, as if she had recalled something.

"What is it, Nue?" Byakuren threw a curious glance her way.

"Weren't you in Eientei recently?" the shape-shifter asked, still pointing at the outsider's face.

"Why, yes… But… How do you know?"

"I knew your name sounded familiar."

The outsider was still without a clue. "Excuse me, but, I don't recall seeing you in Eientei. Unless you shape-shifted into someone else that is…"

"No, but when the forest fires broke out, I helped Byakuren-sama and others to put them out. Then I ran into one youkai who overused her spell in order to stop the fire and fainted, so we all went to Eientei to take her there and get some answers…"

"A girl who overused her spell?" Soudai found this information somehow oddly familiar. "Wait, wasn't Kogasa-chan in our Rehabilitation Ward treated because she used up all her energy?"

Kyouichi shrugged in response. "It's possible."

"Yes, yes~!" Nue nodded repeatedly. "The young karakasa girl. We brought her in and while we were in the ward, a witch named Marisa noticed your name written on one of the beds. I didn't know you, of course, but she seemed to remember."

"Did I look like a mummified corpse?" Kyouichi asked her just to be 100% certain.

"Sort of…" admitted the legendary youkai as she was suppressing her chuckle. "Stray danmaku, huh? Dangerous stuff… Really, I once got hit by a stray arrow. Well, okay, maybe it was a whole volley of arrows and several of them hit me in the back. Had to take a few days off from scaring humans. Yes… fun times…" she recounted her experience with a humorous tone.

"Well, I wasn't exactly asking that youkai to give me a headshot, but then again, maybe I did, since I chose such a poor excuse for cover during his Spell Card. Anyway… I feel better now… My friend, Soudai had much serious injuries and look at him now – good as new. All thanks to Eirin-sama's help."

Soudai's carefree smile was suddenly wiped away by the mention of the Lunarian doctor's name. "Ehh… yes… Eirin…" he looked nervously at his younger friend. "I just hope we won't meet her here."

* * *

As if he was asking for it to happen, a very loud applause spread across the shrine yard and the Prismriver sisters were bowing to the audience, having just finished the last of their songs of the first stage of their concert. After the wild crowds have calmed down a bit, people and youkai began massively moving further away from the stage. Everyone knew what was about to follow next. The long-awaited Tanabata Danmaku Tournament.

"Listen…" Kyouichi leaned close to Soudai's ear, because the crowd was very noisy. "Eirin is somewhere in that crowd. If we don't want to risk running into her, we ought to move somewhere else. All the tournament contestants will be assembling here shortly."

"I hear you, bro…" Soudai nodded affirmatively. "Luckily for us, I thought about this possibility and got us these!" He reached inside the paper bag which he was holding this entire time and took out two carnival masks. One of them was a long-nosed red tengu face and the other one looked like a face of some sort of aquatic creature.

"I won these at the ring tossing stall with Midori." he explained as he was putting on the tengu mask. "Go ahead, try it out."

As Kyouichi took the mask, he noticed it had a tiny slip attached on its inner side with information about the product and manufacturer.

"The Kappa King? What the hell…?"

Soudai just waved his palm to signify that Kyouichi should not concern himself with petty details. "Hey, I don't care if the kappa king looks like this or not, or if the kappa even have any king. Just put it on already. I'm getting this funny feeling that Eirin might show up around here any moment…"

And so, with a bantering expression, the young outsider put the mask on his face. "Wow… Who would have guessed it that the two of us would become youkai?"

"Suddenly I feel a bit safer for some reason."

"Yeah, just make sure you won't accidentally bump into Reimu with that thing on your face. Then we'd have a reason to look for Eirin instead of trying to avoid her."

Another bright-red danmaku signal was sent into the sky by the Hakurei shrine maiden. As the contestants were gathering near the shrine's rear entrance, the spectators were reassembling around the stage, keeping the necessary distance to increase their safety. Figuring out that it might be better to find a good spot before they all get occupied and to avoid running into the Lunarian doctor, they blended into the crowd and moved with the flow.

They didn't even cross ten meters when the older outsider with the tengu mask suddenly stopped in front of Kyouichi, who almost failed to evade a collision.

"What's up with you, Asakura? Your operating system froze?"

"K-Ka-Kaguya-sama~…" he mumbled through his mask without even turning his head.

Kyouichi knew that this wasn't a good omen. "What?! Kaguya? Where?"

"Kaguya-samaaaa~ ." Soudai was now in a completely different world. Not that his younger friend could blame him for admiring the impossibly beautiful Moon princess, but the last time he checked, she was accompanied by Eirin, and that meant trouble.

"Oi, Asakura…" Kyouichi desperately grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him up. "Snap out of it! If you see Kaguya, that means Eirin must be close. Just don't do anything dumb and act natural."

"But it's Kaguya-sama…" he kept repeating the same thing over and over like a broken record.

"I can seriously relate to your feelings, but we need to keep moving!" Kyouichi gave him a push in the back.

"Oh… Look there's also that bunny-nurse that was tending to us… Reisen…"

The fact that Kyouichi was running out of patience was being reflected on the tone of his words. "Yes, Asakura, you owe her your current soberness… Now get a move on!"

"Oh, my god… and that's her… Yagokoro Eirin." Soudai commented in a hushed voice as he was being pushed forward.

"Do you really want her to see us, dammit?! Just move along and keep your hollow head low!"

Finally, Soudai seemed to have come back to his senses and did the hardest thing in his life – he looked away from Kaguya Houraisan and kept walking forward. The two outsiders have successfully managed to evade confrontation with Eirin…

Or have they…?

* * *

"What is it, Reisen? Why are you suddenly stopping?" Eirin turned a curious glance at her apprentice. The Moon rabbit just suddenly slowed down and her rumpled rabbit ears twitched, as if they were tuning in to some kind of signal.

"I… I think I just heard someone call my name."

"Yes, that would be me, just a second ago."

Eirin's attempt to make a joking retort seemed to have landed on a barren soil, since the Moon rabbit's face remained serious.

"I would have sworn…"

"Maybe it's Reimu-san, wondering what's taking us so long to get to the meeting spot." Kaguya made her guess.

"No, my lady… It was a male voice from the crowd."

"What? A male voice?" Eirin smiled wryly at her. "You've become really popular among the villagers while you've been selling medicine to them… Nothing strange about that…"

"Probably not, Eirin-sensei, but… the voice sounded… like I've heard it somewhere before."

"Considering that the majority of the Human Village has come here to celebrate this festival, there's nothing unusual about running into some of your regular customers, Reisen."

Eirin had a point, as always. Reisen realized that even if her ears were not playing tricks on her, meeting someone familiar here and now would not be anything unusual.

"Let's go, already, Reisen. You know how the miko acts when you keep her waiting."

"Yes, Eirin-sensei…"

* * *

Just as the rabbit resumed her march towards the shrine, a loud girlish voice distracted her again. She knew that voice too, and this time, she was absolutely sure about the person it belonged to. It was a voice of a fairy who was recently discharged from Eientei…

"Hey~… What are you two funny-faced youkai doing, crouch-walking like that~? Playing hide-and-seek?"

"Oh, great, just what we needed…" muttered the annoyed Kyouichi when he ran into a blue-haired ice fairy.

"Huh? Cirno-chan?" Soudai looked curiously at her through his tengu mask.

"Hey? How do you know me?" wondered the fairy. "Oh, but of course… who DOESN'T know me? Cirno the strongest~!" she flexed her questionable muscles on her thin fairy arms. "But how come you talk without moving your lips? Are you perhaps… a ventriloquist~?"

"Shhhh~. Not so loud, Cirno-chan." Soudai tried to hush her boisterous voice. "It's us… from the Rehabilitation Ward." he moved his mask aside to reveal his face.

"Oh~!" Cirno's azure-blue eyes widened as she recognized him. "You're that human… uhh… from Eientei~! And you must be the other one." She looked at Kyouichi and pulled his mask to take a look.

"Hey… Let go of that…" *slap* "Ugh!" the fairy released the mask and the rubber band returned it painfully back to the outsider's face.

"It IS you~!" the fairy happily floated up and made a few circles around the two humans. "You bought us sweets last time! Do you have some more~? Huh? Huh? Do you?"

"Please, Cirno, calm down…" Kyouichi's attempt was just as futile as Soudai's. The excited ice fairy kept circling around them, hoping to receive some sweet treat. A different approach was necessary…

"Shoo, fairy! We don't have anything for you! Go bother someone else!"

Even though Kyouichi had nothing personal against her, the fairy was now attracting some unwanted attention, and so, he tried to shoo her off. But while doing so, he raised his voice a bit too high...

* * *

"Well, well, well…" spoke a mature female voice that made the hearts of both outsiders stop for a split second. "Who do we have, here…? It seems your hearing is as sharp as ever, Reisen."

The person they wanted to avoid the most was amusedly looking down at them together with her Moon rabbit student and the former Moon princess.

"Our two runaways have come here to celebrate too…" her smile sent chills running down the spines of the two humans.

"Exposed…" uttered Soudai hopelessly.

"Busted…" Kyouichi also made his one-word comment.

Even Cirno took off somewhere, leaving the two poor souls to face their problems alone. Both outsiders straightened up and took their masks off. There was no point in any attempts to deny their identity anymore. Then as the Lunarian doctor took a step towards them, the two humans took a step backwards.

Eirin took another step. And so did both outsiders. They kept retreating step by step, but Eirin just always closed the distance between them… And again, and again, and again, until their backs encountered the solid wall of the Hakurei Shrine.

"W-what the hell?!" Kyouichi tapped his hands against the barrier that would not let him and his friend retreat any further. "Oh no… It's the shrine…"

"What kind of monster would build a shrine behind our backs just to trap us?!" Soudai called out in desperation.

Reimu, who was waiting for the contestants just a few meters away noticed them and wondered what they were doing. "Hey… What's up with you two?"

"Reimu~! Our only hope!" Kyouichi hurried to her and hid behind her back.

"Help me~! Eirin~!" Soudai shouted and also took refuge behind the shrine maiden.

Still confused, Reimu glanced up at the group from Eientei with a face that silently demanded an explanation from them.

"I don't know why are you two overreacting so much." said the doctor. "As if I was going to hurt you…"

"Don't listen to her, Reimu-san!" Soudai pleadingly looked at the Hakurei shrine maiden. "That woman is dangerous! She's an alien spy sent down to Earth to extract data from live subjects!"

Both Kaguya and Eirin exchanged their amused glances before they both burst into laughter.

"Look, guys…" Reimu turned at the two cowering humans. "I'm in the middle of some important business here, and I really don't have any time for your outside world jokes."

"Did you know, Reimu-san," Eirin continued with her chillingly calm voice, "that the two young men behind you have run away from Eientei?"

"What?" Reimu naturally wasn't aware of this fact. "You two have run from Eientei? Are you both out of your minds?!"

"I'm frankly quite surprised that they even made it safely to the village through the bamboo forest. But somehow… I believe that it wasn't a coincidence."

"Now seriously…" Reimu crossed her arms and looked expectantly at the two outsiders. "Explain yourselves. Why would you do something as stupid as running away from Eientei of all places?"

"Okay, okay, okay,…" Kyouichi raised his both hands over his head as a sign of surrender. "I'll explain, I'll explain everything… Just please… No truth serums, Eirin-sama…"

"Truth serums?" the confused shrine maiden repeated after him.

"There's no need to explain yourself again, Kyouichi-san." Eirin said calmingly. "I already read your letter that explained it all."

Finally, the young outsider stopped seeing her smile as scary, but as rather… reassuring.

"I'm not going to bother you with any questions… And that truth serum was just a little… intimidation on my part. I'm sorry if I scared you both into running…"

"Don't listen to her, Kyouichi!" Soudai pulled the sleeve of his friend's kimono to get his attention. "She's just lying to fool us all."

"My, my, Asakura-san." Eirin amusedly shook her head at his remarks. "You seem to be even more frightened than your younger acquaintance… But rest assured, I have no ill intents towards any of you."

"So… wait a minute…" Reimu interrupted Eirin's explanation. "What exactly are we talking about?"

"As I've recently found out, Reimu-san, there's a person living in Gensokyo who dabbles in potions and alchemy and is able to produce medicine that, I hate to admit, surpasses my own…"

Reimu confusedly blinked at her. "What? Kyouichi?"

"No, no, no…" the giggling Lunarian waved her palm denyingly. "Of course not… Ishimaru Kyouichi was just one of the customers… He bought a certain amount of that person's healing potions and used them on himself as well as on one of the other patients…"

Reimu curiously glanced over at the long-haired outsider. "Is that true?"

Kyouichi silently nodded.

"Who did you get that medicine from?"

"A certain snake youkai known as Xeng-Yao, living in seclusion near the village of Kazemura." announced the voice of Patchouli Knowledge, who heard the conversation and unexpectedly joined it…

"Patchouli?" Reimu was now completely baffled by her sudden entry.

"Indeed." Eirin nodded to confirm the information provided by the sorceress. "Allegedly a veteran from the First Genso-Lunar War, led by none other than the Gensokyo's most infamous youkai… Yakumo Yukari. Apparently he got his hands on some of the Lunarians' knowledge about making superior medicine and perfected that knowledge to some extent… I can hardly wait to meet that youkai in person. I have quite a lot of questions for him."

"So… Are you going to pay that youkai a visit?" Princess Kaguya asked her.

"I believe the answer to that question is quite obvious, my lady. Yes, I'm going to meet him personally."

"That means we could go together with Patchouli-san and others." the Moon princess joyfully smiled and clapped her hands.

"Are you serious about going on that… "archeological expedition", Kaguya-sama?"

"I believe that the answer to that question is rather obvious, Eirin…" Kaguya smiled, returning Eirin's own words to her. "I am… I already know every nook and cranny of Eientei, and while I like it there, sometimes a little change of environment won't hurt…"

"And how come everyone knows about that… EXCEPT ME?!" the shrine maiden agitatedly raised her voice. As the peacekeeper of Gensokyo, she really disliked it when someone was hiding something from her, especially when it concerned the land's balance and security.

"Umm… we were about to ask you to join our little expedition with Marisa-san." Patchouli decided to clear things up for her. "We need to observe the ruins closely and determine whether or not are these ruins the cause of the fairy incident. You and Marisa are expected to be the part of the team."

Reimu shot a suspicious glance at the purple-haired librarian. "And why didn't you tell me sooner then?"

"Well… actually… I…" Patchouli struggled to find the right words for a moment, but she soon found the courage to tell Reimu the truth. "Marisa told me that you were… a bit on edge today because of the tournament, so I wanted to tell you about my plans after the danmaku competition."

"If you must know," Reimu flusteredly crossed her arms, "it's not the tournament that troubles me…"

"I see… Well… I understand if you don't want to join us in Kazemura, but…"

"No, Patchouli." she interrupted her half-way. "On the contrary. I need to go there with you… We're blundering in the dark. Without a clue what to do or who to suspect, there's not much I can do for Gensokyo."

"This is not just your personal affair, Hakurei Reimu." Patchouli reminded her of the serious nature of this incident. "All of Gensokyo should be concerned and all of us should do our best to put things back to normal."

"So when are you going to visit that place and… what are you hoping to find there?"

"As soon as I manage to fully assemble a team. I specialize in arcane arts, but I also need a linguist, a historian and someone who can sense the presence of divine powers, and non-arcane youkai magic. Not to mention someone to watch our backs in case of another fairy ambush… And as for what I hope to find there? Nothing less than the cause of the fairy incident, of course."

"Well, take a look around." Reimu spread her arms and gestured at all the girls that had gathered at the shrine for the tournament. "I don't think there is going to be a better opportunity in the near future for you to assemble that team. Ask that half-beast teacher from the village, or Akyuu-chan if it's about history… I can sense the presence of divine powers… to a certain degree and so should Sanae… A pity that she's not here, though. As for the unusual youkai-related powers… I'd guess that the gods and goddesses can sense those, but I'm not sure. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any kami here… You should probably stop by Moriya Shrine, Patchouli…"

Patchouli was a little surprised by the shrine maiden's insight, but she was really glad that Reimu agreed to join the expedition to Kazemura without any arguments.

"Very well… Let's not waste any more time."

But just as Patchouli was about to walk away and drag some of the tournament participants into her team, Reimu grabbed the back of her nightgown and stopped the short youkai girl dead in her tracks.

"Mukyu!"

"But you're not going to do this now, you egghead! I cannot delay the beginning of the tournament any longer." Reimu checked the names in her list one last time before she tapped her gohei against the wooden porch of her shrine to get everyone's attention.

"Alright, ladies~! The main dish of today's program is about to be served!"

"Main dish~?" Reimu's metaphor has obviously caught all of Yuyuko's attention. "Mmm~… I can hardly wait, Youmu~. Can you please pass me that food basket~? Just a little appetizer before the contest…"

"No."

Yuyuko looked at her servant almost teary-eyed. "Why not~?"

"You know, Yuyuko-sama," the half-ghost maiden turned to her mistress with a slightly wry smile, "there's a saying that a hungry wolf fights harder…"

Meanwhile, Reimu continued: "I know that this tournament has been hastily planned and not very well thought through, but I hope that we can make it a success! First category is going to be the Spell Card Survival, followed by Double Duels, the main event – Single Duels, and finally, the Spell Card Visual Contest as the icing on the cake…"

"Mmm… cake~." muttered the ghostly princess in a daydreamy voice. "Why are you teasing me so much, Reimu-san~?"

"Fine… Now I need you all to get on that stage with me to greet the spectators!" she commanded and headed towards the empty stage. The contestants followed her one by one.

"Well, I'm glad that you two are safe after your reckless escape." Eirin threw one last glance at the two outsiders, adding a smile and a wink. "And I'm also glad that we have cleared up this misunderstanding. And the fact that you even left money to cover your hospitalization… very commendable."

Before any of the two young men could muster any words for a coherent reply, the inventor of the Hourai Elixir was already walking away and joining the other contestants.

"Wait…" Soudai finally spoke up after a few seconds have passed. "So… does that mean she's not going to lobotomize us?"

Kyouichi just chuckled softly. "Sometimes I get the feeling that you've already undergone that procedure, Asakura…"


	48. The Tournament

Once all the contestants lined up on the stage, Reimu stepped forth to make another announcement.

"Dear shrine visitors, this is it! The moment you've all been waiting for! The danmaku tournament begins right here, right now!"

The crowds went wild again and Reimu had to wait almost half a minute before they calmed down, so that her words could be heard.

"Don't be sad that the Prismriver sisters have left the stage! They will be back after the tournament! Now, even though I'm the host and at the same time a tournament participant, I assure you that there will be no foul play during this competition. All rules must be strictly kept and anyone who breaks them, myself included, will be disqualified immediately! Each participant who will not be currently dueling will be one of the judges. Before any of these "judges" will detect that any of the tournament rules have been violated, they must first consult our main judge! Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the main judge of the tournament, Gensokyo's chronicler with infallible memory – Hieda no Akyuu~!"

Another wave of applause came from the mass of the shrine visitors as they greeted the main judge. The little chronicler trotted towards the stage and with a bit of trouble, she climbed up the stairs. Once she reached her goal, she stepped up next to Reimu and bowed to the audience.

"And now, let me introduce the contestants themselves~! Marisa Kirisame, Alice Margatroid, Remilia Scarlet, Sakuya Izayoi, Meiling Hong, Patchouli Knowledge, Reisen Udongein Inaba, Eirin Yagokoro, Satori Komeiji, Utsuho Reiuji, Cirno, Mystia Lorelei, Rumia, Youmu Konpaku, Yuyuko Saigyouji, Byakuren Hijiri, Shou Toramaru, Minamitsu Murasa, Nue Houjuu, Ichirin Kumoi, Aya Shameimaru, Suika Ibuki, Keine Kamishirasawa, Kogasa Tatara, Yuugi Hoshiguma, and of course, me, Reimu Hakurei. All of us are going to do our best to win. So… without any more unnecessary delays, let the tournament begin~! The first is the Spell Card Survival discipline, in which the opponents take turns in using their Spell Cards. The one who manages to stay unhit for a longer period of time than their opponent will be declared the winner. And our first match will feature… Reisen Udongein Inaba and Sakuya Izayoi! Everyone else, assume your places! Contestants, wait for the signal!"

All of the girls except Reisen and Sakuya have left the stage and took their seats on various places around the stage, while Akyuu was returning back to the shrine along with Reimu and Aya. And once even the main judge was seated, Reimu fired a signal amulet into the sky to start the match.

While most of the outsiders were standing in the crowd, Kyouichi and Soudai decided that they'd simply stay near the shrine, since they could at least sit down on its elevated floor. It wasn't a bad choice, since they could discuss the course of the tournament with some of the judges.

* * *

The first match of the tournament has begun. First, it was Reisen's turn to call out her Spell Card and Sakuya's time to evade it for as long as possible. Both of them ascended roughly 20 meters into the air and Reisen drew out her card.

"Visionary Wave "Red-Eyed Hypnosis (Mind Blowing)"!"

Sakuya drew back a bit, and waited for the first bullet barrage to appear. It wasn't long before a multitude of super-dense rings consisting of purple and blue glowing projectiles appeared around the Moon rabbit. Then Reisen also threw in two wide intersecting wave patterns into the mix and sent her bullet-rings outwards. And just as the maid was preparing herself to squeeze through the narrow opening in the ring-shaped waves of danmaku, the bullets suddenly became transparent and the rings rotated, resulting in the change of the bullets' directions.

"What is this trickery?!" uttered the confused head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The sudden change in the pattern has taken her off guard, so she chose to fly yet another couple of meters backwards. She couldn't even use any of her own Spell Cards now, since in this discipline, that would be the equivalent of giving up. She simply had to time this right. Again, the bullet rings became semi-transparent and spun in different directions. Sakuya was hesitant to test whether or not were these magic bullets harmful during their shifting phase. She wanted to play with absolute certainty. She focused all of her senses to the maximum, and when the bullets became bright and solid again, she darted through one of the narrow gaps between them and overcome her first wave. However, the Moon rabbit had already summoned another group of rings and waves that were closing in on Sakuya's position. Again, the maid held her breath and used the exact moment after the bullets materialized to squeeze between them.

The crowds cheered and applauded her skill, but now Sakuya was literally surrounded by purple shots. Reisen kept increasing the bullet density and the frequency of her waves, leaving ever less and less room for Sakuya's movement. Time went on and even when the maid has weaved through several waves, it was only a matter of time until she'd make a mistake.

"This is impossi…" Sakuya closed her eyes before the bullet ring would hit her, but she didn't feel anything. "Huh?" As she reopened her eyes, she saw that the rings were just shifting and the bullets became transparent.

"Just an illusion?"

She was lucky to learn that the bullets were harmless during their shifting phase and she now had to use that short moment of time to take a much safer position in the pattern.

"Wonderful, ladies and gentlemen!" Aya made the commentary of the duel. "It seems that Sakuya-san has learned the trick to survive this seemingly impossible bullet pattern! But how long will she be able to withstand this attack without sustaining a hit?"

Now that the maid already knew an exploitable point of Reisen's pattern, her racing heart has calmed down a bit and she was able to evade all the projectiles without any panicked movements. And finally… the moment has come and Reisen's Spell Card has ended.

The crowds cheered as loudly as when they were welcoming the Prismriver Ensemble.

"A-ma-zing~!" Aya called out and joined the ovation. "Sakuya-san did it! She survived the entire Spell Card! A wonderful performance by the Scaled Devil Mansion's chief maid! She was almost caught up in one of the waves, but she managed to find a way to deal with this intriguing pattern. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it's Sakuya's turn to declare a Spell Card and Reisen's turn to dodge! And even though Sakuya has set the bar pretty high for her, let's all cheer for Reisen! Go for it!"

Sakuya reached for her Spell Card and called its name. "Maid Secret Skill "Marionette"!"

The card in her hand turned into several throwing knives and she flung them at Reisen without warning. The rabbit moved sideways, but the knives that Sakuya threw were no ordinary daggers. They suddenly stopped, changed their color to blue, magically multiplied and created a narrow fan-shaped spreading pattern. What's more, it appeared that Sakuya was still holding some knives in the same hand. And another throw directed at Reisen…

This time the knives changed to red and created a wider cone than the blue ones.

Reisen tilted her head, curiously looking at the knife-shaped danmaku which was still hanging in thin air without motion. Then out of nowhere appeared a mass of green-colored daggers, aimed at random directions and all the knives were set into motion simultaneously.

The pattern was dense and chaotic, but the Moon rabbit didn't lose her head. Calmly and with slow movements, she moved to the sides just to stay in the safe zone. But then things got interesting. As Sakuya repeated her attack, she stopped time for a brief moment. Everything and everyone was motionless. She hurled another two volleys of knives at her opponent and randomly changed some of the knives' heading. Then the flow of time was resumed. To Reisen and everyone else, it looked as though the knives just kept appearing out of nowhere.

The second danmaku wave was a bit trickier, because some of the knives that were already in flight also changed their color and direction, adding to the dangerousness of this Spell Card.

"What the…?" Reisen turned around in surprise as a green knife flying from behind her just grazed her long ear.

It turned out that even the knives that missed her were still a threat and Reisen had to cope with watching Sakuya's attacks as well as her own back.

Aya was providing commentary for the duel: "What looks like an easy card is actually quite a bother! You can tell from Reisen's hasty movements and constant head-turning that she's having some problems with Sakuya's Marionette! No wonder, since Sakuya always keeps stopping the time for a brief moment and changing the trajectories of her flying daggers. This card has no template pattern! It's quite random and you can never tell whether the knife that just missed your head is not going to stab you in the back in the next second! Good luck, Reisen!"

Reisen was performing something that resembled an aerial ballet, because she always had to turn around and check whether some of the knives were not heading her way. And just when she made sure that the green daggers would not hit her she could again shift her attention to…

"Ack!"

"A direct hit~!" Aya announced as she saw one of Sakuya's red knives making contact with Reisen's torso and subsequently disappearing. "The first match is over! Sakuya Izayoi wins by 1 : 0 on Spell Cards and by 45 : 32 on seconds! Despair not, Reisen-san, for you still have three more disciplines to show everyone what you've got! As for you Sakuya-san, congratulations on winning your first match of the tournament!"

* * *

Sakuya ended her Spell Card and descended down onto the stage together with the Moon rabbit.

The maid extended her right arm to her "Good duel, Reisen-san."

She nodded and accepted her hand. "Good duel, Sakuya-san."

"This is the true spirit of sportsmanship, ladies and gentlemen! This is the attitude that we all hope to see during this entire tournament. Now, since I'm a crow tengu who cares about others, I'll save Reimu-san from marching up the stage and announce the names of our next duelists in her stead! No need to thank me, Reimu. What are friends for, right? Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to see a match between… well… you're probably not going to see anything at all, folks, because our next contestants are Mystia Lorelei, the night sparrow and Rumia – the youkai of darkness. I wonder how are the judges going to assure the fair-play during this particular match… Well, it will certainly be interesting to have these two young youkai in a danmaku battle."

"Damn…" only now Kyouichi realized it. "That's the youkai that almost killed me the other day… Well, actually both of them wanted to, but at least Mystia was more… reasonable."

"That little girl?" Soudai threw an incredulous glance at his friend. "So she's dangerous?"

"Sometimes I really fail to comprehend Gensokyo's logic… Why is Reimu calmly letting a vicious monster like her and that hell raven even come to the shrine?"

"Don't worry, you two." said the crow tengu reassuringly. "None of the human-eating youkai who have come to this shrine today will eat anyone. They only attack lonely and lost humans. And only when they are sure that these humans are weaker than they are."

"Which we most certainly are." remarked the younger of the two outsiders.

"That's why people like you should never go anywhere alone." said Aya. "Even if it's just a few meters away from the village or this shrine... I hope you learned from your unpleasant experience, Kyouichi."

"Uhhh… yeah… sure." he gave a very unconvincing reply, as he replayed his and Soudai's trek through the Bamboo Forest of the Lost in his mind. Considering the likelihood of encountering some dangerous youkai on their way to the village, they had to be extremely lucky that the only person they met was Fujiwara no Mokou. Surely Tewi's good luck blessing was not just a fraud. But good luck never lasts too long and any human who was not born in Gensokyo should know better than to travel around the eastern wonderland alone.

"Even if you are not native to this world," Akyuu wanted to add her grain of wisdom, "Rumia-san is rather easy to trick and to run away from. And in daytime you can notice her from even far away."

"But I was attacked at night. Just on the stairs to the shrine yard… I never saw her coming. Why aren't youkai like her being exterminated?"

"But they are." Akyuu gave a surprising reply. "By the definition of the Spell Card Rules, an extermination of a youkai is a strictly temporary matter. It simply means that a youkai is defeated in a formal duel."

"So the rules also protect youkai from permanent extermination?" asked Soudai.

"Naturally. Otherwise they'd hardly be accepted by the youkai populace if the treaty would provide advantages for only one of the two parties. And secondly, decades of human-youkai conflicts and skirmishes have already proven that the youkai are not at all easy to dispose of permanently."

"I see." Soudai and Kyouichi nodded almost in unison.

* * *

"And the battle is about to begin!" Aya returned to her role of the tournament announcer. "Mystia-san is going to be on the attacking side. Oh… wait a minute… Reimu? Where are you going?"

The shrine maiden flew over to the two youkai girls and appeared to be explaining something to both of them for a while. Then as both Mystia and Rumia nodded, Reimu touched both of their heads with the tip of her gohei and a strange sound similar to a chime could be heard.

"Ah~! Now I see…" Aya nodded understandingly. "Reimu-san has put a magical chime barrier on both of the youkai! Now, even in complete darkness and night-blindness, everyone will be able to tell when one of them gets hit!"

Reimu returned to her privileged spot and gave the signal to begin the match. Mystia already had her card in her hand.

"Hawk Sign "III-Starred Dive"!"

"And just as we all thought!" the crow tengu commented, "Mystia-san resorted to a card that utilizes her song and we all know what her song can do!"

Aya seemed to have quite a bit of insight about the Spell Cards of other youkai. At least she knew what the card was going to do just from the name. And truly, not too long after the night sparrow declared her attack and sent out a burst of white orbs in a circular pattern, she began to sing. Though too far to clearly hear the lyrics, Kyouichi and pretty much everyone else who didn't cover their ears were beginning to notice that their vision was gradually becoming dimmer. The initial burst of white orbs was not even targeted at Mystia's opponent, who didn't even have to move. However, the orbs have left a trail of smaller purple projectiles that have created a symmetrical star-shaped pattern around the night sparrow and a true magical crossfire has started. By this time, Rumia's vision was limited to only several meter radius and she had to evade projectiles coming at her from two sides. Sometimes several waves blended into one and the youkai of darkness had to retreat and wait until an opening appeared.

Otherwise the card was not all that difficult. Rumia was pretty much used to limited vision and could easily move out of harm's way just by trusting her hearing sense.

Now, Mystia's card was intensifying and the patterns were becoming more frequent and the bullets even faster.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'd really like to comment what's going on above the Hakurei Shrine's stage, but even with my sharp tengu eyesight, I can barely see Reimu-san and Akyuu-san sitting next to me. But since we haven't heard the sound of magic chime, I'm guessing that Rumia-san is doing really well so far…"

After a few close calls, Rumia was still holding on as the last seconds of the night sparrow's Spell Card were ticking away. But then a ringing sound echoed throughout the darkness…

"Aaaand that's a hit, if I'm not mistaken~!" Aya exclaimed and turned her glance to the shrine maiden who nodded affirmatively. "Yes, even Reimu has confirmed it~! Rumia got hit by Mystia's Spell Card after 38 seconds~! That's enough, Mystia-san, save your vocal cords for your performance! Now it's your time to endure some danmaku~!"

And as the night sparrow finally stopped her song, everyone's vision returned back to normal.

"Now that we can finally see," Aya continued, "It is now up to Mystia to dodge her opponent's Spell Card. If she can stay unhit for longer than 38 seconds, she will win the duel. But what kind of card has Rumia-san prepared for her? Are we even going to see it, or are we going to be… left in the dark again?"

"Ready?" Reimu called out at the two youkai above the stage. After getting their nods of confirmation, she launched her usual red burst of amulets into the sky to start the second stage of their duel.

The spectators could already see the blonde girl in black and white dress raising her Spell Card-wielding hand over her head.

"Living Darkness "Searching Hands"!"

"Oh, my~!" an excited smile grew on Aya's face. "A new Spell Card from Rumia-san! I'm really curious to see what it does!"

Rumia's card seemed to be swallowing up the surrounding light, forming a sphere of darkness, just as Kyouichi saw her do when he barely escaped her. Mystia wasn't stupid enough to remain hovering close to the no-light zone. She distanced herself from Rumia and prepared herself for whatever this new Spell Card would throw at her. For the first few seconds, the swelling of the orb of darkness was all that was happening, but then came the danmaku.

A quite… intriguing danmaku, to say the least. A thick solid-looking line of shadow with five extended appendages projected from the mass of darkness, like a sinister shadowy hand, reaching out for Mystia. The next moment revealed several more of these "searching hands" extending towards the frightened night sparrow in attempt to grab her and drag her into the center of the impenetrable blackness.

"This is a very original-looking danmaku! Pardon me, but I just have to take a few pictures of it…" Aya quickly grabbed her camera and began snapping. "The black color of the projectiles is not making things very easy for Mystia-san, but make no mistake, dear human minority, a night sparrow's eyes can see much better in the dark than yours!"

Mystia was doing her best to stay away from the dark hand-shaped danmaku, but as time progressed, the shadow arms that were extending, grabbing and retracting, have now created a web that inhibited the night sparrow's maneuvering space.

"I think I'm going to have a little interview with Rumia-san after this match regardless of the result! This Spell Card could even attempt to enter the Visual Contest! Who knows? Perhaps it will! But more importantly, Mystia only has to keep up for several seconds to win! I'm counting down~! Ten, nine, eight…"

Now Kyouichi realized that he wouldn't be much of a help to Reimu as one of the judges, since the danmaku that he saw just now was so dense and perplexing, that he couldn't tell whether or not was any of the "shots" hitting its intended target. So far, none of the official judges made any notion that Mystia had come into contact with any of Rumia's creepy danmaku. Reimu's magical chime also remained silent, confirming that the night sparrow was doing a good job at evading the opponent's Spell Card.

"Three, two…" Aya was counting down the last seconds, "one… Aaaand we know the winner!"

The darkness generated by Rumia's card was gone with Aya's announcement, revealing the blonde youkai girl with her arms still spread wide.

"Is that so~?" she asked as she turned at the tournament announcer.

"Yes, Rumia-san, it is so!" replied the tengu loudly. "Honor to you, but the spoils shall go to the victor! Ladies and gentlemen, Lorelei Mystia-san moves one step up the tournament ladder after this performance! Rumia, you shall now join the ranks of the judges until the end of this discipline… Nevertheless, yours was a very interesting Spell Card, so make sure you'll be ready to be interviewed!"

"Right now?" the confused little youkai of darkness tilted her head to the side.

"No, not now, Rumia-san. We're in the middle of a tournament. Wait until the end of the Survival category."

"Oh… Okay~." She replied with a nod and like a cheerful fairy, she playfully left the stage, joining the other girls who were waiting their turn.

"And now, dear shrine visitors," Aya spoke after clearing her throat, "coming up next, we have yet another interesting match. On the left side of the stage, or to be more exact, on the northern end of the stage, we have... a youkai who likes to leave the fighting to her ever-present follower... Now, I'm not sure if this should be considered a 2 on 1 match, but since nobody has any objections against it, I present you… Ichirin Kumoi from the Temple of Myouren!"

The girl, whose clothing resembled those of a nun hovered over to her place, followed by a pinkish gaseous mass with a face of a bearded old man.

"And her opponent… you know her, you love her, you wouldn't have this tournament without her… Reimu Hakurei~!"

And the shrine maiden reluctantly stood up, slowly flying towards the stage.

Being Reimu's friend and fan, Kyouichi called after her: "Good luck, Reimu~!"

Reimu didn't even turn around. She just flew over to the stage and stopped several meters in front of her opponent.

"Since Reimu's going to duel now, it's up to someone else to start this match." said the tengu reporter as she was standing up and pointing her leaf-shaped fan at the sky. "Ready, set, go~!"

* * *

"Try to be a bit more challenging than the last time on that flying ship…." Reimu taunted her opponent before she floated upwards.

Ichirin had the privilege of taking the first turn, and she already had her Spell Card prepared in her hand.

"Tell that to the hand… of Unzan!" came a witty retort from Ichirin. "Barrage "Cloud World Kraken Strike"!" the nyuudou-manipulating youkai just issued an order to her companion to begin the assault.

The cloud entity suddenly began swelling in its size and materialized its two fearsome clenched fists, giving the Hakurei shrine maiden a mean stare.

"I eat youkai like you for breakfast." murmured the shrine maiden with an unamused tone.

That seemed to have provoked the youkai cloud into attacking. He shifted his presence to the side of the stage and sent his huge fists flying fast at Reimu. Just when the miko evaded the first two blows, the nyuudou had already materialized another fist, making it seem that he had more than just a pair of them. Although large and quick, Unzan's fists were the least of Reimu's worries at the moment, since each punch has left a trail of scattering purplish orbs in its wake. Soon the air was dense with danmaku shots, giant fists and Unzan's angry-looking face. Making contact with any of the three mentioned things would result in Reimu losing the match, so the black-haired miko had to keep her senses always sharp and her reflexes as quick as possible.

"Ichirin-san… uhh… I mean Unzan-san is attacking Reimu with his really big fists, much larger than Rumia-san's Searching Hands. However, Reimu knows exactly what to do so far. Staying away from the fists and weaving through the trail of danmaku that they leave. That's exactly how this Spell Card should be faced… Ooooh~! That was a close one, Reimu~!"

One of the huge cloudy fists just grazed by her so closely that the wind shockwave has made her do several aerial flips. During the time when she lost control of her stability, a few of the energy orbs missed her head, arm and torso by mere centimeters, almost leaving marks on her red and white outfit. Finally, the shrine maiden managed to regain her bearing just in time to avoid a direct hit from the nyuudou's massive fist.

"Reimu was incredibly lucky, ladies and gentlemen~! For a second there I even thought that she was knocked down, but she's still holding on!"

Ichirin focused her power to intensify the Spell Card's danmaku, even if it meant that her card would end sooner this way. In a duel, she certainly showed no remorse or respect.

"Is that the best you can do?!" the shrine maiden swaggeringly taunted both Unzan and Ichirin, even if her voice was barely audible in the dense danmaku barrage.

Ichirin's patience was running out along with her magical energy. She wanted to teach Reimu a lesson in humility. With her last reserve, she pointed her golden ring-shaped object towards Unzan to boost his performance.

"Knock her out of the shrine yard, Unzan!"

The cloudy giant brightened up and literally showered the air with his fist barrage.

"O-kay… Things just got serious!" said Reimu to herself as a group of lightning-quick fists zoomed over her head.

The attack grew from intense to insane. No longer focusing on making slow, precise evasions, Reimu had to use her full speed to stay away from danger.

"Would you look at that, ladies and gentlemen!" Aya was on the edge of her seat as she commented the duel. "This is a difficulty level bordering with foul play! A danmaku barrage should always leave at least some opening for the opponent to evade it, however, this attack is as dense as it gets~! You can see Reimu-san is desperate to stay away from all that chaos, but where to fly when you're completely surrounded by walls of danmaku?"

Reimu found herself trapped by a dense cluster of purple orbs that blocked her escape from behind and her left side, while the hail of fists was closing in on her from the right.

Seldom did the Hakurei shrine maiden feel this desperate. No longer was her mind trying to think of taunts for Ichirin and Unzan. Now, she was more or less preparing to humbly accept the inevitable… Another fist appeared several meters in front of her, ready to finish her off. Not a split second later, the fist jetted off at Reimu at incredible speed.

…

Reimu closed her eyes and put her arms in front of her face as she braced herself for the mighty impact. An impact that could shatter buildings… An impact that… never came.

"What the…?" she hesitantly opened one of her eyes and peeked over her own arm.

Unzan was staring back at her, his face marked with slight disappointment.

"Holy Kanako-sama~!" Aya cut off the brief silence. "Ichirin-san's Spell Card has ended just before it hit our tournament host~! Reimu, you lucky human! You did it again! Unbelievable, ladies and gentlemen~! Sometimes I wonder what deity is actually worshipped at this little shrine. Perhaps it's even dedicated to a certain curse goddess that takes away all of your misfortunes, hehehe~. Nevertheless, Reimu was extremely lucky to survive this brutal onslaught from Unzan. Now, let's see if Ichirin-san can survive the shrine maiden's retribution!"

The crowds apparently loved dramatic matches, since the applause after Reimu's performance lasted over a minute. Many of the fans kept calling out her name as they raised their hands into the air to show their support.

"With so many supporters I can't help but to wonder why are Reimu-san's donations always so low and so rare~!" the tengu poked fun at her friend.

"And I wonder why has your doubtful little newspaper become so popular recently!" Reimu jabbed back at her.

"Because I write about interesting and unusual things that attract attention, Reimu-san… But now is not the time to discuss the success of Bunbunmaru Newspaper. Pick a Spell Card and let the match continue~!"

"Sure…" the miko muttered under her nose as she was sifting through the Spell Cards in her hands. "Now what should I use? Fantasy Heaven? Naaah… that's too exhausting. But perhaps this one…"

"Are you ready, contestants~?" Aya asked both girls hovering above the stage.

Unzan, who was now shrunk back to a less fearsome size showed the tengu a confirmatory thumbs-up, while Reimu just impatiently called: "Yeah, yeah, just give the signal already!"

Aya's fan sent out a bright bluish crescent-shaped wave into the sky and the second round of the third match has begun.

"Border World "Hakurei Danmaku Bounded Field"!" Reimu exclaimed and activated her card.

Ichirin backed away warily as any smart person facing a Spell Card would, but was this a good move with this particular card?

In a flash of white and red light, a large bluish square boundary appeared around the shrine maiden. Ichirin also noticed another even larger square of same color spreading wide over the shrine yard.

"I know this Spell Card," Aya noted with a wry smile, "but does Ichirin know how to deal with it?"

Of course, this was Ichirin's first time she faced Hakurei Danmaku Bounded Field and didn't quite know what to expect. All became clear soon enough…

As Reimu lifted her arm, a super-dense octa-directional stream of red amulets was released and slowly rotating clockwise. At the same time, a four-directional stream of white ofuda erupted from the Spell Card, spinning slowly counter-clockwise. Ichirin noticed that the streams only reached as far as Reimu's inner square boundary before they vanished into thin air. But as she kept her eyes on the shrine maiden, she noticed that the amulets didn't really disappear. They were literally teleported and projected inwards from the huge outer boundary of the spell. Like tongues of fire lashing at her from the front and from behind, these red and white ofuda streams were brushing against each other at the point of the inner square, leaving momentary openings. Ichirin flew towards the wall of the inner boundary and just as one stream passed by, she dove into the square. She had to retreat almost immediately, though, as when the white amulet streams spinning in the opposite direction were working like some kind of star-shaped scissors. The area behind the youkai girl was no safer. She had to constantly keep moving in and out of Reimu's inner boundary to stay safe. And just when she thought that she had the card all figured out, the shrine maiden threw in several white energy orbs into the mixer. While their density was sparse at best, they proved to be a very unpleasant hindrance to Ichirin's evasion plans. Her nyuudou companion didn't mind the barrage as the amulets were harmlessly passing through his miasmatic body. However, Ichirin was just having an adrenaline rush of her life. Even though the tournament was just an innocent game, she was on edge, as if her very existence depended on the result of this match.

After evading a dangerously aimed white orb, she propelled herself forward into the area edged by the purple square. Immediately, she was forced to dive backwards to avoid being met with the white ofuda stream.

"Ichirin apparently got the hang of it!" echoed Aya's voice over the back yard of the shrine. "The Hakurei Danmaku Bounded Field forces one to constantly keep using the boundary and that's what Ichirin-san is doing right now. If she can keep this up for 25 seconds, Reimu's Spell Card will end."

Ichirin, Unzan, the crowd of spectators and even Reimu herself were all holding their breath as the seconds slowly ticked away. Byakuren's disciple didn't allow any of the danmaku shots to get near her and Unzan helped to warn her from the amulets that were coming from behind.

"Three, two, one… Poof! What a spectacular display, ladies and gentlemen!"

All the amulets turned white and returned back into the shrine maiden's open palm, regaining the form of a Spell Card.

"Both Reimu and Ichirin have managed to survive each other's Spell Cards! But there can be only one winner in a danmaku fight. The match goes on with Ichirin-san choosing another card! Until one of the two gets hit, the duel will continue!"

And after the tengu shot her signal into the air, Ichirin Kumoi was declaring another Spell Card.

"Hand Strike "Fist Smash"!"

By that order, Unzan literally split himself apart and formed two giant fists aimed at each other. The fists then accelerated forward and clashed with incredible force. The resulting impact has created two symmetrical circles of purple energy orbs. And as the danmaku rings were slowly expanding and breaking their symmetry, Unzan's fists appeared several paces further from Ichirin and closer to Reimu. They met each other with another thunderous crash, resulting in more purple danmaku in the air. In this fashion, the fist clashes continued proceeding ever closer to the shrine maiden. Reimu had certainly seen more difficult cards, but she was aware that she shouldn't underestimate her opponent. All she had to do during this attack was to occasionally move away from the giant fists of the nyuudou and deal with a few stray danmaku orbs after the smash.

"I honestly expected something a bit more difficult from Ichirin-san, but it's her choice." Aya remarked as she watched Reimu dance among the lights. "But what's this? Ichirin-san is moving in to flank Reimu! And Unzan is apparently shifting his fist smashes according to her position!"

Now the cloud-like youkai was clashing his fists from all different angles, giving Reimu the challenge that she asked for. As expected, Aya took out her camera whenever she saw some new danmaku pattern and began taking pictures.

"Do you put pictures of danmaku in your newspaper Aya-san?" Kyouichi forwarded a question at her.

"Hm?" uttered the crow tengu with her eye looking through the lens of her camera. "Well, sometimes I do, but this is simply a little hobby of mine. Here…" she passed him some sort of book. "That's my danmaku portfolio. I've gathered these over the last few years. Some of them are a bit amateurish, I admit… Especially those with my own danmaku obscuring the view. My hobby sometimes became dangerous and I was forced to fight back, you see…"

As Kyouichi briefly browsed through the pages filled with all sorts of colorful danmaku patterns, he couldn't hold his mouth closed.

"You must know a lot of Spell Cards, Aya-san."

With a hint of annoyance, Aya let out a soft sigh. "When will you finally drop that "san" suffix when addressing me, Kyouichi?"

"Sorry… If it annoys you that much, I'll stop it right away… Aya…"

It almost felt a bit strange to him when he said her name without an honorific.

"It doesn't annoy me per se, but I'm much more comfortable when I'm addressed more familiarly. I'm only formal when I'm making interviews for my newspaper."

"Alright…" he returned a smile and continued watching the duel between his favorite shrine maiden and the nyuudou master.

It seemed that Ichirin was trying to confuse Reimu by constantly changing her position, and thus, the angle of Unzan's attacks, but so far, the red-white was not hit by anything. Then all of a sudden…

Aya threw a surprised glance at the chronicler sitting right next to her. "Akyuu has raised a red flag! What did she see that I didn't notice?"

Not long after that, the tengu spotted several other red flags popping up from the other side of the stage and fluttering in the light breeze, signifying that someone broke the rules.

"Contestants, stop the duel~!" Aya shouted at Reimu and Ichirin. "I was a bit too busy taking pictures to notice any violation of the rules. May I ask what exactly happened, Akyuu-chan?"

"Kumoi-san has moved beyond the designated dueling area and is thus disqualified from the Spell Card Survival category." explained the Gensokyo chronicler.

"What an unexpected turn in the course of this tournament, ladies and gentlemen! Ichirin-san might have actually stood a chance but she has taken her flanking tactics a bit too far… She basically defeated herself right now. Reimu, on the other hand, certainly didn't disappoint her fans. She is even one of the top candidates for the winner of this tournament, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Anything can happen in this tournament yet!"

A mixture of cheers and whistles was echoing all over the place as the two contestants were leaving the stage. Unlike the first duel between Sakuya and Reisen, they did not shake their hands after the match. They simply turned away from each other and headed in opposite directions.

"Congratulations, Reimu." Aya welcomed her friend who took her seat next to the main judge without as much as a reply. Despite being victorious, her attitude still seemed rather aloof.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." sighed the shrine maiden and waved her hand at Aya's question.

Though sensing a certain degree of doubt in her voice, Aya didn't really have the time to pry an answer out of her friend. The tournament needed to progress further and so, Aya returned to her role.

"And the Spell Card Survival continues, ladies and gentlemen! And our next two opponents are… Meiling Hong and Kogasa Tatara! May the best dodger win!"

* * *

And so as the two mentioned youkai were moving through the air to meet in a formal duel, Kyouichi curiously continued viewing Aya's portfolio full of Spell Card photographs. Soudai was also looking at the pictures with great interest.

"Hey, wait a minute…" Kyouichi's eyes widened in surprise at one particular picture. "Is that Kazami-san in this picture?"

"Hold on…" Aya asked him to wait a minute, because she was just about to give a signal to Meiling and Kogasa to start the duel. After she launched her characteristic blue wave into the air, she sat down and looked at the picture that Kyouichi was pointing at.

"Aaah, yes… So you've heard about her, eh? That one was especially hard to get, but she can't fly very fast, so I managed to take a few shots."

"I haven't just heard about her." Kyouichi wanted to correct Aya's assumption. "I've met her personally…"

"Too bad I can't see much of her through all that danmaku…" Soudai commented with a sad frown.

"You met Yuuka…" Aya's expression became rather serious in contrast to her usual cheerful attitude. "It must have been when she was visiting the flower shop in the Human Village." she stated with a nod of understanding.

"Yes… yes, you're right." Kyouichi confirmed. He was a bit surprised that Aya knew about her visiting the flower shop. "Are you a friend of hers?"

A very amused laughter came from the crow tengu reporter. "Oh, that's a good one! If we were friends, Kyouichi-kun, I certainly wouldn't have received THAT kind of welcome from her…" she gently tapped at the dense danmaku pattern on the photograph with Yuuka Kazami.

"A little word of advice to you," she continued in a more serious tone, "don't get in her way. She doesn't like humans much, even if she looks like one."

"Well, I've heard that she didn't have many friends from our race." Kyouichi recalled one of the idle conversations he had with the flower youkai. "And I've heard that she likes danmaku battles… Say, Reimu, why wasn't Yuuka-san invited to the tournament?"

"You've got to be kidding me!" she exclaimed loudly, as if Kyouichi's question was the most ridiculous thing she ever heard.

"Hmm… I guess you're right." Kyouichi admitted after a thoughtful moment. "Yuuka-san probably doesn't like crowded places… What a pity… I'd really like to see her dueling."

"Be glad that she's not here." said the crow tengu. "Seriously…"

"Whatever…" shrugged the outsider and returned the portfolio to its rightful owner.

As he returned his attention to the duel above the Hakurei Shrine's stage, he only saw Kogasa rubbing her stomach in a pained expression, most likely after receiving a hit from Meiling's danmaku. The duel ended with no big surprises. The Scarlet Devil Mansion's gate guard has made short work out of her opponent and survived her Spell Card when the karakasa girl was on the offensive.

* * *

The rest of the duels in that discipline played out in similar fashion. Some ended surprisingly quickly, others lasted longer than expected. Then came an event that surprised almost everyone – Reimu Hakurei was defeated in the semi-final against Alice. The other pair that managed to fight their way up to the final four was Sakuya and Yuyuko; the former ending up as the victor.

In the final round, the spectators witnessed an intense duel between the puppeteer and the maid, which ended after 4 rounds. The ultimate survivor and the winner of the first discipline was finally known…

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have the first Spell Card Survival champion, and her name is Sakuya Izayoi! Well, it's not her real name, actually, but since nobody knows what she was called before she began working for the Scarlet vampire, Remilia gave her a new job and identity! Congratulations to you, Sakuya-san! And I apologize for defeating your mistress a while ago… We've seen some really interesting battles, but the tournament is far from over! Coming up next is the Double Duels discipline. But make no mistake, folks! The teams are also completely random and you most likely won't see two friends or a master/servant fighting on the same side. The rules for this discipline are simple. Each team can use up to three Spell Cards and each contestant gets eliminated after receiving three hits. The tricky part about the Double Duels is that if just one of the team members gets eliminated, the respective team loses automatically. Also, should the team use up its final Spell Card without eliminating the opposition in the process, they will also be declared defeated. And I should also mention: watch out for that friendly fire, dear contestants~! Getting hit from your partner counts the same as getting hit from your opponent in this discipline~! Now, let us welcome our first quartet of double duelists: Eirin Yagokoro and Cirno will face off against Satori Komeiji and… Oh my, I should hurry to the stage! I'm in team with Satori-san!"

* * *

"Well, Cirno-san, it seems that we're a team now." stated Eirin with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Hmm…" the ice fairy thoughtfully observed her new danmaku partner. "I'm small, so I'll be a bit harder to hit… But you are quite big… especially here…" she shamelessly floated up and poked Eirin's breast with her finger.

"Kyaaah~!"

The Lunarian's expression in that moment showed signs of shock, embarrassment and anger at the same time.

"Just wait a couple of decades and you too will be a bit easier to hit in that area…" she made a humorous retort about Cirno's breast size.

On the other side of the stage, Aya and Satori were having a short discussion about tactics.

"So, since I'm a faster flyer, it would be better if…"

"Okay…" nodded Satori who had already read Aya's thought.

"Uhh… Fine, so as for the choice of Spell Cards we should…"

"I know…" muttered the purple-haired youkai girl.

"Good, good…" Aya grinned sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head. "I'm glad that we can understand each other so well. But we should also be careful about…"

"But of course."

"And don't forget about…"

"Yes, yes…"

"Guh…" Aya had given up her attempt to give advice to the young satori, as she was well aware that whatever she was thinking about was well visible to her third eye.

The match was about to begin.

"Guess I'm the one to start this show off again…" muttered Reimu with an annoyed tone as she reluctantly stood up from the porch. "On your marks! Ready! Fight!"

A burst of red ofuda painted a pattern on the night sky and the showdown began.

During the first 30 seconds of the match neither of the teams resorted to using a Spell Card. Probably because they were worried about wasting them needlessly. Cirno decided to take an offensive role while Eirin provided fire support with her longbow. Any arrows that she shot quickly turned into a spray of red magic bullets that were keeping the opposing team at bay.

The ice fairy opened her palms and hurled streams of sharp icicles, as if she was holding a pair of automatic weapons. The crow tengu proved to be a spectacular dodger and despite her rather unfortunate defeat in the Survival category against Shou Toramaru, she was evading every shot with her impressive agility. At the same time she was sending her characteristic wave-shaped danmaku at the other team. Satori was keeping a reasonable distance from the enemy and every few seconds she emitted a blast of red and blue magic bullets and orbs that has created an intricate symmetrical pattern with narrow openings.

And just when one of those waves got close to the ice fairy, she grinned slyly and used her enhanced freezing power.

Satori immediately sensed the danger of Cirno's intention and warned her danmaku partner: "Aya-san, get away from any of my projectiles!"

The crow tengu accelerated forward like a jet fighter and safely eluded the area flooded by Satori's danmaku.

Cirno froze the dense pattern of bullets and the chain reaction has been sent all the way back to the young Satori, who quickly dove sideways to escape the icy trap. By this time, Aya has already flanked Cirno, who just barely dodged her danmaku salvo. Eirin was just readying her bow to target the attacking tengu, but her speed was no match for Aya's. With a hit-and-run strategy, Aya struck the Lunarian doctor with one of her waves and retreated to Satori while grazing by Cirno's rapid-fire icicle counterattack.

Eirin figured that she had to surprise the enemy with a change of tactics, and so, she boldly hovered forward and changed her target from the elusive crow tengu to the less experienced and weaker-bodied Satori. But the mind reader saw her coming before she even made her move.

"Eirin-san is after me!" she warned her partner about the upcoming situation and Aya didn't hesitate to fly to Satori's aid.

And as the immortal doctor of Eientei closed the distance between her and her target, she launched a cascade of blue shots and huge greenish orbs that seemed impossible to dodge.

* * *

"Whoa! She's powerful…" stated Kyouichi as he observed Eirin's danmaku potential.

"Hey, Kyou…" Soudai spoke to him. "Do you still have that magic detector thing that you used in the bamboo forest?"

"Why yes…" the long-haired outsider nodded affirmatively. "Good idea, Soudai! Let's see how powerful these ladies are…"

And as he grabbed for the said object in his pocket and put it in front of his right eye, he felt like looking through a kaleidoscope.

"Let me see too!" Soudai was already taking the detector out of his hand. "Ooooh~! This is so cool! Look at all those colors!"

Satori was shining in a purplish light, while Aya's white aura was quite brighter. Cirno had a bluish radiance about her and Eirin's glow, which was the brightest of them all, shined in several different colors of the visible light spectrum.

"Hmm… well according to this little gadget of yours, I'd bet my money on the alien…" Soudai commented as he stared at the battle through the glass. But basing his opinion simply on one's raw magical potential could be quite misleading in danmaku battles.

The battle went on and just before Eirin's barrage would bury the poor satori girl alive, Aya darted in, grabbed her from behind under her shoulders and rocketed away from danger.

"What an amazing teamwork…" Reimu murmured to herself as she watched Aya's heroic rescue maneuver.

"Aaand… let's take a look at you, Reimu-san…" Soudai, still mesmerized by the magic detector's alternate mode, continued observing the people around him.

Reimu's divine power showed up as white, mist-like blur with occasional red spots showing up here and there. Surprisingly, her glow wasn't even much brighter than Satori's.

"Interesting… And how about, the main judge?" he shifted the glass to focus on Hieda no Akyuu and revealed just a few weak sparkles of violet color flaring up around her head.

"Not much for danmaku battles, I see… And you, Ishimaru…" he finally moved the detector to scan his friend, "You're just plain boring!" he exclaimed and chuckled as he didn't see a single speck of light around his body.

"Just give it back here before you break it or something…" Kyouichi was already demanding his detector back.

In the meantime, the double duel was just heating up… Or to be exact - freezing down…

* * *

"Freeze Sign "Perfect Freeze"!" Cirno decided that now was the right time to utilize her Spell Card.

With immediate effect all the danmaku projectiles that were in flight froze in midair, while Cirno's palms projected a fan-shaped cluster of blue icy orbs that were sent off against Aya and Satori.

"Thank you very much." Satori thanked her savior as she dragged her away from Eirin's barrage. But now that this barrage was frozen, Aya let go of her and readied herself to attack Cirno.

"No, Aya-san!" Satori halted her in the last second. "Don't fire any danmaku while the fairy's Spell Card is active. It would all turn against us."

"But our enemy is also susceptible to friendly fire." Aya opposed with a wry smile blooming on her face. "Let's do this together, Satori!"

Again, she held the young youkai with one of her hands and helped her fly at speeds that Satori would not be capable of. At the same time, both of them fired their danmaku at Cirno while making a big loop around her. Aya needed to be careful so that she wouldn't leave the dueling area and get disqualified. Both she and Satori were firing their danmaku, but Cirno's spell immediately froze all of their shots in place.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing, Aya-san?" Satori questioningly glanced at her teammate.

"You can simply call me Aya." said the reporter with a reassuring smile. "Just leave it to me..."

Aya flew fast, not letting go of Satori and made one full circle around the ice fairy, all the while evading Eirin's attempts to shoot her down.

And as Cirno's Spell Card ended, all the frozen projectiles were set into motion again, but no longer flying in their original direction. A true chaos ensued. Dozens of colorful orbs, bolts, pellets and lasers scattered randomly and threatened both teams.

"Hold on tightly, Satori!" Aya told her companion as she made a series of daring and risky evasive maneuvers that would make a normal human's head spin.

Poor Cirno realized with shock that she was in the middle of a danmaku storm, partially due to the effect of her Perfect Freeze. She evaded several shots, but caught one in the back of her head.

"Ack~! You stupid danmaku! Hit them; not me~!"

But Crino wasn't the only one in trouble.

"Whoa~! I doooont feeeel soooo gooood, Ayaaaaa~!" Satori desperately called out as Aya was driving her through the shower of magic shots.

"Now you're mine…" Eirin waited patiently for the moment when Aya was weaving through the narrow spaces between the danmaku projectiles to release her arrow.

And as the missile pierced the air in its flight, just before it reached the pair of a crow tengu and a satori, it dispersed into multiple shots.

"Damn it!" a curse escaped Aya's lips as she felt a sting on her left thigh. Her partner also got the taste of Eirin's danmaku, taking one shot in her arm. Now the score of both teams was even, with each contestant taking precisely one hit.

"Are you alright, Satori?" Aya checked the condition of her partner, still holding her tightly in flight.

After Satori's confirmatory nod, she asked her another question: "Do you know what I'm thinking about right now?"

The mind-reader's third eye shifted upwards and processed Aya's train of thought. She was now fully aware of the tengu's next plan without her having to say a word.

"I'll do my best." murmured the purple-haired youkai after becoming aware of Aya's next move.

"Let's do this!" Aya called out and soared up into the sky.

"Where are they going?" wondered Cirno as she watched her opponents quickly increasing their altitude. "Isn't that against the rules?"

Eirin thoughtfully gazed into the sky. "The dueling area is only limited by vertical boundaries, so I suppose their move is not breaking any rules… I wonder what they're up to."

"Aren't we going to follow them?" Cirno impatiently asked her partner.

"I'm not sure… Maybe that's exactly what they want… And maybe they're about to perform a high altitude dive-attack, in which case we better prepare some countermeasure."

"Oh, look here they come!" the fairy called as she pointed at the sky at a blazing white line shooting downwards.

Erin drew out her Spell Card, preparing herself for the moment when the enemy team would get within her range.

"Move a bit further away from me, Cirno-san."

"Alright!" the fairy did as she was asked and split up from her teammate.

"Just come and get us, Shameimaru-san." Eirin muttered to herself just when the enemy team was nearing their position.

"Awakened God "Memories of the Age of the Gods"!"

A beautiful colorful spectacle was triggered by Eirin's Spell Card. A huge fan of very large red orbs was making the area behind Eirin a zone of certain hit. However, with greater distance they spread further apart from each other and created quite wide safe zones. On the other hand, the front side of the attack began with a fan-shaped stream of smaller red bolts of magical energy. Then in an instant, several bright blue orbs of light appeared in front of the Lunarian in a regular symmetrical formation. The next moment, Eirin shot a laser-like beam out of her palm into the nearest of these blue orbs, which worked like mirrors, splitting the beams into two and sending them directly into the next group of orbs. The result was resembling a giant magical spider web or a genealogical tree that spread far and wide in front of her. She thought that her card would surely hit someone from the opposing team, but it wouldn't be Satori if she didn't have her mind read beforehand.

Just in time, she managed to warn her tengu partner that the Lunarian was trying to mar their plan with one of her Spell Cards, and so, the fastest reporter in Gensokyo, changed the direction of her flight by 180 degrees. In other words, she instantly stopped and soared back upwards.

"They're getting away again!" Cirno shouted at Eirin who was in the middle of her Spell Card trance.

By this time, however, both Aya and Satori were far out of reach of her danmaku.

Cirno was desperately staring as the enemies were retreating and as Eirin's Spell Card was going to waste.

"Uuuu… What do I do?" she struggled to think of something, but she couldn't follow the fleeing tengu and satori, because she'd surely get hit by the Lunarian's danmaku in the process.

Meanwhile, Aya stopped ascending and gazed at the light show several hundred meters below her feet with amusement. Danmaku shots could travel great lengths too, but at this distance, they were so inaccurate that they hardly posed a threat for Aya and her partner from the underground.

"All we have to do now is to wait until her card ends, hehehe~."

"And then we repeat the attempt, right?" asked Satori.

"We're even on hits right now, but unlike them, we still have three cards left. If we can provoke them into using another card and survive it, we have this battle won."

"I hope you're right…" said the mind-reader with a hint of concern in her tone. Even though she was able to read thoughts, what she was about to do was a surprise attack and she couldn't quite predict how her opponents would react to it.

Erin's Spell Card didn't score a single hit against Aya and Satori, and in fact, it nearly managed to shoot Cirno.

"Hmm… I might have underestimated our opposition." said the Lunarian as she observed the resulting situation. Not even her brilliant mind was enough to outwit the combination of a super-fast flyer and a youkai that could see her brilliant mind like an open book.

For Satori, this battle was an invaluable danmaku experience, teaching her a lot about tactics as well as teamwork.

"Now is the time." Aya whispered into her ear, letting her know that their offensive move was about to begin.

A single nod from Satori, and Aya was already looping downwards, accelerating into incredible speed.

"Let's go after them!" Cirno wanted to make her opponents pay for their insolence and flew upwards to meet them.

"Wait, Cirno-san!" Eirin tired to halt her, but seeing as how the fairy wouldn't listen to her, she was more or less forced to follow her and make sure she wouldn't do any foolish fairy-like mistake.

Two teams were closing in on each other in a dangerous speed. If they were to accidentally crash into each other, the match would end up in a tragedy. But Aya was too skilled a flyer to allow such a thing. Just before meeting the enemy team, she let go of Satori and continued on without her, jetting past both Cirno and Eirin.

Thinking that Aya was still holding Satori to help her fly faster, both the ice fairy and the doctor from Eientei targeted their non-card barrages at the tengu.

That's when Satori, who remained unnoticed, took her chance. Observing the minds of both of her enemies, she channeled her third eye and cupped her hands together. Beams of bright light were seeping through the tiny gaps between her fingers and changed its colors from red to blue before fading into darkness.

As the young satori maiden opened her palms, a freshly created Spell Card rested in her hand.

Such was the extent of her innate ability. She could create Spell Cards based on the experiences of her opponents. While not being exact duplicates, these replicas reflected the danmaku patterns that her opponents have seen or used in the past. Like this, she was able to create a card consisting of both Eirin's and Cirno's danmaku. And she didn't waste a second to declare it.

"Frozen Arcanum "Hourai Ice Cream"!" she read the card's name out loud. "Hourai Ice Cream? Where do these names keep coming from anyway?"

A phantom image appeared right above Satori's head, looking like Princess Kaguya with blue hair and wings like Cirno's. Her dress also resembled that of the ice fairy. The phantom seemed to be channeling its energy into Satori's spell.

A multi-layered ring consisting of magic bullets of varying colors formed itself around Satori and several streams of rapid icicles burst outwards, while spinning slowly around. As the rings expanded layer-by-layer, they froze in place and began falling chaotically like large colorful snowflakes.

"What the…?!" Eirin surprisedly lifted her eyes up and saw Satori and the phantom of Cirno/Kaguya hybrid floating above.

The new Spell Card caught her completely off guard and she failed to evade one of the icicles that hit her hard in the head.

"Unf… Ow…"

"Don't worry, Eirin~!" Cirno called at her while charging her power up. "I'll show her who's the strongest!"

Just when the confusing danmaku was about to drop on her, she focused her freezing power and waited for the right moment when the pattern became as dense as possible.

"Freeze~!"

A series of crackling and hissing sounds, characteristic of rapid freezing echoed in the sky. The denser the bullet formation, the more of them got frozen. And since this new Spell Card was really difficult, the ice wave got all the way to Satori. All of the frozen bullets exploded and sent icy shards flying everywhere. Satori, surrounded in the icy prison of her own danmaku stood no chance in avoiding the hit. Both Satori and Eirin were just one hit away from being eliminated, so the match became even more dramatic.

"It's now or never!" exclaimed Eirin. "Let's both attack Komeiji-san before her partner returns!"

Both of them took off against the lone satori girl while shooting their volleys of magic orbs and icicles. Her mind-reading ability proved to be only of little help in situations such as this.

All she could do is vaguely predict where her opponents would aim their next volley at, but keeping her third eye focused on two minds at once was quite difficult.

But the young mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits still managed to send a few of her own shots at the two assailants, halting their progress.

Cirno was flying first, since she only received one hit and she knew that Eirin was already struck twice. While this tactic seemed almost too logical to come from a fairy, it also had its downside in the current situation.

Aya was already hurrying to save her teammate once more, but she was worried that she wouldn't make it in time. Eirin and Cirno were almost upon her and their attacks were becoming more and more accurate.

Satori was just pulling out another of her Spell Cards in a desperate attempt to survive.

"Ayayayaya~!"

"The tengu!" Eirin swiftly turned around, but before she could channel her magic into danmaku, she was swept backwards by a gust of wind projected by Aya's fan. She was blown right into the stream of Cirno's icicles and served as a human shield that saved Satori from certain defeat.

"And that's the third hit." commented Akyuu and waved a green flag. "Aya-san and Satori-san have won the match."

* * *

"Now that was some battle!" Kyouichi was amazed by the spectacle and applauded with the rest of the crowd.

"Aya and Satori make up a good team, I'll give 'em that." Reimu nodded in acknowledgement. "I wonder how I'll be doing with my partner in this discipline. I wish to get at least to the semi-final, but considering how poorly I performed in the Survival category, I wouldn't put my hopes up too high."

"What are you saying, Reimu?" Kyouichi gave her a puzzled look. "You were amazing! Even the best of the best lose every now and then. Trust me, I've watched many sports events back home."

"Well, whatever." the shrine maiden indifferently waved her hand over the entire tournament. "It's not like anything will change if I win anyway…"

"Perhaps something will… Perhaps you'll get more visitors."

"Hmm… Perhaps… perhaps not… I don't even mind the lack of shrine visitors anymore."

"What's with that attitude? Haven't you always wanted more donations?"

"What good is all the money in the world for if it can't buy you happiness?" a deep rhetorical question came out of Reimu's mouth.

"Are you not happy, Reimu?"

Just a soft snort and a shrug of her shoulders was all that made up Reimu's reply. "Don't mind me… I'm just rambling. Need to stay focused on the tournament…"

"So… who's your team partner then?" Kyouichi changed the topic.

"Youmu..."

"Really? Youmu-san?" he asked with a surprised tone. He liked both of them almost equally. Even though he had known Reimu a bit more than the half-ghost, he knew that Youmu was a very friendly, very rational and very cute girl. Not to mention her amazing cooking talent.

"I'll surely be rooting for your team then."

"Hmhm…" Reimu chuckled softly. "Thanks, I guess…"

* * *

As the four contestants were descending back to the ground, Aya praisingly shook Satori's hand.

"Excellent job, Satori. I'm really glad to have you as a danmaku partner."

Satori's cheeks gained a lighter shade of red as she was getting praised by the renowned reporter. "No… I… I'm the one who should be telling this to you, Aya-san… You saved me twice… I would surely lose without your help."

"Why all that modesty, Satori-san? You need to be more confident about yourself! Let's aim for the top ranks in the tournament, alright?"

The young satori girl mustered a gentle smile before her eyes trailed off out of shyness. "Okay…"

"Why don't you join us over there at the shrine?" Aya pointed down at the small group of people sitting around the main tournament judge.

"If you won't mind me…"

"Of course not! Why would we mind you? See? That's that lack of confidence that I'm talking about. You need to work on that a bit, Satori…"

* * *

Eirin's and Cirno's post-battle discussion was quite different.

"Why did you suddenly throw yourself into my danmaku, you idiot?!" Cirno couldn't understand Eirin's last move, even if it wasn't quite her fault.

The Lunarian doctor's expression was similar to the one when the ice fairy poked her chest before the match. Far and wide she was known as the brightest mind that ever existed, and now, a lowly creature from Earth – a fairy, no less, was calling her an idiot. But Eirin was too smart and too kind to feel offended by Cirno. In fact, she was reminded of the time when she was escaping the lunar emissaries with her mistress and the princess would also call her an idiot for making such a reckless move.

"I'm sorry for dragging you down, Cirno-san." she said with a soft smile. "This is actually my first time fighting a two on two match."

"Geez…" pouted the dissatisfied ice fairy. "If I was in team with Rumi-chan or even Dai-chan, I wouldn't lose in the first match."

"You still have the Single Duels discipline to show your potential, you know."

"Ha! That's right!" she smacked her little fist against her palm, full of new elation. "I'll teach everyone to fear the fairies! Especially that stuck-up shrine maiden. Then I'll take my revenge against that annoying tengu and that three-eyes from the hole in the ground!"

Eirin couldn't hide an amused giggle at the fairy's overconfident words. "Best of luck to you, then… And by the way, I believe quite a few people have already learned to fear the fairies, though I'm not sure if thanks to you…"

* * *

"Whoo~!" the cheerful tengu reporter descended down near the shrine along with Satori. "We're back~!"

"Yeah, welcome back." Reimu lazily raised her palm to greet the returning Aya.

"I hope none of you guys mind if Satori-san will join us."

Nobody seemed to have anything against it. And even when Reimu thought that there was no need for several judges to be watching the matches from one place, she was too lazy to object.

"Hey… Kyouichi!" Soudai excitedly jumped up and gave his friend an elbow nudge. "This is a real satori, right?"

"Yes, why…?"

"We'll be doing a test on Monday, remember? No doubt Keine-sensei will throw in a question or two about the satori race…"

"Oh, I see… You want to do a bit of an interview with her, right?"

Soudai nodded repeatedly.

"Very well…" shrugged Kyouichi and turned his gaze over to the mind-reading youkai. "Let's see if she's in the mood to answer our questions… Umm… Excuse me, Satori-sama…"

"Yes?" she turned all of her three eyes at the person who just called her name. "Oh…? A school test? Something about myself…?"

"Whoa! She's awesome!" Soudai was all hyped up after seeing that the youkai girl had perfectly guessed their intentions. "Yes, please, Satori-sama, could you tell us something about yourself? We promise not to bother you for too long."

"I wouldn't trust him on that…" Kyouichi shot Soudai a sidelong glance, while he spoke with Satori.

They were both curious to hear her tell them something about herself and didn't even mind that the second match has already begun. This time Minamitsu and Suika were pitted against a team of Marisa and Yuugi.

"I don't know what I should say about myself…" Satori hesitantly spoke up after a silent moment. "All of us satori can read minds of other living beings, including those of other satori… All thinks to our third eye." she pointed her finger at the ever-open eyeball, hanging over her chest, linked to her body by a series of cords. "In fact, I have a little sister, who used to be just like me, but after she decided to forcefully seal her third eye, she lost her power, and at the same time, I could no longer look into her mind."

"Wait…" Soudai halted her for a moment. "So the satori can read each other's minds?"

"Yes, that's right… Often times, verbal communication is completely needless when two of our race meet…"

"So… Hypothetically…" Soudai elaborated on his previous question. "If two satori were to read each other's minds at the same time… Wouldn't they be actually reading their own minds?"

"Like two mirrors facing each other…" Kyouichi gave out a light chuckle at the thought. "Good question, Soudai… I wondered about that myself."

"To your surprise, no." replied the young youkai. "Despite the fact that all healthy satori share the same kind of ability, each of their mindsets are different, just like with you humans… When two or more satori meet, which is quite a rare occasion, by the way, they don't see the reflections of their own minds in the minds of other satori. Although they can always tell what the other person is thinking about them."

"I see… May I also ask one question?" Kyouichi inadvertently raised his hand, as if he was asking a teacher at school. As expected, he didn't even have to put it into words to get an answer from the mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits."

"Yes, my sister… Indeed… There is a way for satori to give up on their power by sealing their third eye… Why did she do it, you ask? Because our power makes us shunned, feared and hated by others… I'm honestly still getting accustomed to the feeling that not everyone looks at me with contempt or just straight up runs away from me…" she took a few glances around, as if to confirm her words before she continued. "My younger sibling didn't want to be viewed with such contempt and hatred, and she made a radical decision that changed our lives… I honestly never knew any other satori who sealed their third eye, so I'm not sure if it would be the same if I did the same thing… But you see, my sister has awoken a new ability within herself, as if to compensate for the loss of her mind-reading. Even though her third eye's lid is tightly shut, it can still see… and it can even affect what no ordinary satori can – the subconscious…"

"Manipulate the subconscious?" Kyouichi repeated with an amazed expression. "So can she even drive other people and youkai insane?"

"She is NOT responsible for the fairy incident, young human!" she sharply cut off, seeing what Kyouichi's question hinted at. "She's the one who helped us all get at least a little closer to its resolution."

"…" the dumbfounded Kyouichi blinked twice.

"Apology accepted." said Satori in the next moment. "I know my sister more than anyone else and I assure you that she's the nicest, sweetest person in the world… Associating her with an incident of such caliber is an insult to the Komeiji family."

Kyouichi still had his lips glued together, being unable to express his apology for his insolent thoughts about Satori's younger sister.

"No… wait…" Satori's expression and voice changed suddenly like weather in April. "I… I'm also sorry…" she lowered her head and shook it left and right. "I know you didn't mean it that way. I know well how much the recent fairy attack has affected the surface world. It seems that everyone is just looking for someone to blame and suspect. Even with there being no attacks after we defeated that huge fairy swarm, the true culprit was never found, and so, people will try to find a scapegoat…"

"But if your sister is as innocent as you claim, why hasn't she come here with you then?" Reimu suddenly joined the conversation which she simply couldn't pretend not to hear.

"Don't get me started on that, Reimu-san." she gloomily rolled her eyes at the shrine maiden. "She's not here because she wanted to see the festival at the Moriya Shrine. Besides, you've been there at Eientei when I observed the minds of the afflicted fairies… They're not sick or mind-controlled. They are possessed. Even Eirin-sama has told me that before our match. Our enemy is spiritual."

Reimu let out a heavy sigh and nodded. "Yeah… She told me that too… Sorry… I'm just…"

She wanted to say that she was in a bad mood today, but has left the sentence unfinished.

Satori understood her perfectly and has forgiven her previous question.

"So it should probably be called a spirit incident..." the shrine maiden muttered to herself. "Though I doubt that Yuyuko or Youmu has any part in it…"

"You seriously suspect your friends more than you should, Reimu-san." Satori said sternly. "The princess of the Netherworld is the very embodiment of pure kindness and love. She intends to do whatever she can in order to help you."

"True… She's not the kind of person who would resort to such things… Even if she has the power to manipulate the spirits of the dead… I admit, I'll need all the help I can get."

"You have more supporters than you think, Reimu." Satori smiled faintly and gently tapped Reimu's shoulder.

With somewhat improved mood, the Hakurei shrine maiden faked a weak smile, silently thanking Satori for her comforting words. She returned to watching the match and let the two outsiders continue with their little interview.

"So… Satori-san…" Soudai had another question on his mind. "We've read that many satori have animal companions or shikigami. Is that true?"

Taking a while to fully process the information that he had read in a textbook, Satori nodded affirmatively. "The minds of animals are simple and pure. They feel no shame when their minds are being read. In fact, they are attracted to us, because we can understand them like nobody else can… I personally have a lot of pets. One of them is even here with me…"

Knowing all too well who this cute little pet of Satori's was, Kyouichi gulped nervously.

"Okuu…"

"Yes. She needs a lot of care and constant attention, or else she becomes a bit too lively for her own good. She is a youkai who harbors the power of a god… Despite being rather simple-minded, her heart is pure and innocent. She means no harm even if she accidentally causes some…"

"I just hope she won't "accidentally" recreate the Tunguska Event in Reimu's back yard…"

"The what?" Reimu puzzledly raised her eyebrow at him.

Kyouichi pantomimed an enormous explosion, pressing his arms together with palms opened upwards to represent a nuclear mushroom cloud. While the nature of the said event was never truly explained, it happened just at the dawn of the 20th century in Russia, before any nuclear weapons came into existence.

"Ka-boooom…" he added a not-too-convincing sound effect to his pantomime.

"Well, I certainly don't want any "ka-booooms" going on at my shrine, but I've been convinced…"

"Okuu has learned to suppress her power in Spell Card battles." Satori wanted to clear up the misunderstanding about her pet's dangerousness. "But you are right… she has the potential to be very dangerous, should these established rules be tossed aside."

"Speaking of which, she's coming up right after this battle…" Reimu remarked after checking the tournament match list. "And she's teamed up with Patchouli, it seems…"

"Interesting." Satori stated tersely.

Then Aya stepped into the conversation. "Oi, Kyouichi! Have you taken some pictures of that new Spell Card that Satori made during our match?"

The outsider gasped in response and palm-smacked his head. "Damn it! I completely forgot!" he bowed repeatedly to Aya in apology.

"As expected from Ishimaru…" Soudai took a jab at Kyouichi's dignity.

"I wish that could happen to me sometimes…" Akyuu whispered wishfully.

"Never mind." Aya waved her palm. "Satori can simply show it to me again after the tournament, right?" she winked at the mind-reader and got a nod as an answer.

Happy about being forgiven by Aya, Kyouichi and Soudai resumed watching the tournament.

* * *

And the competition sure offered a quantity of awesome battles. Describing them all in detail could fill up a book. Again, there was no lack of surprising twists, as Marisa/Yuugi team was eliminated in the early stage of this discipline. There were also some humorous instances in the tournament, such as when Yuyuko began suddenly chasing her danmaku partner, Mystia, all over the shrine yard, resulting in their disqualification. Or when Sakuya was hesitant to attack her Mistress on the opposing team… Some teams, on the other hand, such as Byakuren/Meiling, Patchouli/Utsuho, Satori/Aya and Reimu/Youmu, have shown a level of cooperation that would be typical of a long-term friendship and combat experience.

The team of a half-ghost and a shrine maiden, which Kyouichi so profusely rooted for, has made it all the way to the final, where they would fight for the title of Double Duel Champions against the dangerous combination of an elemental sorceress and a super-powered hell raven. After five minutes of game time, it still wasn't clear who the winners would be.

While in the previous matches, Youmu and Reimu have dealt with their opposition with terrifying efficiency and swiftness, this match was truly worthy of being called the final battle.

* * *

"Utsuho or Patchouli?" Youmu asked her battle partner, her sword steadily clutched in her hands and ready to deliver a lightning-quick strike against her opponents.

Reimu paused in hesitation, having only one Spell Card at their disposal, she couldn't afford to make any more mistakes in this battle. Both the hell raven and the librarian could be very dangerous at close range and Reimu didn't want to take any risks.

"Patchouli." she finally decided while readying her magical yin-yang orbs and charging them up to fire homing amulets.

"Understood." Youmu replied calmly, bringing the blade of her Roukanken a few centimeters lower to match the height of her next target.

Reimu had already received two hits and so did the half-phantom when she underestimated the hell-raven's firepower. On the other hand, Utsuho stood proudly in front of Patchouli, not sustaining a single scratch from Youmu's sword or the slightest touch or Reimu's danmaku. She stood like a mighty, impenetrable fortress, protecting the youkai sorceress behind her. Her overwhelming danmaku served its defensive purpose almost perfectly. The only drawback of her impressive danmaku arsenal was that it once hit her teammate, who wasn't very happy about it…

So far, all of Youmu's and Reimu's offensive attempts were directed at Patchouli, the slower and physically weaker of the enemy duo, but incomparably smarter. With two Spell Cards wasted and a total of four legal danmaku hits sustained, they only managed to succeed once in their attempts to take out the elementalist.

This meant that Patchouli needed to stay behind, and Utsuho needed to protect her.

"We'll wait until they make their move, as usual." Patchouli informed the hell raven. "They are at the disadvantage here and are more likely to make their final mistake in their final desperate attempt."

"Let them come then!" the fired-up hell raven raised her arm-mounted hexagonal rod and aimed it at the two distant green and red figures. "The faster they'll move, the more likely they'll hit my wall of danmaku!"

"Let's go." Reimu gave the signal to her partner to begin their new attack. They already went over their plan and now was the time to see if it would actually work. They accelerated forward, Youmu in front, Reimu in close tandem behind her. They flew rather slowly, gradually approaching their feared opponent.

Patchouli didn't like how slowly they were flying and sensed some devious scheme coming from her opponents.

"Huh? What's the matter? Have you already given up?" Utsuho tauntingly asked the two slowly moving targets as she charged her weapon. "Embrace the light then!"

"No, wait!" Patchouli didn't want her partner to fire her salvo prematurely, because their enemies could exploit the short period of time when the hell raven would charge up for another barrage.

But, of course, the stubborn subterranean avian did not heed her advice. She fired a bright-yellow continuous beam of thermonuclear energy at the half-ghost.

Not sure if even one millisecond has passed when the ray traveled the necessary distance to hit Youmu straight in the head, but all that the spectators could see from below the stage was that Utsuho's beam made and L-shaped bend into the dark sky when it came into contact with Youmu's magic weapon.

"I'm not even sure what just happened, ladies and gentlemen, but my hunch tells me that we've just witnessed Youmu successfully blocking an attack at the speed of light! If that's not worthy of your applause, dear shrine visitors, then I don't know what is!"

Aya certainly knew how to keep the crowds going wild. And as the spectators went crazy over Youmu's unbelievable feat, the crow tengu added: "Louder, louder! This deserves a louder cheering! I mean… how often do you see half-ghosts and hell ravens sparring in your back yard, people? And let's not forget about youkai librarians who only go out of their libraries once a decade and ego-centric, money-hungry shrine maidens who will shoot you first and drink tea with you later… They're important too…"

This time the spectators reacted with laughter and that's exactly how Aya wanted this festival to be like – fun and enjoyable.

After Youmu averted her and Reimu's defeat with her amazing block, the two of them broke their formation, intending to zoom past Utsuho from both sides. Since they wanted to do this synchronically, Youmu had to slow down a bit to adjust her speed to her partner's. This, however, turned out to be the opening for Patchouli and Utsuho to thwart their plan. While the elemental sorceress has sent water-based danmaku volleys at the incoming shrine maiden, Okuu has created a wide field of relatively stable miniature nuclear reactions that lingered in the air almost motionlessly. This danmaku wall was wide enough to connect both ends of the designated dueling area and the opposing team could not choose to go around it without breaking the rules. They had to carefully navigate through the bright blazing orbs to get to their target and had to slow down even more. Patchouli's watery orbs didn't manage to take Reimu out, but as they made contact with Utsuho's nuclear minefield, they immediately vaporized, creating large amounts of steam which obscured Reimu's vision.

"Feels like in a hot-spring… Sure could go for a bath right now…" she thought as she was dodging the fiery orbs in a cloud of steam. "Uhh… what am I thinking? Got to stay focused!"

"You're not getting past me, red-white!" Utsuho shouted at the shrine maiden, charging her rod up for another blast.

Reimu swung her gohei and conjured up a pair of large square-shaped homing ofuda, intending to score the third and final hit against Patchouli.

"Oh no, you won't!" the hell raven predicted her move and fired her nuclear beam at her opponent.

Reimu arched her back just in time to save herself from the dazzling ray and its subsequent shockwave. While evading the beam, her attack got interrupted and her homing amulets were not as homing as she would like them to be. The two yellow ofuda harmlessly flew in a straightforward trajectory, not acquiring any of Reimu's opponents.

In the meantime, Patchouli switched her target to Youmu, who was just working her way through Utsuho's stationary projectiles. This time, the elemental sorceress decided to switch her offensive element to earth. Not willing to use a Spell Card, the librarian raised her arms and summoned an eruption of yellow danmaku pellets, shooting from below, covering the area below Youmu.

But the half-ghost was fast and the barrage from below didn't prove to be very effective against her. Finally, she weaved her way through Okuu's danmaku wall and her path to Patchouli was clear.

"Just come a little closer." Patchouli taunted the silver-haired girl in her thoughts. She already had another danmaku barrage all charged up and ready to use.

While Reimu was busy dealing with Okuu, Youmu quickly tried to outmaneuver Patchouli and finish her off with an accurate shot. But this was exactly what the young youkai wanted. Once the half-ghost was close enough, she utilized another element, this time the element of fire. A thick cluster of fireballs came flying at Youmu, making a deceptive side-to-side motion. At the same time, a dense fireball pattern erupted out of Patchouli's palms, giving Youmu a very poor chance to dodge.

Even if she used her youkai-forged blade to neutralize Patchouli's danmaku, there were simply too many fireballs in the air and too little time to think.

"I'm done for!" a fleeting thought flashed through Youmu's mind just a split second before the fire barrage got to her.

"But maybe I can still make it." she thought to herself as she focused all of her thoughts into one single goal.

* * *

"Ooooooh~!" the crowds below went silent as they saw the definite end of the match.

"Ayayayayaya~! It happened so fast, folks, that I myself have questions about what happened exactly!"

Youmu was hit by some of the fireballs and was just rubbing her lightly burnt shoulder, but at the same time, her ghost-half was floating behind Patchouli, taking the shape of Youmu's body. Its stance indicated that she had just performed a diagonal downward slash.

Patchouli's body wasn't hurt, but she felt a chilling sensation that paralyzed her for a few seconds and drained a good portion of her magical power.

"Both Youmu-san and Patchouli-san have hit each other, but the question is who was hit first?" Aya threw questioning glances at both Akyuu and Satori. This was one of those rare instances when even Akyuu's perfect memory was of no use, since everything happened simply too fast.

"I'm sorry, Aya-san, but I'm also uncertain about the outcome of this match."

That's when the crow tengu got an idea. "If only we could replay that last moment… That's it! We need to consult this with Sakuya-san. I'll be right back!"

All of the participants of the final match were already standing on firm ground, scratching their heads and exchanging questioning glances. Not even they were sure who actually won and who didn't.

* * *

"Sorry I took so long!" Aya returned to the shrine in company of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's chief maid. "Here she is. Now, Sakuya-san, can you return the time to that final moment of the duel, so we could determine the winner?"

Even though Sakuya was a time-manipulator, her ability was limited only to slowing down or stopping the flow of time. Perhaps she could restore a broken object if she had all the pieces, but direct time travel to the past or to the future was still beyond her power.

"What do you mean you can't?" Aya asked her after the maid explained the range of her ability.

"Then perhaps you could slow down the time for me while I look into my memory." Akyuu suggested a brilliant idea.

"That might actually work." Sakuya nodded in acknowledgement and grabbed her silver pocket watch. She laid one hand on Akyuu's head and activated her power.

Now the little chronicler began to notice the time around her slowed down. She then closed her eyes and recalled the last seconds of the match in her mind. Everything played out much slower and clearer. After replaying the memory for a few more times, she could safely declare the winner with absolute certainty.

"I saw it clearly too." Satori confirmed the judgement before it was even put into words, since she could see Akyuu's slow-motion recollection with her third eye.

"Well then," Aya looked at them both impatiently, "don't keep us in the dark. Who won that match?"

From both sides, Satori and Akyuu whispered their answer into both of her ears.

"I guess the decision is official then." said the crow tengu and cleared her throat. "Ladies and gentlemen! We now know the result of the final match!"

She paused for a while and watched amusedly as the crowd's impatience and curiosity grew with each second. Even the contestants themselves were now holding their fists clenched and sweating nervously before Aya declared the results.

"The winners of the match and the Double Duel champions are… the team of Reimu Hakurei and Youmu Konpaku~!"

Both of the mentioned girls jumped up with their arms over their heads as the loud wave of applause silenced their shouts of cheer.

On the other hand, Okuu seemed to be very disappointed by the announcement and nobody could blame her. She did so well in this match, and yet it wasn't enough to win. At least Patchouli looked as though she was indifferent about the whole tournament.

"By a mere split second, ladies and gentlemen~! Youmu phased her ghost half into her own shape and dealt the final decisive strike against Patchouli just before she was burnt by her fiery danmaku. A close, but all the more satisfying victory for the miko/half-ghost team! Congratulations~!"

"I knew you'd win, Reimu! And you too, Youmu!" Kyouichi called out at the winners of the Double Duel discipline.

"The tournament continues, folks, so don't go home just yet~!" Aya was already holding a new tournament pyramid chart in her hand. "In just a few moments, you will see the main event! And as you all know, the results from the previous two disciplines won't matter at all, because all danmaku battles are unpredictable!~!"

The crowds again let out a series of cheers after Aya's words and all the contestants returned to their places.

Even though Reimu just won the discipline, her elation quickly faded as she became aware that another series of battles was waiting for her.

"You've been doing really well, Reimu, but now it gets serious. Don't you think that I'm going to be easy on you." Aya gave her a warning and flashed a confident smile.

"But first you need to win against Youmu." Reimu pointed at Aya's first opponent in the chart. "While I get Marisa as my first opponent. Oh, joy…"

"Do I sense doubt in your voice, Reimu? What's the matter, haven't you two battled countless times already?"

"I'm not in doubt… I'm just… *sigh* never mind… Sorry, Marisa, but I'm not letting you win." she apologized to the witch who wasn't there to hear her.

"Ha, I bet she's probably saying the same thing to you." the crow tengu retorted.


	49. The Main Event

After the short break, Aya again returned to her role of the tournament announcer and she was just announcing the names of the contestants for the first match.

"So, let's not delay the show any longer! But due to unexpected occurrences, there has been a slight change of duelists in the first match. Instead of Hijiri Byakuren, we'll see a match between Reiuji Utsuho and Mystia Lorelei. Three Spell Cards, three hits to win. The main event has begun! The stage is yours, contestants, let's get it on~!"

After firing her signal danmaku into the sky, the hell raven and the youkai night sparrow took off into the air and unleashed their danmaku at each other. The match was quite boring, though. It ended in less than a minute, in a way that pretty much everyone predicted. Utsuho single-handedly won the duel without getting hit even once. She even apologized to the night sparrow for eliminating her so early. Mystia had probably seen it coming anyway, and with no hard feelings, she rejoined her friends in the crowd.

"My, my…*yawn*… how unexpected." Aya commented while feigning a very unamused attitude. "Reiuji-san has won the match… Tell me folks, but honestly… Did anybody think that Lorelei-san would win? Come on, raise your hands. Don't be shy…"

A few hands were raised from the crowd of spectators, but definitely not many of the shrine visitors thought that the night sparrow would stand a chance.

"And now, folks, it's time for a more interesting match! In a duel where speed and reflexes mean everything, I, Aya Shameimaru will go up against one of the Double Duel champions, Konpaku Youmu~! Again, I apologize to you for not being able to comment this match while fighting, but I believe that words won't be necessary here! Sakuya-san, you better stay by Akyuu's side just in case we'd need you to replay this match in slow motion again."

"Enough talking, Aya." Reimu silenced her. "Get on the stage already."

"Impatient, are we?" the tengu teased her a bit. "Have no fear! Aya-chan is here~!"

Aya boldly flew over to the stage, where Youmu was already waiting for her.

Reimu gave the signal and the danmaku fest started.

* * *

Youmu drew out her Roukanken in a blink of an eye and intended to land the first hit in the first second. Aya's speed, however, was at least as high as Youmu's and her katana only managed to cut the air where the crow tengu was standing.

Immediately thinking of a counterattack, Aya waved her hauchiwa fan and sent a trio of intersecting wave-shots at Youmu, who was just in a vulnerable position.

*clash*

The half-ghost's sword sang a high-pitched tone as she blocked the incoming shots that dispersed harmlessly. The crowds were going crazy. Battles like this were always more eye-catching than the "David vs. Goliath" matches, in which "David" was rarely the winner.

"Heh… I feel like Caesar in ancient Rome." Soudai remarked as the battle went on.

"Yeah, except that she is the Caesar here…" Kyouichi beckoned at Reimu. "…and the gladiator in one person. Besides, I doubt that the fights in the Colosseum were as interesting as these."

The fight between Aya and Youmu was very fast-paced, but at the same time, both duelists were extremely careful. It even seemed that they were fighting with a certain deal of foresight. Youmu wasn't just waving her sword around. She created a series of highly precise danmaku patterns that nearly took her opponent by surprise, but Aya could deal well with unexpected situations in very short time. It was just about time for one of the girls to declare their Spell Card, and so it happened…

"Gaki Sword "Storybook of the Gaki Realm"!"

Aya did fire a burst of shots with the intention to interrupt Youmu's card declaration, but the half-ghost made a long dodge with such speed that it almost looked like instant teleportation.

Her sword left a trail of white danmaku that resembled arrow heads. The trail quickly burst into all directions, showering the air with magic projectiles. The bullets moved fast and Aya herself was having a bit of a problem with reading their pattern. Fortunately for her, just when the wall of danmaku got close to her, everything seemed to have slowed down for just a brief moment. Aya hurriedly moved to a safer spot and as the high speed kicked in again, she was ready to perform some fast, but precise dodging maneuvers.

And just as that white bullet hail passed her by, she attempted to return fire. She sent a pair of larger red orbs that were directed at Youmu's position and accelerated very quickly, leaving a glowing trail behind. They almost looked like miniature comets as they flashed through the air. As fast as they were, however, they missed their target as the half-ghost just executed another dodging slash, repeating her Spell Card's pattern over and over again.

The crow tengu reporter could feel her heart race as dozens of white danmaku shots were grazing past her. She had an idea how to deal with this card, but the random bursts of bullets were nearly impossible to predict. That one moment of calm during the bursts barely allowed her any relief from the rush of excitement. Another wave was already coming her way and she needed to stay absolutely focused on the dodging.

"And left, and right, and left again! No!"

She felt that all too familiar burning sensation of a danmaku hit on her stomach.

Reimu nonchalantly made one notch next to Aya's name in the chart and continued watching the duel.

Even after just being hit, Aya needed to keep on dodging Youmu's spell until it ended. Of course, she could still try to attack her or use her own Spell Card, but she believed that it would be a waste to use it right now.

She survived the rest of the card's duration and was ready to repay the hit. She made a quick dash towards Youmu and immediately darted backwards while firing a V-shaped stream of blue and white orbs.

The half-phantom only had to slightly change her altitude to keep herself safe from Aya's attack. Without drawing any cards, she created a pattern made of dozens of green and yellow spheres. The curved streams of these spheres intersected each other on many places and forced Aya to keep moving. But the crow tengu had considerably less problems with this pattern. In just a moment, she made her way close to Youmu's position and greeted her with another salvo of bluish waves. This time, Youmu's sword arm was not quick enough to block them and Reimu could make one notch next to her name as well.

The score was even now. Youmu didn't even seem to want to dodge the last attack. She prepared herself to get hit and already thought a few steps ahead. Not even a second after Aya's wave hit her, she bolted towards her while performing a slash.

The surprised tengu gasped and by sheer reflex she ducked in the last possible moment. A light breeze from Youmu's slash caressed her hair, not even realizing how she dodged it or when did Youmu manage to cut her shoulder with her second, shorter sword.

"H-hey!" Aya jetted away from Youmu and checked her shoulder. No physical wound was found, but she could feel a bit light-headed after being cut by the Hakurouken – the White Tower Sword.

Not willing to take any chances, Aya decided enough was enough and called her first Spell Card of the duel.

"Wind God "Wind God Hidden Among Tree Leaves"!"

The card whipped up a gust of wind and hundreds of leaf-shaped green shots appeared around the caster, following the perfectly arranged wind currents. The resulting effect was a beautiful circular formation formed by a multitude of smaller circles of this leaf-shaped danmaku, all swirling around and shooting out in all directions. While initially the pattern appeared to be perfectly symmetrical, as soon as the "leaves" burst out, they broke their regular formation and followed random directions.

Seeing as this wasn't going to be as easy as she thought, Youmu was mentally preparing herself to use another card.

"Not just yet…" she thought to herself as she evaded the flurry of green danmaku with relative ease. "Not yet…"

The second and third wave posed no great problems for her, but during the fourth wave, the danmaku streams have spread widely and covered every cubic meter of space. While still leaving openings, this mass of shots incoming from multiple directions was a true challenge for even the best dodgers. Youmu focused and slipped through a gap between two leaves approaching from her left side. In the same moment she turned her head right and found another chance for her to slip through. Again, a look to her left and…

"Now!"

At the very moment that she felt the touch of danmaku on her leg, Youmu declared her Spell Card.

"Hell Realm Sword "200 Yojana in 1 Slash"!"

Reimu was just about to add a second notch next to Youmu's name to note that she's been hit twice, but her quill remained motionless, since the half-ghost's immediate Spell Card declaration nullified the hit.

A mass of transparent violet orbs popped up in front of Youmu, who subsequently drew out her longer sword and slashed through them. Again, it looked like she simply teleported herself from one side to another as she performed her slash. The orbs that were cut by her blade scattered into hundreds of smaller red pellets and burst outwards.

Now, both Aya and Youmu were in their Spell Card trance and the spectators could see a wild and beautiful display of clashing barrages of green and red lights. While they lasted, both spells were pretty much negating each other, not letting the opposing bullet storm to get near their caster. But Aya was aware that her card would end sooner than Youmu's and was already preparing her dodging tactics as she studied Youmu's bullet pattern.

For another 20 seconds, both girls were literally hidden in the clouds of their own danmaku. As expected, Aya's card fizzled out and she had to rely on her flying skills once again.

"Whoa~!"

She evaded the barrage of red spirit fragments just by a few centimeters. She swung her hauchiwa just as she evaded a series of Youmu's danmaku. Her counterattack almost worked, but Youmu just made another slash, traveling over 20 meter distance in the blink of an eye.

Aya's gust of wind missed its mark again and she now had more bullets in the air to dodge.

As she saw that the wave of incoming danmaku was simply too dense, the crow tengu backed away to allow the bullet formation to spread a little wider so she could squeeze through. And as she did that, Youmu's spell has timed out.

"Now's my chance." thought Aya.

"A perfect opportunity." plotted Youmu.

With the dispersing barrage of Youmu's dying spell, both girls sought to execute their plan in order to eliminate their opponent. Youmu dashed forward to surprise the tengu with a melee attack, while Aya propelled herself downwards, evaded the wall of shots and landed on the stage. Using her muscular strength, she took off again heading for where Youmu was floating while she was using her previous Spell Card. She noticed that the half-ghost was no longer there and in that split second she turned around, noticing the defenseless back of Yuyuko's servant.

Youmu thought that she could surprise Aya by flying along with her own bullet barrage and using it as cover, but something was wrong… The tengu was no longer in her sight and that could not be good.

"Too late, Youmu." Aya sent her regards along with a swift danmaku barrage at the unsuspecting gardener.

"And Aya scores a seco..." Reimu was about to announce that the match was tied once again, but something she saw prevented her from doing so.

The half-ghost focused her senses to be sharper than her blades, and as she heard the distinctive sound of incoming danmaku shots, she turned around while performing a blind slash with her Roukanken.

*clash*

Aya quickly figured that her barrage was not going to be enough to bring Youmu down and so, she repeated her attempt in outflanking her. With her speed, which by several times surpassed the speed of sound, she made another fly-by. This time she jetted over Youmu's head while firing a burst of highly accurate magic bolts. Her plan was to fly around Youmu, while assaulting her from all directions, not giving her much chance for evasion or counterattack.

And the half-ghost was indeed in a pinch right now. While she could use her sword for defense, slashing multiple high-velocity danmaku projectiles incoming from all directions was a bit too much for this girl to handle.

Aya was insanely fast in her flight and her flanking maneuvers were getting more dangerous by each second.

Youmu knew that it would be most unwise if she just stood there and tried to deflect all those incoming shots with her weapon. But even when she tried to keep moving, Aya's hit-and-run tactics wasn't giving her many opportunities. She evaded the first stream while cutting through the second, but a third wave was already about to hit her. The half-ghost was seriously considering using her final Spell Card, even if it meant that she would lose if Aya managed to stay unhit over its duration.

The crow tengu was assailing her from all sides with ever increasing speed and more dangerous danmaku barrages. But with her increased speed she needed to fly a longer distance to make a full 180 degree turn. Nevertheless, Youmu could not react fast enough to avoid every shot.

"Oh, well… At least I tried." thought the half-ghost as she noticed another dense salvo of bright-red shots and blue waves with the corner of her eye. She braced herself for the inevitable impact, ready to accept her defeat like a warrior…

"Stop the match, stop the match~!" Reimu shouted as she waved a red flag over her head. And she wasn't the only one raising the flag. From the other side of the stage, several other hands with the same-colored flags popped up.

* * *

With freshly made holes into her clothing, Youmu was slowly descending down to the stage with her head lowered in self-disappointment. Aya finally stopped flying like crazy and landed on the stage after her opponent.

Reimu stood up from her sitting position and cleared her throat before making her announcement: "During her last offensive against her opponent, the contestant Shameimaru Aya has left the designated dueling area, and is thus disqualified."

"Wha…?" Kyouichi surprisedly blinked at Reimu's announcement.

"Eh?" Aya's reaction was filled one half with disbelief and one half with embarrassment.

"Disqualified?" the surprised half-ghost repeated Reimu's last word with an incredulous look on her face.

The spectators as well as the dueling girls were struck dumbfounded for a few seconds while they were processing their thoughts.

"Ayaya… I messed up there, didn't I?" the reporter of Bunbunmaru News blushed as she scratched the back of her head.

Reimu spoke again after a brief pause: "The winner of the match, is therefore Konpaku Youmu~!"

"I… won…" uttered Youmu after taking her time to let Reimu's words roll around in her head. "Hehe… I won…"

Despite being groggy after taking hits from multiple shots sent at her by Aya, Youmu couldn't hold back a smile.

"It was a very fine battle with you, Konpaku-san." Aya bowed to her, sporting a pretty carefree expression on her face.

"But if it wasn't for the rules, I would have lost." Youmu opposed.

"You still had one Spell Card, left, though."

"True, but I was hesitant to use it. Besides, you also had one more card, Aya-san."

"Well, I don't really mind losing to you, Youmu-san. This way I can stay focused on doing my job of a reporter and take plenty of pictures of this tournament. Good luck in your next duels."

"Thank you, Aya-san." the half-ghost bowed to her and the girls parted their ways, leaving the stage vacant for the next pair of duelists.

As the crow tengu made her way back to her original place on the shrine's porch, Reimu couldn't hide her amused smirk.

"And you almost won the match, Aya…"

"Ehehe~. What can I tell you?" shrugged the reporter of Bunbunmaru. "The dueling area is too narrow."

"You were doing really well in the Double Duels, though. I didn't expect you to do such a stupid mistake." the shrine maiden criticized Aya's performance.

Aya didn't really fret about having lost, even if it was due to her own error. "It's just a game… Anyway, I'm curious about how well will you fare in your match, Reimu."

"It's not my turn yet."

"I know, but I'm still curious to see you duel with Marisa."

"Why don't you announce the next pair of contestants before that?" Reimu passed her the tournament chart.

Aya let out a weak chuckle. "Let's see then…" she cleared her throat as she read the names of the following duelists. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have no excuse for being disqualified in the previous match, but life and the tournament goes on~!"

Another wave of cheers echoed from the crowd of humans and youkai. Many of Aya's supporters started calling out her name.

"But in return… I shall provide you all with plenty of 1st class photographs from this tournament in the next issue of Bunbunmaru! Anyway, the danmaku fest continues and the next two girls have a lot in common. A few minutes ago, you could see a duel of speed. Well, now it will be a duel of raw strength and power. Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome the two oni – Ibuki Suika and Hoshiguma Yuugi~!"

* * *

From the far end of the stage, two female figures ascended into the air and landed on the well illuminated stage of the Hakurei Shrine.

The tall single-horned blonde girl and the short, ginger-haired oni bowed to the audience and the judges before they turned their faces at each other.

"I'm so happy that you've come to visit the surface world!" Suika expressed her joy of reuniting with her long-time friend.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I wasn't even planning it, but Satori suddenly paid me a visit with her interesting request." Yuugi explained the conditions of her unexpected arrival. "I couldn't turn her down when she told me that I could meet you here, hehe~."

"I heard about that." nodded the two-horned Suika. "She was supposed to bring her sister and her kasha along, but they decided to visit the Moriya Shrine."

Their idle conversation got suddenly interrupted by a loud bang and a flurry of red amulets, painting a pattern on the dark night sky. Reimu just gave them the signal to start the duel.

"Aww…" Yuugi pouted in displeasure. "Do we really have to start dueling now? I'd rather have a drinking contest with ya."

"Me too~." acknowledged Suika as she sadly lowered her head.

"Start the duel already~!" a distant shout from Reimu urged the two oni friends to float up and put on a good show for the audience.

"Oh well, this game isn't so bad either." shrugged the blonde oni as she hovered to her position.

"Like old times, eh, Yuugi?" Suika smiled with a nostalgic memory on her mind.

"Remember when we tried to make that super-concentrated sake when we were little?" Yuugi brought up another memory to Suika's mind.

"Pfhahahaha~!" Suika couldn't defend herself from the laughing fit as she recalled that event. "How could I forget? Hahahaha~!"

While Suika and Yuugi were having a good laugh above the stage, the audience and tournament judges were beginning to wonder when these girls would actually start dueling.

"If you don't start in three seconds, you're both disqualified!" Reimu let her impatience be known to the pair of oni.

"Oh well…" Suika regained her composure after the shrine maiden's warning.

"We can still chat and drink after we're done with this duel." said Yuugi and made a circular motion with her right hand, making over a dozen large blue orbs appear around her.

Instead of charging up her attack, Suika was preparing herself to dodge whatever Yuugi would conjure up.

Not having to wait for too long, all of Yuugi's orbs fired blue beams in all directions, just closely missing Suika's left shoulder. After all of Yuugi's orbs have fired their beams, they disappeared for a while before the attack was repeated. In this short moment, Suika charged in, lobbing two fireballs at her opponent with both of her arms.

Yuugi didn't even flinch, even when the projectiles were accurately heading for her position. Her confidence was soon explained by the fact that the circle of blue orbs appeared around her again, serving not only its offensive, but also a defensive purpose.

The fireballs took out two of Yuugi's orbs, but have caused her no harm. The rest of the blue spheres fired their lasers in the same fashion as the first time. This time, however, the pattern was a little easier. After watching the bright beams flashing around her, Suika fired a pair of orb-shaped mist-like projectiles at her opponent. Yuugi finally moved from her place, because she knew what these mysterious magic orbs do. She dodged to her left just in time before Suika's shots reached her original position. But even as she moved away, the misty orbs seemed to have followed her movement, slightly changing their direction. The orbs that were conjured up by Yuugi were about to fire another series of lasers, but Suika's danmaku destroyed several of them before they could fire. Not only that, but the shots continued in their flight, making a sharper turn towards the main target.

"Whoa! Almost made me spill my sake~!" called the blonde oni while making an adequately fast dodge to shake off the persistent danmaku. Even during a battle, she was holding her bright-red tray filled with sake and taking sips from it every few seconds.

"Hey, Yuugi~!" Suika suddenly called at her. "I bet I could make you spill your sake."

"Ohoho~! You're welcome to try~!" she accepted the challenge.

"Okay, Yuugi. Now hold still for a moment…" grinned the ginger-haired oni as she reached for her Spell Card.

"Oni Sign "Missing Power"!"

A purplish light consumed the card in her hand and became one with her body. Almost instantaneously, the otherwise short Suika became a hulking giant.

"Ooooooh~!" Everyone in the crowd spectators and judges couldn't hide their bewilderment from the sight of an oni's power. Suika now measured well over 20 meters in height and the span of her horns almost equaled the width of the large stage. If she wasn't levitating, she'd surely crush the wooden floor of the Hakurei Shrine's festival stage with her feet.

"NOW GET READY, YUUGI…" her voice, loud as thunder, but still childish in sound, resonated over the shrine yard. "HERE IT COMES!"

"Are you going to hit me, or are you just going to waste time talking about it?" Yuugi fearlessly taunted her friend to attack her. "Give me your best punch~!"

Suika knew that she could really go wild with her tremendous strength against an opponent such as Yuugi. She balled her huge fist and readied her massive arm to throw a punch. Everyone at the shrine held their breath for that short moment…

Yuugi just calmly hovered in one place, holding her tray of sake, as if this was just another peaceful moment for her.

"Does she really want to get hit by Suika-san?" Aya couldn't believe her eyes as she watched the scene with her camera snapping pictures in rapid succession.

In the next second, Suika was already swinging her arm at Yuugi.

With force that could shatter an entire mountain range, Suika's gigantic fist met Yuugi's body. The force of impact was so strong that it sent out a mighty shockwave that slightly shook the ground near the Hakurei Shrine and made some of the human spectators lose their balance and fall.

"Kyaaaah~!" exclaimed Reimu who was just sipping her tea and the shockwave made her spill it over herself. "Hot, hot, hot!"

"Are you alright, Reimu?" Aya threw a quick glance at the miko before she resumed snapping shots of the battle.

When the shocked spectators shifted their sights back to the stage, they couldn't hide their amazement. Aya was apparently brimming with excitement as she commented the scene.

"Ayayayaya~! Can it be true…? Yuugi-san bravely took Suika-san's hit!"

The blonde oni was knocked back by nearly ten meters, but she remained floating, and what's more, she was still holding her red tray of sake.

"…OW~!" the magically-grown Suika made a pained expression and began rubbing the fist with which she hit her opponent. "I THINK I PRICKED MYSELF ON YOUR HORN, YUUGI~!"

"Whoa…!" Yuugi shook herself awake after taking a hit that would surely kill any human and send them flying like a cannonball. "Where was I again…?"

She looked a bit confused and after shrugging, she nonchalantly took another sip of sake from her tray.

"She didn't even spill a drop, ladies and gentlemen~!" called Aya. "Unbelievable!"

"What do you mean? She spilled everything~!" Reimu exasperatedly retorted as she tried to dry her soaked dress with her handkerchief.

"No, Reimu-san," the tengu grinned at her futile attempt, "you spilled everything."

"I should disqualify them both for that…" grumbled the shrine maiden, not even looking at the battle anymore.

"I'm still amazed that Yuugi-san was pretty much unharmed by that punch. Just as expected from one of the four Devas of the Mountain. But now she's losing to Suika-san by one hit."

And so, the crow tengu marked the hit into the battle chart while the battle between the two oni went on.

As a sign of respect and honor, Suika ended the effect of her Spell Card prematurely and returned back to her original size.

"Nice punch, Suika." Yuugi nodded in acknowledgement. "But this sake is just too good for me to let it be spilled."

"Hehe… They don't call you Yuugi the Strong for nothing." replied Suika cheerfully. "Now it's your turn to take a whack at me."

"What the hell do they think they're doing?" muttered Reimu, who finally resigned wiping her miko dress and returned to her current duty. "This isn't supposed to be a turn-based battle."

"Oh, come on, Reimu." Aya gave her a smile. "It's for the show and entertainment. Let them do their fight their way."

"But… come to think of it…" Yuugi rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "isn't this supposed to be a danmaku battle, Suika?"

"Yes, but now I'm in an unfair advantage. Just hit me back and we can continue this game with danmaku, okay~?"

"I suppose you're right." the one-horned oni cracked her knuckles. "Are you ready, Suika?"

"I was born ready~!" Suika smacked her underdeveloped chest with her fist as a sign of acceptance.

"Then here I come!"

"Oooh~! Wait, wait, wait~!" she interrupted her just a second before Yuugi's fist was about to land on Suika's body. The blonde curiously raised her eyebrow, wondering why Suika halted her. The answer to her question came in form of Suika taking a few hearty gulps of sake from her gourd.

"Aaaah…" she exhaled with a blissful expression on her face. "That hit the spot. Okay, now I'm ready~!"

Not waiting for anything else, Yuugi hovered backwards a few meters and made a brutally-looking charging punch, targeting Suika's torso.

"Umph!" uttered the ginger-haired oni as she was sent backwards by the enormous force of impact. Just barely she managed to regain control of her flight before she got knocked out of the battling area.

"Hahaha…" Suika chuckled as she flew back towards the middle of the stage. "I guess that makes us even then, huh?"

"Not yet…" Yuugi objected as she drew out her Spell Card. "Mysterious Ring "Hell's Wheel of Pain"!"

Immediately after declaring her card, Yuugi spread her arms wide and in a dazzling flash all the danmaku that was just being spawned disappeared harmlessly. "Now we're even." she added with a friendly smile after she just wasted her card.

Being truly even both on hits taken and Spell Cards left, the two oni continued their fight with danmaku. Not that melee hits were against the rules, but they both wanted to show off their magic bullet patterns. After the oni girls have increased the distance between each other, it was more than clear to everyone that an intense danmaku showdown would follow.

Suika created an orb of white light in her hand and threw it at Yuugi like a ball. The orb burst in the middle of its flight, and scattered dozens of small purple objects. It took a few seconds for even the sharp eyes of the crow tengu to identify Suika's danmaku.

"Ayaya, Suika-san is using her gathering and dissolving powers to make miniature replicas of herself and she's using those replicas as a part of her danmaku."

And as the miniature Suikas were littering the air, they subsequently exploded in fiery burst, making the danmaku density even thicker. Yuugi was now forced to move quickly, but very carefully through the clouds of fiery sparks and mini clones of her opponent. But even when under heavy fire, Yuugi was a dangerous adversary. With a just a subtle movement of her hands, she conjured up a huge cluster of two-colored projectiles around herself. The green orbs were immediately sent straight forward at Suika, while the yellow ones were shot sideways. The short oni deftly avoided the spreading cluster of green shots and returned fire. This time she created several large teal spheres and cast them forward in a fan-shaped pattern.

Not long after Yuugi fired her first wave, the yellow orbs which she fired sideways stopped in their flight and changed their heading by 180 degrees. This meant that Suika found herself in the middle of two intersecting salvos of yellow danmaku and had to make a lot of effort to avoid them. On the other hand, Yuugi had to freeze in one place due to the density of danmaku that was sent her way by Suika. She could even feel the warmth of her danmaku grazing all around her body, but none of the orbs hit her. Even when she felt a strong temptation to dive into the middle of the bullet stream and endure the hits, close the distance and fight Suika hand to hand, she knew that such a move would make her lose the duel. She had to devise a plan to score a hit by the means of danmaku. With all the chaos in the air, Yuugi figured it would be a good idea to use a Spell Card, as it would render her nearly immune to enemy fire for a brief moment and further increase the number of her own shots in the air.

"Oni Sign "Supernatural Phenomenon"!"

The Spell Card painted four spreading spiral-shaped strings consisting of hundreds of red magic bullets. They cleared a small area around Yuugi of enemy shots, but appeared to be just a decorative, theatrical pattern to an untrained eye. That changed in the next second as the spirals changed their color from violet to red and all the bullets were sent into motion at varying speeds. The resulting mixed barrage was simply too chaotic and dense to avoid. But Suika was no idiot. She knew that she couldn't just glide through all that curtain fire unscathed, so she declared her own Spell Card just in time before one of those shots touched her.

"Hell "Sigh of Purgatory"!"

After declaring the name of her following spell, her card turned into a bright blue gaseous cloud. Suika then took a deep breath and inhaled the vaporous substance.

"Ayaya, looks like Suika-san's using one of her more difficult cards. But Yuugi-san's card is still in effect. This should be quite a spectacle."

Just after Aya finished her sentence, Suika opened her mouth and exhaled a dazzling cloud burning in bluish fire that spread out symmetrically into several smaller clouds, each leaving a trail of spreading danmaku. A strong smell of alcohol flooded the whole shrine yard after Suika's "sigh".

"Better hold your breath, folks." Aya jokingly warned the audience. "You could get drunk from her breath alone."

For a whole minute and several seconds the people and youkai at the shrine were watching as the spells of two very powerful youkai were clashing and nullifying each other's effects.

The magical projectiles that hit each other in flight created miniature explosions of colorful light accompanied by various noises unlike anything that could be normally heard in the outside world. However, soon the spells have ended and the two oni were left each with just one card. Neither Suika, nor Yuugi wanted to use it, since they'd risk defeat, should their opponent evade every shot of the pattern before their spell runs out of power.

That's when the girls resorted again to normal danmaku attacks, but now they were more intense than ever.

Yuugi, as a show of power, raised her arm and a gleaming stream of yellow light erupted out of her hand, changing direction and bending its shape to a spiral as the blonde oni was beginning to spin around. At first, the narrow stream was no problem to dodge for the shorter oni girl, but after making a full circle, it spread vertically into a solid yellow wall of light, fading away just a few meters away from the safety zone where the spectators and judges were watching the battle. Suika quickly learned that she had to fly as fast as possible in the same direction as the wave of light if she wanted to avoid it.

"Looks like she's using a non-card pattern similar to her Light Oni "Adamant Helix"." noted the crow tengu with her expertise and knowledge of other Spell Cards. "But if she wants to abide the rules, she has to make it easier than her Spell Card version."

Of course, Aya was right, which turned out fortunately for Suika and all her supporters in the crowd. The awe-inspiring wall of yellow light ran out of power just as soon as it would make its second circle around Yuugi and its tail just grazed a few centimeters next to Suika's foot.

And just as the blonde oni was charging up to repeat the attack, Suika closed in on her and declared her final card, giving Yuugi little time and room to move away from immediate danger.

"Night Parade of One Million Demons!"

A tiny dark vortex opened up in the middle of the card and swallowed it in. Then it began rapidly growing in both size and gravity.

"You're taking this tournament seriously, aren't you?" Yuugi asked her a question just before she flew below Suika's feet in order to escape what was about to come in a few seconds.

"This is…" Aya paused herself as she gazed at Suika's card with awe and respect. "This is possibly the most powerful spell coming from possibly the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo…"

"Really?" Kyouichi who was sitting not too far from her asked with a crooked smile. "I've heard about the might of the oni, but …"

"Aya-san says so most likely because the tengu were once serving under the oni a long time ago…" the usually quiet Satori spoke up to explain Aya's reaction.

"Hey, I'm not exaggerating! Just look at that!" she pointed her finger at Suika's growing vortex that resembled a miniature black hole. Of course, she kept taking as many pictures as she could.

All would indicate that Aya was not too far from the truth. Even if Kyouichi and other outsiders didn't see many powerful youkai dueling each other, it was quite obvious that this card was the epitome of the power of the oni. The "black hole" grew to the size of several meters and everyone who watched the match could feel its power as it sucked all the air from the area, creating strong wind blowing toward its center. Suika, however, appeared to be unaffected by her own power and just hovered a few meters away from the powerful vortex and watched Yuugi struggle with its gravity field. With each passing second the gravity grew ever stronger, up to the point where small objects from all over the shrine yard were being sucked in. Various bowls and bits of food from the people in the crowd were swallowed by the blackness, followed by rocks and branches and other small items.

Just as Reimu refilled her cup with fresh tea, the tea poured upwards and disappeared in the rift.

"My tea~!"

"Ayaya, my camera~!" Aya caught her tengu-brand camera in the last second after it slipped out of her hands. "Everyone, hold onto your small belongings~!"

Kyouichi too had to hold his glasses to prevent them from disappearing forever in Suika's miniature black hole. He could even feel the magic detector in his pocket looking for a way out, so he put his other hand on his kimono and held it tightly.

Even Satori's third eye was attracted by the Spell Card's force and the four cords that held it in place were now stretched like a slingshot ready to fire.

Akyuu, in panic of losing her diary, covered it with her body and lifted her worried eyes to the scene of battle.

"So this is what Yuyuko has for a stomach… I see…" Reimu made an inappropriate joke to vent her frustration of losing all her tea to the oni and her spell.

Just when the power of the vortex reached its maximum within the norms of safety, tens of bright danmaku orbs of various sizes appeared out of thin air, being quickly drawn to the vortex. Yuugi just barely evaded the first wave. Meanwhile, Suika charged up to fire a very large bubble-like orb directly at her. While covering a large area, this orb was moving rather slowly and wouldn't be too hard to dodge on its own. However, in combination with all the chaotic danmaku coming from behind and the powerful gravity field of the vortex, Yuugi wasn't as quick and agile as she would like to be.

"Was that a hit?" Akyuu asked while still covering her opened diary.

Yuugi's body was partially hit by the edge of the orb, but fortunately, only the central area of this oversized projectile was valid to make a hit and cause any damage. But Suika's attack wasn't calming down any moment. On the contrary; after assembling enough of smaller blue orbs that were randomly spawning all over the dueling area, the vortex sent out a spiral-shaped barrage of oval bolts of purple light to further reduce Yuugi's chances of winning.

The blonde oni was bravely trying to cope with all the incoming chaos, but any attempt for a counterattack failed when her danmaku was either hit by one of Suika's shots, or sucked in by the black hole. The two-directional streams of magical shots seemed to have no end. On several occasions it looked like Yuugi was hit, but she was avoiding the shots by the skin of her teeth. Perhaps she was only lucky, or perhaps more skillful then she was letting on. But even the best of luck eventually runs out…

"Ack~!" an unpleasant burning sensation stung the back of Yuugi's neck. "Damn it! I thought I could handle this card!"

"That's a hit, alright." Reimu was finally sure that Yuugi came into contact with her opponent's danmaku.

But Suika needed to hit Yuugi yet another time in order to win. Likewise, Suika was hit only once in this fight, but now she was betting everything on her final Spell Card. Hitting someone multiple times with the same Spell Card was not an uncommon sight in danmaku matches. Especially when a more experienced duelist faced a weaker opponent. But in this duel, both girls were pretty much on the same level.

Suika's card was truly outclassing all the other cards. At least in its duration. From all the cards in the previous battles, there was barely a single spell that lasted longer than 60 seconds. This one was just running its third minute. Even though it appeared to be stabilized and no longer increasing in danmaku intensity, Yuugi was growing rather nervous. If she got hit once, she could get hit again and at any time. That's when she suddenly slapped her forehead.

"Oh my… Am I sober or what~?! I totally forgot that I can also use my last card."

Not taking any chances, or giving any chances to Suika, she drew the last card and called out its name.

"Feat of Strength "Storm on Mt. Ooe"!"

A hailstorm of large blue orbs took over one half of the stage and was partially clearing away Suika's danmaku while some of the orbs were even getting close to hitting Suika.

"And another clash of Spell Cards~!" Aya called out with excitement. "But I think we can already tell who's the winner of this match." she added with a subtle smile on her face.

"Really? Who?" Kyouichi was definitely not as certain as Aya about the outcome of this spectacular duel.

But Aya simply kept smiling and shook her head, refusing to tell him.

"Aww, come on, Aya." he pleaded her, but the tengu remained teasingly silent.

"Just keep watching." she simply told him and turned her face again to the two dueling oni.

"Satori-san… You can see what she's thinking about, right? Will you tell me… please?"

Satori turned her unamused face at him.

"Pretty please?" he added a rather silly grin to his plea.

The mind reader blinked once without changing her neutral expression before she said: "No." and turned her face away from him, following Aya's example.

"Guh…" uttered Kyouichi after resigning his attempt to figure out why was Aya already certain about the winner before the duel even ended. But it soon became clear even to him.

After only about ten seconds of watching, the bluish orbs that were constantly being gathered by Suika's vortex have changed from bright to semi-transparent and the vortex itself was now emitting bright light instead of swallowing it up.

"Aaaaaaand this is it, ladies and gentlemen~!" Aya called out loudly, so that her voice could be heard through all the noise of danmaku. "This battle is over~!"

The black hole-like vortex exploded into million tiny sparkles of light that quickly faded and so did every single projectile of Suika's Spell Card. Now, only Yuugi's "Storm on Mt. Ooe" was dominating the scene above the Hakurei Shrine's stage, raining dozens of blue bubble-like orbs diagonally downwards. The strong wind has stopped and even the gravity returned back to normal. As soon as the 25 judges raised their green flags, even the blonde oni stopped her spell.

"We've all witnessed a fantastic duel between two members of the most powerful race of youkai in all Gensokyo~!" the tengu journalist commented the match. "We've seen both their raw strength and their danmaku capabilities and I have to say, I was moved~! At first I thought Suika-san was going overboard with her exceedingly powerful spell, but Yuugi-san cleverly played a waiting game and waited for the right moment to use her own final card. And since her card started much later than Suika-san's, it was bound to outlast it. Congratulations to Yuugi-san~! And of course, to Suika-san as well~! You both deserve to go further in the tournament, but the matches can have only one winner and that winner is Hoshiguma Yuugi~!"

A loud applause and cheering like after every match was now resonating over the shrine yard, celebrating Yuugi's victory. Both oni girls shook hands and embraced each other after the battle.

* * *

"That was so nostalgic~!" said the ginger-haired girl. "I wish you luck in this tournament!"

"Thanks, Suika."

"And don't get defeated by Reimu~!"

"Hehe, I'll try." Yuugi smirked lightly as she descended down to the ground.

"So you've seen it, folks!" Aya was still providing her post-duel commentary. "Even such can be the outcome of a danmaku battle. Please stay with us. After a short break the tournament continues and we're all bound to witness unforgettable duels tonight~! This is Aya Shameimaru and I hope you'll enjoy this tournament until the end~!"

"Finally I can take a short break…" Reimu sighed with relief and for the third time poured tea into her cup. "Ahhh~!"

"Why are you acting to be so tired?" Aya asked with a provoking tone. "You haven't even been doing anything yet, but sitting here."

"As if you were doing any hard labor, Aya…"

"How rude. I was the announcer for the whole tournament." the tengu defended herself. "Can I get some of that tea too? All this talking has made me quite thirsty…"

As the short break was announced, the crowd of humans and youkai was again dispersing all over the shrine yard, looking to resupply food, drinks and snacks.

"How long is this short break anyway?" Asakura Soudai asked the person who organized the whole festival.

"Just about ten or fifteen minutes. We can't afford to delay this competition too much, because there are other things in the program after that." the shrine maiden started explaining as she was serving some of the tea for thirsty Aya.

"And who's going to duel next?" Kyouichi wanted to know.

"Cirno and Byakuren." Reimu replied with an unamused tone. "Why does she always get the easiest opponents? I don't even need to see that duel to know how it'll end."

"Don't get ahead of things, Reimu…" said Aya and sipped her freshly served tea. "But… yeah… I guess you're right…" she changed her mind and agreed with her.

As the girls were discussing the details about the previous and future duels, a sound of footsteps and rolling wheels of a heavy cart being pulled could be heard through the noise in the crowd as it was getting closer to the back entrance of the shrine.

"Ahh, good evening, ladies." a pleasant greeting came from a tall man with silver hair dressed in black and blue kimono. "And gentlemen…" he added after seeing two young males resting on the shrine's porch in the company of four girls.

"Ooh~! Rinnosuke-san…" Aya was quite surprised to see this half-youkai merchant outside of his shop. And so were the other girls…

"Have you just arrived to the shrine?" Reimu gave him a curious glance.

"I was here the whole time." he replied and smiled at her while closing his eyes. "As every year, the festival is an opportunity for me to sell some odds and ends that don't usually sell well throughout the year. But in the end, it's always the food, snacks and drinks that's in the greatest demand…" he gently tapped his hand over the wooden cart with goods that he was pulling around the shrine yard.

"I planned to show myself and greet you ladies a bit earlier, but I thought you'd be busy with the tournament."

"What a good timing!" the cheerful tengu quickly got up from her sitting position and stepped closer to look at the content of Rinnosuke's cart. "I was actually rather thirsty."

"I just served you tea." Reimu reminded her.

"Well, true, but it's a bit too hot. I wonder what beverages you have for sale, Rinnosuke-san… Oooh~! What's this strange container?" she pointed at a small packet of unusual, red, shiny, metallic cylindrical containers that were resting in a small box filled with ground ice.

"Are these drinks too?" she asked and took one out of the box to take a closer look.

As soon as Kyouichi saw what she has taken, he began to chuckle. "So you've found the trick to extract those from that old vending machine in your shop, eh, Rinnosuke-san?"

"Eh? You recognize these, Kyouichi?" Aya, still holding a can of coke, glanced over at the amused outsider.

"Is that a can of cola I see?" Soudai didn't fail to notice the world-famous soft drink that was definitely not produced in Gensokyo. "Where did you get your hands on that?"

"Well, I have this device from the outside world… a vending machine that's apparently full of these. I got a taste of that drink and I have to say it's unlike anything I've tasted before. So sweet and a bit sour, and yet, I can't compare it to any fruit. Its color is like that of a very dark tea… I wonder if I could make more of this drink if I figured out what ingredients to use."

"Wow!" Soudai became just as amused as his younger friend. "But I'm afraid none of us would be able to help you with that… The recipe for that drink is one of the world's greatest trade secrets."

"What a pity." Rinnosuke lowered his head. "I should ask Yukari for another one of those vending machines when she shows up."

"Ah, so that's how you acquired it…" Soudai made an understanding nod. "That Yukari seems like a nice person, hehe…"

"Do you think so?" the owner of Kourindou lightly tilted his head. "Well, she usually brings things that almost never sell, but I have to admit that she's also keeping my business alive."

"But why asking for another vending machine when you could just ask her to bring you a few pallets of cans?" sounded Kyouichi.

"Well…" Rinnosuke thoughtfully rubbed his chin. "I wonder if she could bring me a recipe for this new drink from the outside world…"

"Ha! Wouldn't that be awesome? I imagine that would be no problem for someone like her. Provided all the legends and rumors I've heard about her are true…"

Just as Kyouichi said that, a sudden knock on the wooden elevated floor of the shrine diverted his attention. Reimu put down her tea cup a bit forcefully before she stood up.

"Hey, you've been rather quiet, Reimu-san…" Rinnosuke remarked. "Usually, you and Marisa wouldn't stop chatting when you come to my shop."

"I'm going to change my top." murmured the shrine maiden, looking down at the wet spot on her dress where she spilled tea over herself during the match between the two oni. And with that, she walked into her shrine and closed the door.

"Strange…" the half-youkai man shrugged as he watched Reimu disappear in her shrine.

Aya returned the ice-cold can back into the box of Rinnosuke's cart. "Yeah…" she agreed with his statement regarding the behavior of the Hakurei shrine maiden.

Rinnosuke then shifted his gaze to Satori, who was absentmindedly looking at the shifting crowd around the stage. The youkai from the underground briefly returned her glance before nonchalantly turning away, not willing to give answers to any potential questions about what was going on in Reimu's mind today.

"So… how much for one can?" Kyouichi broke the silence with his question and jingling coins in his palm.

"200 yen."

"Whoa… That's rather steep, but I guess that's understandable due to the limited supply. I'll take one then."

"Me too!" Soudai was desperately digging around in the pocket of his kimono to scrape his last coins together. He was already indebted to both Kyouichi and Midori, but that didn't stop him from enjoying this festival.

"Alright~!" Aya clenched her fist out of excitement. "I'll give this weird cold tea a try too. Two hundred yen is not that much."

Rinnosuke was glad to make the transaction and passed the three cans to each of his customers. While Aya and Soudai didn't wait to open their cans and take a few gulps, Kyouichi was a bit more patient and decided to save his coke for later.

Suddenly everyone turned to the sound of the shrine's sliding door opening. True to her word, Reimu was back, wearing a clean top of her shrine maiden's attire.

"The break is almost over." she announced tersely and took a seat on her usual place.

"Would you mind if I rested here for a while?" asked Rinnosuke.

"Not at all. Why are you even asking?"

"Thank you." the half-youkai sat down on the shrine's elevated floor with a sigh of relief. "Ahh… I've been on my feet ever since morning."

"Mmm… This "kokakora" tea is pretty good…" said Aya after getting the first taste of this caffeine-filled beverage for the first time. "So this is what humans beyond the border drink, eh? I hope it doesn't turn me into a human, hehe~."

"You can relax, Aya." Rinnosuke reassured her. "I've already tested it on myself."

"Ah, I see… So it's safe then." smiled the crow tengu and took another gentle sip.

"By the way, Reimu, where's Marisa?" the shopkeeper wondered why the blonde witch wasn't tagging along with the miko as usual.

"You'll see her soon… falling down from her broom." said Reimu rather cold-bloodedly.

"Hm?" Rinnosuke turned his confused face at Aya.

"Oh… She means that she'll be dueling Marisa after the next match." the crow tengu deciphered Reimu's answer.

"Oh. I see now." he chuckled at Reimu's confidence. At least this was in character with her usual self today.

And so, the short break between the matches of the main event of the danmaku tournament was now at its end. Aya took one more gulp of the tasty new drink from the outside world and cleared her throat.

"Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, it's Shameimaru Aya, bringing you the best commentary of the first summer danmaku tournament in Gensokyo~!"

Even with her cheesy-sounding entry, the crowds were still going wild and cheering loudly.

"The tournament continues, but this time, after seeing two duels with relatively even-matched opponents, myself included, we now have a battle that is expected to be rather one-sided. Our next duelists are: Hijiri Byakuren and Cirno~!"

* * *

The cheering wasn't as loud as during the previous two matches, but the contestants didn't mind that. From the further side of the stage, two silhouettes, one tall and feminine, the other – short and childish, flew over to the center of the dueling area.

The ice fairy showed a face full of determination, but was also marked by slight uncertainty. Even though the fairy was aware of the limitations of her own powers and dueling skills, she still managed to hide her fear well from the sights of the spectators and her opponent.

Byakuren, on the other hand, looked as she always did – calm, elegant, beautiful and with a smile full of warmth.

"On your marks, duelists~!" Aya called at them with her arm raised, ready to give the signal to start the match.

However, Byakuren also raised her arm as she turned her face at the group of judges sitting at the shrine.

"Eh? What is it, Byakuren-san?" asked the tengu.

"I have an announcement to make." replied the spiritual leader from the Temple of Myouren.

"But you're about to beat up… I mean… duel against Cirno! Can't this wait after the tournament?"

"This announcement is regarding this battle, though."

"Oh… Alright, but please, make it quick. Reimu's already giving us both impatient glances."

Byakuren nodded in response and began her announcement: "All that I wanted to say is that I feel very sorry for the battles against the weaker youkai during the previous disciplines."

…

An awkward silence arose after the monk's words. Nobody was sure what to say or think about it. Even Aya took a few seconds of sorting her thoughts before she spoke again.

"Is that all you wanted to tell us, Byakuren-san?"

"And therefore…" Byakuren continued, "I'd like to apologize to all of those youkai who I defeated so cold-heartedly, and to make up for it, I hereby forfeit this duel." she finished her sentence with a radiant smile and bowed to everyone.

Instead of an awkward silence, sighs of surprise and whispers were echoing around the stage. Even Cirno herself opened her eyes and mouth wide upon hearing Byakuren's announcement.

"A… Are you an idiot~?!"

"Are you sure, Byakuren-san?" Aya asked with a serious voice. "You'll be disqualified from this discipline if you make that decision."

"I already made that decision, Aya-san. I, Hijiri Byakuren, forfeit this duel and the Single Duels discipline." said the monk firmly.

Aya, with her mouth ajar, slowly turned her face to Reimu.

"Fine by me." the shrine maiden shrugged indifferently. "One less troublesome opponent to worry about…"

"That was rather cold." stated Aya as she turned her eyes back to the stage. She took a deep breath before she nodded to Byakuren's wish. "I still find it a bit hard to believe, ladies and gentlemen, but you've all heard it yourselves… The head of the Temple of Myouren, Hijiri Byakuren-san is forfeiting the main event of the tournament. What a pity… but the program must continue, and so, Cirno the ice fairy is automatically declared the winner."

Aya had a mixed feeling in her heart about Byakuren's decision. On one hand she was a bit sad that she is giving up her chance to win the tournament, but on the other hand, she was impressed by her kind gesture. For several seconds the entire crowd was quiet until somebody called: "Byakuren-sama is so cool~!"

"Wait… was that Midori's voice just now?" Soudai murmured to himself.

That simple cheer has triggered a chain reaction in the crowd and everyone began to call: "Byakuren! Byakuren! Byakuren!"

Cirno wasn't exactly sure about her feelings either and she couldn't find the right words to convey them. Byakuren was already leaving the stage with the sound of the crowd calling her name and the ice fairy was just standing there and staring at her with confusion.

"Please leave the stage, Cirno-san. You've been declared the winner of this round and will be called for your next battle. But now, let me look into the tournament chart… Oh yes, coming up next we have a match between Kamishirasawa Keine and Remilia Scarlet."

Cirno had no choice but to obey and clear the stage for the following duel.

* * *

Remilia ascended above the crowd, made one acrobatic loop in the air and landed on the stage in the next moment, striking a theatrical pose. Even though she didn't win in the previous disciplines, she was doing really well in the tournament. Now, her opponent was the half-youkai teacher from the Human Village who chose a rather unusual way to enter the stage. She simply walked and used the stairs like a normal human.

Kyouichi did recall that she allegedly turned into her hakutaku form on the night of the full moon, but tonight there was only a narrow C-shaped crescent of the Moon visible in the dark night sky. It appeared that even Remilia was aware of this as she made a taunting remark at her.

"What a pity that you can't even fight me with your full power." she finished the sentence with a soft giggle. "Don't worry, I won't give you much trouble. I'll finish you off quickly, okay?"

Keine ignored her remark completely and simply looked at Aya, waiting for her to fire the signal danmaku. She had no respect for anyone behaving impolitely.

On the other hand, the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion had no respect for anyone but herself. She smirked at the were-hakutaku as she crackled her knuckles. She was one of the few contestants in this tournament who also resorted to physical attacks in combination with danmaku.

A brief moment of silence dramatized the mood before the crow tengu lifted her hand and sent a clear signal into the sky.

"Aaaaand GO~!"

The vampire flapped her bat-like wings just once to jet into the air and start her offensive by spawning an impressively dense volley of large red bubble-like danmaku, combined with waves of smaller blue energy spheres.

Keine saw the gaps and openings in this pattern and gracefully swam through the air as she dodged Remilia's attack.

The teacher countered with a pattern of her own. She summoned several spirit-like familiars around her body and began weaving a pattern that had the same color scheme as that of her opponent. However, Keine's was not as theatrical; it had its elegant symmetry. Unlike the situations with two clashing Spell Cards, these patterns were not destroying each other's danmaku. The magic projectiles simply passed through each other and continued in their intended trajectories. However, Keine was in a disadvantage here, since her danmaku-spawning familiars were being destroyed by Remilia's repeated barrages. This rendered Keine's initial attack much less effective, but on the other hand, it provided her some partial protection. Seeing as neither the vampire, nor the were-hakutaku were getting hit for a longer period of time, the duelists figured that the time was ripe to change their tactics.

First to take the initiative this time was Keine. She boldly flew towards Remilia while she was still using her initial attack. She got as close as possible, and following Suika's example from previous match, she activated her first Spell Card of the duel.

"Land Sign "Three Sacred Treasures – Orb"!"

Keine's card has summoned a snake-like formation of white familiars that headed backwards at first, but made a sharp spiral turn, changing their heading forward. As the "snake" continued its path, the formation broke, leaving larger gaps between individual familiars as they continued making their turn. These familiars were apparently not aimed at Remilia. However, each of them was leaving a dense trail of oval red danmaku combined by the well known large red magical bubbles. And since Keine was floating close to Remilia's position, the vampire was caught in the very first wave before she even noticed it.

"Ack~! Hey~!" she called out in a childish voice. "How dare you?!"

"One point for Kamishirasawa-san~!" Aya marked into her scoring chart. "It would seem as though Scarlet-san didn't even notice her through her own danmaku barrage. It happens sometimes… But this match is still far from o… oh…" Aya left her statement unfinished.

"Kyaaah~!" another scream of Remilia was heard from the mass of dancing lights in the sky. "Cut it out already~!"

"A second hit for Keine-san? And by the same Spell Card?" the tengu's voice had an amused tone as she said it. "And to think that I considered Remilia as one of the top candidates for the Single Duels champion…"

"And you got wiped out in the first round, Aya." Reimu impertinently reminded her.

"In any case…" the journalist continued, as she feigned ignorance to Reimu's remark, "Remilia still has a chance to turn the tables, so let's keep watching the duel."

Finally, the young vampire realized that she shouldn't stay so close to her opponent, but her back was already close to the edge of the dueling area. The only way was to go forward, and to cut her way through the danmaku, she needed to use a card.

"Divine Spear "Spear the Gungnir"!"

Her card turned into a long shaft of red light in Remilia's hand almost instantaneously. The upper tip of this shaft was shaped like a spearhead. The spectators had only a brief moment to observe Remilia's magic weapon, because she didn't wait too long to fling it at Keine with all her might.

"Take that, pitiful half-beast~!"

A blinding flash comparable to Okuu's danmaku has bathed the whole area of the Hakurei Shrine in bright red light. In a blink of an eye, Keine was brutally knocked down and away from Remilia, hitting the stage with a loud thud. Some of the human spectators gasped in shock, worried about Keine's life.

"Ayayaya~! A spell break!" the tengu roughly described what everyone just witnessed. "Remilia-san has used one of her strong Spell Cards and successfully broke Keine-san's spell."

And just as the half-youkai has hit the ground, Remilia was already focusing her power to send out a large bat-shaped danmaku, showing Keine no mercy.

Some people seriously thought that the history teacher form Human Village was already knocked out or worse, but now she was already getting up, ready to soar back into the air.

However, Remilia's bat-shaped shot was a guided one and it approached Keine at dangerous speed. Trying her best to outmaneuver the shot, Keine attempted to fly directly upwards, but due to the stunning impact from her recent fall, her speed was not as fast as she'd like.

"This doesn't look good." she thought to herself as she watched the glowing red bat changing its heading and threatening to collide with her. And she was right…

"Yaaah~!" she cried out desperately as the bat "bit" her arm. But the projectile wouldn't disappear just yet. It kept itself attached to Keine's arm for almost three seconds before it fizzled out. It was obvious to everyone that the were-hakutaku was hit the second time.

"Nice combo from Remilia-san!" Aya acknowledged. "The game is tied, folks! The power of a vampire is definitely not to be trifled with. Remilia-san sure dramatized this duel."

"And one more to finish this…"

After seeing the success of her homing shot, Remilia Scarlet repeated the attack and conjured up another bat-like danmaku bolt with homing capabilities. Now, assuming a completely relaxed and carefree pose while hovering in midair, Remilia watched as her single projectile glided through the air on its way to eliminating her opponent. However, Keine had pretty much recovered from her fall and her altitude was just high enough to attempt an effective evasion maneuver.

Even when Remilia's danmaku bats were homing shots, they could be relatively easily avoided. All it took was decent speed and good timing. With that knowledge on her mind, the were-hakutaku teacher suddenly descended by a few meters, just when the shot was about to hit her. Diving forward, Keine deftly made it safely past Remilia's bat. Even when it was still locked on her, the bullet could not make a sudden sharp turn and continued in its flight before it disappeared harmlessly. The teacher hurried forward before Remilia realized that her shot had missed its mark.

Even the overconfident lady of the Scarlet Devil Mansion had an expression of shock on her face when she saw Keine darting through the air straight at her.

"Come at me, if you dare!" she called at her, secretly reaching for her second Spell Card.

Keine's goal was to rush in forward and again corner her opponent with a spell or at least make Remilia activate her card prematurely. Just ten meters were now separating the space between them and Keine didn't seem like she was about to slow down. Then it happened…

"I got you now! Scarlet Devil "Scarlet Devil"!" Remilia shouted as she suddenly raised her hand with the card.

"Why is she repeating herself?" Reimu poked fun at the name of the vampire's card.

An explosion of red light covered a wide area around Remilia's body. But this sudden eruption of magical energy was spreading mostly along vertical, rather than horizontal axis. The resulting effect was a gigantic pillar of energy.

"My, my…" Aya shook her head incredulously. "Another "ace" class card from Remilia-san. But it looks like Keine-san has stopped just in time to avoid it. If this tournament wasn't limited by the amount of hits taken, this single spell could be enough to end the match if it would hit its target."

The pillar of red light touched the sky and shined brightly like a continuous lightning. It could without a doubt be seen from even the most remote corners of Gensokyo.

"Nice spell…" muttered Reimu. "…for signaling purposes."

Of course, just as the vampire didn't consider anyone superior to herself, Reimu had the same amount of disregard for her opponents.

And while Reimu was contemplating about the moves and cards that she planned to use in her duel against Marisa, the battle between Keine and Remilia continued.

Calmly hovering less than a meter away from the "Scarlet Devil", Keine summoned a fleet of stationary danmaku orbs of sizes ranging from few centimeters to two meter-large bubble spheres with semi-transparent body. It appeared she had to focus on keeping the formation of this danmaku cluster in one place. All this time she had to keep her eyes away from the dazzling light of Remilia's spell. As soon as she noticed the light gradually getting dimmer, she dared to turn her face at the source of the spell, waiting for the right moment when it would fade away completely.

Aya kept the battle lively with her commentary: "Despite its tremendous power, Remilia-san's Scarlet Devil is not a very long-lasting card. I'd put it in the same category as Marisa-san's Master Spark. Except this one shoots its power vertically."

Suddenly, the quiet Satori who didn't say nearly anything during the whole tournament spoke: "And now it's over…"

"Huh? It is?" Aya didn't readily understand what was this young youkai referring to, but the truth of her words soon became apparent.

Remilia's card ran out of its power and the young vampire was met with a sight that took her by surprise. More than a hundred of Keine's projectiles were forming a nearly impenetrable wall just a few meters away from her. This was the moment the half-youkai was waiting for. Stretching her harms forward, she set the whole wall of danmaku into motion. Remilia had very little time to react. What's more, she couldn't decide whether she should attempt to dodge the bullets or draw out her final Spell Card. And that split second of hesitation… has cost her the victory in this match.

"Awawaaa~!" she shouted desperately while trying to avoid the dense cluster. And she wasn't doing half bad. "And left, and up, and left, and right…" she waved through the orbs of light, as if driven solely by instinct. But she was in a state of panic, knowing that just one hit could cost her victory in this duel.

"Ending Sign "Phantasmal Emperor"!" Keine pulled out a card and called out its name.

"U-oh…" Remilia figured the situation was serious. With the dense bullet pattern that she was dodging, danmaku from Keine's Spell Card would surely finish her off. She quickly reached for her last Spell Card in order to save herself…

That's when spreading rings of blue arrowhead shots and beam-like bolts have filled the gaps between Keine's earlier attack and left Remilia no chance to dodge. Too late to draw out her last card, the vampire from the Scarlet Devil Mansion let out a pained cry as the wave of danmaku landed on various parts of her body.

"Fuaaaa~! No~! Curses~! How could I lose to a mere half-youkai?!" she flew back and forth erratically while throwing a tantrum. "If this was a real battle, you'd be that what you teach – history! Do you hear me?! HISTORY~!"

Unfazed by her beaten opponent's incensed mood, Keine smiled and bowed to her. "It seems you were right, young lady. You didn't give me much trouble."

This only helped to fuel Remilia's flames of anger.

"This one ended rather quickly, folks!" Aya spoke up after the duel was over. "In fact, this was the second shortest duel in the Single Duels category so far. But this one had another surprising outcome. Rest assured that we are not arranging these matches to end in an unexpected or interesting way, ladies and gentlemen. Everything you see is authentic. Another strong candidate gets crossed out of the tournament chart. Who will win this category? Not even Satori-san, sitting by my side can tell. But we will see…"

While the crow tengu was getting carried away by her own rhetoric, Reimu grabbed her gohei and stood up.

* * *

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, let us call forth two of the greatest candidates for the title of single champion~! Even though I think they need no introduction, it's my pleasure to remind you anyway~! Two specialists in youkai extermination and old friends, now standing against each other in this contest. Both are excellent danmaku duelists, responsible for resolution of countless greater and minor incidents in the recent years of Gensokyo's history. Ladies and gentlemen… I present you a match between Kirisame Marisa~!" she paused herself and let the wild cheers of audience echo for a while as Marisa glided over to the stage on her trusty bamboo straw broom. "And Hakurei Reimu~!"

Another wave of cheers accompanied the shrine maiden as she flew towards the center of the stage.

"This almost reminds me of that time when we first visited Eientei." said Marisa as Reimu ascended up to her level.

The shrine maiden wasn't very talkative and her reaction to Marisa's nostalgic remark was just a blank, silent stare.

"Oi… You sure you're feeling alright?" the witch's concern for her friend was only increased by Reimu's aloof attitude.

"I'm fine." spoke the miko and slowly drew her gohei-wielding hand forward, pointing the tip of her wand at Marisa's face. "I just don't particularly enjoy defeating humans."

"Ha~! Well, in that case, I shall make it so that you won't be defeating any more humans tonight."

"Sorry, Marisa, but you'll be viewing the remainder of this discipline from the ground."

"Yup… Just like during that night with fake Moon." Marisa nodded to herself with a grin on her face. "This time you don't have any gap youkai to back you up, though. Better give it your best, ze."

Just when Reimu opened her mouth to retort, the light-blue flash of Aya's signal shot flared the sky up. Instead of verbal taunts, blessed amulets and star-shaped danmaku were flying through the air.

"What an intense start of the match~!" Aya excitedly pointed at the dueling girls. "And it seems they both know how to deal with each other's patterns. Oooh… that was a close call for Marisa~!"

A couple of Reimu's amulets have managed to knock Marisa's hat off her head, but since the hat is not a part of the body, Reimu didn't score any points.

"Hey! Watch where you're shootin'~!" Marisa called out at the shrine maiden. "I already lost one hat to Patchy's Royal Flare the other day…"

Planning to take the advantage of the situation, Reimu swung her gohei in the pattern of the "infinity" sign and a flurry of homing amulets burst out from both loops of the horizontal 8.

It appeared Reimu was taking this contest seriously and the fact that she resorted to homing shots so early only showed that she wasn't joking around. However, Marisa was more concerned about her hat than Reimu's incoming salvo. The shrine maiden's amulets have made a light turn in their flight and focused on the witch, but Marisa lowered the front of her broom and kicked it to full speed. It looked as though as she was about to crash right into the stage, but just before it happened, she pulled the broom's nose upwards, while catching her falling hat with the other hand.

"O-ho! What an acrobatic maneuver~!" Aya applauded Marisa's performance. "It seems her sudden dive has even got her out of danger from Reimu's homing amulets~!"

Quickly putting her hat back on, Marisa jetted upwards to evade another dangerous barrage from her good old friend. Without pulling out any cards, Marisa magically created a small group of white, round familiars that began orbiting around her and leaving trails of star-shaped danmaku of various colors in their wake.

Soon there were magic stars floating around everywhere and Reimu had to switch her focus from offense to dodging. Evading the outermost rings of the pattern was no challenge for the Hakurei miko and she even made dodging the second wave look easy. But Marisa suddenly pointed her index finger upwards and a bright blue light began to shine a few centimeters above it. While the shrine maiden was dealing with another dense formation of Marisa's stars, the witch used this moment to her advantage and pointed the stretched out index finger at Reimu.

A dazzling beam of energy caught her in a very bad moment when she was surrounded by danmaku from all directions.

"Guh~!" Reimu got knocked back by several paces before she regained her aerial stability.

"Marisa-san scores the first point of this match~! echoed Aya's voice from below. "And Reimu retaliates swiftly and aggressively~!"

Marisa was well aware that as soon as Reimu would get hit, she'd disregard all danmaku and focuses all her thoughts into making a counterstrike. And that was just the case. Reimu threw several large yin-yang orbs and a high amount of ofuda in the approximate direction of Marisa. While not being aimed at any particular target, her attack covered a large area and it was the ordinary magician again who had to evade. Before even the first yin-yang orb made it to Marisa, the witch noticed a peculiar amulet being held by Reimu, ready to be thrown.

"Wait a sec… That's no amulet! Oh crap!"

"Migrating Spirit "Fantasy Seal –Dark-"!"

She quickly figured that Reimu was holding a Spell Card and planned to use Marisa's own tactic against her, by combining the danmaku of her normal attack and a Spell Card. Immediately pulling her mini-Hakkero out of her hat and pointing it at Reimu, Marisa hoped to activate her own spell in order to save herself from the tide of incoming amulets.

"Love Sign "Master Spark"~!" she yelled out while holding her miniature furnace with both hands.

Reimu's card appeared to be relying on a combination of regular ring-shaped bursts of large white danmaku orbs and repeated flurries of color-changing and target-seeking ofuda amulets.

Marisa's spell, on the other hand, was much simpler. While a lot of the contestants in the tournament have seen this spell on many occasions, the group of outsiders has witnessed it for the first time. And it was a very memorable spell. From the center of Marisa's Hakkero, a giant beam of light shot out in a straightforward fashion. Accompanied by the distinctive humming sound and strong wind produced by the powerful resonance, the Master Spark was cutting through everything in its way. Yin-yang orbs, amulets and Reimu… All of them were caught, and all of them got a taste of its force.

"Marisa-san is in the lead~!" Aya shouted loudly so that she could be heard through the noise. "Reimu-san is getting hit almost too easily, but her opponent is no rookie. Will the popular shrine maiden be able to succeed this time? We'll see after Marisa's Master Spark fades away… By the way, this human magician is not the originator of this spell, but I digress again…"

* * *

"Whoa…" Kyouichi opened his mouth in awe as he watched Master Spark in action. "That looks brutal. Will Reimu be alright?"

"Ahaha." Aya chuckled softly and nodded. "Even if this looks very powerful, the Spell Card Rules make danmaku non-lethal. Reimu's going to be fine, but not even I would want to bask in the light of Master Spark."

"And… what did you mean that Marisa is not the originator?"

"Exactly what I said." replied the tengu. "She did not invent that technique."

"Who did then?"

While smiling, Aya opened her danmaku snapshot portfolio and silently tapped her finger over the picture of Yuuka Kazami.

Kyouichi put on a surprised face. "Yuuka-san? I thought she was a nature youkai, but… Come to think of it, she did mention something about learning magic too."

"Her spark is even more impressive than Marisa's. Now please excuse me, I need to comment this duel…"

* * *

In the meantime, Marisa's Master Spark began to weaken and Reimu finally became visible.

"Looks like this isn't a Spell Break, ladies and gentlemen~! I can still see Reimu's danmaku pattern of her Spell Card."

It was amazing that Reimu was still flying and her spell was still spawning more danmaku. But she was hit regardless, and Marisa was now winning by two points.

"Ayaya, but what is this? Even though Marisa has managed to score a hit, her Spell Card lasts much shorter than Reimu's. And it seems that the witch is again getting overwhelmed by the homing amulets~!"

"Hey, Reimu you were supposed to fall after tha… Oh carp~!" the blonde witch squeezed herself between the white orbs, only to be showered by the target-seeking amulets.

"Wasn't it just as I said?" Aya asked the crowd of shrine visitors. "Finally, Reimu scores her first point! I can feel that this match is going to be dramatic yet~!"

"Tche!" Marisa apparently didn't agree with Aya's commentary and was already preparing to use her second card.

"Magic Sign "Milky Way"!"

Just as Marisa declared her card and dozens of large colorful stars erupted from it in a spiral-shaped pattern, Reimu snapped out of her spell trance.

"Ayaya~! Reimu is ending her spell prematurely in order to dodge~! But is this really the wisest move?"

Just as the tengu said, Reimu's amulets and orbs were suddenly gone in a flash and she prepared herself to deal with Marisa's danmaku.

Gliding with grace through the gaps between the beautiful stars, Reimu looked as though as she wanted to wait until Marisa's spell runs out. The pattern didn't even look as difficult as one of Marisa's normal attacks. Everyone was confident in Reimu's abilities to evade everything until the end. Then something unexpected happened…

"Ayayaya~!" the tengu reporter exclaimed in surprise. "I really didn't expect something like that from Reimu! And it looked like an easy pattern too…"

The spectators and even Marisa herself were taking their time to process what just happened.

"After one minute and forty-seven seconds, the duel between Marisa Kirisame and Reimu Hakurei ends~! Marisa-san has defeated Reimu 3 to 1. It seems as though today is not Reimu's day. Despite her victory in the Double-Duels category with Youmu-san as her teammate, she got eliminated in the first round of the Single Duels. Will Marisa become the champion? We'll see that later~! The tournament goes on, even when the crowd's favorite loses!" Aya's words gave away her surprise at Reimu's relatively easy defeat.

* * *

Not long after the duel ended, the defeated shrine maiden descended to the ground, and with her head lowered, she walked slowly back to her favorite sitting place on the shrine's veranda.

"Reimu?" the tengu tentatively addressed her, but she didn't respond.

She dropped on the shrine's elevated floor, as if all her strength was drained from her body. Only Satori could see that the thing troubling Reimu's mind was not the result of the previous match.

"What happened, Reimu?" Aya asked again, hoping to hear an explanation for Reimu's last mistake in the duel.

"What does it look like?" she responded agitatedly. "I lost."

"Did you intentionally give Marisa a chance?"

Just as Aya asked her about Marisa, the mentioned person decided to relocate her spectating position to the shrine's porch as well.

"Oi~! Mind if I join 'ya here?" she asked and took a seat next to Reimu without even waiting for a reply to her question. "Hey~! Kourin~! Didn't even know you were here, ze~!"

Almost at the same time when Marisa sat down, Reimu straightened up again, turned around, and without a word walked into the privacy of her shrine.

"Huh?" Marisa curiously watched her leave. "Is she mad at me for defeating her?"

She was curious and wanted to follow her friend inside, but Satori suddenly grabbed her by the hand.

"Hm? What is it, Satori?"

"Reimu-san would rather be by herself for a while…"

Satori's strange answer only managed to make Marisa's expression look even more curious. "So is she not…?"

"Not at all." the mind reader cut her off, answering Marisa's question whether Reimu was angry about losing to her.

"Eh? Then wh…?"

"She will be alright. Just give her a few minutes. You'll see…"

"Jeez! If you can read her mind, why can't you just tell me? I'm one of her best friends. I deserve to know!"

Satori just silently stated into the witch's golden eyes, slowly letting go of her hand.

"Fine." Marisa nodded. "I won't disturb her now, but if she stays there longer than fifteen minutes, I'm taking a look."

Even though Marisa's temptation to peek inside the shrine was even greater than to steal a book from Patchouli's library, she managed to tame it. Instead, she occupied her eyes and thoughts by the next battle that was about to take place.

Aya was already summoning the duelists: "Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to call forth the next two contestants to show us their skills in a duel~! This time it will be a match between a youkai who can easily trick your mind and a youkai who can read it! And what's more, both girls' names are also the names of their youkai species~! A big applause for Houjuu Nue and Komeiji Satori~!"

"Uhh… good luck, Satori-san." Kyouichi wished her luck as the purple-haired girl was standing up.

* * *

The battle was interesting indeed and lasted almost 3 minutes. Nue didn't rely on her shape-shifting ability, but purely on her danmaku potential. Satori managed to successfully avoid most of her attacks due to her mind-reading third eye, but not even that made her invulnerable.

Aya explained that while the nue aren't particularly strong in close combat, they have many powerful and often nasty spells at their disposal. Satori race was very similar in this aspect, relying on the power of their mind and spirit, rather than their body. But since this was a danmaku battle and not a martial-arts tournament, both girls have shown everyone that their respective youkai races command respect. Fascinating, intricate, complex, confusing, dazzling, harmonic, chaotic, beautiful and awe-inspiring… Such was the danmaku presented by both opponents from their normal and Spell Card attacks. The main factor that determined the result of this showdown was, according to Aya, experience. As the older and seemingly more powerful youkai, Nue Houjuu has snatched the victory away from her younger mind-reading opponent.

* * *

The battles went on and with each victorious girl, there was one girl getting eliminated. Eirin won against Patchouli, Kogasa surprisingly outmatched Minamitsu, Yuyuko has swept Meiling away, Shou defeated Reisen, Ichirin and Unzan have eliminated Rumia…

As the discipline was nearing the finale, only several contestants who have proven their worth in the previous matches have remained. Cirno, who was given a chance by Byakuren in the first round, has actually won her second-round duel against Kogasa. Ironically enough, it was her ex-teammate from the Double Duels discipline who was her third and last opponent. The Lunarian showed little mercy to the ice fairy, but even her little victory spree was stopped by Utsuho's magnificent power. The only remaining oni of the contest, Yuugi Hoshiguma, has been slightly more successful, blasting her way through three more opponents after her match with Suika, but her brute strength came short when she faced the time-manipulating maid, Sakuya Izayoi. Yuyuko was doing well during her first two battles, but perhaps due to her carefree attitude, she received three hits from her third opponent, Alice Margatroid. Shou Toramaru, the tiger youkai and a disciple of the god Bishamonten has blasted through her opponents all the way to the quarterfinal with her wicked curved beam danmaku, only to find her match in Yuyuko's faithful protector, gardener and servant, Youmu Konpaku. The half-ghost was one of Kyouichi's favorite contestants. Prior to defeating Shou, Youmu pleased the crowds with her amazing deflecting skill, speed and concentration in a heated duel with Sakuya. The maid used her power to stop time and glided over behind Youmu's back, but almost immediately after the spectators saw her reappearing behind the half-ghost out of thin air, Youmu was already holding her Roukanken close by her waist and pointing its tip backwards. It appeared as though as Sakuya teleported straight into Youmu's sword. With a light injury, Remilia's faithful maid left the ranks of tournament contestants.

Then came the semifinal and Youmu was again pitted against her feared opponent from the Double Duels category – Utsuho Reiuji. This time, however, it was the hell raven who celebrated her victory. From the second pair of the semifinal, the devious nue called Nue has shown Marisa Kirisame who is the boss, and convincingly defeated all of her Spell Cards with just her ordinary danmaku.

So it was Nue and Okuu who were to everyone's amusement and surprise fighting for the title of the Single Duels champion.

* * *

From the beginning of the final battle, Okuu has shown that she's got the upper hand when it comes to raw power. Nue was no pushover either. As Aya explained, both of these youkai girls had enormous endurance and vitality. If there were no restrictions in this tournament, both girls could literally bathe in each other's danmaku for extended periods of time before sustaining any serious injuries. However, the rules have forced them both to be careful and to always try to dodge their enemy's attacks. The battle was intense and many times the spectators were forced to simply look away and shield their eyes from the blinding light of Utsuho's danmaku display. Nue's mysterious attacks, on the other hand, were attracting a lot of attention and the shutter of Aya's camera was clicked many times during this fight.

Sometimes she used irregular black mist-like projectiles that constantly changed their shape, other times she used blue magical arrows to rain down on the opposing hell raven and she even summoned large objects that resembled flying saucers to fire beams all over the dueling area.

During one particularly intense attack of Satori's pet, people had a hard time seeing the two dueling girls with all the magical projectiles in the air. By this time both Okuu and Nue have each received two hits and both girls were just one hit away from the title of champion. Okuu wasn't using a Spell Card, but Nue had obvious difficulties with reading the trajectories of the individual projectiles. For the first time in this tournament, Nue decided to use her most distinguishing ability. She made herself look like one of the many miniature nuclear reactions, while she made one of those reactions appear as her. Even Okuu's overview of the situation was limited due to her own danmaku, but once she caught the glimpse of Nue, she charged up her control rod and unleashed another barrage of destruction. Her real target, however, was secretly closing in on her. No longer under direct fire from Utsuho's weapon, Nue could calmly focus on evading smaller clusters of miniature suns as she was nearing her danmaku rival.

"And that's a hi…" Aya was about to raise the green flag and stop the match, but when she saw that Nue's fake image disappeared as soon as Okuu's barrage made contact with it, she left her sentence unfinished. "Uhh… where did Nue-san go?"

Even Utsuho asked herself the same question when she could no longer find any signs of her in front of her. She quickly started looking everywhere around and blasting her danmaku at random.

"You can't hide from me~! Ahahahahaha~!"

One of the random blasts missed the nue by mere centimeters, but she didn't panic and continued to move undetected until she was right behind the frenzied hell raven.

Deactivating her image of one of Okuu's danmaku shots, Nue reappeared a few meters behind her. In the same instant, however, Okuu turned around with her weapon primed. She saw Nue smiling and pointing the tips of her trident at her face.

"Hello." the nue waved her hand, as if she was greeting an old friend and conjured three bolts of magic right in her face. Okuu also fired her weapon almost in sync with her enemy, but she was already too late to avoid Nue's triple shot. The shape-shifter was struck by full force of Utsuho's weapon from point-blank range and her stunned body dropped down onto the stage from the height of almost 30 meters. But before she hit the ground, she could see the judges of the tournament raising their green flags, as if in slow motion.

"And the Single Duels discipline…." Aya called out as she raised her own green flag over her head, but the loud crashing sound interrupted her again.

Several chunks of broken planks were scattered into the air as the falling Nue made a hole into the wooden floor of the stage.

"..is over…" the tengu finished her announcement after making a pained grimace from Nue's terrible crash.

Even though this would normally be a moment for great applause and cheering, everyone in the shrine yard became silent.

"Unyu? Did I overdo it again?" Okuu asked herself as she gazed down at the hole in the stage.

Forgetting to even tell who actually won this duel, Aya stared at the place where Nue crashed with her mouth ajar. After nearly ten seconds, someone finally broke the dead silence. It was Eirin who was hurriedly flying towards the stage with a large leather bag in her hand, followed by her trainee, Reisen.

As soon as they landed near the hole in the stage, something red and pointy peered out from the hole. It was Nue's right wing, as was revealed in the next second, when Nue's upper body surfaced right after it.

"I… I'm okay~!" she called at everyone present and waved her hand at the judges seated at the shrine.

"We're glad that you are…" Reisen exhaled with relief.

"Ladies and gentlemen~!" Aya returned back to her normal self once she saw that Nue was not seriously hurt. "The winner of Single Duels discipline…" she gestured forward…

Utsuho, who was already descending to the stage raised both her arms as a sign of victory.

"…and the winner of the tournament's main event… Nueeeeeeee Houjuuuuuu~!"

"Eh?" Nue used one of the tail-like appendages of her left wing to scratch her own head.

"U… Unyuuuu?!" Utsuho was no less surprised by the judge's verdict.

Finally, the crowds woke up and began one of the loudest ovations of the evening.

"Even when it looked like they both got hit at the same time, it was fairly obvious that it was Nue-san's shots that made contact with Utsuho-san. Congratulations, champion Nue~!"

* * *

For Okuu it was quite a blow to hear it. For the second time she managed to make it all the way to finale and she was so close to winning, but it still wasn't enough. She looked even more depressed than Reimu when she lost to Marisa. Looking away from the judges seated at the shrine, tears slowly began rolling down her cheeks. She managed to hide it well from everyone except the person who cared for her the most – Satori.

"Okuu~!" she called her pet, but the hell raven refused to turn around.

She repeated her call, but her pet paid her no heed. "Excuse me for a second." she apologized to the other judges and floated towards the stage to comfort Okuu's depressed heart.

"What a wonderful series of battles this has been." Aya continued in the meantime. "And what a wonderful collection of pictures I've just made. With this match, the "hostile" part of this tournament has come to an end. There's but one more discipline left – the Visual Contest. In the meantime, let's take a short break."

Not long after that, Satori was already returning back to the stage, holding Okuu by the hand. It seemed that she managed to comfort her and Okuu showed only little signs of disappointment.

"You are always so nice, Satori-sama~! I just wanted to make you proud of me, so I wanted to win at least once."

"But you already won more than once. Don't blame yourself, Okuu. I'm more proud of you than you think. Now… why don't you sit here with us?" Satori gestured at the shrine's veranda where a group of people and youkai were sitting.

Incidentally, the place where Satori pointed at happened to be close to where the outsider, Kyouichi was seated.

"Okay~!" Okuu cheerfully obeyed her mistress and sat down.

Realizing who was just sitting next to him, Kyouichi nervously swallowed and immediately shifted a few meters away from the powerful youkai.

"Hm? What's with that human?" she wondered why he would back away from her, as if he was afraid of something.

"Who would have guessed it would be Nue to defeat me and win this discipline, ze…" Marisa was just talking to Rinnosuke.

"I'm surprised myself." he admitted as he glanced over at Nue who just crawled out of the hole that she made and was now waving at the cheering crowd. "But what's going to be done about that hole in the stage?"

"Oh… Yeah, you're right." Marisa nodded. "Oi~! Nue~! You sure wrecked that stage!" she called out at the black-haired shape-shifter.

Only then did Nue realize that something should be done about the damaged stage and after taking a moment to think, she triumphantly raised her finger and smiled. She began making some intricate movements with her hand and conjured up a single spark of white light. This spark slowly circled around the hole and drew closer toward its center. Then after an effect that resembled a smokescreen, the stage was good as new again.

Satisfied with her good work, Nue widened her smile and bowed to everyone.

"Oi, oi…" Marisa disapprovingly shook her head just as Aya did.

"What's wrong?" Kyouichi wondered as he shifted his eyes from Marisa to Aya and back. "She fixed it, didn't she?"

"Uhh… no, she didn't." said the blonde magician.

"Nue's ability isn't actually shape-shifting, as you might think." Aya began to explain. "She is merely able to hide the true form of things with her "Seeds of Unknown Form", which you just saw now. So in reality, she can't change her form, but simply mask it as something else."

"In other words, there's still a huge gaping hole in the stage, but everyone sees it as if the stage was fixed." Marisa completed the information. "Reimu's not going to like this…"

…

"Oh my~!" she suddenly straightened up. "I just realized… Reimu still hasn't come out of the shrine, has she?"

With all those interesting battles going on, she forgot that her friend was still inside her shrine. And the fact that she hasn't come out after more than half an hour has certainly raised her alarm.

"Hey, everyone, I'm going to check on her. Who's with me?"

Aya, Akyuu, Satori, Rinnosuke and Kyouichi decided to go with her, as they were all concerned about Reimu. With all of them standing at the back sliding door of the shrine, Marisa tentatively slid the door open and peered inside.

"I want to see too." Aya put her chin on top of Marisa's head to take a peek.

It was dark inside. None of Reimu's oil lamps were lit and the shrine maiden was nowhere to be seen in the main room.

"Pssst… Reimu?" Marisa whispered into the room, but heard no reply. "Where could she go?"

"Let's go inside and find her." Aya suggested. "I'm getting a little worried."

Everyone took their shoes, sandals and geta off and entered the Hakurei Shrine.

"Reimu?" Marisa called for her again, this time not hushing her voice.

"Maybe she's in the bathroom." said Akyuu.

"Then I'll go and take a look." Marisa volunteered to go to look for Reimu there, while leaving the rest of the shrine to others.

"Hmm…" Aya looked around one of the folding screens standing in the corner of the room. "Doesn't look like she's here…" then she proceeded to opening the wardrobes to make sure the miko wasn't hiding in one of them.

"Come on, don't just stand there~! Help me look for her!" she prompted Akyuu, Satori, Rinnosuke and Kyouichi to ease her search and help her. But the ones in question only exchanged their confused looks and left Aya continue her thorough search.

"She's not there either, ze…" Marisa came out of the bathroom and announced her negative result. "I wonder if there are any secret trap doors in this shrine…" she began to fantasize.

"Will you please quiet your loud minds for a second?" Satori asked with a slightly raised voice. "I'm trying to hear Reimu-san's thoughts, but you aren't making it easy."

"Oh…" Aya finally stopped checking every piece of Reimu's furniture. "Sorry, Satori-san."

Kyouichi who was just standing there idly, slowly shifted his gaze at the front sliding door.

"Oh… You think Reimu left the shrine through the main door?" Marisa asked, as if she was a mind-reader herself.

"Doesn't seem like there are any more options left. Unless you're right about those secret trap doors, Marisa…" the outsider shrugged and slowly approached the door. Marisa followed him closely. Slowly and carefully, they slid the front door open and peered through the narrow gap.

There, sitting on the veranda and facing the front yard, was the Hakurei shrine maiden. She appeared to be muttering something to herself.

Kyouichi and Marisa held their breaths so they'd be able to hear what she was saying.

"Do you hear her?" the outsider whispered to Marisa.

"Shhh~! I'm trying to listen…" she hushed him scoldingly.

When they focused their ears, they could faintly hear Reimu's voice.

"Why…? Where did I go wrong? Was it something I said? Done? Is this your game, or punishment?" her voice sounded a little hoarse, as is she was crying recently.

"What's she talking about?" Aya who joined the two humans in spying on the miko quietly muttered a question.

"How should I know?" Marisa whispered back.

"I prepared everything so well… Done so much work… Invited so many guests… But it still wasn't enough." Reimu continued to lament. "I even prayed… I even put my wish on the tree... All for you… The hanami… This festival… I'm… I'm sorry…"

"Reminiscing about her dead parents?" wondered the crow tengu as she eavesdropped.

"I know you can hear me… and I know you're watching… or aren't you? Look… even got so much donation money today… I should be filled with joy. But what is all the money good for? How can I be truly filled with joy… when you're not here? ...Yukari…"

What she said has left everyone who heard her words, or read her thoughts, completely speechless. Finally they heard why Reimu behaved so strangely aloof today.

"…Yukari?" Marisa repeated with a puzzled expression. "So this was all because Reimu misses her? I… I'm such a fool… I should have figured that out in the first place." she began to blame herself.

"Reimu…" Aya felt sorry for her as well.

"While I admit that I never had a good feeling from that youkai," Rinnosuke spoke up, "I too would like her to show up again…"

"You knew about this the whole time, didn't you?" Marisa turned her face to Satori.

The youkai girl nodded with a sign of guilt in her facial expression. "Reimu-san has a strong heart, like you." she spoke to the witch. "But this thought has been troubling her for a longer time and now it seems she needed to let it out... She'll be fine, but perhaps she needs a little cheering up."

"So that's why she put up such a miserable fight against me…" Marisa began searching her thoughts in retrospect. "Now that makes me feel bad about going against her so harshly."

Just as she said that, the front sliding door of the shrine suddenly opened, and everyone's heart skipped a beat from the shock.

"Ayayaya~! Reimu~!"

"Huh? What are you all doing here?" Reimu raised her eyebrow at the group of people and youkai standing in her shrine.

"We were… ehh… looking for you." Marisa answered almost truthfully. She didn't want to reveal that she was eavesdropping on her.

Reimu stood there in the doorway, silently eyeing everyone in the room when her eyes rested at the youkai from the underground. "You told them… didn't you?"

"No. They found out…"

"So you saw me." the shrine maiden spoke without changing her calm voice or expression. She looked a little scary.

"Reimu-san… We're sorry to have spied on you." Aya was the first to apologize. "But we could all figure something was not right with you today…"

"I see… I was so obvious, wasn't I?"

"Reimu, we know how you feel." Marisa put her hand on Reimu's shoulder, prompting her to come in. "And we don't want you to feel sad. I'm sure Yukari will come back soon. And if she won't, then we'll find her."

Reimu finally stepped inside her shrine and closed the door, but she didn't even know what to say. Strange mixture of despair, anger and embarrassment was filling up her heart. The last thing that she wanted was everyone seeing her in a weak moment and everyone knowing how much she misses a certain youkai. Now that it wasn't a secret anymore, Reimu was beginning to feel as her negative emotions were slowly going away. Perhaps all she really needed to do to make herself feel better was to talk to someone about her feelings. But being proud and stubborn, she would simply stay quiet or conveniently change the topic to avoid giving any answers. Now that her feelings have forced their way out of her, she could feel strange relief.

"I… I'm sorry if I made you all worry about me." she apologized and a weak smile has settled on her lips.

Seeing her light smile, Aya couldn't hold back her own smile. "Everything is going to be alright… Come, Reimu." she beckoned. "The last category of the tournament is about to begin and it can't start without you."

"Yeah~! Let's throw a huge party after this tournament, ze! We'll be drinking, singing and dancing until morning!" Marisa was already planning ahead.

"Sure, I'm coming." the miko followed her friends out of the shrine, letting go of all bad thoughts.

Kyouichi who was just silently watching the whole situation felt a little awkward about poking his nose into Reimu's privacy, but at least it helped him to understand her behavior.

* * *

"Ah… It's that miko." Okuu, who was resting on the shrine's porch pointed at Reimu when she saw her stepping out of the shrine along with others.

"Okuu. It's not polite to point your finger at other people." Satori reminded her some basics of etiquette. "That also goes for pointing your control rod at them."

"Unyuu~."

"And you should finally learn her name, Okuu."

Even Reimu smirked at the endearing nature of this otherwise very dangerous youkai.

"Well, I guess it's about time to start the last discipline." said the crow tengu and finished the tea in her cup.

"Come to think of it… I'm also kind of thirsty." Kyouichi muttered to himself as he recalled that he bought a can of cola from Rinnosuke a while ago. But he couldn't find it anywhere around him. Then he looked a few meters to his right and saw it. When he was shifting away from the hell raven in fear, he forgot his can. What's worse, it now seemed that the strange-looking object from the outside world has caught Okuu's attention.

"Unyu? What could this weird thing be?" she grabbed the can and began observing it from all sides. "Do you know, Satori-sama?"

"Put that down. It doesn't belong to you." Satori asked her to leave it alone.

"But I want to know what it is~." she insisted and shook the can lightly.

"Noo~! What are you doing?!" Kyouichi called out at her, still keeping some safe distance. "Let it go! You'll make Nuka-Cola out of it!"

"Unyu? Is this thing yours?" she asked him with a curious look. "Will you tell me what it is?"

"Yes, it's mine and it's one of the rarest drinks in Gensokyo."

"Oh~! Okay~!" she flashed a smile and gestured to Kyouichi to come and take his rare drink back. But the outsider refused to take a step towards her.

That's when Satori centered her third eye at him. "You still fear Okuu… Because you think she emits radiation?"

She was spot on, as expected, and the outsider confirmed it with a shy nod.

"Ahahaha~!" Okuu began to laugh. "How silly. My ability is nuclear fusion; not nuclear fission. It is the nuclear fission that produces gamma radiation."

Kyouichi forgot how to speak for a while. Despite looking like she didn't know how to count to 10, Okuu just lectured him about nuclear physics.

"Hey. Don't you want your drink back?" the hell raven spoke again after seeing no reaction from the human. "Can I keep it then?"

Finally gathering some courage, Kyouichi walked closer to her and hastily took the can out of her hand.

"How do you even drink from this weird cup? It's got bottoms from both sides…"

"Like this…" he opened the can with a hiss and pop and took a little gulp, as if he was afraid that it would taste bad. "Hmm… I guess it's still safe."

After he got convinced that Okuu wasn't radioactive, the outsider had calmed down a little, but for some reason still took his seat a few meters away from her just to be sure.

Meanwhile, the final discipline of the Tanabata Danmaku Tournament was just about to start and Aya was already clearing her throat to announce it.

"Alright," said the crow tengu as she was standing up. "It's time to bring this show to its end."

 


	50. The Night is Still Young

Shameimaru Aya for the last time tonight resumed her role of the announcer.

"Ladies and gentlemen~! Tonight we've seen battles both even-matched and one-sided, but this time all violence goes aside. The Visual Contest is a discipline where each of the contestants shows off one of their selected Spell Cards and it's up to you, the audience to pick the most beautiful pattern of them all~! That's right, folks, the contestants are no longer judges in this discipline. All the responsibility rests on your shoulders now. After all 26 girls present their danmaku, you'll pick one of these voting cards, write the number of the contestant of your choice, rip the card in half along the designated line and put it into this box. Remember, you can only vote once and only for one of the contestants, so take your time to decide. In the end when all votes are counted and the winner is announced, we will be drawing 10 cards from those that voted for the winner and the owners of the second halves of these cards will win a certain prize~! Now aren't we generous~? Let's not waste any more time then. Contestants, line up on the stage and present your wonderful Spell Cards~!"

* * *

And so, the final tournament discipline has begun. All the 26 girls have stepped up onto the stage, which included the tournament announcer herself. The idea behind the whole discipline was already explained. The lined up girls would stand in the back, and the one performing the card will step forth. After showing her card, she would return back to her place. Or such was the original plan…

"Waaaaah~!" a panicked scream of Remilia cut the calm atmosphere and just as everyone turned their heads towards her, the vampire girl had literally disappeared beneath the stage.

"My lady!" Sakuya covered her mouth, shocked at her mistress's sudden disappearance.

Even Reimu opened her mouth wide as she saw it. "Y... Yukari?"

"Uwaaaa~! What's going on?" Remilia's cry sounded from the place where she was last seen.

Everything was explained in the next moment. The section of the stage's wooden floor has begun to fade and a large gaping hole which was made after the final battle of the Single Duels category has reappeared.

"Nope~! Nue Houjuu." laughing Marisa answered Reimu's question.

The hole wasn't deeper than 150 centimeters, but as it was masked by Nue's Seed of Unknown Form, nobody noticed it and whoever walked over it was in for an unpleasant fall.

"Auuu~!" Remilia stretched out her hand out of the hole and Sakuya quickly pulled her out.

"Are you alright, my lady?"

"Ehehehehe~…" Nue giggled bashfully as Reimu turned her infuriated face at her.

"Nue…" the shrine maiden grumbled her name through her clenched teeth.

"Though it was actually Utsuho who slammed Nue against the stage, ze." Marisa added after her laughing fit from Remilia's unfortunate fall subsided.

"Utsuho…" her menacing gaze shifted from the mysterious youkai to the nuclear hell raven.

"Unyu?" Okuu cluelessly looked back at the shrine maiden. "What?"

"You'll fix this stage or I'll make yakitori out of you." the miko didn't ask. She announced it to her, adding her usual exaggerated threat.

"But she made the hole." Okuu tried to shift the blame back to Nue.

"Uhh , girls?" Aya stepped into their conversation.

"I meant both of you!" Reimu completely ignored her and kept staring at the two youkai girls, as if expecting them to get to work immediately.

"Girls…" Aya spoke up softly again, but her tone changed drastically. "Will you shut up for a minute and let me do my job?!"

Everyone fell silent and obediently stared at the tengu reporter.

"Thank you~." she returned to her normal tone. "So… Even with the stage being a little damaged, let us continue with the competition~! As the host of this tournament and festival, the privilege of being the first contestant in this discipline goes to Hakurei Reimu. Step forth, Reimu-san and show us your most beautiful Spell Card~!"

Still throwing sidelong glances at the two youkai responsible for damaging her stage, Reimu stepped forward and readied her spell….

* * *

There wasn't as much excitement during this particular discipline of the tournament as during the battles, but the onlookers were always cheering when they could see the girls performing their danmaku art. Some girls chose to use the cards that they already used in battles; other contestants have picked different cards especially for this part of the competition. In fact, there were fewer girls who have used the same spells for this discipline. Some particularly interesting and beautiful cards were made by Yuyuko, Patchouli, Aya, Eirin, Meiling, Kogasa and both oni girls, Suika and Yuugi. Even during this contest, the crow tengu kept taking pictures of the danmaku patterns of all the other girls. And when the last contestant has shown her last card, Aya stepped forward again.

"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen; thank you, all contestants~! I loved all of your Spell Cards. Especially those new ones. However, some of these were a little too strong to be legal in regular danmaku duels. But since this contest is about the beauty, I suppose a little tweaking to your spells to enhance their bullet density is only a plus. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to vote for the most beautiful Spell Card. You have 30 minutes to place your votes. After that we'll close the voting and declare the winner~!"

It was expected that after Aya's announcement the human/youkai crowd would now begin to shift towards the front part of the stage where the voting box was located.

The tournament was practically over, but for some reason a large group of contestants was still standing on the stage, having a heated conversation.

* * *

"So once again, slowly…" Reimu asked Marisa to repeat what she told her "How exactly did this happen?" she beckoned at the large hole in her stage.

"I already told you, didn't I?" the blonde magician crossed her arms. "It was the final duel. Nue got behind Utsuho, but she turned around and they both attacked each other simultaneously. Both were hit, but Utsuho's attack was so powerful that it flung Nue against the stage with enough force to make a hole in it…"

"Eeeh?" Reimu still looked as puzzled as the first time when Marisa tired to explain it to her. "So... umm… who won the final duel anyway?" the shrine maiden asked her out of the blue.

"Nue did. By just a split second, ze. You should have seen it! Oh… and she even got me in the semifinal."

"So you're the Single Duels champion, huh?" the black-haired miko glanced over at the ancient nue, who nodded in response.

"Why are you asking?" she wondered. "Didn't you watch the matches?"

"Eh… No she was… ehh… collecting her donations." Marisa saved her friend from having to explain her absence to everyone who was still standing on the stage.

"Hey~! Don't you worry about this little hole in the stage, Reimu~!" Suika suddenly showed up. Her voice already showed signs of a certain degree of drunkenness. "Remember that time when your shrine was wrecked by that earthquake? We rebuilt it in just a couple of days. Such a small hole in the stage can't take more than a few minutes to repair. Uh… do you have any spare wooden planks, Reimu?" her cheerfully confident tone immediately changed to an uncertain one.

"How should I know?"

"It's alright, Reimu~. I'll take a look into your storehouse, so leave it all to me~!"

"Suika?" Reimu tried to halt the little oni, but she already took off, heading for Reimu's small storehouse standing in the northern part of the shrine yard. "Wait~! Suika~!"

"So anyhow…" Marisa continued the conversation, as if nothing happened, "…you missed a lot of action, Reimu, but… It's alright. I understand… I would be feeling a bit depressed too if you or Alice suddenly went missing."

"What are you talking about?" Alice, who was standing right next to her, raised her eyebrows at her strange remark. Of course, she wasn't there when Marisa and others went looking for Reimu, so she had no idea what was Marisa referring to.

"So~… How about we all gathered at the shrine and finally started the party?" she changed the topic again.

After a sigh of resignation, Reimu consented. "You're right. Let's go, everyone!" she called at the remaining girls standing on the stage and took off towards her shrine. Being hungry and thirsty after the whole day, the thought of finally starting the party at her shrine sounded well to her.

"Hey, girls, wait for me~!" Aya called after them. "I still need to announce the next performance in the program." she then turned to the bulk of the crowd. "So… Even during the break between your voting and the announcement of the winner of the Visual Contest, the program of this Tanabata festival will keep us all entertained~! Ladies and gentlemen… the Prismriver Ensemble returns, featuring Mystia Lorelei as vocalist~! Now this should be interesting, to say the least. Please enjoy their performance~!"

The return of the three poltergeist sisters has caused enough commotion among the shrine visitors to make them briefly forget about the voting. Even the night sparrow, Mystia was flying over to the center of the stage, ready to make her first performance with this phantom trio. But then out of nowhere, Suika landed on the stage, holding a bunch of wooden planks and a box of nails.

"Umm… is she also a part of our performance, onee-chan?" Lyrica asked her eldest sister.

"I don't think there was anything written about a second vocalist in our program." the puzzled Lunasa replied.

"Oh… You girls are performing now?" Suika looked at the three sisters confusedly. "Ehehe~! Don't mind me; this will only take a second… Oh… that's right." she raised her finger as she got a sudden idea. "Wait here, okay, I'll be back in a second."

Suika was lucky that Reimu already entered her shrine, because if she saw her interrupting the program with her drunken antics, she'd definitely give her some harsh scolding, most likely in the form of danmaku.

"Was that some kind of joke…?" Merlin exchanged quick glances with her sisters. "Because I don't get it…"

"I'm sure you're not the only one." Lunasa shook her head as she watched Suika flying to the shrine.

True to her word, she was back in a moment. And oddly enough, Sakuya Izayoi, the maid of the Scarlet Devil kept her company on her flight back to the stage.

"What's going on here? Really…" even Mystia was at a loss for words when she watched these two girls literally stealing all the attention from them.

"Okay, Sakuya, do your stuff~." Suika asked the maid to use her time-stopping ability.

A little reluctant to take orders or even requests from anyone but, her mistress, Sakuya crossed her arms as she looked down at the ginger-haired girl.

"I don't recall being in your service, though."

"But Remilia isn't even paying you. Come on… Can't you do me and Reimu a little favor? I'll let you have as much sake as you want." she gently patted her greatest treasure.

Sakuya tilted her head to the side, while eyeing Suika with suspicion. "Is that a bribing attempt?"

"Hey, I'm just trying to fix a hole, which incidentally your mistress fell into… And I don't want to delay them too much…" she pointed her thumb at the Prisimriver Ensemble, "so I'm asking you to use your power to help me."

Reluctant as she was, Sakuya knew that Suika was right. Her mistress really did fall into this hole and she'd actually be doing her a favor by helping Suika fix it.

"Very well." she took her pocket watch in her left hand and snapped the fingers on her right hand. Suddenly the noisy crowd went silent. All the ambient noises – the rustling leaves on the trees in the wind or the flapping of festival flags, everything became perfectly quiet as Sakuya made the time flow only for herself and Suika.

"Oooh… Cool. So this is what it looks like when the time stops." the little oni slowly turned around as she watched her surroundings being frozen in complete stillness. She found it so mesmerizing that she almost forgot that she wanted to fix the stage. "This is so amazing~! And to think that a mere human is capable of such a thing…"

"Ehm…" Sakuya cleared her throat to remind the oni of her original intention.

But it seemed that Suika didn't even notice that.

"Ooooh, hey, hey, Sakuya~! Look…" she opened her sake gourd and tried to spill some of its content. As expected, the sake remained perfectly still and wouldn't pour out. That's why she made a rapid 360 degree turn with her gourd and created a ring of small blobs of sake around herself.

"So cool~!"

Sakuya watched as the little oni was having fun catching the blobs of sake with her mouth, and a growing feeling of impatience was beginning to fill her heart.

"Hey, Sakuya~! Look, look…" she opened her mouth and swallowed the last sake blob wile levitating a few centimeters above the stage.

"Hey, look over here…" the maid diverted Suika's attention to several throwing knives that she flung at her while Suika was having fun exploring the physics of frozen time. The tips of these knives were pointing at Suika, but due to the flow of time being stopped, they only served as a little warning for the oni.

"How about you got to work already?"

"Oh~! That's right! Let's get this stage repaired!" she declared with an endearingly cheerful voice.

She knelt down next to the damaged section of the stage and proceeded to remove all the broken boards from the wooden construction. Her immense physical strength allowed her to pull out the nailed down planks effortlessly with her bare hands.

"Alright…" she dusted off her hands when she was done. "Now I just need to nail down these new planks."

Sakuya curiously looked at the short oni girl and shifted her gaze slowly to left and right.

"I see that you brought some nails with you, but… you have no tools. How do you want to nail these planks down with no hammer?"

"Hehe~!" Suika giggled while she took the first plank and placed it on the supporting construction of the stage. "Like this…"

She took the nail in her left hand and using the pinky finger on her right hand she simply pushed it down all the way. The 15 cm nail went through the plank like a hot knife through butter.

"Oh… I see." Sakuya gave her an acknowledging nod and watched as the oni girl nailed the rest of the planks down without any tools.

But when she was about to put down the last plank, Suika realized there was a slight problem that her amazing strength couldn't solve.

"Oh no~! This one's too wide~! It won't fit~!"

"Obviously, these planks were not made for this stage." Sakuya stated matter-of-factly.

"But… but… how are we going to fix Reimu's stage now~?"

The cheerfulness in her voice was suddenly replaced by uncertainty bordering with panic.

"You should have brought some tools with you after all." remarked the silver-haired maid.

"We'll need to cut off about five centimeters from this plank to make it fit…" murmured Suika as she roughly measured the plank's width.

"Why are you looking at me? My knives aren't suited for sawing wood."

"I know… But… Oooooh~!" Suika exclaimed suddenly as another ingenious idea crossed her drunken mind.

"So you have an idea?"

"Wait here a moment Sakuya~. I'll be back in a moment~!"

Wondering what kind of idea Suika just got, Sakuya decided to follow her out of curiosity. The ginger-haired oni was apparently headed for the Hakurei Shrine again, probably with the intention to drag someone else into helping her. It turned out that Sakuya's hunch was right, Suika was already leaving the shrine, dragging the motionless Youmu Konpaku who didn't even struggle, since she was like everyone and everything, put into stasis by Sakuya's power.

"Eh? Konpaku-san?" Sakuya turned her head as Suika with Youmu flew past her.

"Hey, hey, Sakuya~!" Suika called after the maid. "Put Youmu in the same flow of time as us, will ya?"

"Uh… I see now…" Sakuya slowly realized what kind of idea Suika had come up with. She pointed her finger at the half-ghost girl and in the next moment, Youmu became "alive" again.

However, the shock from her sudden relocation from the porch of the Hakurei Shrine to the middle of the stage was now more than apparent on her flabbergasted expression.

"A….ahh….EEEEEEH~?!"

What she found even more unsettling was the fact that her ghostly half was still floating around her original position near the shrine. Suddenly, her eyes widened and her knees began to tremble. It wasn't long before she collapsed on the stage's floor as her soul hurried to get to her body.

"Oh damn~!" the oni cursed and covered her mouth upon realizing what she has just done. "Youmu~! YOUMU~! Are you alright?"

Youmu was alright, but having her soul too far away from her body could have tragic consequences for this half-human girl. She only experienced a light shock, but both Sakuya's and Suika's hearts were racing in panic, hoping that they didn't hurt her.

"Where…? How…? What happened?" Youmu blurted out questions as she was catching her breath and getting a hold of herself.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry~!" Suika began repeatedly apologizing to her. "I didn't realize what could have happened…"

"And… what did happen exactly?" the half-ghost gardener was still more than just confused.

And so, Suika began to explain her intentions and the reason why she has taken Youmu to the stage.

"So you just wanted to repair it?" she asked the little oni.

Suika nodded twice.

"And you want me to cut off 5 centimeters from this plank to make it fit?"

Again, Suika nodded her head affirmatively.

"Well… It's not that I couldn't do it, but… you could have just asked me instead of giving me such a shock."

"We're sorry, Youmu~! We only wanted to get it fixed before the next performance so that Reimu wouldn't be mad."

"Fine." the half-ghost, just like Sakuya, wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. "Show me again how much should I cut off from this plank…"

"About this much…" Suika put the plank in vertical position and put her finger on its top to show Youmu the point where is should be cut.

And the straightforward servant of the Netherworld's princess didn't wait for anything. In a blink of an eye, she drew her Roukanken and made a swift downward slash, missing Suika's finger by just a millimeter.

"Awawa~!" the horned girl exclaimed in shock, immediately retracting her hand, even though Youmu has already cut through the wooden plank. "Do you want to cut my fingers off~?!"

The half-ghost just gave her sly grin. "Don't worry. I'm pretty good at this."

"But you surprised me~!"

"That's for dragging me to the stage when Sakuya-san stopped the time."

"But I apologized~!"

"Apology accepted, Suika-san." said the silver-haired girl and sheathed her long katana.

Since the time was still stopped, the plank didn't fall after Youmu cut it with her sword. After Suika had calmed down a bit, she stepped closer to check out the result of Youmu's work.

"Wow~. So clean and precise…" she commented as she traced the edge of the plank with her fingers. The cut was flawless. But it was not just Youmu's skill alone that made it possible. If she had used any other sword than her youkai-forged Roukanken, this masterful cut would most likely end up in a failure.

"And it even fits perfectly~!" the oni rejoiced as she placed the plank over the rectangular hole in the stage. All that was left to do was for Suika to nail it down.

"And done~!" she dusted off her hands and a contented smile brightened up her face. "Good as new~!"

"I guess we can finally resume the flow of time." said Sakuya.

"Then we better get off the stage first." remarked Youmu.

"We are a good team, eh~?" sounded Suika as she was following the girls in their flight to the Hakurei Shrine.

Once the girls returned to the shrine, Sakuya snapped her fingers one more time, and the flow of time was back to normal.

* * *

"Whoa… Suika… Sakuya… Why did you suddenly appear here out of nowhere?" Marisa asked them with a puzzled expression.

"Oh my~! Youmu~! You surprised me." the ghostly princess reacted similarly when Sakuya resumed the flow of time. From her point of view, it seemed that her loyal servant, who was sitting by her left side, suddenly disappeared and reappeared by her right side.

"I was surprised too, Yuyuko-sama…"

Even the Prismriver sisters and Mystia only saw Suika and Sakuya suddenly disappearing from the stage, which was now repaired. They too were surprised, but they now had to focus on their performance, so they just had to pretend they didn't see anything.

And so the poltergeists started playing their instruments without even touching them and Mystia began to sing a song that surprisingly didn't make anyone go night-blind.

Meanwhile the crowds continued to place their votes for the most beautiful Spell Card and a very small group of humans from the outside world stepped inside the Hakurei Shrine.

"Is there still room for a few more people, Reimu?" Kyouichi asked the host of the festival.

"I think so." replied the shrine maiden, who was a bit preoccupied by serving dango to all of her guests.

"Welcome~!" Suika was waving her hand at the outsiders.

"Who are all these humans, Satori-sama?" Okuu didn't hide her curiosity as the group of strangers walked into the shrine and took their seats on the floor.

"What did I tell you about pointing your fingers at people, Okuu?"

"Unyu… I'm sorry…"

"We're all outsiders, Reiuji-san." Soudai didn't hesitate to reply to her. "Oh, and by the way, you were awesome in the tournament."

Satori apologized for her pet's straightforwardness and began explaining what business these humans had with the Hakurei shrine maiden.

Meanwhile, Yuyuko was having a bit of a dilemma.

"Youmu~! Look~!" she addressed her servant while looking outside through the opened sliding door. "The Prismriver Sisters are playing again~! And they even have a singer now."

"So, do you wish to listen to their concert, Yuyuko-sama?"

"But Reimu is serving those delicious dango~. What should I do~?"

"You can simply go outside and I'll bring you the dumplings." Youmu suggested to her.

"Hmm…" the lovely ghost thoughtfully bit her lower lip, still not shifting her gaze away from the performance outside. "But looking at that night sparrow is making me… hungry~."

"Somehow, I kind of expected that answer from you…" Youmu smirked and decided to lend Reimu a hand with serving the dumplings on the plates.

Suika was generously filling the guests' sake cups, Aya joined the conversation between Satori and her pet hell raven, Byakuren was shaking Nue's hand and congratulating her for winning the Single Duels discipline, when Cirno shyly hovered up to her and pulled her gently by the cape.

"Oh… Well, if it isn't our brave little fairy~. What would you like of me, young miss?"

"Well… I…" Cirno nervously looked down, as if she was hoping to find the right words on the shrine's floor. "About earlier…"

"Yes?"

"Well… umm… not that I was afraid to take you on in a danmaku fight, but… thank you…"

The usually loud, playful, carefree and sometimes even a bit aggressive ice fairy was now looking so docile and shy that Byakuren couldn't suppress her joyful smile and the heartwarming feeling that began spreading over her body. Cirno just thanked her for her decision to forfeit the tournament.

"You don't need to thank me at all, my dear. It wouldn't be right if I battled against you."

"But that Eirin was so mean~!" Cirno began complaining to her, despite the fact that the Lunarian doctor was sitting just a few meters away from her. "Even worse than that miko over there..."

"You were saying…?" Reimu turned her face to the fairy with her menacing smile.

"Uhh… nothing."

"Should I have your portion of dumplings for myself?"

"You made some for me too?" the surprised fairy slowly dared to look into Reimu's eyes.

"Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't…" the miko teased her with her ambiguous reply, but she did stretch her arms out with the plate of dango in her hands, as if prompting Cirno to take it.

The ice fairy blinked a few times, wondering what trickery was Reimu about to play on her. But after several seconds have passed, Cirno didn't resist her temptation and slowly hovered to the shrine maiden.

"I don't have all night just for you, so hurry up and take it already."

Cirno quickly grabbed the plate from Reimu's hands and tentatively took one small bite from one of the dango. The sweet and slightly sour taste filled her mouth. The dango were delicious and the little ice fairy was now compelled to express her gratitude… in her own fairy-like way.

"Th… thank you... I'll give you a frozen frog in return next time~!" she said with a cheerful smile adorning her childish face.

"I'll pass." muttered the resident of the shrine and returned to tending to her other guests.

* * *

A few meters away from that scene, Remilia was amusedly looking into Suika's face as the oni filled her cup with sake.

"Considering what the two of us said to each other before the tournament, we didn't even fight each other in the end…"

"Oh, yes~. We both got eliminated our first battle, didn't we?" Suika recalled.

"Heh…" Remilia let out a weak chuckle. "Even Cirno made if further in the tournament than us… How ironic."

"I wonder if Byakuren-san would do the same if I got her as an opponent."

"But this tournament is just an innocent game compared to real duels." the vampire continued, as if she was ignoring Suika's contemplations. "I can already see that such duels are going to take place in the following months…"

"Eh~? A premonition?" the ginger haired oni curiously titled her head to the side.

"I was just looking at the fate strings of those present here and some of them... no, many of them tell me about impending conflicts."

"Is it somehow related to that fairy incident?"

"Hard to say. But perhaps it is so… Or perhaps it means that we'll get into some serious disputes in the near future."

"Hmph~!" the oni's carefree smile wasn't wiped off her face by Remilia's ominous words. "Well in that event, I'm not afraid to take your challenge again. In a serious battle…"

"Oddly enough, Suika," the vampire continued with a serious tone, "I don't see any future conflicts between us two in particular."

"Odd indeed… Oh, by the way, Remi, can you tell if there are going to be any more fairy attacks?"

Remilia took a quick look at the few fairy guests in Reimu's shrine and shrugged her shoulders. "That I don't know. But at least these girls won't be causing any serious trouble in the upcoming days."

"I see." said Suika after a while of silence and waved her hands in the air to get everyone's attention. "Hey, has everyone got their cup filled with sake~?"

After a wave of positive replies from all the present guests, the little oni raised her gourd high.

"Well then… Let the fun last all night~! Cheers~!"

"CHEERS~!" everyone called in unison and emptied their cups.

After everyone has put down their cup, a very interesting idea raced through Suika's mind when she turned back to Remilia.

"Oh~! This sake is giving me such brilliant ideas~!"

When Youmu heard her say that, she quickly turned her nervous face at the oni and her ghostly half began to tremble in air slightly. However, Suika's idea didn't have anything to do with kidnapping people this time.

"Hey, Reimu~! Would you please pass me that amulet that we got from the Scarlet Devil Mansion?"

The look on Reimu's face was somewhat similar to Youmu's. "Huh? What for? Just take some 5 yen coin if you want to do some of those so called "magic" tricks…"

"No, silly~! I want Remi to take a look at it~!"

"Eh?" uttered both girls in unison.

"You stole something from MY mansion again?" asked the vampire with an agitated tone.

"I don't see the point." Reimu hesitated to comply. "If it's from that mansion, then Remilia surely must have seen it already anyway."

"Hey, what amulet are you two even talking about?" Remilia was getting lost in their conversation.

Patchouli, who was so far just quietly enjoying the taste of dango immediately sharpened her senses when Suika mentioned the amulet. The amulet was given to her by the youkai of boundaries personally to serve as a communication device. Although used just once for this purpose, the elemental sorceress believed that it could be used to track down the exact position of Yukari Yakumo if it was given to a youkai with mind-reading abilities. This theory was perhaps based on truth, but it turned out to be of little import, as the mentioned border youkai wasn't even present in Gensokyo. But she knew that Reimu was right. Remilia was the one who suggested locating the boundary youkai by this amulet and she had already seen it many times.

"Oh, the one we gave to that outsider to deliver it to Reimu~!" Remilia seemed to suddenly recall. "Yeah, I've seen it already, Suika. There's no point in looking at it again."

"Oh…" Suika's enthusiasm seemed to have died down a little. "And did you see anything interesting?"

"Hmm… but you know… It might actually not be a complete waste of time to look at it again after all." the little vampire changed her mind. "May I see it again, Reimu?"

"I don't really get what you're hoping to see, but… sure, why not?"

Reimu walked up to a small table in her room, where a small decorative wooden chest was standing. She took a key out of her pocket and unlocked the ornamented box.

Marisa was probably the only one besides Reimu who knew what this box contained. It stored all sorts of items that were used by Reimu's late family, or were simply a memento of the times when they were alive. Old black and white photographs, aged documents, drawings, old-fashioned omamori trinkets, a few rusty coins, a hairbrush, a bunch of writing brushes, and even Reimu's first gift – a small wooden cat-shaped toy. Reimu could never hold back a smile when she looked at this old toy, marked by tiny bite marks from the times when she was chewing on it as a child. Even after all those years, this wooden cat had survived up to this day, reminding Reimu of her early childhood.

All of these items had little if any monetary value, but to Reimu, they were some of her greatest treasures, the sentimental value of which rivaled even her donation box. And among these treasures, rested the small, circular ornamented amulet made of gold and silver. Reimu took the medallion by the chain and gave it one more look before she handed it over to the vampire.

"Hmm… This is interesting indeed." noted Remilia after taking the amulet from the shrine maiden. She wasn't even looking at the amulet as much as the people and youkai in the room.

"What's interesting~? Tell us~!" Suika was impatiently waiting for the result of her observation.

"At first I thought it was just because me and Patchy are the owners of this amulet, but now that so many of us gathered here, I can see…"

"What do you see?" Reimu prompted her to hurry up with her answer.

"Not just mine and Patchouli's fates are tied to this amulet, but almost everyone else's in this room too."

"And… what does that mean?" the oni demanded an explanation.

Remilia herself wondered about the meaning of this knot of fate strings that loomed over the mysterious amulet. "Actually, it can mean all sorts of things. Good or bad. But you, Reimu, Suika, Yuyuko, Youmu, Aya, Eirin and Kaguya, and even those outsiders over there… our fates are linked to this small piece of metal."

"Why didn't you see this before?" the shrine maiden asked her.

"I can only see the strings of fate within a close vicinity of a person or an object. Sort of like an aura. So even if two things or persons are bound by fate, I cannot see this bond unless the physical distance between them is small."

"I guess that's not such a big surprise, since we're all trying to find Yukari." said Suika. "Perhaps it means we'll succeed, right~?"

"Either that or her scheming will affect all of us." the vampire gave another possible explanation.

"Just as I thought." Reimu let out a sigh. "There was no point in showing it to you again."

"No, but it made me realize something." Remilia gently traced the amulet's surface with her fingertip, "That we should keep it close by in our search for answers."

"We've already discussed the date of our expedition to the quarry of Kazemura with Eirin and Kaguya." Patchouli announced to her. "Akyuu and Keine will join us too. We'll probably take a few days to thoroughly analyze the ruins, so you might come with us if you like."

But Patchouli's offer didn't sound too lucrative for the spoilt vampire. "I would certainly not trade the comfort of my mansion for some inn just so I could watch you digging around in the dirt. But I suppose I could keep you company for a little while."

"Oh, right, you told me about that earlier today, didn't you?" Reimu turned her face to the librarian. "When are we going to go there?"

"It would be best to do so as soon as possible, but I understand that we all need some time to prepare. We'll go there next week."

"Next week, huh?" the shrine maiden stared thoughtfully at the ceiling for a moment. "Fine, we'll meet up here then…"

"I want to come too~!" Suika excitedly waved her little arms over her head.

"And maybe we should go too, Youmu." Yuyuko expressed her interest in this expedition.

While Reimu thought that too many people looking for clues would only get into each other's way, the expedition wasn't even her idea, so she remained silent.

Patchouli didn't seem to have anything against a few extra members in her team. On the contrary, she accepted them happily, adding that it wouldn't be a bad idea to get help from other sources too.

"It's very important that our observation is thorough and that we won't miss even the smallest detail." she continued in all seriousness. "Keep in mind that we are looking for the source of the fairy attacks which, as Eirin-san pointed out, is the result of their possession by evil spirits. We are only going to find out whether or not the newly unearthed ruins in Kazemura are somehow tied to this incident or not. Apart from simply studying them and trying to understand the signs written on them, we must look for any sources of power that could attract evil spirits to that area and making them possess the bodies of the fairies. That includes powers other than magic. We should take anyone who has the ability to perceive something with us. Remilia, you're vital to this expedition too. Reimu-san can try to detect any divine powers and…" she suddenly stopped and looked around, as if looking for someone in particular. "…I heard you three fairies can detect any living creature within a large radius of your vicinity." she said while looking at the trio of fairies – Luna, Star and Sunny.

The fairies were having a much more carefree conversation with their friends, but as soon as the purple-haired youkai sorceress addressed them, they became mute for a while. After what happened to them a few days ago and after they heard the ominous news about crazy fairies rampaging around the northeastern Gensokyo, they now feared that area more than anything else.

"E… ehh… it's only Star-chan, who has this ability."

"But Patchouli," Remilia tapped her friend's shoulder, "I don't think taking the fairies with you would be the best idea. What if they get possessed?"

"Yes, what if Sunny-chan goes crazy again~?" Star Sapphire also seemed to share Remilia's concern.

"In case of any fairy ambush, it would be good to be warned before we get surrounded. And should you become possessed, it would be a wonderful opportunity for me to observe this phenomenon first hand, which would be of great benefit to…"

"NO WAAAY~!" three fairies shouted in unison before Patchouli even finished her sentence.

"Fufufu…" Remilia giggled amusedly. "Perhaps you should have kept that dark little intention of yours to yourself, Patchy."

"We're not going to come with you even if you bribed us with all the sweets in the world~!" Sunny continued to protest. "Uh… well… perhaps that wouldn't be so bad, but… NO~! You can't just force us to come with you and treat us like guinea pigs~! That's against the rights of fairies~!"

"What is there to worry about?" Patchouli didn't quite understand their fear. "You technically cannot die. And what's more, you'll be under our protection."

"Like that's some convincing argument~!" yelled Star.

Patchouli figured that she shouldn't have been so honest about her desire to see the possession of fairies first hand, so she had to choose a different approach.

"Reimu-san is an expert at dealing with evil spirits and exorcism. Am I right?"

The shrine maiden replied positively. "I can even give you a blessing to ward you against the evil spirits, so you should be safe if you'll stay with us."

"Reimuuuu~!" Suika suddenly exclaimed with another brilliant idea on her mind. "That's it! We may actually reduce the fairy attacks or even stop them completely~!"

"Eh? How so?"

"I could use my gathering ability to attract Gensokyo's fairies to the shrine, and you'd just give them your warding blessing."

"Do you even know how many fairies are there in Gensokyo?!" Reimu called out. "My blessings are only good for individuals or small groups. And even if I blessed all zillion of them, that would only be a temporary measure. We need to stop those evil spirits."

"Then wouldn't it be a good idea to have one more shrine maiden in our team?" Marisa suggested.

"Sanae? Hmm…" Reimu hummed thoughtfully. "Definitely not a bad idea considering that we now know what we're really dealing with."

"And one of the goddesses or both of them could be of great assistance too." added the witch.

"And let's not forget about Satori-san." Patchouli looked at the mind-reading youkai, expecting her assistance during the expedition.

The satori from the underground had no qualms about heading out to the mining village. She was even the part of the group that managed to stop an incredible number of possessed fairies a week ago. Her kind heart and desire to help the other girls resolve this incident made her not only agree with joining Patchouli's expedition, but also suggest another member for the team.

"I should also let Koishi know about this trip. It would be good to have her with us."

And so it turned out that the expedition team to Kazemura was not going to be a small group. The younger of the Komeiji sisters would certainly be a valuable asset to this team. Not only due to her power to see the subconscious, but her high-level danmaku arsenal and exceptional physical endurance made her a force to be reckoned with.

"Yeah, Koishi should go with us." Marisa seconded Satori's suggestion. "I wonder how this tournament would have ended if she had come here instead of Utsuho."

The girls from the Temple of Myouren also wanted to offer their help with the resolution of the fairy incident, but after a short discussion, it was decided that they'd focus on protecting the Human Village during the expedition.

"It would be unwise if all of us gathered in Kazemura." Patchouli pointed out, "If the swarms of possessed fairies decided to take their attacks further to the south and west, we'd be leaving those parts of Gensokyo completely unprotected."

"Very well, Patchouli-san." Byakuren nodded. "We'll stay vigilant. I hope your expedition goes well, so that we may really have a reason to celebrate."

"Thank you, Byakuren-san." the librarian bowed lightly to the head of the Myouren Temple. "We shall try. But we can't guarantee our success. Only deserve it…"

* * *

After all the details of the expedition were made clear, the rest of the night continued like any good festival should. The girls who were once rivals or enemies were now peacefully talking about their everyday lives, complaining about their work or just joking around. Some of the more curious individuals even began asking the group of outsiders about various things regarding the life of modern humans.

Midori was talking to Byakuren and some of her followers, Soudai gathered his courage and started a conversation with Princess Kaguya and Reisen, and Kyouichi somehow found himself chatting with Youmu and her mistress.

He found that Youmu was probably one of the most down-to-earth girls he ever met. Despite he was always a bit distracted by her ghostly half, talking to her felt so natural and relaxed that it seemed like he was talking to his old childhood friend. Yuyuko, on the other hand, often seemed to escape his rational thinking with her seemingly random and off-topic remarks, but then she always managed to explain what she wanted to say. She was no doubt a very interesting person to converse with.

With good mood the time seemed to flow much faster and it only seemed like a little while has passed when Aya announced that the voting for the winner of the Visual Contest has been closed and it was time to count all the votes. Several girls, including Reimu, have followed the tengu out of the shrine. But the feast continued without interruption.

"Hey~! Why are you talking with the dead, Kyouichi~?" Marisa nonchalantly interrupted Kyouichi's idle talk with the girls form the Netherworld.

"Because I can't do that where I come from, Marisa." he replied with laughter. "Is there something you want?"

"Suika's serving another round, ze. Come join us~!"

"Suika-san's feeling generous today." the ghost princess commented as she floated over to the small circle of people and youkai who were holding sake cups in their hands as Suika was refilling them. "Enjoy your sake slowly, Youmu, okay?"

"I'll only have a little bit, Suika…" Youmu tried to tell her before the oni poured the maximum amount of sake into her cup, but of curse, Suika didn't listen.

"I said I'll just have a little~!"

"It's a festival~! Have as much as you like~!" the cheerful oni ignored her protests.

"But, but…" the half-ghost's voice got drowned in the cacophony of voices as everyone raised their cups and drank the second round.

* * *

After no longer than five minutes, Aya peered inside the shrine.

"Hey, everyone, all the votes have been counted. All of you who care to hear the winner's name, step outside~! Oh, and Suika… Reimu wants you to make more tea for everyone."

Some of the girls left the shrine to hear the official announcement, but some remained inside the shrine, even though they were participating in the contest.

"Hey, it's not like I'm expecting to win it anyway…" murmured Suika as other girls were leaving the shrine.

"Same here, ze…" added Marisa, who was reluctant to stand up from the comfortable cushion. "I'll just leave the door opened and watch it from here."

"I didn't even compete, so I'll just stay here and have these delicious dango." said Tewi.

Just a few girls were occupying the interior of Reimu's shrine. Kyouichi was about to step outside as well, when he overheard Suika saying something to Marisa.

"So you say Reimu was acting strange today? …Eh~? And she lost because of that~?"

Kyouichi didn't need any complementary explanations to figure out what they were talking about. And despite the fact he was about to leave, his growing curiosity has pushed him back into the shrine.

"We should do something to get her into better mood~." the oni declared as she patted her sake gourd.

"Not sure if getting her drunk is going to do the trick, though." Marisa gave her a doubting look.

"Of course it will, hehe~! Actually... I set myself a personal objective to get everyone drunk tonight~!"

"Yeah? Well good luck with Yuyuko or Eirin. And Satori will probably just want to drink tea… Not to mention your old friend Yuugi will probably take a lot of sake to get drunk."

"Hmm… Yuugi…" Suika thoughtfully scratched her chin. "I have a great idea~! Wait here while I go find her." she giggled mischievously. "This will be fun…"

As she turned around to head out of the shrine, she noticed Kyouichi standing in the doorway.

"Oh… Did you forget something?"

The outsider shook his head. "I just…" he sighed and spilled the truth. "I overheard a bit of your conversation about Reimu."

"Oh." Marisa nodded understandingly. "No doubt you have a lot of questions…"

Indeed, Marisa couldn't be more correct.

"I'm just a bit confused…" he euphemized his current state of mind.

"What you heard is true. Reimu really does care a lot about Yukari."

"But didn't she once say that she's nothing more than acquainted with her?"

The blonde witch let out an amused giggle. "That she did… Hey, remember that time when you asked me what real Reimu is like?"

"Uhh… yeah." he tried to recall the day when he first flew with Marisa on her broom.

"Well, this is what she's like. Claiming one thing and meaning the opposite."

"A tsundere?" Kyouichi jestingly associated the common anime and manga character archetype with the Hakurei shrine maiden.

"Don't know what that is exactly… But Reimu doesn't despise all youkai as she says. Unless they get in her way or cause trouble, of course…"

"So… why Yukari?"

"Indeed, she wasn't the first youkai Reimu encountered, but she's the one who eventually became the closest to her. Having grown up without parents couldn't have been easy for Reimu and I think that Yukari acted like her parent or her older sister in many ways… Making her train to summon the powers of the gods, teaching her various things, resolving incidents with her, enjoying parties or lonely days with her, and of course even playing an occasional prank on her… Those two are really close. It's not that hard to imagine why Reimu misses her."

"I see." Kyouichi finally got a clearer idea about Reimu's personality and her relationship with the youkai of boundaries. He'd probably never find out about this from Reimu's words alone. For the whole time the shrine maiden was refusing to tell the truth to anyone. Even Marisa, whom Kyouichi thought to be her best friend couldn't manage to pry it out of her…

"Perhaps she didn't want to bother us with her personal problems." Kyouichi thought aloud.

"More like she feels a bit embarrassed to talk about such things." Marisa gave a more plausible reason.

* * *

Meanwhile, Suika returned to the shrine along with her old friend, Yuugi. She even caught the last bit of Marisa's and Kyouichi's conversation.

"I always knew that Yukarin likes Reimu~." she stated matter-of-factly. "Actually it's was almost like her tradition to watch over the Hakurei family and help them on occasion. But after the unfortunate deaths of the head priest and priestess – Reimu's parents, Yukari took pity on her and decided to look after her."

"But they first met six years ago." the blonde witch pointed out. "If Yukari really cared about the Hakurei family, she would have shown up sooner, or prevent Reimu's parents from dying in the first place, don't you think?"

"Her ways are strange even for me to understand." Suika admitted. "But when Reimu became orphaned, she told me this: "It's too early for her to meet me in person, but we will meet soon enough. Either I'll come to her, or she will come to me." So I figured that before they first met, Yukari has not only been keeping an eye on her, but also secretly and subtly helping her in all possible ways."

"And what about Yuyuko-sama?" Kyouichi asked. "If Yukari is her best friend, it must be just as tough for her as for Reimu."

Suika smiled light-heartedly. "She doesn't look too gloomy to me."

"Ah, Yuyuko has known her for hundreds of years and surely there were times when she didn't see Yukari for longer than just 6 months. She's probably used to it." Marisa speculated. "The same could be said about you too, right, Suika?"

"It's true that there were times we didn't see each other for a long time, but I admit, I'd really like to see her soon."

The ginger-haired oni then turned her face to Yuugi.

"So, Yuugi-chan~… As I said, we plan to get this party lively and cheerful, like the ones we used to have."

"Hehe, I'm listening." the blonde oni grinned slyly.

"We know that not everyone is a good drinker, so we'll help them get into the right mood~."

Marisa and Kyouichi exchanged their worried looks.

"To put it simply," said Suika with her index finger raised, "we're going to make a super-concentrated sake~."

"Oh boy…" Marisa already had a bad feeling about this.

"Super-concentrated sake?" the outsider scratched his chin. "Won't that be like… lethal to humans?"

"Nonsense~!" the little oni dismissively waved her hand. "I've already done the math and elaborated an optimal dose of sake required to get an ordinary human into the right mood just from one cup… Okay, Yuugi-chan, let's get to work~!"

Yuugi already had her sake tray full and Suika added a little bit of her own. "Alright~! Now, using my powers of gathering, I'll make this quantity of sake super-dense."

"Super-dense?" the ordinary magician curiously observed the procedure.

It looked almost like one of Suika's Spell Cards. The sake in Yuugi's tray turned into some sort of swirling mist-like substance that began to rotate and gradually shrunk until it was just a tiny ball of mass. Then after a few sparks have erupted from it, it turned into a solid substance.

"Ta-daaah~! It's done~!" the two-horned oni rejoiced as she grabbed the tiny transparent ball.

"Is that something like a bottle of sake in a pill?" wondered Kyouichi.

"You could say that." she replied and a very mischievous smile appeared on her face. "Come on, Yuugi, we have to make more before the girls return~!"

And as the two oni did their alchemy, Marisa couldn't resist the temptation to take one of those suspicious sake pills and take a whiff.

"It doesn't smell like sake anymore… Are you sure you haven't turned it into some kind of poison?"

"Realaaax, Marisa~. We've done this before. You'll get drunk if you eat it, believe me."

"And how do you expect the other girls to eat these? These pills look more suspicious than some of Eirin's medicine."

"Simply. We'll just let them dissolve in their tea." explained Yuugi and chuckled along with Suika.

Kyouichi opened his mouth in awe. "You want to spike everyone's tea?"

"Not everyone's." Suika corrected him. "We'll only slip it into the cups of those girls, who don't like to drink sake very much. Everyone else will get drunk normally."

"Is one of those girls Reimu?" the outsider asked tentatively.

"Reimu usually drinks quite a bit, but in her current mood, it might be better to let her have this." said the short oni while rolling the solidified ball of sake between her fingers. "And since most of the girls are youkai, we should make their doses more… adequate."

And so, they repeated the process of gathering multiple doses for humans into even more concentrated "sake pills" for youkai.

"Okay, be careful not to eat this one." Suika warned the two humans about the recently made sake pellets. "You could overdose yourselves with alcohol."

Suddenly a loud cheering and applause from outside the shrine diverted their attention.

* * *

"Congratulations, Marisa-san~! You ranked third in the visual contest~!" Aya apparently started announcing the winners. "Huh? Marisa? Where are you, Marisa-san~?"

"Whoa! Who would have guessed it?" the blonde witch hurriedly stood up from the floor. Not even putting her hat on, she hurried outside to enjoy the brief moment of glory.

Kyouichi, Suika and Yuugi also congratulated her before she hopped on her broom and darted off to the stage.

The two oni girls did not let the announcement distract them from their mischief and they continued making super-concentrated sake candy like a small workshop. Only faint flashes of yellow light coming from the shrine were indicating that something suspicious was going on. Fortunately for them, nobody really paid any attention to that.

"Ah, there you are, Marisa~!" Aya waved her hand at the arriving witch. "Once again, let me congratulate you to your success."

"Thanks for all your votes, ze~!" Marisa addressed those words to all the shrine visitors.

"And that was Marisa-san, and her Spell Card called "Black Magic "Event Horizon"."

The Spell Card was indeed a strong candidate for winning this non-combat discipline. It was pretty much the upgraded version of her "Magic Sign "Stardust Reverie", which she used in battle against Reimu. The Event Horizon consisted of a denser cluster of unwinding spiral-shaped patterns consisting of star-shaped danmaku that changed color as it moved, much like a huge 3-d kaleidoscope.

"To tell the truth," Marisa continued, "I was tempted to use one of the Spark spells, but I thought this one looks really pretty, so I used this card."

"I see." Aya nodded. "Good choice then, Marisa… And now, ranking second in the Visual Contest, with a total of 659 votes…" she paused to dramatize the moment and to tease the audience, "Saigyouji Yuyuko's "Resurrection Butterfly -80% Reflowering-"!"

The applause and cheering was a sign for Yuyuko to elegantly float over to Aya and gently bow to the audience.

"Congratulations, Yuyuko-sama!"

"Thank you, Aya-san, and all of you who voted for me."

The Resurrection Butterfly – a spell that looked too strong to be used in ordinary danmaku duels. It looked like a one minute long continuous explosion of colorful transparent butterfly-shaped danmaku in a beautiful, symmetrical fashion. Aside from thousands of these ghostly butterflies, the spell implemented beams and the large bubble-like orbs that seemed to be popular among many Spell Card users. And to complete the look, Yuyuko even managed to imply harmless, but beautiful cherry blossoms into the mix. With that, she had herself a rightful second place in the Visual Contest and admiration of many shrine visitors.

"And finally," the crow tengu spoke again to silence the cheering crowds, "who is the winner and the owner of the most beautiful Spell Card? I have the results right here~! Let me tell you, then~! Scoring a total of 731 votes, the card that managed to impress and appeal to the most people and youkai tonight is… "Rainbow Sign "Over the Rainbow" by Tatara Kogasa-san~! I'd say: "What a surprise~!", but I guess it really was a very beautiful spell. Congratulations, Kogasa-san~!"

It was actually quite a surprise that Kogasa was in possession of such a beautiful danmaku pattern. A cascading rainbow-shaped and colored stream of magic bullets accompanied by random, vertically-falling blue shots that symbolized drizzling rain.

"So, how does it feel to be a winner, Kogasa?" Aya immediately began interviewing her.

"I… I… I don't even know…" the blue-haired girl stuttered as she tired to answer. "It surprised me too… ehehe."

Her nervousness has caused some of her supporters cheer for her even more, lending her courage to add a few more words.

"I'm always trying to come up with new ways to surprise humans, so I made a spell that looks surprisingly beautiful."

"And since you're a youkai umbrella, we can all see the connection to the rain too." added Aya.

"Yes, and to see a rainbow without a rain will surprise you, won't it?"

"Actually those blue falling danmaku looked like raindrops."

"Ah..." Kogasa opened her mouth as if she had just realized it now. "So… are you saying I should remove the blue bullets from the pattern? But then it would feel too bland…"

"Hahaha!" the tengu reporter laughed lightly. "That's your card and your choice, Kogasa-san, I can't say that I didn't like it, though."

"Oh~!" Kogasa suddenly exclaimed. "I forgot to thank everyone for their support!"

"Ah, yes, go ahead."

"THANK YOU ALL VERY, VERY MUCH~!" she called out loudly while putting her left hand to her mouth to amplify the sound of her voice. "Thank you for being surprised~! I'll try even harder next time, okay~?" she finished while giving everyone an endearing wink. And as she turned to leave the stage, the large tongue of her purple umbrella accidentally licked Aya's face.

"Ugh… what the…?! Ewww~."

"Aah~! I'm sorry!" the karakasa girl bowed to her in apology.

"Just… be careful where you point that thing, alright?" she wiped her face with the back of her hand.

And so, after a couple of more apologetic bows from Kogasa, Aya finally announced the definite end of the danmaku tournament and the continuation of the Prismriver Ensemble concert.

When the poltergeists began playing, all the girls who participated in the tournament gathered in the shrine to have a feast.

* * *

By this time the mischievous oni girls have already prepared everything necessary to carry out their plan to get everyone drunk. Kyouichi and Marisa were the only ones who knew about this. But the two oni have soon realized one major flaw in their plan when the girls returned to the shrine.

"Oh carp~!" Yuugi covered her mouth as she cursed.

"What's wrong, Yuugi-chan?" Suika calmly asked.

"Satori…" she whispered while pointing at the purple-haired short girl just entering the shrine along with her pet hell raven.

"Oh…" Suika's carefree expression instantly faded away. "We mustn't think any suspicious thoughts, Yuugi."

"That's easy to say, but…"

"There are too many of us here. Let's just hope she won't notice our thoughts and ruin the fun."

"Ahh~! Finally the whole tournament is over~!" Aya exhaled with relief as she assumed a comfortable position on one of the futons spread on the floor. "I'm so hungry now…"

"I know how you feel~." Yuyuko sympathized with her.

Soon Reimu's shrine became so full that there was barely any room to sit down.

"Don't just stand there like strangers," Marisa called at the group of humans from the outside world who were hesitating to sit down, "make yourselves at home~!"

Of course, Kyouichi was already sitting, but his friends who have just returned were hesitantly looking for any vacant place to rest.

"You say that as if you owned the place." Reimu gave her chiding glance.

"I'm just trying to be nice to the guests, ze…"

"Just sit down anywhere." the shrine maiden waved her hand. "Marisa, help me serve the food."

Marisa wasn't the only one who offered her help. Sakuya, Youmu and even Alice and her dolls also made the food distribution a lot faster and easier for the shrine maiden. After no more than 3 minutes, everyone had their plate loaded with one delicacy or another.

"Itadakimasu~!" said everyone before they indulged themselves in their food.

"This is definitely livelier event than my birthday party…" remarked Akyuu as she enjoyed her meal.

"Ah, that's right~." Aya nodded. "It was your birthday last week, wasn't it?"

"Eh?" when Reimu heard that, she immediately turned at the little chronicler with her jaw dropped and a single noodle dangled out of her mouth. "It was Akyuu-chan's birthday~? Last week?"

"Why yes, Reimu-san." Akyuu shyly smiled at her. "It was just a small family event. Keine-san was there too…"

"Why has nobody informed me about this? I could have at least prepared some small present for you…"

"It's okay, really." the chronicler tried to calm her down. "I don't really need any presents."

"So… at least… let me congratulate you to your… uhh… thirteenth birthday?"

Reimu apparently didn't know Akyuu's exact age, so she tried to guess. The chronicler and Aya responded with an amused laughter.

"Akyuu-chan is 16, hahaha~!"

"That's right." giggled the purple-haired girl. "But I admit, I don't look much like it."

"WHAT?!" the shrine maiden couldn't believe her ears. And apparently, she wasn't the only one.

"Akyuu-chan? Sixteen? You're kidding, right…?" Kyouichi also didn't expect her to be in her mid-teens.

"Whoa… Have you stopped growing when you turned 12? I never would have guessed that either, ze~!"

"You… you're just two years younger than me?" Reimu was still struggling to process this thought.

"Indeed." the crow tengu confirmed this fact. "You and Marisa were too young to remember anything, but when Akyuu was born, it was your family that held a festival here at the shrine to celebrate that event."

"So there even was a festival here?" the shrine maiden was still in a daze-like state. "And I was about two years old…"

"Yes, of course I remember you too, Reimu." smiled Aya. "Both of you were so cute~! Yes, I was here too to write an article about this event. I don't have it with me, but there's an old issue of my newspaper in my archive from the year 109. I could bring it to show you, but I don't feel like flying right now…"

"So you too have known me before I even met you."

"I don't know why you are so surprised about it, Reimu. I have lived in Gensokyo for over a thousand years. And as a journalist, it's a matter of fact that I'd come into contact with all of the important people and youkai."

After Reimu gave it some though, it didn't strike her as so odd or surprising anymore. There were probably even more people and youkai who have known her before she even became self-aware. But what her mind struggled to stomach was the discrepancy between Akyuu's age and appearance.

"You really don't look like you're 16… Are you sure you're not a half-youkai or something?" she asked her in jest.

Again, the compiler of Gensokyo Chronicle laughed at her question. "Not even a one-percent youkai."

"I guess Akyuu-chan has been like this even in her previous lives. I can still remember our tea parties and idle conversations from a couple of hundred years ago. Just the two of us, Ayas enjoying tea while talking about business matters or just having an idle chitchat. Seems like yesterday to me…"

And while Aya was reminiscing about Akyuu's previous incarnation, one little oni took the advantage of the situation.

"Surely this calls for a celebration~!" Suika deviously attempted to get Akyuu drunk conventionally. "A toast to Akyuu-chan's birthday~!"

"I'm sorry, Suika-san, but…"

"Cheers~!" the oni loud voice drowned Akyuu's futile protest. "You don't need to force yourself, of course. Just have one symbolic cup with all of us here~."

Reimu still remembered the hanami when Suika forced a good amount of sake down the poor chronicler's throat, and was getting quite weary when she heard the oni's suggestion. However, she really wanted to at least recreate the birthday party atmosphere, and a toast was an inseparable part of it.

"A… a toast to Akyuu-chan then!" the shrine maiden was rather easily convinced. The young reincarnating chronicler has apparently grown on her quite a bit.

"Well, if you insist, Reimu-san…" the purple-haired girl hesitantly took her cup.

"Happy, birthday, Akyuu-chan~! And may you live long!" the shrine maiden said these words as she lifted her own cup and everyone in the room did the same.

As expected, the petite chronicler took only a modest sip of sake, unlike most of people and youkai in the shrine.

"I'll just chase it down with some tea…" muttered the chronicler, since the taste of oni sake was a bit stronger than that of normal sake.

Marisa and Kyouichi wanted to give her at least a warning, but Akyuu took several hearty gulps of that spiked tea to wash away the strong taste of sake in her mouth.

"Oh gods…" Marisa covered her face as Akyuu chugged down the whole teacup.

"What's with that look, Marisa-san? …Kyouichi-san?" she didn't understand the reason behind their expressions.

"Hmm…" Reimu also took a light sip from her own cup. "Tastes a bit weird… What tea did you make, Suika?"

"Uh… a blend… hehehe~." the oni giggled nervously as the shine maiden's eyes gazed upon her.

Trying to figure out the components of this "blend", Reimu took another sip. "Not bad, but… I wonder what sort of tea has this aroma…"

Satori could already sense that something was amiss, but before it became clear to her she had already drunk a good dose of tea herself.

"Okuu… Don't drink that tea!"

"Unyuu? Is it bad, Satori-sama? Hehe, don't worry, I'm drinking this sake instead~." she declared with a happy smile and showed her the full sake cup in her hand.

"Looks like your little trick has been revealed, ze." the witch looked at Suika and her partner in crime, Yuugi.

"Doesn't matter now, does it?" the short oni sported an almost malicious grin.

It would be troublesome if Satori figured out their intention sooner, but now that almost everyone has ingested the spiked tea in their cups, Suika and Yuugi could consider their plan as successful.

"What do you mean?" Reimu confusedly glanced from Marisa to Suika and back. "What trick are you talking about?"

"The tea is mixed with alcohol." Satori stated quite flatly.

"Really?" Aya instantly emptied the whole cup, like it was nothing and shrugged. "Doesn't seem like too much…"

"Are you trying to get us all drunk?" Reimu began to interrogate her oni friend.

"Hey~! Not bad for a guess, Re-i-mu-cha-n~!" she syllabicated her name with an endearing suffix and the happiest smile that she could manage.

"I knew you'd do something stupid, but this…"

"I don't taste or feel any alcohol in it…" the crow tengu complained. "May I please have some more of that sake, Suika-san?"

"Hehe, sure~!" Suika was always glad when people were asking for a refill, and she happily obliged. "Even though I've already given you a decent dose."

"Oh… ooooh…" Reimu suddenly put her hand on her forehead. "Wha…? What's this? How much alcohol was in that… tea?"

The concentrated sake was apparently taking its effect very quickly.

"I don't mind a little bit of alcohol if I have some delicious snacks to go with it, Right, Youmu~?" Yuyuko spoke to her servant, but didn't get a reply.

"Youmu?"

"Yesss, Yuyuyu…Yuyuko-shama?"

Poor half-ghost girl struggled to pronounce her mistress's name correctly.

"Oh, damn… it's already starting to work!" said Kyouichi as he watched the reactions of those drinking the tea. "Seriously, don't drink that stuff…" he gave a warning to Soudai, who was also curious to see if one little cup of tea could get him drunk.

"There's no need for us to worry about such things." Eirin calmly spoke to Princess Kaguya. "And you have nothing to worry about either, Reimu-san. Reisen has come well supplied with alcohol remedy for everyone."

But Eirin, Kaguya, Yuyuko, Minamitsu and Aya were just the few rare exceptions that didn't show any apparent signs of excessive alcohol intoxication. Of course, Suika and Yuugi always seemed like they were drunk all the time, but for them it was quite natural.

"I'm starting to feel dizzy, girls…" Alice also began to notice that her vision was becoming blurry and her mind hazy. But even in this state, she managed to make Shanghai act as though as the doll was drunk herself.

"I… I think I'm going to need some of that Remedy, Eirin-san." Byakuren was never used to drinking and the prank of the two oni didn't go easy on her.

"I'll be right with you, Byakuren-san." the pharmacist assured her.

"Furthermore, one of Buddhism's precepts is temperance… I have sinned…" the monk of the Myouren Temple continued, but her complaints were drowned out by Reimu.

"Suikaaaa~! Why did you do thissss to meee~?" she called at the oni as she struggled to keep her balance.

"We didn't want you to be sad about Yukari~." she answered in her loud voice.

Suddenly, the noisy living-quarters of Reimu's shrine became almost too quiet.

"Ooh, great! So now… now… everyone knows about this~?" the miko called out. "Fine, go ahead~! Tell that to everyone! *hic* I don't care anymore! Make a damn article 'bout it!" she addressed the last sentence to Aya, who only tilted her head to the side in both confusion and amusement.

A mix of murmurs and whispers flooded the room as everyone exchanged their thoughts on what they just heard. Seems like Reimu's aloof behavior from before and during the danmaku tournament was a mystery no more. But the shrine maiden really didn't care. On one hand she wanted to forget, but the other part of her heart didn't. More than anytime before, she wanted all the current incidents to be resolved as quickly as possible. Even though it was a day of the festival, she could barely keep her mind off the future and her next steps in attempt to solve these anomalies. But she knew that she'd have to be patient and that she wouldn't be able to pull it off by herself.

"Here, Reimu-san~." Yuyuko was holding a roll of sushi with her chopsticks in front of Reimu's face apparently intending to feed her. "A little bit of delicious food will make you feel better~!"

For a good while Reimu just blankly stared back at the ghost princess of the Netherworld, before a question came out of her mouth.

"Say… Yuyuko…*hic*" she wiped her mouth uncouthly with her sleeve. "Don't you miss her too? You always… seem so… carefree and happy-go-lucky… like nothing ever bothered you. *hic*"

"Reimu." Yuyuko said the shrine maiden's name while still holding the sushi roll in front of her. "It's true that I'm a little disappointed that she's not enjoying this party with us. I keep smiling, because I know her. I know that she will be back one day…" the princess gently stroked the top of Reimu's head. "The longer you are parted from someone you like, the happier the reunion~."

Perhaps it was the effect of alcohol, but somehow, Yuyuko's words sounded so reassuring that Reimu even made a soft chuckle.

"Thank you." she muttered under hear breath. She was grateful to Yuyuko for keeping her hopes up, even if her own faith was starting to betray her.

"Yuyuko-samaaa…" Youmu moaned on the floor while stretching her hand upwards, as if trying to stand up.

"Ah, don't worry, Youmu, I haven't forgotten about you…" Yuyuko smiled and patted her servant on the head in the same fashion as she did to Reimu."

"Why is everything… spinning?"

"Umm… Eirin-san? May I ask you to take a look at Youmu for a moment? She doesn't look so well."

"It's a good thing I was too lazy to leave the shrine when they announced the winners of the last discipline." stated Kyouichi. He would have probably ended up just as Soudai did when he lost his bet with Suika.

"Yeah, me too." Marisa nodded in agreement, being the only other person knowing about the prank of the two oni.

"Sakuya~." Remilia pulled the sleeve of her maid. "I want you to punissssh… that oni~."

However, the silver-haired servant didn't look to be in a good enough state to comply. "But my lady…" she spoke while facing Cirno. "I still haven't prepared the main course."

"So many voices…" Satori was holding her head. "Which ones are voices and which ones are thoughts…?"

* * *

The initial reactions to the sudden alcohol shock caused by drinking the spiked tea varied from person to person, but this seemed to last only a few minutes. Even those girls who were not given Eirin's remedy, seemed to have recovered from the delirium and continued their idle conversations, as if nothing happened. Some of them even praised the two oni for pulling a good joke on them.

"Hey, hey~! Everyone~!" Suika was again, lively as ever, calling for everyone's attention. "When are we going to get changed to yukatas? Didn't we agree on that before the festival?"

"Yeah… We did, didn't we?" Marisa nodded agreeingly.

"I don't recall agreeing to that." Kyouichi objected.

"Hehe~! Don't worry, Kyouichi. A shrine maiden's outfit suits you the best anyway~."

The outsider breathed a sigh and buried his face into his palms. "I had to open my mouth…"

"Actually, that's not a bad idea." Reimu who managed to get a hold of herself and resisted the urge to pass out, seemed to agree with the suggestion.

"Eh? So you have a yukata too, Reimu?" Yuyuko asked her.

"I do, but I only had it on a few times. But now, with so many guests… I don't know where we are going to get changed. I guess we'll use the bathroom as a changing room."

"I wonder what you'll be wearing, ze." Marisa pointed at the princess of the Netherworld.

"Why, my usual kimono, of course~."

"Eh? Well… it does look like a yukata, but I think it's kind of boring to always wear the same thing. By the way, are you even able to change your attire? Your kimono looks just as ghostly as you do. As if it was a part of you."

"You want to see~?" Yuyuko teasingly slid a piece of her ethereal kimono down to reveal her shoulder.

"Ooooh~!" the blonde witch widened her eyes at the sight, and she wasn't the only one. "So you can, huh? Never would have guessed…"

"Why are you so surprised?" Reimu waved her hand. "If she can eat normal food, why should getting changed be a problem for her?"

"Ufufufu~." Yuyuko giggled at the remark. "Speaking of food, maybe I should give all the food stalls another visit before you girls get changed to yukatas."

Meanwhile, Eirin has mixed a remedy for Byakuren and let her drink it. "You should start feeling better after 15 minutes or so."

"Ah~! Thank you very much, Eirin-sensei."

"No problem." the Lunarian winked and proceeded to treat another case of light alcohol overdose.

"I think I'll go get some fresh air."

With that, the youkai monk with gradient hair color slowly shuffled her feet to the widely opened back door of the shrine and sat down on the elevated wooden floor.

* * *

The Prismriver sisters and their guest vocalist were just in the middle of another one of their songs.

"They actually complement each other quite well…" she murmured under her breath as she watched the concert.

That's when Byakuren noticed a short slender figure standing just a few meters away from her and looking at her.

"Um…" a timid girl's voice sounded from the shadows. "Are you… Hijiri Byakuren-sama?"

"Yes. And you, young lady are…?"

The girl stepped out of the shadows and her expressions gradually changed from timid to confident. "I'm Kasodani~! Kasodani Kyouko~! Pleased to meet you~!" her voice was surprisingly loud for someone so small. Sporting short teal hair, eyes of the same color and a pair of distinctive brown dog-like ears, Byakuren could easily tell her youkai species.

"Ah, a yamabiko? The youkai of mountain echoes…" she commented as she eyed her from head to toe.

The girl was dressed in long shirt, colored in the shade between pink and light-brown with several teal flower-shaped buttons and a white skirt with a thin black hem that was nearly entirely covered up by her top

"Yes, I'm a yamabiko." she spoke after a while. "I heard about you, Byakuren-sama… That you are a person who's in charge of the new temple near the village. And that you have many youkai disciples training as monks."

"That's true. Are you perhaps… interested in entering priesthood, Kyouko-san?"

The young youkai of mountain echoes giggled shyly. "It's a lovely concert, isn't it?" she derailed the topic and turned her head to the stage. "And that new vocalist looks like she's having fun~. I wonder if I could also try something like that once…"

"So you want to be a singer or a musician?" Byakuren raised her eyebrow.

"Hehehe~! I don't know… Maybe I just want to find my true purpose in life."

"A purpose, huh?"

"The truth is, there aren't many yamabiko living in the mountains anymore. Even here in Gensokyo, people are gradually forgetting about us… The yamabiko are losing their purpose as fewer people believe in us."

"That's quite a problem, isn't it?"

"Don't you think that a world without youkai like us would feel… empty, Byakuren-sama?"

"But if you follow the right path, you don't need to worry about losing your purpose."

"That's exactly what I've been thinking, Byakuren-sama." Kyouko smiled and her yamabiko ears twitched a little. "You give many youkai hope and new purpose in that temple of yours."

"To be honest, I'm also looking for the right path in life." Byakuren confessed. "And I've come to believe that Buddhism is that path. I myself am only a monk in training, unlike my brother. And I haven't always been a true follower. I pursued the path of monk for quite a selfish reason – to keep myself eternally young… At first I used it nearly to cover up the fact that I was helping the youkai and dabbling in dark, demonic arts."

"Eh~? I had no idea…" Kyouko surprisedly stared at the youkai monk. "But you don't seem like a bad person at all."

"It's a bit ironic, really, that during my selfish pursuit of immortality, I've realized that a world where humans and youkai could coexist peacefully was what I truly strived for."

"I only heard that the humans have sealed you away in Makai." said the yamabiko.

"That they have. For a long, long time…" Byakuren confirmed and her heart became heavy as she still had her over a millennium lasting imprisonment in fresh memory. As if something like that could be forgotten at all.

"I'd think that to have something like that happen to you, you'd hold a grudge against all humans."

"I don't hold any grudges, Kyouko-san. After all, those humans that banished me are already long dead, and it's not like all humanity was responsible for my banishment."

"I guess you have a point. But still… you act as though nothing had happened. Do you still believe that you can achieve your dream?"

"What do you think has kept me sane during the thousand years of loneliness in Makai?" Byakuren asked with a bitter smile. "My faith has… My faith…"

After taking a while of gazing at the starry night sky, she added. "And I'm so happy that even after so many years, my faithful friends have not forgotten about me."

"Faith is so amazing, isn't it?" Kyouko knew about Byakuren's past only vaguely, but now that she heard first-hand, she found it to be very impressive. "Even if you are a youkai now and you were sealed for a thousand years, faith of your followers and your own has prevented you from disappearing. I don't want to disappear as an obsolete youkai…"

"Then you are welcome to join my temple and its followers, my dear. I won't let you disappear from the world."

"Join the temple? I… I would be honored, Byakuren-sama. But…" Kyouko's ears lowered a bit and she put her index fingers against each other. "I don't know much about Buddhism."

* * *

And so, a new friendship was born. Actually, perhaps it would be too early to call it a friendship, but Kyouko has made her life-changing decision and joined the disciples of the Myouren Temple. Byakuren returned to the shrine with a content smile, leading her new trainee.

"Hm? And who's this?" Marisa was still relatively sober to notice a new person entering the shrine.

"This," she placed her hand on the teal-haired girl's shoulder, "is our newest disciple. Please give her a nice welcome."

"Hi, everyone~! I'm Kyouko~!" she shouted and her greeting echoed a few times inside the shrine.

At first, Marisa looked at them seriously, but in a moment she couldn't suppress her laughter. "Uh… you sure are smashed, Byakuren. Hahaha~!"

"I've taken Eirin-san's remedy, so I've got a firm grasp of all my faculties. And I'm being serious."

"A new follower?" Shou curiously observed the yamabiko. "Are you really serious, Byakuren-sama?"

"Why of course I am. I'm giving her a chance and I want all of you to do the same. Please treat her as one of us."

"I understand…" Shou bowed lightly to Byakuren and once more to Kyouko. "Welcome among us, uhh… Kyouko-san."

"Hey~!" Yuugi waved her hand at the new guest. "Yeah, you! Come o'er here and have a round with us~! You won't be able to taste this again when you begin to serve at the temple."

"Ehehe… Thank you, but I'll pass."

"Should have prepared a few extra doses of our super-sake." the one-horned oni murmured in disappointment and quickly lost interest in the new girl.

And while the circle of Byakuren's crew was welcoming the yamabiko girl, Eirin was serving her remedy to Akyuu. Poor chronicler didn't have a high alcohol tolerance and so, the doctor from Eientei had to give her the special medication. Once all the critical "patients" have been treated, the party continued smoothly and in a cheerful atmosphere.

* * *

Some of the girls started playing cards, shogi, go, or other games as they waited for their turn to use Reimu's bathroom to get changed to their yukata.

"Eeh?! I lost again?" Remilia stared incredulously at the cards in her hand and those lying on the table. "That's it. I'm not playing with Satori anymore. She's cheating~!"

Some of the girls were more interested in the Prismriver Ensemble concert, others chose chatting and eating snacks as their favorite form of entertainment.

The two oni decided it would be fun if they tested their strength in an arm-wrestling duel.

"Hey, easy on the table you two." Reimu warned them, since she didn't want them to break her furniture.

"Relax~!" Suika reassured her with a grimace on her face, as she was exerting great effort against her opponent. "It's not like we're… umph... going to slam each other's arms over it, right~?"

Surprisingly the duel didn't last very long. Even though both girls were oni, and thus incredibly strong, Yuugi obviously had more brawn than her ginger-haired surface-dwelling counterpart. True to their word, they even kept Reimu's small table intact when their little game was over.

* * *

In the other corner of the room, a certain ice fairy was circled by her friends and some other girls like Marisa, Alice, Tewi and Nue. She certainly seemed to be quite popular.

"Ahh~! It's so convenient to have an ice fairy around on hot days like these…" the witch was comfortably lounging by Cirno's side.

"Isn't it?" muttered Alice who was also lazing close to the fairy of ice.

"Stop treating me like some tool." she pouted at them, but her fairy and youkai friends were also enjoying the benefit of her pleasantly cooling aura.

"We're not." said Star Sapphire and clung closely to her. Sunny and Luna followed suit and clung to her as well. "We love you, Cirno-chan~! Hehehe~!"

"No, I love Cirno-chan even more~!" an unfamiliar green-haired fairy with a blue and white dress, similar to Cirno's was trying to pull the other fairies away from her.

"Dai-chan, don't pull on my wings~!" Sunny expressed her discomfort.

"Oh… who's that green-haired fairy with a ponytail?" Kyouichi asked Marisa.

"Huh? That's Daiyousei or Dai-chan in short… But… wait a second. What ere you even doing here? Didn't you say you were afraid of fairies? Hehe…"

"Well, I did say that. But I've learned that not all fairies are hostile. And I personally met four of these fairies while I stayed at Eientei. Except for this… Dai-chan. By the way, is that really what she's called? "Greater fairy?" Sounds kind of strange."

"Everyone just calls her like that, so yeah… you could say that's her name, ze."

"Oh, it's that human from Eientei~!" Sunny took notice of him after a while of struggling with Daiyousei. "Got any more sweets for us~?"

Kyouichi took a look around and nodded. "Sure… Why not?" he grabbed some random plate from the floor loaded with dango and other homemade sweets and passed it to the sunlight fairy. Since no one was eating from it at the moment, nobody was probably going to miss it.

Marisa let out a snickering sound. "Don't spoil the fairies. Otherwise you'll never get rid of them."

"Ehh… Really?" the outsider was starting to feel slight regret. "Well, too late…"

"More dango and desserts~!" Sunny greedily accepted someone else's plate and every fairy took a roughly equal share from it.

"Man it sure is hot…" Alice was cooling herself down by letting Shanghai wave a paper fan at her. "And this hot tea is making me feel even hotter."

"That's why I took the strawberry lemonade instead." Nue took a light sip from her cup.

Besides tea and sake, Reimu and her friends have made a few batches of their homemade lemonade flavored by various kinds of fruit.

"I wonder if there are any ice cream stalls around here." said Kyouichi.

"Oooh~!" Nue exclaimed as a good idea crossed her mind. "Ice cream~…"

"Hm? Where?" Alice turned around to see the nue girl passing her cup of lemonade to Cirno.

"Would you mind holding this for me for a moment?"

"Eh~? What for?" the ice fairy couldn't understand Nue's intention.

The black-haired youkai didn't explain anything, though. She just smiled and tapped her foot against the floor, as if she was waiting for something that was going to happen any moment.

"Ah, thank you." the smiling Nue grabbed the cup again with one of her blue tentacle-like wings. She pulled the spoon and revealed that the content of the cup was frozen sold. "Strawberry ice cream… mmm~ " she began eating it like a popsicle.

Nue's ingenious idea shook Alice out of her lethargy. "Whoa… This is wonderful! Is there any more of that lemonade left?"

"Sure…" the nue replied while pointing her thumb backwards.

It wasn't long before a line of girls formed in front of the ice fairy, asking her to turn their beverages into ice cream. Some of the more polite ones even left her a few yen for her service.

* * *

As time went on, the number of girls dressed in yukata was gradually increasing. Some even took extra effort to change their hairstyle to fit their clothing. However, some girls, such as Yuyuko and Kaguya were more comfortable with their original clothes on.

"Eh? Who ate all my dango and cookies?" wondered Reisen when she returned from the bathroom, now wearing a purple yukata with yellow crescent moon patterns.

Kyouichi who was guilty of giving that plate to the fairies was feigning innocence by whistling a melody and slowly backing away from the Moon rabbit.

None of the fairies were stupid or brave enough to confess their mischief.

* * *

After two hours, the Prismriver Ensemble and Mystia Lorelei have played their final song of the concert, reaping a tremendous applause as they bowed to the audience and left the stage.

"Come in, come in~!" the energetic crow tengu was welcoming the trio of poltergeists and inviting them to join the feast. Even the night-sparrow was heading for the shrine. While Kyouichi was keeping his guard up when she passed him by, Mystia didn't appear to be interested in him or any humans in particular. She only got along well with a certain group of her youkai friends.

The program on the stage still continued, with some human actors doing what appeared to be a stand-up comedy. However, none of the youkai or people who gathered inside the Hakurei Shrine were paying attention to it.

Instead, the girls were parading their beautiful yukatas and enjoying the abundance of food, drinks as they continued to party until early morning.

Soudai Asakura, one of the few outsiders who was a part of this party, was now having a conversation with one of the girls he liked the most – Kogasa Tatara.

"Even if you didn't win many duels in the tournament, you were so amazing in the Visual Contest."

"Ehehe~! Thank you."

"Of course I voted for your Spell Card. Such a beautiful rainbow…"

* * *

Meanwhile, Midori Iwakami, another outsider was trapped between some of the heaviest drinkers – Suika, Yuugi and Aya. She was lucky enough not to drink any of their spiked tea, but in her current situation, it was all the same. The two oni and the tengu were constantly encouraging her to drink more and more.

* * *

Kyouichi was also getting drunk even though he kept his safe distance from the oni. He didn't even care who he was chatting with anymore. Since almost all the girls were now dressed in their yukatas, he had a hard time identifying them in his drunken state.

And since the girls were often switching their places with each other, Kyouichi somehow found himself sitting next to someone he thought he remembered…

"Oh… Hey, I know you~." he spoke to a short blonde girl in a red yukata. "You're… uh… yeah, uhh…wait a second… no… Remilia's sister has those colorful wings."

The alcohol in his bloodstream was inhibiting his ability of rational thinking and leading an intelligent conversation. "Flandre… yeah, I think you'd have wings if you were her…"

"Eh~? Is that so~?" the curious blonde girl replied with a question. She too was a victim of Yuugi's and Suika's little prank and couldn't quite tell who she was dealing with.

However, Kyouichi got a sudden flashback as the girl in front of him yawned.

"Oh. Wait a second."

"Hm?"

He took a skewer with dango from one of the plates and said: "Ehehe~! Say "aaah"~!"

"Aaaah~!" the girl in red yukata opened her moth like an obedient child and expected to be fed. But while she had her eyes closed, the outsider rolled up his left sleeve and revealed his scars after being bitten by a certain youkai. Then he put his left forearm against the girl's open mouth to compare her jaw with his bite marks...

A perfect match.

"Mnmf?" the surprised blonde girl opened her eyes as she noticed that she was being fed something else than a dango.

The outsider finally recognized her. "Rumia-san, huh~?"

Indeed, it was Rumia, the youkai of darkness who kept no secrets about attacking and eating humans. A chill ran down Kyouichi's spine and he immediately pulled his forearm out of her mouth just in time to escape her bite.

"Whoa… that was a close one."

"I don't remember you~." Rumia couldn't recall when she saw this stranger or why he remembered her name.

"You tried to eat me, hahahaha~!" Kyouichi was so drunk that instead of trying to get away from her, he started laughing at his past experience with this youkai. "Couldn't tell it was you in that cute yukata…"

"Eat you?" the blonde youkai scratched her head. "I only eat…*hic*… what was that again?"

"Hey, hey, Rumia-san." he interrupted her as she tried to remember what she usually eats. "Let's play shogi~!"

"Shogi? Is that what I usually eat?"

If Rumia and Kyouichi were sober, they'd probably never end up having a conversation and a game of shogi, but this festival has been the birthplace of many even stranger situations.

* * *

The dawn was eventually falling upon Gensokyo. The noises of the festival have died down, as most of the humans have returned to the village, escorted by the militia. There was a lot of mess left in the shrine yard and nobody seemed to exert even the slightest effort to clean it up.

Inside the Hakurei Shrine, the party has also lost its intensity, as many of the girls, be them human or youkai, have succumbed to fatigue and excessive alcohol in their bloodstream…

"Myooon~…" muttered Youmu with a blank stare at the shrine's ceiling.

"Mukyuuu~…" Patchouli appeared to be having a bad dream.

"Unyuuu~…" the hell raven was adjusting her position, using Youmu's ghostly half as a pillow.

"Ayaya*hic*yaya~…" even the tengu had reached her limit and was just blowing away as the whole world was spinning from her point of view.

"Shanghai, Shanghai, Shanghai, Hourai, Hourai, *hic* ehehe~!" Alice wasn't making any more sense than the other girls slumped on the floor.

"Is that…sooo~?"

The majority of the girls were either sleeping or mumbling incoherent nonsense in their delirium.

Even Kyouichi just realized that he woke up from a nap after he passed out. The air inside the shrine was heavy and so he clumsily made his way towards the sliding door to get some fresh air into his lungs. And just as he slid the door open, he saw Reimu sitting on the porch of the shrine next to a short purple-haired girl in a pink yukata. She held the girl in a light embrace with one arm as she cuddled against her shoulder…

* * *

"…Now everybody's probably thinking that I can't *hic* resolve this incident on my own. It's not that I can't do it without Yukari, but *hic* you know how I feel, right, Akyuu-chan?"

The purple-haired girl who was being caressed by the drunken shrine maiden nodded lightly.

"I know exactly how you feel, but…"

"Ah~…" Reimu sighed heavily and tightened her embrace. "You're so nice, Akyuu-chan~, *hic* Akyuu-chan~ ." she cooed as she patted her head.

"Umm… I'm Satori…" muttered the girl in a low voice, but didn't struggle to free herself from the drunk miko's embrace.

Trying to hold back any vocal reaction to the awkward, yet adorable situation that he just witnessed, Kyouichi closed the door and returned back to his original place.

"That was so cute~." he thought to himself as lay down on the floor. With a content smile on his face, sleep soon took over his senses.


	51. Back to Reality

He woke up as usual, sometime around afternoon, but he definitely wasn't the only one who slept in. As he was sobering up, he realized that he had slept on the floor and didn't even bother looking for a futon. He even earned himself a stylish square-pattern imprint on his cheek from the tatami mat.

He could hear a conversation between some of the girls who were already awake.

"We should get ready to leave." said the voice of Sakuya.

"But the sun is so bright outside." her mistress objected. "And besides… Look at Patchouli. In this condition she won't be even able to fly straight."

"Don't worry, my lady, I can help her with that." the maid offered her assistance.

"But who's going to hold my parasol for me?"

"You can guess three times, ze." Marisa told her off while giggling.

"What? Are you offering your help?"

"Uhh… no, I meant that you're going to have to carry it yourself." the witch had to give a complementary explanation after Remilia misinterpreted her last remark.

"Hmm… Well, I've got a better idea. Sakuya, you'll carry the parasol over me and Meiling can carry Patchy."

That's when Meiling began mumbling something in her sleep.

"Mmmm… And who might you be, little girl? Are you lost? Mmmnmfm…"

Apparently, the gate guard was in no condition to fly either.

Why don't you just wait here for your friends to sober up then?" Marisa offered her suggestion, which the little vampire brushed away instantly.

"Because Flandre is alone in the mansion with just Koakuma and the fairy maids. And they can't do anything right."

"Then why do you keep them as maids in the first place?" the blonde magician couldn't quite understand.

"Because they make the place livelier and they can occasionally be useful… when under Sakuya's constant supervision."

"You've been gone for just one night. Why are you so worried about your sister? I bet she's soundly asleep by now."

"Enough questions." Remilia cut her off. "Come, Sakuya. Take the parasol. We're leaving. Patchy and Meiling can come home when they'll feel better."

"As you wish, my lady." the loyal and obedient maid did as she was told and got ready to leave the shrine with her mistress.

That's when Marisa realized something. "Hey, I could come with you and… uhh… help you carry that heavy parasol, ze…"

Both the vampire and the maid exchanged their glances, surprised by this unexpected altruism coming from this witch.

"What's with that idea?" the blue-haired, bat-winged youkai eyed her suspiciously.

That's when Satori joined Meiling in her sleep talking. "…Patchouli's… not in the mansion… Free books… for the taking…"

A shocked smile settled on Marisa's face, as even in her sleep, Satori was able to see right into her mind.

"But… of course." Remilia turned her unamused face away from her and beckoned at her maid. "Let's go…"

Spreading the parasol open before opening the shrine's sliding door, the silver-haired maid was now ready to take flight back to the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"Send my regards to Reimu when she wakes up."

Those were the last words that the vampire addressed to Marisa. As she walked towards the back door of the shrine where Sakuya was already waiting for her, she passed around Kyouichi, who was just barely quick enough to move his hand away from the place where the vampire girl stepped on.

"Don't trip over my fate strings." he muttered jokingly at the passing vampire as he was rolling over on the floor.

Remilia smirked lightly at the remark and continued on her way to her maid.

"Well, then…" Marisa shrugged and waved her palm at the leaving guests. "See you again in Kazemura, I guess…"

Kyouichi could only hear the sound of the door closing and Remilia's voice telling her maid to take off. For a moment, complete silence settled in the Hakurei Shrine, but it wouldn't be Marisa if she didn't break it at some point.

"Damn you, Satori…"

"One doesn't need to be a mind-reader in order to see through your intentions." another voice gave her a reply.

"Oh, Alice. You're awake?"

"Yeah." the dollmaker nodded. "Wow… Look at all this mess." she summed up the state of the shrine's living quarters.

"Well, Reimu won't be bored for at least 2 days with this. Hehe…" chuckled the ordinary magician as she glanced over at the sleeping shrine maiden lying right next to Satori. Both of them still had their yukatas on.

"Shouldn't we at least make it a bit easier for her?"

"It's only polite to help the host with cleaning up." a familiar sweet-sounding voice of Yuyuko joined the conversation.

"Ah, Yuyuko is awake too."

"I just can't sleep well with so many people in the same room. I guess the same could be said about Minamitsu-san. She left a bit earlier…"

"And it seems Eirin is already gone too." remarked Alice after a while of looking around. "I guess she still has some work at Eientei… But to leave her mistress here just like that…" she pointed at the sleeping Kaguya, drooling over Reimu's tatami. "Anyway," she continued, "let's at least clean up this room a bit."

"What's with you and your cleaning urges?" asked Marisa. "Ever since you stared living in my house after yours got destroyed by the fairies, all you ever do is clean up and rearrange my stuff, ze…"

"If I didn't, I'd have no room to sleep." the puppeteer explained her reasons. "Now… first we should take care of these cups and dishes…"

And so, under Alice's management, the reluctant Marisa and the cheerful Yuyuko started cleaning up the messy room.

Gradually their chatter and the noises they made while picking up the dishes have woken up more of the sleeping girls, who joined them.

When it just became too noisy to sleep, even Kyouichi kicked his laziness and forced himself to get up.

By that time the room was almost completely cleaned up and only few of the sleepiest and laziest individuals were still lying in their futons or just pretending to be asleep.

With shock he realized that he wasn't sleeping more than one meter away from a youkai that once almost killed him the other day. And just as he made a few cautious steps backwards away from the napping Rumia, he bumped into someone else.

"Hey, don't just stand there and give us a hand over here!" Midori was quick to give Kyouichi some chores to do.

"Looks like you already cleaned the place up, though…"

"Then take a look outside and marvel at the junkyard that the people and youkai have left after the festival."

Curious to see it with his own eyes, Kyouichi opened the door and took a long stare at the back yard of Reimu's shrine.

"Mother of God…"

Confetti, paper masks, hair decorations, paper cups and trays, a few piles of broken glass, discarded chopsticks and other pieces of litter were dotting the lawn around the great stage.

"And that's just the back yard." Midori added with a bitter smirk.

"Well, I sure wouldn't want to be in Reimu's shoes now."

"Yeah, you already were in her dress, so I can imagine being in her shoes would be a bit too much…" giggled the young female outsider.

Kyouichi slowly turned his face to her with a deadpan expression. "How long are you going to keep reminding me of that?"

"For as long as I'll find it amusing… Now, take a broom and get to work."

"Huh~? I didn't drop a single piece of litter on the ground! Why should I be the one to clean this mess up? And where is Reimu? I won't move a muscle unless she personally tells me to."

"She's sweeping the front yard. And what do you mean? Aren't you grateful for her organizing this festival, letting us eat the food SHE prepared and letting us sleep in HER shrine?"

"Uhh, well… I…"

"Not to mention that she's going to help us return home." Midori continued, making Kyouichi feel more and more guilt for not willing to help her with cleaning up.

"Fine…" he pouted and crossed his arms. "I'll help. But where should I dump all this litter?"

"Oh, just sweep it all into piles and we'll burn what's burnable." Marisa explained.

"Alright, alright…" grumbled the outsider and grabbed the broom that was resting near the door. He had to acknowledge that he should at least get mentally prepared for his new job, which he expected to be physically exhausting. Sweeping Reimu's shrine yard should be a good warm-up exercise.

"Hey, that's my broom~!" Marisa called after him when she realized that her means of transport was mistakenly taken.

"Don't you use your broom for sweeping at all?" Alice asked her.

"Of course not! I don't want it to be all dirty and stinky." That was her reasoning. "Hey, Kyouichi~! Take some other broom, will ya?"

"Hm? Whatever…" the outsider turned on his heel and headed back to the shrine.

After clearing things up with Marisa, he was sent to the storehouse to find one of Reimu's brooms, and once he found it, he could finally start working.

* * *

Two hours have passed before he was finished and gathered all the litter into several small piles. Wiping off the sweat off his forehead caused not just by the work, but also by the scorching afternoon sun, he sat down on the shrine's elevated floor where he was sitting during yesterday's danmaku tournament.

"Ugh… I wish it was Kannazuki already."

As he was resting up, he could hear soft footsteps coming up to him. As he slowly turned his head to see who was there, he saw Reimu looking curiously at the swept back yard and her repaired stage.

"Oh… You already swept the back yard? Thanks. You didn't have to…"

After hearing Reimu say that, Kyouichi didn't know whether he should laugh or bang his head against the wall.

"No problem…" he sieved a lie through his teeth and leaned his aching back against the shrine's wall. "Man… a shrine maiden's job is hard…"

"At least someone here realized it."

"I just woke up and I'm already tired. I hope my new job doesn't kill me."

Reimu sighed lightly. "If it's as hot as today, nobody really wants to do anything."

"Not even resolving incidents?"

"There are some things that need to be done whether I like it or not. And resolving incidents is one of those things."

Reimu wasn't usually a very hyperactive kind of person, but when the situation demanded it, it's as if she had received a sudden energy boost. Today, however, looked like one of those days when she'd rather be loafing around at her shrine and drinking cool tea. The festival meant a lot of work for her every year, so it was quite understandable that she wouldn't be exactly brimming with energy once it was over.

"Seriously... littering on the sacred shrine grounds." Kyouichi shook his head over the amount of waste the shrine visitors have left. "You should collect fines from any offenders. Maybe you would have less mess to clean up and you'd earn some extra cash."

That idea didn't sound bad to her. "Ha! Maybe I should."

"It was a wonderful and memorable experience… this festival. I'm glad I could have been here and seen it all."

"Well, it was the first time that I held a danmaku tournament. If all goes well, maybe I'll hold one next year as well." Reimu was contemplating about the future.

"I wish you luck with that. Even when I won't be here to see it." the outsider sent her a smile as he was slowly getting on his feet again.

Having done what Midori told him to do, Kyouichi returned to the shade of the Hakurei Shrine's interior where he saw his few friends from the outside world packing their things up.

"See you tomorrow in school, "transfer students"." Keine-sensei was just leaving the shrine through the front and waving at the small group of outsiders. "And don't forget to study for the test."

None of the so-called transfer students had any words to add to Keine's little reminder, and with mute waving gestures, they saw the half-youkai teacher off.

"Tests…" Kyouichi disrespectfully snorted just as soon as Keine closed the sliding door behind her. "Well, Keine-sensei, at least you have a sense of humor."

"Man, you're lucky that you were sweeping the backyard and didn't have to listen to her lecture about temperance." Soudai looked no less worn-out than Kyouichi. "As if she was the only one sober around here…"

Even Midori donned a face that spoke of experiencing something annoying. "Well, I at least admit that I drank a little bit more than I should."

"A little more?" Soudai's lips bent into a teasing grin. "You were drinking with a tengu and two oni, Miss vice-president." he addressed her by her club title.

From the other side of the room Suika's mischievous giggle could be heard.

"And you were out cold before the festival even started." Midori returned the blow.

While Soudai was formulating his retorts, Midori turned to Kyouichi. "By the way, we've already packed our stuff and are ready to return to the village, so you should prepare yourself as well."

"I haven't even eaten anything since I woke up." he replied in unison with the growling of his stomach.

"If you want some leftovers from yesterday, you can find them in the pantry." said Reimu, who was just rolling up the futons. "But if you're not in a hurry and wait a bit longer, Youmu will be serving lunch soon."

Kyouichi instantly shot a glance in the direction of Reimu's stove when he heard that.

"Youmu-san is cooking again? Oh, happy day~!" he called out with joy.

The half-ghost standing at the stove turned her flushed face at him for a second before continuing her work.

"Folks…" Kyouichi looked at the other outsiders with a serious face. "Human Village can wait. We're staying for lunch."

"We've already eaten, so we're not hungry." Midori took the liberty of speaking for all of the other remaining club members.

"Midori, once you'll get a taste of Youmu's meal, not only will you change your mind, but you'll end up asking for seconds."

"Really?" the girl from outside world crossed her arms and eyed Youmu with a look of doubt. "We'll see about that…"

* * *

Thirty minutes later, the remaining guests have gathered around the table and feasting on Youmu's main course. There weren't that many guests left by now. Most of the fairies and their friends have already disappeared somewhere and Byakuren's company was gone since morning. At least now there was enough room around Reimu's table for everyone.

The not-so-hungry Midori was now licking her lips after she finished her portion.

"Umm… Youmu-san… That was soooo delicious."

"There's still some more if you'd like." the half-ghost made an offering gesture at the pot standing in the middle of the table.

"Uh… well just one last bite…" Midori tentatively reached into the pot with her chopsticks when Soudai whispered a not very tactful remark into her ear.

"Oi, oi, vice-prez, you'll get fat if you eat too much."

This earned him a semi-painful elbow in the ribs from her.

"Ugh… now I know why they say "truth hurts"." he joked as he was rubbing off the pain. "Though I can't blame you much. Youmu-san's cooking is awesome."

"Didn't I tell you so?" Kyouichi asked his friends. He too was tempted to ask for more, but he managed to resist. His eyes looked away from the pot and somehow, he ended up looking at Satori. The underground-dwelling youkai, as everyone else, had already changed from her yukata to her usual attire.

And when the outsider already had her in his field of vision, he couldn't help but to recall that funny moment when drunken Reimu confused her with Akyuu.

Sensing a glance, Satori slowly turned her face at him. "Please get rid of that mental image." she muttered and continued eating.

"Hm? What mental image?" Soudai curiously alternated his attention between Kyouichi and Satori. "Is Ishimaru having perverted thoughts or something?"

"Not really…" Kyouichi statred a sentence, but his older friend continued.

"Oh, I see now… You should watch yourself, Satori-san. He has a soft spot for purple-haired girls."

An awkward silence had settled in. Satori, Akyuu and Patchouli exchanged their confused glances.

"You know, Soudai," Kyouichi spoke after a pause, "every joke gets old when it's repeated."

"Hmph… Say whatever you like. You won't fool me."

"Hmph." he repeated Soudai's gesture. "Think whatever you like. But you're wrong…"

* * *

After lunch, Reimu's guests were starting to take their leave by small groups. Meiling and Patchouli headed back to their mansion, Satori and her pet have gone home to the underground, Yuyuko and Youmu returned to the Netherworld…

Reimu had just a few things left to clean up around her shrine and for that she didn't need anyone's assistance, but it looked like Marisa, Alice and Suika were planning to stay for a while longer than others.

The vendors of all the stalls in her shrine yard were almost all gone along with their merchandise. Rinnosuke was also most likely back in his shop by now. Even the outsiders had no further business in the Hakurei Shrine and were, in fact, convinced that they were overstaying their welcome. They thanked Reimu for her hospitality and waited for the first Ryuuken patrol to escort them back to the village. They all enjoyed the festival as much as they could, but now it was over and they had to return to their everyday lives.

For most of the outsiders, school was the main concern. However, apart from studying, each of them had to go to work and earn money for their collective cause. For Kyouichi and Soudai it was a time of trial, because they didn't quite know what exactly to expect from their new job. During weekend they were making jokes about it in a tavern with their pints full of beer.

* * *

On the next day, the two young men from the outside world were already standing in a line of new laborers at the local farm on the western side of the village, just beyond the Temple of Myouren. They were all waiting for their foreman to greet them and give them basic instructions for their work, since this was the first day at work for several other young villagers as well.

The sky was fully covered by clouds and it was drizzling since morning.

After a short while of waiting, the door of the large farmstead opened and a single figure – a tall, muscular middle-aged man stepped outside. His clothes were plain and no different from other farmers, but his ragged frowning face evoked a certain level of authority, unlike most of the people working here.

He stepped up in front of the line of the new workers and gave them each a once-over. Then he spat on the ground and made a disdainful snort.

"So… You rabble are what passes for new farm workers? You all look like you barely even know how to hold a pitchfork."

"Ehehe… good afternoon to you too, mister…" Soudai jestingly whispered to Kyouichi.

"Now… since I ain't got all day, I suppose we better get right down to business." continued the foreman as he began slowly walking in front of the new recruits, taking a close look at each of their faces. "I am Izuru Takeda, but soon, you'll be calling me all sorts of other names once you get to know me better…"

"Somehow, I don't get a very good feeling from him." Kyouichi whispered back to his friend as he watched his new employer.

Izuru's introduction speech went on: "Here on the farms, I'm going to be your father, your master, your God… You are to do as I say and no bullshit. I'll be supervising you during your first week. Then some of you are going to be reassigned to other farm honchos… I'm going to turn you lazy-assed maggots into capable farm hands, and I'm gonna do so EVEN IF IT KILLS YOU… Do I make myself clear?"

"He sounds more like a drill sergeant than a farmer to me…" Soudai remarked and he was already beginning to regret his decision of taking this job.

"Sheesh… I'm already starting to miss Hiroto and the bookstore…" Kyouichi murmured back with the same feelings of regret.

"Now… I'm going to give you your tasks, which I expect you to do before sundown… The three of you will tend to the livestock. There's the tool shed and there is the corral… Feed the cows, milk them and clean up once you're done… The five of you…" he took five new workers, which included Soudai and Kyouichi, "… you're going to prepare that field over there for planting. Better start moving already, because you've got a lot of ground to cover. The rest of you are going to take scythes and sickles and you'll help the other workers with harvesting the crops. Now get to work already…"

"Umm, boss?" Soudai timidly raised his hand. "Can I ask you something?"

"Make it quick."

"What about the payment?"

"Ah, right… The money… You'll all get paid by the end of the month, but only if I'll be satisfied with your work. And if you get assigned to someone else, then they are going to pay you your wages… Now get busy!" he commanded and set the whole group of new farm hands into motion.

Soudai was glad that he at least had one friend to talk to and to complain to.

* * *

"Damn it… I knew it was going to end up this way… It sucks that we'll have to grind here for a whole month before we can even think about money. This kind of work ain't for us… How exactly does it fit into our plans, Kyouichi?"

"It just does…" he replied unclearly. "But it's a little too early to say how exactly. I'll need to look around a bit first and familiarize myself with this farm."

"Don't tell me you plan on stealing some of the food supplies just to aid our cause."

"Of course not, you airhead." Kyouichi disagreeingly shook his head. "You've heard what our boss said – after one week we'll probably get reassigned to someone else, which means we'll get at least a little freedom of choice for our new tasks…"

"And what task are we aiming for?" Soudai inquired.

"It would be best if we could be with the suppliers."

"The suppliers?"

"Yes, the guys delivering the crops to the local shops." Kyouichi specified.

"Ah, so we could smuggle some stuff out of the village on one of the carts without making the Ryuuken suspicious…"

"Exactly." confirmed the younger outsider as he entered the farm's tool shed. "You're not as airheaded as I thought you were after all… I've been with a trading caravan prior to our meeting in Eientei and I remember no such thing as the Ryuuken checking the content of each wagon. If we'll be a part of the supplying chain, we'll be another step closer to achieving our ultimate goal."

"Yeah, but what if this guy will decide to keep us on a tight leash?"

Kyouichi was worried about the same problem too, but couldn't come up with any reasonable solution at the moment. "Ehehe… Just think positively, Soudai, think positively…"

* * *

A few hours have passed since their work started and the group of five new workers was only half-done with their task. The field seemed much larger to them, now that they had to work hard over each square meter. Soudai and Kyouichi were starting to feel how unused they were to hard physical labor. Both of them were running out of steam, their clothes soaked from the mixture of drizzling rain and their own sweat. The spades and hoes in their hands felt heavier with each passing minute. Being a farmer certainly wasn't a job for just anyone, but since both young outsiders wanted to see their dream fulfilled, they just had to grit their teeth and bear with it…

"Damn…" cursed Soudai as he wiped sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. "Why have I decided to take this job anyway? It would be perfectly fine if you worked here and I worked at the tavern…"

"Because you're a good friend?" Kyouichi grinned lightly.

"Curse you and your persuasive skills, Ishimaru…"

Kyouichi scoffed at his remark. "You said something similar when we were running away from Eientei… You have your own mind, don't you? You considered your options and you've made a choice. Now live with the consequences."

"Meh… I guess I can handle this for a few weeks…" Soudai suddenly changed his attitude.

"See? It's all in the mind, Asakura… But truth be told, you were right… This work is nothing for us city rats."

"We're not used to it. But perhaps after a few weeks…"

"We might drop dead." Kyouichi made a humorous ending to Soudai's unfinished sentence.

By the time they prepared the whole field for planting, the sun was just about to set. Fortunately, it stopped raining and even their clothes dried up a little. However, they were so tired that they could barely stand on their feet.

* * *

"Whew… Well, I'll be… We actually made it…" wheezed Soudai as he dragged his feet back towards the farmstead.

"For being blessed with magical abilities, the locals could at least think of implementing some of that magic to ease their work here…" remarked the younger of the two outsiders.

"Then we wouldn't be needed here." Soudai retorted.

"Yeah… I guess so."

When they finally returned the tools to the shed and lined up in front of the farmstead, just as they did when they first came here, their boss was already waiting for them. He impatiently tapped his foot against the ground and had his arms crossed over his chest.

"About time you made it…" he growled at the returning workers. "Tomorrow, you'll be planting potatoes on the very same field that you just prepared. Hope you're looking forward to that."

"Yeah, like to my death…" muttered Soudai under his nose.

"Death would be a welcome redemption from this drudgery." Kyouichi whispered back.

"Hey! You two are a bit too talkative, aren't you?" Izuru noticed their silent communication, even though he didn't hear a single word.

"Aren't we even allowed to talk?" Soudai asked without fear.

"When you have energy to talk back, young one, then you surely have enough energy to do some extra work! That goes for your friend too…" he gave Kyouichi a mean look.

"Oh joy…"

"When you'll be done with planting tomorrow, you'll be taking the freshly harvested crops from the neighboring fields into the storehouse. At least 50 full sacks. That ought to give you some workout… Now go home and have a bit of rest while you can."

* * *

The days during the first week of their new job were just gradually getting harder. Working on the fields was just a small fraction of their tasks. They also had to tend to the livestock, help repairing damaged tools, gather the crops, and their personal "favorite" – they were tasked to shovel manure and use it to fertilize the soil.

Their boss, Izuru, was gradually having ever greater expectations of his new farmhands. Kyouichi and Soudai have even heard rumors that he does that to test everyone's limits and that regular farm workers don't have to work nearly as hard as the recruits in training.

They even learned quite a few nicknames the other new workers have given to their employer, including "Devil's Whip" and "Slave Driver" among the most common ones. As if their work was not hard enough by itself, the capricious weather and Kyouichi's allergy to pollen were making it even more physically challenging. After every shift, the two young men from the outside world had no energy to do anything but having a bath, eating dinner and going to bed.

A tiny spark of hope in their current situation was a chance for them to be reassigned to someone else after the first week. To their great dismay, that didn't happen even when they were leaving the farmlands after the 8th day of exhausting work. Izuru Takeda saw their working potential and decided to keep the two new workers under his wing. However, the gods of good fortune did not abandon the outsiders completely. Even with Izuru as their boss, they received a regular weekly task of supplying the markets and shops with fresh produce. This was essential to their plan, because now they were able to literally smuggle the club's traveling supplies on their cart all the way from the Human Village to Kourindou, which they were also tasked to supply. This, however, required a close and precisely planned cooperation with other members of the Transfer Students' Club, who often played the roles of cart loaders right in the village marketplace. While Kyouichi and Soudai were doing business with the vendors, their friends have moved in various pieces of their purchased traveling equipment and sneakingly loaded it onto their cart. With their supplies loaded, Kyouichi and Soudai then continued on their way to Kourindou, where their supply line had its terminus. Originally they wanted to carry their equipment all the way to the Hakurei Shrine, but that would take them too long and their boss would get suspicious if they didn't return to the farms on time.

To cope with this inconvenience, they paid Rinnosuke to deliver these supplies to the shrine. After a while of negotiating and persuasion, the half-youkai shopkeeper and the two outsiders have reached an agreement.

As for the situation in the Transfer Students' Club, most of its members have ceased all research-related activities and instead, focused on buying the necessary supplies for the best prices. They still had a long way to go, but so far, everything looked promising.

In the meantime, one of Kyouichi's first friends in Gensokyo, the old retired carpenter, Naota Tanisake, had made all the necessary legal arrangements to buy off the abandoned hunter's shack and had Kyouichi sign the ownership papers. But that was just one step out of many. The young outsider still had to visit the village hall multiple times to be officially proclaimed as its owner.

Before that, however, the abandoned shack had to be made habitable again.

During the weekend when the outsiders had no work, Naota invited a few of them for a visit and showed them the key to the mentioned shack.

* * *

"So I was thinking you youngsters might want to take a look inside and eventually help me return it back to its former glory." said the old outsider as he was leading a threesome of young people down the marketplace.

"So in other words, you've come to tell us that from today on, we'll be also working during weekends, huh?" Kyouichi asked with a weak chuckle.

"What's with that attitude, young one? When I first told you about the idea, you looked much happier."

"It's just that… our work is already draining all of our energy."

"Well, if you want to get out of Gensokyo sooner, we have to make that old shack at least look habitable so it could be acknowledged as your permanent residence. Once that's over with, you can ask the village council for a loan so you could all buy whatever you guys need to make it home alive."

"I know, Naota-san, I know…" Kyouichi was well aware of the situation, but he wasn't exactly fired-up for more physical labor.

"Alright, here we are." Naota announced the end of their walk when he stopped in front of the mentioned hunter's cabin "Well, it's yours now," he said while beckoning at Kyouichi, "take the key and open the door."

He took the key from Naota's hand and took a brief look at it. A strange mixture of anticipation, happiness, anxiety and reluctance welled up inside him.

After a while he stepped up to the old door and unlocked it.

"Hm? What's this…?" he murmured as he gave the door a harder push, but it still refused to open.

"Hyaaaaaaaaargh~!" he slammed the door with his shoulder and finally made the rusted hinges unstuck.

"Anybody home?" he asked in jest as he set his foot inside.

The interior of the cabin consisted of only one room, approximately 6 x 10 meters large, with a solid wooden floor. The small, square windows were letting in only a small amount of daylight, so it was fairly dark inside. However, Naota was already prepared for this and brought a few lamps from his house with him.

"Well, what do we have here?" the old carpenter asked when he lit the lamps and placed them in the darkest parts of the cabin.

With additional light, it was possible to see the furnishing, which has collected a two year layer worth of dust. There was a large table with two pairs of chairs inside. Several old wardrobes and wooden chests were placed along the walls and corners of the room. The cabin also had a fireplace on the western wall and a fairly well maintained kitchen stove with a few cupboards at the northern wall. An old bed was standing in the far corner of the room and the walls were decorated with various trophies of animals hunted by the cabin's previous owner.

Apart from the thick layer of dust, most of the things were also covered by spider webs.

"Wow… I've never seen a house this messy." remarked Midori from the doorstep.

"Don't you worry, young miss." Naota said reassuringly as he was checking the content of the wardrobes and chests. "We're all going to do our best to make this place suitable for living again."

"It's hard to believe anyone was able to live here in the first place…"

"Not all people have high living standards like you, Midori-san." replied Soudai with an intention to tease her a bit, but just after he finished his sentence there was a loud crack and he let out a pained scream.

"Soudai! What's wrong? Are you alright?" Kyouichi called at his friend.

"The floor crumbled under me and my foot is stuck! I could use a little help over here."

"Oh my… you need to lose some weight, man." Kyouichi jested, even when he himself was heavier than his older friend. "Don't worry, we'll get you out of there."

"Hmm… so the floor obviously needs replacing too." Naota just calmly stated as he watched Kyouichi trying to pry Soudai's foot out of the crack. "No wonder the village council wanted to level this whole shack to the ground. This will take a lot of work…"

"Umph… Midori! Don't just stand there and help us." Kyouichi called at her, when he failed to get Soudai unstuck.

"Sheesh… Two strong men asking a girl for help? How pathetic…"

Despite her teasing remarks, Midori obliged and went to help them. With combined efforts, they finally managed to pull Soudai's foot out of the crumbling floor.

"Whew… Thanks, guys." he thanked them as he dusted off his leg.

The three young outsiders have moved away from the place where the floor gave way to Soudai's foot and joined the old Naota in browsing through the storage chests and wardrobes.

"So, did you find anything interesting, Naota-san?" Midori curiously peeked over his shoulder.

"Most of the things still look useable." he grumbled under his breath as he was looking at the pile of various odds and ends that he gathered on the table.

Clothes, footwear, cutting tools, plates, pots, even a real working crossbow with a quiver of bolts... Naota has gathered everything that still looked to be of any value.

"We'll need to take everything out of this cabin so we could start working on its reconstruction."

"Say, Naota-san… Can you tell us something about that friend of yours who used to live here?" Kyouichi wanted to know a little bit about the cabin's history.

"Fumiaki Kinjo. I first met him about 10 years ago. He was just a few years older than Mizuto… He used to hunt both in the Bamboo Forest and in the Forest of Magic, but he was kind of weird."

"Weird?"

"He always kept telling me about his adventuring around Gensokyo, that he once went all the way to the shore of Sanzu River, or to the forest under the Youkai Mountain… I never quite understood what he found so entertaining about risking his life on daily basis. And on his travels, he found quite a few interesting items. Just about anything that caught his interest, he brought home. I used to make fun of him that he was acting like a fairy. But I admit, he was about as close to me as Mizuto. Poor bastard… probably became a victim of his own job and hobby. Now this cabin is probably all that's left after him, and since he has no family, it was just standing here without care for over 2 years."

"Was he also an outsider?"

"No, Fumiaki was native. Guess that seeing youkai every day made him think they're not dangerous or something. Oh… that reminds me… He used to keep a journal where he'd write everything that he saw and did every day "

"Maybe these books over here are…" said Midori as she looked into one of the storage chests full of books when she detected movement with the corner of her eye. She quickly turned her head to the suspicious movement that wasn't caused by any of the three outsiders in the cabin.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" Soudai asked her.

Then she saw something move again. It happened in a blink of an eye, but she'd swear she saw something small run across the room and hide under a wardrobe in the corner.

"Yaaaaaaaah~!" she let out a squeal. "Was that a rat just now?!"

Naota just shrugged indifferently. "Hmph… could be…"

"Don't know what you're so surprised about, vice-prez. You heard it yourself. This place was without care for over 2 years."

"I'm out of here!" the young girl darted out of the cabin as fast as she could. Once she was safely outside, she wiped a droplet of sweat off her forehead.

"Phew… Filthy, disgusting, stinky and disease spreading…" as she muttered all sorts of adjectives to describe the animal she just saw, she noticed a young female mouse youkai just passing by, heading towards the nearby Temple of Myouren. The youkai girl looked into her eyes with an asking glance.

"You were saying…?"

"…Kyaaaaaaaaaaaah~!" another shriek pierced the quietness of the Human Village outskirts. Heavy, hurried footsteps could be heard from outside the hunting cabin before Midori appeared back inside with a face pale with fear.

"Ah, good to see you back, Midori." Kyouichi waved at her.

"So… uhh… what should I help you carry?"

* * *

The four outsiders have completely emptied the cabin. All its furniture had to be carried outside, which took them all afternoon.

It wasn't anything easy, but at least nobody was bossing them around.

"Man… I'm beat…" Kyouichi sat down on one of the chairs that he and his friends have gathered outside the cabin with the rest of its furniture.

"Now what do we do, Naota-san?" wondered Soudai.

"We can't just leave all this stuff here. I'll go call some of my old apprentices to carry all this junk to the warehouse and bring all the necessary materials for reconstruction… Now don't take this in a bad way, lass." he turned to Midori. "But this ain't no work for a girl. You might as well go home or do whatever you want."

"Fine." she had no objections. "But if I were you, I'd first do something about that rat problem before proceeding with reconstruction." and with that, she headed back to the village.

"Now you two ought to stay here and watch the cabin and the furniture while I go call some of my old friends to bring a cargo wagon so we could haul all this junk into the village for the time being. Shouldn't take too long." said the old man and followed Midori back to the village.

"Alright, we'll stay here…" Kyouichi replied as he yawned. "It's not like we have much energy to go with you anyway."

The old carpenter was back in 30 minutes and he brought some of his friends. Kyouichi would swear he saw some of them before, but he couldn't quite recall where or when. That didn't really matter, though. They brought a whole wagon loaded with building materials and tools, which they unloaded near the cabin in order to load the furniture. By the time they did so, it was already evening.

"How long do you think it will take us to reconstruct this old shack, Naota-san?"

"By my rough estimate… about a month."

"That's as soon as we get paid." stated Soudai.

"Hey, and what if Kinjo-san is still alive and he'll return here?" Kyouichi asked more out of jest than seriously.

"Then show him your ownership papers and send him to my place to explain where the hell he's been this whole time, hahahaha!"

With the source of natural light necessary for work slowly setting behind the hills, Naota and his band called it a day and headed back to the village. There they stopped a pair of Ryuuken and told them to keep an eye on the "construction site" during night.

"Now how about a few drinks with an old friend after our first day of reconstruction, lads?"

"Ugh… no, thanks, Naota-san." Kyouichi shook his head. "We've already had plenty of that during the festival."

"But that was over a week ago."

"Maybe some other time."

"Alright, boys, I won't force you if you don't want to, but if you change your mind by any chance, you know where to find me… See you next time."

"Yeah, have a good time, Naota-san." the two young outsiders bid him goodbye and parted their ways.

The two of them only helped with the cabin's reconstruction on weekends, but Naota and his old apprentices were working almost every day to make the old abandoned cabin a place suitable for living.

* * *

Two weeks have passed since Kyouichi and Soudai started working on the farms. Izuru Takeda was still their strict boss and it seemed that this fact wouldn't change anytime soon.

One day when they were doing their regular supply run from the farm to the village and then to Kourindou, they stopped with their cart by the cabin to see how much work has already been done.

Today it seemed that Naota and his friends have taken a day off, because there were no workers inside or around the hunter's cabin. Kyouichi, however, had a key as its legal owner, so he took the opportunity to take a look inside.

"Urngh… damn it!" he cursed and hit the door angrily with his palm. "It's still as hard to open as ever."

"Hold on, let me give you a hand." Soudai told Kyouichi to step aside and decided to open the door with a tackle.

The door slightly moved, but only by a centimeter. "Guh! What the hell? Something must be blocking it from the other side…"

As Soudai struggled to force-open the stuck door, Kyouichi looked westwards along the road leading to their next stop – Kourindou. And on that road, slowly approaching the village, he saw someone familiar, who he hasn't seen for quite a while…

"Oh, if it isn't youkai mo… uhh… I mean, Yuuka-san."

"Hm? What?" Soudai gave up his attempts and looked in the same direction as his friend.

"Good afternoon, Yuuka-san~!" Kyouichi waved at the approaching green-haired lady in red tartan dress with a white parasol.

"Why, hello there." she reciprocated the greeting with her usual smile. "It's been a while, hasn't it? No longer working in the bookstore, I see…"

Feeling a bit embarrassed to be talking to her in his dirty work outfit, Kyouichi looked down and shrugged.

"Uhh… yeah. I'm a farmer… So what?"

"Nothing~." she giggled softly.

"Actually, we're not even that." Soudai corrected his friend. "Our boss is a farmer. We're just farmhands. Uhh, I'm Asakura, by the way… Soudai Asakura."

"Outsider?"

"Yes, we're both outsiders." Kyouichi gave a reply instead. "And even if it may not look like it, we're actually working on getting out of Gensokyo even as we speak."

Another amused giggle escaped Yuuka's lips. "Is that right? Are you growing your own food rations on this farm or something?"

"Uhh… not really. It's a bit more complicated… Not sure if you're even interested in the details anyway."

"I'm not in a hurry." said the youkai lady.

The two outsiders then briefly explained their plans to her.

"So this… uhhh… "house" is now yours?"

"Yeah. At least according to papers it is." Kyouichi nodded affirmatively. "I suppose I'll have to act as though as I live in here to be able to ask for a loan."

With a bit of a contemptuous grin on her face, Yuuka expressed her opinion: "There are so many points where this plan of yours can go wrong, but do whatever you think is best."

"We know it's not a perfect plan, but at least it sounds more feasible than finding a youkai of boundaries."

"What may have no logic, reason or rhyme in the outside world may very well be possible here."

"I guess you have a point… Oh, by the way, Yuuka-san. You weren't at the shrine during the festival, were you? Because I don't recall seeing you there."

"No. But I do go to the shrine every now and then. The cherry blossoms in springtime near the shrine yard are quite a spectacle~ ."

"But there was this fancy danmaku tournament during the festival." said Soudai.

"Really~? How lovely~ . Maybe I should have gone after all…"

"And where are you off to now? Buying flowers again?"

"Not just flowers. I saw this lovely dinner plate collection at the ceramics shop. They have these cute flower patterns, you see…"

Kyouichi had a hunch she would say something like that. "Hahaha~! You really love flowers, don't you?"

"I think you already know that by now." Yuuka started giggling as well.

"Now I also want to set up a small garden near this hut once it gets rebuilt. At least it will fetch a higher price when Naota decides to sell it…"

"By the way…" Soudai interrupted Kyouichi's contemplations. "Didn't we want to take a look inside?"

"Ah, right, we did. But the door seems to be so badly stuck that we can't get it open."

"Maybe I should got to the farmstead and get some tools to pry it open." the older of the two outsiders was speaking out his thoughts.

"Well, I guess I'll be going on to the village." announced the flower youkai and gently bowed with an unfading smile on her face. "See you some other time~."

"Yes, yes, don't let us keep you…" Kyouichi waved at her as she was leaving.

For a while both outsiders watched her calmly walking down the road to Human Village and each of them had very different opinions about her…

"She's truly a beauty," Soudai suddenly cut the silence, "but something about her creeps the hell out of me…"

Kyouichi just stood there with his eyes closed and an adoring smile. "So moe~…."

* * *

Since they still wanted to take a look inside the hunter's cabin, but couldn't get the door open, Soudai volunteered himself to fetch some tools to pry the door open without damaging it. However, he was taking a bit too long and Kyouichi was starting to wonder if his older friend wasn't slacking off somewhere. Their time was slowly ticking and the cart with grains and vegetables still needed to be dragged all the way to Kourindou and back.

Even the flower youkai was already heading back down the road from the village before Asakura Soudai returned from the nearby farmlands.

"Still here~?" she asked as she threw a quick glance Kyouichi's way. She was now carrying a bag with a heavy looking box-shaped object inside that jingled lightly as she walked. Apparently, the flower-patterned plate set that she mentioned earlier was now in her possession and she was on her way home with a content smile.

"Yes." he nodded to her question. "I don't know what's taking him so long… He should have been back with the tools 5 times over by now."

"So you still haven't opened the door?"

"No, Yuuka-san. You see, it's already unlocked and it moves a little, but then it just gets stuck. Don't know if it's the rusty hinges or if it's blocked from the other side…"

"Can I take a look at it?" she asked as she gently put her bag on the ground.

The outsider shrugged and beckoned at the cabin's door. "Be my guest." He leisurely leaned his back against the wall and let her inspect the door. Yuuka grabbed the door handle and tried moving it as gently as possible. Something was indeed preventing it from getting open and she figured that it would probably be fine to give it a slightly bigger push. She flexed her index finger, ready to give the door a flick.

Kyouichi didn't really think that this gentle flower-loving lady would help him with the door, so his attention drifted somewhere towards the farmlands, expecting to see Soudai any moment. That's when a sudden deafening racket, as if a lightning struck just a few meters away from him, snapped him out of his lethargy.

"What the…?!"

He instantly turned and witnessed the green-haired youkai lady standing at the cabin's door, or to be more exact, where the cabin's door used to be, and sporting an expression of slight guilt or self-disappointment.

Still unable to understand what just happened, the outsider slowly approached the doorway and with gaping mouth, he peered inside.

"Hmm, maybe that was a bit too much of a push." Yuuka uttered with nonchalance, as if nothing that serious happened.

After a while of processing the image of the scene and assessing damage, Kyouichi spoke up.

"Umm… gee, thanks, Yuuka-san… I've… uhh… always wanted to have a back entrance…"

He wasn't sure what spell or force the flower youkai used, but it left quite a mess. A chunk of the door was flung across the cabin with such power that it made a hole in the opposite wall. Luckily, there was no other significant structural damage to the building.

"It's a bit too small to be an entrance…" Yuuka jestingly commented.

"Naota's not going to like this… What will I tell him?" Kyouichi thought aloud, but he couldn't think of any excuse for the current state of the cabin.

"It doesn't look as much work has been done here, though."

"The floor…" Kyouichi finally realized that Naota and his acquaintances have started removing the old, crumbling floor and replacing it with a more durable material – stone.

"I didn't… really want to break the door…" said Yuuka after a pause. "Or that wall…"

"Maybe I'll just tell him that I wasn't here when it happened."

"When what happened?" Soudai's voice sounded from behind his back. "Whoa~! I guess we're not going to need any prying tools anymore…"

"Asakura! Damn… you scared me!" Kyouichi looked scoldingly at him over his shoulder. "What took you so long?"

"Our dear boss. I was just "lucky" enough to run into him when I went to fetch something to open the door with."

"A spade?" Kyouichi raised his eyebrow at the tool in Soudai's hands. "Anyway… what did the slave driver want this time?"

"I'll tell you, but first explain what the hell happened here!"

"Uhh… vandals."

"Vandals…" Soudai repeated with the same mistrustful look as Kyouichi gave him a while ago when he came back with a spade. "You mean the two of you? No, seriously, what happened?"

"I tried to open it, you see…" Yuuka started to explain.

"I see… Well, now we know that the door wasn't very magic-resistant…"

"Magic-resistant? I don't know. I didn't use any magic~." the youkai smiled innocently.

"Great… I just wonder what excuse you have prepared when Naota-san and the other workers see this." Soudai spoke to his younger friend.

Kyouichi replied with a shrug. "I don't really like lying to people, but I think we better just clam up about it and act as though as we weren't here when this happened."

"I'm sorry…" Yuuka apologized out of courtesy.

"Ah, never mind, Yuuka-san. That old door needed replacing anyway…" said the younger of the outsiders as he walked out of the building and passed closely by her. "…and… a… Achoo~! Ugh…"

"Bless ya…" Soudai murmured with an unamused voice. Due to Kyouichi's hay fever, he has been repeating this phrase a bit too often while the two of them were working in the fields.

"Thanks… Now… what did Takeda want from you?" Kyouichi changed the topic as he wiped his nose.

"From US, actually…" Soudai corrected him.

"I can't wait to hear this…"

"It seems that starting from next week, the village market and Kourindou won't be the only places we'll be delivering the produce to."

Kyouichi shook his head in puzzlement. "What? Where else does that humorist want us to be going to? The Youkai Mountain?"

"No, but you're not too far from the truth." chuckled the older of the two young men.

"Just spill it already." Kyouichi prompted him with an annoyed tone.

"We'll be doing runs to the fishing colony. The guy obviously just wants more profit."

"All the way to Misty Lake? That really is just a few kilometers away from the mountain! That's quite a journey."

"Four hours walk there, another four back…" Soudai specified. "It's no park stroll, but that also means we won't be sweating on the fields so much."

"I can't say I like that… It sounds dangerous."

"According to him, we'll be escorted by the militia on the way to the lake. Though I can't say I was very impressed by their work in my previous job…" he recalled his unpleasant experience that made him stay over in Eientei for over a week.

"Oh well, at least we get to see a bit more of Gensokyo while we're still here." shrugged the younger outsider. "Anyway, we should really get moving and get this damn cart to Kourindou. Besides, we don't want any witnesses seeing us here at the "scene of crime"."

"You're headed to that antique shop~?" Yuuka asked them.

"That's right. That's where I found those hibiscus seeds for you the other day."

"Ah, yes, the hibiscus~. Maybe I should also offer something in return… also to compensate for the broken door."

Kyouichi stood in silence for a while, just looking at the beautiful youkai before he smiled. "You're so nice, Yuuka-san~. I… I…ah…. Achooo!" another sneeze interrupted his sentence. "I'm sorry… Allergy season… Anyway, if you want to make it up, you can give me some tips on how to make a nice little garden for this hut."

"That sounds like a fair bargain."

"But not now. We have no time. Let's get that cart to Kourindou already."

"I'll be also going that way." said Yuuka.

"But we'll have to drag that cart with us, so we'll probably just slow you down."

"I do enjoy slow walks. That way I can take my time to enjoy all the beautiful flowers."

Having no objections against keeping each other's company for a while, they all headed off westwards.

* * *

Yuuka started giving Kyouichi some basic tips about gardening, though the outsider wasn't even sure if he'd remember it all. And when she covered all the basics, she started asking…

"…and in that book that I bought the other day, there was this article about various events like the World Floral Expo or the Flower Expo… So humans actually hold these huge events and gather flowers from all around the world so that they could admire their beauty?"

"Uh… well, I've never been to any such event to be honest, but yes, they do exist."

"Ahh~…" the flower youkai sighed wishfully. "I would like to see that…"

"Hahaha~! You'd like to come with us to the outside world, Yuuka-san? Remember, the 1st of Kannazuki in front of Hakurei Shrine…" he jokingly reminded her the scheduled day of departure from Gensokyo. "Though I'm not sure what Reimu would say."

"It doesn't really matter. Yukari goes there every once in a while. She could even take me directly to such an event, but unfortunately, she doesn't seem to be back from… wherever she is."

"I believe Reimu-san is already working on finding her. Apart from trying to resolve the fairy incident…"

"The fairies… they started quite a few fires all around Gensokyo. At first I just thought that it was that eccentric witch who lives in the Forest of Magic and one of her experiments going a bit more wrong than usual. Fortunately, the fires never reached my garden…"

"But I also heard that there haven't been any more attacks after that." said Kyouichi.

"Perhaps, but I'd still be careful around the Forest of Magic if I were you~. Besides, there are much worse things than fairies out there~ ." she warned the two outsiders with a bright smile on her lips.

"Oh, we're always careful. And I also have this…" Kyouichi reached in his pocket to show her the magic detector, but to his great surprise, its whole lens was emitting bright light like a beacon.

"Huh?" the outsider puzzledly stared at the detector in his palm. "Is this thing broken?"

He tried shaking it a little, but the detector was still radiating a dazzling light. "I never knew it also had a flashlight mode… But how do I turn it off? Maybe Rinnosuke-san will know."

Although Yuuka was a bit puzzled and wondered what that glowing object was supposed to do, she didn't bother asking. The road to Kourindou felt much shorter for Kyouichi when he could converse with such a lovely young youkai lady. And when the beauty of Gensokyo's nature made them lose their words, Yuuka suddenly started humming a melody…

"Say, Yuuka-san…" Kyouichi dared to speak after a while of listening. "What's that you're humming? It's quite catchy."

"Lovely Mound of Cherry Blossoms~ . Do you like this tune?"

"Yes, it really is lovely. I think I heard you humming it once before."

"It's my favorite melody for when I'm returning home~." she explained while smiling.

And so, the nature youkai kept on humming her melody and the two outsiders just silently pulled their cart and listened to her lovely voice until they reached their destination.

* * *

"And it looks like we're already here." announced Soudai, who was strangely quiet during the whole trip to Kourindou.

"Ah, well, see you again some other time, Yuuka-san." Kyouichi bowed and followed Soudai into the small store at the edge of the Forest of Magic.

Yuuka still had quite a bit of road ahead of her, but she wasn't really in a hurry anywhere. Despite her ability to fly, like most of Gensokyo's denizens, she preferred walking, since she could better enjoy every bit of nature that way.

"Ah, good afternoon." the half-youkai storekeeper greeted them as the two outsiders appeared inside his shop to drop off the load of their cart. The man was spending most of his time tinkering with various items that were spirited away to Gensokyo from the outside world, or by reading books in hope of understanding how these things were made and how they worked.

Kyouichi noticed he had quite a collection of empty cola cans on his counter, once he learned how to extract them from the old-fashioned vending machine that was decorating his shop's corner.

"Afternoon, Rinnosuke-san." the younger outsider returned the greeting. "How's your business?"

"It could be better, but who am I to complain? Most of my customers are youkai, but I guess you already figured that out by now."

"Wouldn't it be more convenient for you to set up shop a bit closer to the village then?" Soudai forwarded him a question.

"Let me remind you that this shop was originally founded to be an antique shop. However, as years went by, the nature of Kourindou changed to that of a various goods store. Times have been a bit harder ever since I lost contact with one of my main suppliers, that's why now I have to rely on delivery of products from the local farms "

"It's interesting how just one youkai goes missing and whole Gensokyo is affected by it."

"Given the nature of that certain youkai, you shouldn't find it that much surprising, Ishimaru-san."

"I guess so… Anyway, Rinnosuke-san, could you please have a look at something?"

"What is it?"

"I think my magic detector is malfunctioning. I know I didn't buy it here, but maybe you could tell me what's wrong with… Huh?" Kyouichi was met with a surprising sight when he took the device out of his pocket. "I swear it was flashing like mad just a while ago…"

"It's supposed to display varying degrees of light when it detects magic. And when the magic is strong enough or when the detector is very close to its source, even the whole lens might flare up."

"I see… So maybe we passed by something magical along the road… I thought it got broken or something. Anyway… here's everything we were supposed to deliver." Kyouichi checked the list from his boss. The outsiders were just doing deliveries, but it was their employer who was doing the monetary transactions with Kourindou. Therefore, Rinnosuke wasn't paying them directly.

"Have you unloaded all of our traveling gear too, Soudai?" Kyouichi glanced over at his colleague.

"Yeah… Thanks for NOT helping me with it…" he grumbled with his arms crossed.

"Sorry…. Hey, how about I bought you something to drink while we're here?"

"I'm more hungry than thirsty, though."

"Then please," Rinnosuke beckoned at the yonder shelves in his shop. "Pick anything that you'd like…"

The hungry outsider stopped giving Kyouichi a blaming look and slowly moved on to the shelves with groceries. After a while of looking and thinking, he picked a few pastries that he thought would be tasty, but as he grabbed them, he could feel that they're not exactly freshly baked.

"Uhh… excuse me, Rinnosuke-san, but these pastries are as hard as a rock! Do you have any that were baked TODAY?"

Rinnosuke just smiled and nodded. "Sure. Come back tomorrow."

"What a terrible grocery shop…" muttered the displeased outsider as he returned the hardened pastries back where he took them from.

Rinnosuke let out an exasperated sigh. "It's an antique shop."

"Yeah, these pastries sure are antique."

"Then pick something else." Kyouichi advised him.

But Soudai didn't want to take any chances. "You know what? I think I'll rather walk back to the village with empty stomach than buy any of these questionable groceries."

"A part of those questionable groceries come from your delivery runs too." Rinnosuke still acted as calmly as ever, as if he never cared much about the satisfaction of his customers.

He had a point, though.

"How about some candy bar from our good old outside world, eh?" Kyouichi made another suggestion as he browsed through the other shelves that his friend didn't bother checking. "Oh, hey, he even has instant ramen here…"

* * *

After a while of persuading and exchanging opinions, Soudai bought the instant ramen in a plastic cup. All that he needed was to add some hot water, which Rinnosuke gladly provided free of charge. However, the two outsiders had little time to stay for a longer chat and as soon as they unloaded their cart and have gone through all the formalities, they left the shop and headed back to the village. Their shift was still far from over.

As they were returning, Kyouichi intensely kept his eyes focused on the lens of his magic detector in hope of finding that source of magical energy that made it shine so brightly. But whatever it was, he couldn't find it on his way back.

"How long are you going to keep staring into that thing?" Soudai asked him with a hint of annoyance, because his younger friend wasn't pulling the cart properly.

"I would have sworn it was somewhere around here…" he kept murmuring to himself. "But I can't pick up any positive readings now."

"Has it ever occurred to you that the source of that immense magic might have been our good Miss Kazami?"

"…" Kyouichi opened his mouth as if to say something, but no words came out. He was silent for a couple of minutes, giving serious thought to Soudai's question. As much as he refused to believe it, that was the only logical explanation he could think of.

"By the gods… you might be right. Yuuka-san… She's no ordinary youkai. That detector never flashed so brightly. Even when we met Mokou-san in the bamboo forest…"

"At least she doesn't seem to be a human-eating sort."

"And to think that one of the villagers told me that she's a "lesser youkai"…" Kyouichi recalled the day when he talked to the florist in the village.

"That only goes to show that you shouldn't believe everything you hear."

"I'm just worried if Naota and his crew will believe us if we tell them that we don't know anything about what happened to the cabin's door and wall…"

* * *

On the next day the two outsiders were waiting in front of Naota's house and their nervousness was growing with each passing minute. They still had no idea how the old carpenter would react if he sees what happened to the hunting cabin that he and his apprentices were renovating. And when he finally stepped outside in his working overalls, ready for another day at work past his retirement, Kyouichi was seriously considering that he'll just tell him the truth. But instead, he hesitated until they arrived at the location.

"What in the Hell of Blazing Fires happened here?" he asked when he saw the damage.

"Umm… vandals?" Soudai repeated the same pathetic lie that Kyouichi told him when he first saw the broken door.

"Umm, Naota-san, to tell you the truth…" the youngest outsider was just about to tell him the truth, but the old man interrupted him with a few swear words.

"What were those imbeciles that pass for the village's militia doing if they allowed something like this to happen~?!"

"Huh? I can't believe he actually fell for that…" thought Soudai as he quietly watched his incensed reaction.

Grumbling and cursing, the old outsider shuffled his feet into the cabin to check the state of its interior.

"This is too suspicious. Someone must have seen me carry that stuff that we found here the other day and thought that they could help themselves to some of Fumiaki's treasures…"

"Huh?" Kyouichi and Soudai exchanged their clueless glances. "What treasures are you talking abo…?"

"Goddamn Ryuuken!" another Naota's curse cut off his question. "They were supposed to protect this place! And they were the only ones who knew that we found that hidden stash here. Greedy, corrupted, thieving bastards! They must have raided this place and made it look like a regular break-in!"

Again, Kyouichi tried to tell him that shattering the door to bits was more than what mere vandals or thieves would probably do, but the old carpenter could not be easily silenced when something irritated him.

"I personally am more curious about that treasure that you mentio…" even Soudai failed to finish his question.

"Screw them all~! I remember their faces well! I shall sue them and put their corrupted asses behind bars where they belong!"

Both young men knew that this wasn't the fault of any of the militiamen, and that if they let Naota act now in his infuriated state, they could bring a lot of people, including Naota himself into a lot of trouble.

"Naota-san! Listen! It wasn't the Ryuuken! It was a youkai…"

"And what the hell is this?!" he yelled while observing the hole in the wall made by a flying chunk of wood from the shattered door. "Just look at it! Blasted termites~!"

"Uhh, Naota-san…" Kyouichi tried to make him see reason. "I really doubt that such a hole would be made by termites. Unless it was a youkai termite…"

"Not youkai termites, kid!" the old man ripped a damaged plank from the hole in the wall and showed it to him. The plank was marked by numerous holes along its diameter, which were tunnels made by the wood-eating insects. "Normal termites! They're chewing this whole wall apart! I should have noticed from the start! Damn it! As if thieving Ryuuken were not enough!"

"I already told you that Ryuuken have nothing to do with this damage."

"This whole wall has to be rebuilt, otherwise this whole structure might collapse." the old man just wouldn't stay quiet, but at least he wasn't shouting anymore. "I fear the reconstruction is going to take us a few extra weeks, to say the least. But it's a good thing that this termite infestation was found now… I'll let the boys know to bring in extra material next time…"

When Soudai and Kyouichi thought that Naota had finally calmed down, he caught them by surprise and asked them: "So you're saying that it was a youkai who busted the door?"

A few droplets of sweat started shaping on Kyouichi's forehead. "Ehh… yes. A youkai."

"Hmph… Why would any youkai want to break into an abandoned building? Especially now, when we started working on its renovation… And how do you two even know it was a youkai? Did you see what happened?"

"Well…" Soudai looked over at Kyouichi to suggest that he knows more about that incident.

"Hm, Kyouichi? Did YOU see the youkai who did this?"

"I… I did…" he slowly started to reveal the truth.

"What youkai was it then? Someone you know?" he continued the interrogation.

"Umm… Yu…"

"Yu…?"

"Yu… Yuuka-san… It was Kazami Yuuka-san…" he finally spat out the answer.

The old carpenter parted his lips in a mixture of silent awe and surprise.

"Kazami? What was she doing here? I hope it doesn't have anything to do with any of that Fumiaki's weird stuff that we discovered in that secret stash! If he stole something from her and pissed her off… oh gods…" he left the sentence unfinished and started to shudder nervously. "Maybe we should have left it where we found it."

"Uhh… I have no idea what weird stuff and secret stash are you talking about," said the confused long-haired outsider, "but I think you can relax… I just had a lot of trouble opening the door, because it got stuck and Yuuka-san just happened to be passing by. And she was kind enough to help… She just… uhh… applied a bit too many meganewtons into her opening attempt."

Naota frowned, but nodded at the same time. "Now you see why I told you to stay away from her? You don't even realize how much danger you're putting yourself into."

"But she's really nice." Kyouichi had an objection. "She may be powerful, but that doesn't necessarily make her a threat for all humanity. I mean… she goes to the village almost every day and I've never seen her hurt anyone… uhh… directly…" he added when he recalled the incident with Hiroto Yukiyama and how Yuuka supposedly broke his arm in self-defense.

"I don't even know why you're defending her, kid, but…" Naota glanced over at the hole in the wall again, "I guess she helped us root out our termite problem. And if this was left unchecked, the cabin could collapse on someone's head one fine day."

"Yuuka-san is really a nice person, you know…"

"That's enough." the retired craftsman silenced the youngster. "I don't want to hear another word about her. And you'd do best to heed my advice for once and avoid her too."

"Stubborn about his opinions as always…" thought Kyouichi to himself and not intending to provoke Naota with any more words about youkai, he changed the topic by asking him about that secret stash that he supposedly discovered.

"Ah, yes, that stash!" a trace of excitement could again be heard from the old outsider's words. "We found it when we were replacing the wooden floor with stone paving. Remember that time when your foot fell through a section of the floor when we first came to inspect this place?" he turned over to Soudai.

"Uh, yes… Something like that is not easily forgotten."

"Well, guess what? You just accidentally found the stash's trap door, lad!"

"Say what?"

"Just as I'm sayin'. When we started prying out the floor planks, we uncovered a hole just in that place where you got your foot stuck."

"So this cabin has a basement?" asked Kyouichi.

"Nah, it's not that big at all. Just about a meter deep, long and wide… But that's not important. Important is what was hidden inside it."

Both young outsiders shrugged. "Something valuable?"

"Fumiaki's collection from his adventures and even a few crates of bottles of the finest booze I ever tasted."

"Ah, I see." Kyouichi nodded understandingly. "So that's why you mentioned "treasure"."

"Aye, but not just because of the booze. There was a chest filled with some of the weirdest things I've ever seen. I don't even know where Fumiaki found them all… I guess one of those many journals that he kept holds some information about them, but I haven't really had the time to read them. I asked your friend, Midori to have a look at the journals in her spare time. Maybe those things are even magical, or they could fetch a high price if we sold them. That would mean you could leave this place even sooner than you planned. Or at least, without breaking the law."

"Now I understand why Midori didn't come with us today." reasoned Soudai. "She's reading those journals and diaries."

"And where did you put that "treasure", Naota-san?"

"Inside my house, of course. I'll probably take it to Kirisame-ya to see if any of those items are worth selling… or pose a potential threat to keep around. In any case, there's not much the three of us can do for this cabin today."

"What? We're not going to work?" both outsiders asked with puzzled faces. "Where are those apprentices of yours that are always helping us?"

"Like you two and Midori, they are also helping out in their spare time and when they are needed elsewhere, they won't be able to lend us a hand. Like today…"

"How about we just do something simple that even we could handle?" Kyouichi didn't mind taking a day off, but he knew that he'd probably regret it later.

"The wall replacement is out of question today." said the old man with a negative headshaking. "There's also some work to be done on the roof… As you can see, it's got as many holes in it as a sieve. With all those leaks, it's no wonder why the floor was crumbling under our feet. And it doesn't seem it bothered Fumiaki too much."

Soudai shrugged. "So we're going to start repairs on the roof?"

"No, young one. That is even more out of question than fixing that termite-ridden wall."

"So… have you already finished paving the floor?" Kyouichi suggested a simpler kind of work with minimal potential danger.

"We sure did. Don't you see?"

He was right. The floor was already replaced in the entire cabin with the exception of the place where Naota found his late friend's collection of curiosities.

"Aren't we going to cover that hole?"

"You know, I was thinking that it could be used as storage or a pantry. So we decided to leave it as it is and put a wooden trapdoor over it. The only difference now is that it will be better visible on the stone-paved floor."

"So… what should we do today?"

"First we should clean this wreckage." Naota pointed at the chunks of broken wood lying on the floor, "And get a replacement for that door. I think we could do at least that…"

* * *

The door replacement didn't take them very long. And in just about an hour, the cabin's entrance was now secured by a new door with smoothly-moving hinges.

Naota was about to thank the two young men for their help and send them home for today, but Kyouichi asked if they could do anything more. As an example, he suggested making a small garden by the entrance.

"A garden, eh? Not a bad idea, kid… Maybe we could at least prepare the soil for that. Let's say from here to… over there." he roughly indicated the area of the imaginary garden. "But to tell you the truth, I'm no florist. I don't know much about arranging flowers and I doubt any of you do either…"

"Well, actually…" Kyouichi was about to argue, since he did get more than a handful of useful gardening tips the other day. But he'd probably just evoke Naota's bad mood if he'd bring up Yuuka's name again.

The two young outsiders started working on preparing the soil for planting, which took them a bit longer than replacing the cabin's door. Once they were done, they decided to pay a visit to the local flower shop just opposite of Kyouichi's previous workplace and check out their selection of decorative gardening plants. However, with no money in their pockets at the moment, all they did was browsing.

There was no more work for them that day, and when Naota has left, the two young outsiders had no reason to return to the cabin.

They still had about two more weeks before they would receive their first payment as farmhands, but they were already making plans ahead and talking about paying their debts and buying more necessary things for the journey out of Gensokyo.

The outsiders had their own problems and so did Gensokyo's residents. Despite the fact that the summer days were not disturbed by any large-scale fairy attacks, the tension was still hanging in the air, like a dark storm cloud, just waiting to show its full force…


	52. Assembling a Team

The Scarlet Devil Mansion. An ominously looking structure settled on the island in the middle of the Misty Lake. Its mysterious atmosphere was enhanced by the thick veil of fog that surrounded it every morning. Today seemed like nothing exceptional was going to happen within or outside its walls, but that illusion soon dispersed with the morning mist once Patchouli Knowledge, a youkai sorceress and a friend of the mansion's mistress has finished reading the final book on the pile that Koakuma had brought to her upon request.

"Sakuya." she quietly spoke up to the head maid as she was on her cleaning duty in the mansion's enormous library. "Tell Remilia when she wakes up that today is the day. Tell her that I went to assemble the expedition team and to meet us at the Hakurei Shrine around noon."

"Today, huh?" the maid stopped dusting off the shelves and faced her. "I understand. Have a safe trip, Patchouli-sama. We'll catch up at the shrine as promised."

"I've already waited long enough." the purple-haired librarian murmured as she was putting on her cape, ready to head out. "Now is the time to see if my theories were right."

"Have you learned anything important in those books, Patchouli-sama?"

"I'll tell you the short version of it once we arrive in Kazemura. Now, if you excuse me, I have to go."

Sakuya silently followed her all the way out of the library to the main foyer of the mansion.

"Oh, and one more thing, Sakuya." Patchouli had another request for her as she was opening the door. "Pack some of my clothes and take them with you. We'll probably stay there longer than a day."

A silent bow of confirmation and a gesture of obedience came from the silver-haired maid, which was a cue for Patchouli to take off and fly all the way to the Forest of Magic – her first destination.

* * *

She had a lot of ground to cover today and stopping by Marisa's house was just the first step.

"Oh, Patchy, good morning, ze~!" Marisa's tone didn't hide her surprise from the fact that this shut-in bookworm was now standing at her doorstep. Even Alice, who was temporarily accommodated in Marisa's house, curiously peeked over the witch's shoulder to see who came over for a visit at this early hour.

"Did something happen?"

"She's come to take her books back from you." Alice whispered jokingly into Marisa's ear.

"Good morning, you two." Patchouli greeted them quite informally. "I've just come to tell you to meet up at the Hakurei Shrine at noon, but to make things a bit easier for me, you should go to Human Village first and tell the same thing to Kamishirasawa-san and Hieda-san. In the meantime, I'll go to Eientei and see if the princess still hasn't reconsidered taking the trip to Kazemura…"

"So we're finally going there, huh?" Marisa nodded understandingly. "Reimu was wondering when you'd finally decide to organize that trip…"

Patchouli was well aware that she's been stalling the day of the expedition to the mining village by several days, but she didn't want to go there half-prepared. "I know. But today is finally the day where I hope to uncover the truth behind at least one of the recent incidents."

"That sounds really confident, Patchy. I bet Reimu will be all fired-up to go. By the way… Won't you have breakfast with us?" the blonde girl invited her in.

"No time. And I've already eaten. I'll head off to Eientei immediately. And don't forget to tell Reimu-san that we'll need Yuyuko-san in our team as well."

Not waiting for a reply or even a "see you later" from Marisa and Alice, the one week wizard, as Patchouli was sometimes referred to, took flight again, this time heading to the Bamboo Forest of the Lost and an ancient Japanese mansion located somewhere in its midst.

* * *

"Please, come on in." Eirin Yagokoro, the Lunarian pharmacist and doctor reacted to the knocking on the door of her small pharmacy.

A familiar guest stepped inside.

"Ah, Patchouli-san, welcome again." she nodded at her from behind the table. Due to her not too strong constitution and recurring health problems, Patchouli was one of Eientei's regular visitors.

"What can I help you with?" Eirin asked as the young youkai sorceress stepped forward.

This time, however, no sickness or ailment was behind Patchouli's today's visit. "It's about Kazemura. I'd like to speak both with you and the princess."

"You're lucky that we currently have no patients that require non-stop attention." Eirin smirked lightly. "Please wait here, while I'll wake the princess up. It might take a while, though…"

Patchouli didn't want to waste any time, though in this matter, she didn't have much of a choice. She nodded and sat down on the chair for patients and took a health-care booklet from Eirin's table to keep her mind busy until Eirin returned.

The doctor was back in just a few minutes, however, Princess Kaguya sure took her sweet time to roll out of her futon, get dressed and show herself up in the pharmacy.

"Good *yawn* morning~." she sleepily greeted Patchouli as she dragged her feet and wiped her eyes. "Patchouli-san? Eirin woke me up because of you…"

Though the sorceress knew well how unpleasant it was to wake up earlier than intended, when the situation demanded it, she could easily shake off the tiredness. She told her up straight why she came and why Eirin woke her up, without expressing much emotion.

"Eh? Isn't that nice, Eirin~?" smiled the princess after hearing the details. "I can sleep for another 3 hours."

Since Patchouli told her the same thing she told to Marisa and Alice, and previously, to Sakuya, Kaguya figured she could still laze around until noon. But Eirin always knew the right thing to say to change her attitude.

"You have a whole eternity to sleep as much as you like, Princess, but events like these are but fleeting moments that will probably never repeat again."

"I didn't say that I won't go." Kaguya defended her statement. "I'll be there right on time. Just after a little nap…"

"Well, then I suppose you won't mind if I take some of yesterday's mochi and offer it to Reimu-san and others while you'll be napping."

Kaguya already knew that arguing with Eirin was like beating her head against the wall and no matter what she'd say, Eirin would think of a counterargument or some other form of verbal leverage to convince her.

"Geez… you're mean, Eirin~."

It took a while, but both Lunarians agreed to be a part of the team heading off to Kazemura.

* * *

Even when Patchouli told Marisa and Alice to go to Human Village and tell Keine and Akyuu to come over to the shrine, she didn't actually trust them. After getting a positive reaction from Kaguya and Eirin, her next stop was the largest human settlement in Gensokyo.

When she arrived there, she first tried checking the Hieda residence, but the only one to answer her knocking was the maid of the Hieda family, telling her that young lady Akyuu has left with some blonde girl.

Smiling and bowing to the maid, Patchouli was glad that she could still count on Marisa and Alice if she asked them a favor. And even when it looked like the two girls were already here, the young youkai sorceress decided to check the Kamishirasawa Academy to make sure they called her as well. It was an odd felling for her, to be walking the streets of the village, among the humans. She's been there just a few times since she barely had any reasons to visit it. This time, she had more than a good reason, though. She knew the whereabouts of just a few important buildings and one of them was the village's only school. That's where she hoped to find Keine Kamishirasawa – the half-youkai teacher of history and a couple of other subjects. She was among the most important persons for the expedition to Kazemura and a key figure in uncovering the mystery of the ruins.

As Patchouli was making her way towards the school, she passed around the famous dragon statue in the market square of the village. Its blue eyes gave a sign that a rainfall was soon to come. Once she found the right street, a noisy group of human children passed her by.

"Yaay~! School's canceled for today~!"

"If only Keine-sensei would cancel the tests too."

"And our homework…"

"Uh, excuse me," Patchouli stopped to ask them, "but what was that about school being canceled?"

"Oooh.." the children stopped and eyed her curiously. "Who is this purple onee-chan?"

"Did she forget to dress up when she got out of the bed?"

"She must be a youkai~!"

"Don't say that so loud or she'll eat us all!"

"Are you an idiot? Keine-sensei is half-youkai too… Not all of them eat humans."

"So what sort of youkai is she? A kappa? A tengu? No, no… she doesn't look like any of those that we learned about…"

"Mom told me not to talk to any youkai strangers."

As the children were exchanging their thoughts about Patchouli's appearance without any moral restraints, the elemental sorceress was starting to lose her patience, since her question was still not answered.

"I just want to know where Keine-san is."

"She sent us all home when that magician flew into the classroom through the window~!" one of the kids replied.

Patchouli closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "Marisa… She hasn't changed her ways at all."

"She kept saying something about Hakurei Shrine, a field trip to Kazemura and some aromatic herbs… Patchouli, I think… It didn't make much sense. That's when Keine-sensei gave us a day off. Isn't that cool?"

After a short moment of awkward silence, Patchouli nodded. "Thank you. That's all I needed to know."

She showed her back to the children and soared up into the air. This time, the Hakurei Shrine was her destination.

"What a weird onee-chan."

"She's a youkai, a youkai~."

* * *

The sun was already high in the sky when Patchouli's feet touched the sacred ground of the Hakurei Shrine. It was quiet in the shrine yard and the only evidence of the Tanabata festival that took place here a few weeks ago were the few new planks that were covering a hole in the large wooden stage. Seeing that nobody was outside, Patchouli slid the door open and let herself inside.

"Ah, there you are." Marisa, seated at Reimu's table with a tea cup gestured at her. "What took you so long?" she asked provokingly as she sipped the hot tea. "Even these two made it here before you did."

The witch beckoned at Eirin, who was just digging inside her bag, looking for something and the Moon princess Kaguya, who was lazily lounging at the same table and eating her favorite mochi.

"Ah, please, come, in, come in, don't be a stranger." she called her in, as if she owned the place.

Keine and Akyuu were there too and so were Reimu, Suika and Alice.

"I checked the village too to see if you kept your word." she explained her delay.

"So, now that you're finally here," spoke the resident of the shrine, "Would you mind telling us what are we going to do once we get to Kazemura?"

Everyone was looking expectantly at the young youkai elementalist, but Patchouli didn't want to discuss her findings and plans when the expedition team was not fully assembled yet.

Apart from Remilia and Sakuya, the team still lacked a few important persons.

"Someone should call Saigyouji-san over." Patchouli noted. "And… the second shrine maiden."

"Isn't there already enough of us?" grumbled Reimu.

"Optionally, we could also solicit the assistance of the Komeiji sisters." the sorceress continued, as if she didn't hear Reimu's remark. "Or perhaps even get someone from the Myouren Temple…"

"Why not call over all Gensokyo to Kazemura?" Reimu didn't hold back her sarcasm.

"I am being serious." Patchouli raised her voice a bit. "Without Yuyuko-san, we might as well disassemble this meeting and cancel the expedition."

A moment of quietness passed before Reimu reluctantly stood up from the table and grabbed her gohei. "Fine…" she uttered resignedly. "I'll go get Yuyuko, but someone should go to the Moriya Shrine in the meantime."

"Why are you looking at me?" Marisa asked with the same expression of reluctance as Reimu was sporting a moment ago.

Just as Reimu opened her mouth to list her reasons why she was sending her best friend to the remote shrine atop the Youkai Mountain, a knock on the front door got everyone's attention.

"Must be Remilia and Sakuya." said Alice, and since she was the closest to the door, she volunteered to open it for the knocking visitors.

What surprised her, and pretty much, everyone else, was the face and voice that greeted them as soon as the door opened.

"Good afternoon. Ah, I see Reimu-san has a visit today."

For a while Reimu looked like she was seeing a phantom, which wasn't too far from the truth… "Y-Youmu?"

"Yes. It's me again." the girl with short silver hair bowed once more.

Ever since the day of the festival, when she and her mistress promised to help with the resolution of the fairy incident, Youmu could be seen outside of Netherworld much more often than usual. She's been paying a visit to the village, the shrine and the Scarlet Devil Mansion, asking about the details of the expedition to Kazemura, but nobody could tell her the exact day and hour at the time. Now she was here again, and she made quite a few faces smile by her mere arrival.

"Lucky~!" Reimu joyfully called out and hurried to welcome her. "Listen, today's the day. We need you to bring Yuyuko here. Patchouli insists we take her with us. Don't ask me why…"

Youmu paused for a moment and her deadpan expression didn't allow anyone to guess what she was thinking of. But after a while has passed, her small lips shaped a light smile.

"Finally…"

Not another word escaped her mouth when she saw that the shrine was full of familiar faces. The half-ghost gardener needed no other cue. With a speed that could rival Gensokyo's fastest flyers, she rocketed into the sky, above the thick white clouds that were starting to form since morning.

"That was some quick reaction…" Marisa nodded in acknowledgement and took another sip from her cup.

"Seriously, you should go to the Moriya Shrine in the meantime." Reimu's glance landed once again on the blonde witch.

"Like I said; why me~?"

"Instead of asking you could have already been there and back." the shrine maiden crossed her arms, leaving the door opened for Marisa.

"I've already been to the village with Alice." she opposed. "Why don't you go there?"

But Reimu wasn't willing to lose this argument. "Because your broom flies faster."

"Shrine maidens don't have anything worth stealing anyway…" muttered the witch under her breath.

To everyone's great surprise, the purple-haired wizard stood up with a heavy sigh and leisurely walked towards the door.

"If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself, as the saying goes."

"Patchy?" Marisa and Reimu stared at her in awe.

She turned around at the doorstep and gave everyone one more instruction. "When Remilia and Sakuya finally arrive here along with Yuyuko and her servant, don't wait for me. Head straight to Kazemura. I'll explain everything there. Oh, and I almost forgot… I'll need at least one healthy fairy specimen."

"Ah, yeah, I think you mentioned that during the festival." Reimu recalled the discussion from that evening. "I think I know where those three usually hang out."

* * *

Without any further ado, Patchouli took flight, heading northwest. She was technically returning back to the mansion, but that was approximately just halfway to her intended destination. Indeed, Marisa would have been there much sooner on her magic flying broom, but seeing as she wasn't very eager to take the trip, Patchouli took over the task. The flight was calm and relaxing to the sorceress and the gentle breeze coupled with the panoramic view of Gensokyo's beautiful mountainous scenery helped her fight away the uneasiness that she felt from the whole fairy incident.

A decent while has passed before she made it all the way to the Great Youkai Forest surrounding the magnificent Youkai Mountain. What she was starting to get worried about now was not the fact that the tengu guarded this mountain from any intruders, but rather that the thinned air in the high altitudes could cause her some serious, perhaps even life-threatening difficulties.

Now was another moment when all those decades of diligent study and practice of elemental magic paid off. By channeling just a miniscule bit of magic, she was able to gather and concentrate a high amount of oxygen from the air and seal herself in a bubble of water. That way she could fly all the way to the very peak of the Youkai Mountain without worrying about her health. She continued onwards and increased her altitude as the mountain sloped upwards ever steeper. Among the trees below her, she could occasionally catch a few glimpses of the kappa, most of which preferred to wear light-blue waterproof clothes. But the busy kappa or their village in the marsh below the mountain didn't interest Patchouli right now. She knew that she was entering a very dangerous territory even for a youkai such as herself. The tengu didn't take kindly to strangers and even their neighbors, the kappa were not allowed to roam the mountain as they pleased. But even despite this isolationist way of life, they did accept a few strangers on their sacred mountain. And some of those strangers were the residents of the Moriya Shrine. Kanako Yasaka, Suwako Moriya and Sanae Kochiya - two goddesses and one shrine maiden, living together under the same roof. Though their history in Gensokyo wouldn't fill too many pages, the events that led to their current way of life could be dated back to over 15 centuries ago. The goddesses themselves were, of course, incomparably older than that, but it was sometime around the 3rd or 4th century where their fates interlaced. The event known as the Great Suwa War was the first time when the goddess of wind and rain first met in a battle against the goddess of earth and mountains, the original owner of the Moriya Shrine. Suwako once ruled over her small kingdom and controlled the Mishaguji – ancient curse gods that gathered faith by cursing just about everything one could imagine to be cursed. Suwako was the only goddess who was able to tame them and thus, establish her own kingdom and gain quite a lot of faith for herself. However, in that period, the gods of Yamato – the ancient Japan, invaded her kingdom and declared their goal – the unification of all kingdoms into one country. The earth goddess did not agree to that and the Great Suwa War ensued. Suwako decided to fight it with the best steel weapons of that time, but Kanako held out a thin vine, and Suwako's entire arsenal rusted away in an instant. The difference between their power quickly became obvious to the earth goddess and she admitted her defeat. She relinquished her kingdom and surrendered her shrine to Kanako. The wind goddess hoped that by doing so she would not only help to unite the kingdoms, but also to gain a lot of faith. What happened in the aftermath, however, was the complete opposite of her plan. Since Suwako was the only one able to tame the dreadful Mishaguji, her defeat and replacement by Kanako have caused a wave of doubt spreading among the shrine's followers. Many became skeptical about Kanako's competence to keep the ancient curse gods at bay and didn't support the new goddess with their faith. Thus, Kanako was forced to depend on the help of her defeated enemy.

Today, barely anyone would call the two deities by any other words than friends. Perhaps some would confuse them for a family, because that's just the way they lived together. And how did the human shrine maiden Sanae fit into all this? She is a distant descendant of Suwako, and therefore, one could say she is a goddess as well. She served as a shrine maiden of the Moriya Shrine in the outside world, but due to the ever decreasing faith in gods and miracles, she and Kanako decided to relocate their shrine to Gensokyo, where at least youkai could still have some faith in them. In 122, the Moriya Shrine has become a part of Gensokyo, situated on a high plateau of the Youkai Mountain along with a part of the Lake Suwa.

As Patchouli was making a recapitulation of the shrine's history in her mind, she began to wonder why she hasn't been halted by a single tengu yet. She was already deep in their territory, and she knew well that the tengu have incredibly sharp senses of sight, smell and hearing. She, of course, already had prepared her replies to any of their possible questions in her mind, and in the worse-case scenario, even to fight her way up to Moriya Shrine. But so far she didn't have to, and she was growing suspicious of this situation. The aralia trees below her were gradually starting to thin and were being mixed with various sorts of coniferous trees. This was a sign that she was already in the higher part of the mountain, but still no tengu patrols anywhere. While she was glad that she didn't have to put up with this annoyance, the sorceress couldn't help but to suspect that something wasn't right.

She followed the shortest aerial path to the shrine, flying over the huge Waterfall of the Nine Heavens that was fed by the Wind God's Lake. This was a place where the tengu patrollers used to hide and ambush any intruders brave or foolish enough to venture there, but Patchouli's ascent up the waterfall still remained unhindered. She just spotted a few water fairies, but they immediately scattered or hid themselves in the waterfall as they saw her. Again, there was no need for Spell Cards. In a few minutes, she reached the top of the waterfall and the beautiful scenery of the Moriya Shrine's plateau unfolded before her eyes.

But it didn't take long for her to notice that the plateau, the paved road to the shrine and the area around the Wind God's Lake was rather crowded for a non-festive day. Still enveloped in her water bubble, Patchouli halted her flight to identify the numerous visitors of the shrine. Her inner question why she wasn't halted or attacked by any tengu patrol was immediately answered. The area around the shrine was simply crawling with dozens of white wolf tengu as well as the investigative crow tengu.

They noticed Patchouli just as soon as she arrived, and quickly set their sights at the sky, gripping the hilts of their blades and preparing their shields into defensive positions.

"You there~!" one of them called out at the hovering sorceress. "Descend slowly to the ground! And no sudden movements! If you try to flee or make anything foolish, we WILL kill you~!"

Alone, she would stand no chance against the whole platoon of tengu, so Patchouli began to descend as she was asked. She wasn't as much scared of them as she was curious. Curious about why the tengu patrols gathered here, as well as about why they asked her to land instead of trying to drive her away. She felt the firm ground beneath her feet again, and with calm gaze she watched as the squad of white wolf tengu surrounded her from every side.

"What's all this fuss about?" she asked them as they pointed the tips of their weapons at her.

"We're the ones who's going to be asking questions here!" the leader of the tengu force shouted back at her. "And it's in your best interest to speak the truth!"

A nod of consent came from the sorceress as a reply. And the white wolf tengu started the interrogation.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Just as Patchouli opened her mouth to give the answer, she heard the typical clicking sound of a camera taking a picture. Obviously, the fact that a group of patrollers has suddenly formed a circle around someone didn't escape the ever curious eyes of the crow tengu scouts, messengers and reporters.

"Ayayaya~! What an incredibly rare visitor! I would never expect to see you here. And what's with that bubble?" the excited voice of Aya Shameimaru interrupted the attempt of her colleagues to interrogate the suspicious intruder.

"Eh? You know this girl?" asked another crow tengu who was also taking pictures, however, using a different device.

"She's Patchouli-san from the Scarlet Devil Mansion." Aya replied while taking an angle shot of Patchouli. "It's rare to see her outside her library, let alone here."

"Suspicious…" the other tengu reporter muttered under her breath, not intending to lose to Aya in the number of pictures taken.

She was a brown-eyed girl around Aya's age in appearance. She wore her long brown hair done up in two side ponytails by a pair of purple ribbons. Like all tengu, her head was adorned by a tokin, but unlike Aya's, the color of hers was matching her hair ribbons. Her top was a short-sleeved pinkish shirt with purple trim around the collar, complemented by a thin black tie. She also had an armband of the same color tied around her right arm. Like most of Gensokyo's female inhabitants, she wore a skirt. It was a knee-length skirt with checkered pattern consisting of black and purple squares. The purple squares of her skirt also sported faint floral patterns. Patchouli also noticed a small brown leather pouch resting on her hip. The tengu girl also wore black thigh-high socks, but she had them rolled down just below her knees. Like Aya, her footwear consisted of a pair of geta with purple straps. The device in her hands that she was taking pictures with differed from Aya's camera in both shape and color. It was thinner, but longer and its color was yellow, contrasted by a red heart-shaped decoration and a small brush hanging down from it by a small chain like some kind of charm.

"Suspicious indeed…" some of the white wolf tengu agreed with her statement about Patchouli. "You still haven't told us what business you have here."

"I've just come to speak with the shrine's goddesses and the shrine maiden." she began explaining the reason for her arrival. "I mean no harm to anyone."

"Aww, Patchouli-san, you missed it all~! This place was quite a battlefield just an hour ago." Aya took one last shot of the youkai elementalist and landed in the middle of the circle formed by the white wolf tengu. "Sorry for the rude welcome… You can all sheathe your weapons. I'm taking over the responsibility for this intruder." she addressed those words to the group of defenders.

"I don't recall Lord Tenma ever giving you the authority to give orders to the white wolves, Shameimaru." the commander of the squad disdainfully growled back at her. "And why are you obeying her, Inubashiri? We cannot trust this intruder. Her time of arrival right after the skirmish is too suspicious."

"Skirmish?" Patchouli raised her eyebrow.

"Playing dumb, eh?"

"No, like I said, I doubt Patchouli-san had anything to do with that…" Aya steadfastly defended her opinion.

Ignoring Aya's remark, the white wolf commander asked Patchouli another question: "What exactly did you want from the shrine's residents?"

"I needed to show them something. Their help would be very important in resolution of the fairy incident. I think I know how to stop it, but I need a team."

Aya knew about Patchouli's plans, since she explained them during the festival at the Hakurei Shrine. She glanced over at the white wolf commander with a crooked grin. "See?"

Hesitant and paranoid, the warrior slowly and reluctantly lowered his weapon and his shield. The other tengu defenders followed suit.

"If you really know how to stop it, we're listening."

"Does that mean I can enter the shrine now?" Patchouli asked with a hint of impatience in her tone.

"Well, Patchouli…" Aya took a step towards the librarian with a pen and notepad in her hand. "I hate to burst your bubble," she poked Patchouli's water bubble with the tip of her pen.

"Mukyu!" the sorceress covered her face as the thin layer of water splashed on her face.

"…but there is nobody in the shrine right now." the crow tengu finished her sentence.

Surprised by the fact that the air was still breathable even in this altitude, and that the residents of the Moriya shrine were not here, Patchouli just stood there silently for a few seconds.

"So where are they? And more importantly, what skirmish are you talking about?"

"The shrine was attacked by a flock of fairies." the brown-haired crow tengu explained. "We came here to help the residents defend it. The shrine took some minor damage, but nobody except the said fairies was harmed. Of course, as soon as I heard about it, I rushed in to write an article about it. I don't usually do field reports, but I don't want to lose to this second-rate journalist here…" she disdainfully gestured at Aya.

"Well, excuse me!" the black-haired reporter crossed her arms and averted her gaze from her rival. "It's a small miracle your newspaper even sold at all when you never even left your house in order to gather information… I bet even Patchouli here goes outside more often than you."

"And can you tell me where the Moriya Shrine residents went after the battle, Miss…"

"Ah, sorry." the reporter with twin-tails bowed in apologetic manner. "Hatate Himekaidou from Kakashi Spirit News."

"I have a few issues in the library." Patchouli recalled the name of the newspaper. Although it was on the fringe of popularity, a few of its printouts ended up even in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's great library. "So you're the editor…"

"Oh~! So you're a reader~?" Hatate did little to hide her excitement. "Ha! See, Aya, my newspaper is just as popular as yours."

"Yeah, fat chance." Aya scoffed amusedly. "If you only keep writing about events that were covered in other newspapers, your paper will hardly interest anyone except historians."

"That's why I started gathering information in the filed."

"So you're that reporter who uses spirit photography as her source of gathering obscure information about past events?" Patchouli curiously measured her up.

"Y..yes, why?"

"You're coming with me." the elementalist flatly stated her demand.

"Eeeeeeeh~?! What do you mean?"

"I want you in the expedition team. We'll go to Kazemura."

"What?" the brown-haired crow tengu was taken aback by the sudden request. "Why would I want to be in your team and go anywhere with you? Who do you think you are?"

"Do you want to contribute to the resolution of the fairy incident or not?" Patchouli retorted with a question.

"Hmm…. It's true that it would be excellent for business," Hatate was thinking aloud, "but I still haven't finished my work here. And I don't follow orders from anyone except Lord Tenma. Unless you prove yourself worthy, I'll just follow you to Kazemura, but I'll do only what I want. Understand?"

"Look, I have little time to play your childish tengu games and doing some silly tests of worthiness." said the elemental sorceress as she opened her grimoire. "Let's settle this with a duel."

A confident smile sprouted on Hatate's lips. "Hm-hmm~! Just what I was going to suggest. Three Spell Cards, no area restrictions. Now show me what you've got."

"Oh my, this is going to be interesting." Aya already had her finger on the shutter of her camera as she was backing away from the two girls in the middle of the circle of white wolf tengu. The armed tengu forces also backed away and enlarged the circle. They were curious whether the intruder from the Scarlet Devil Mansion was any match for one of their race, but none of them was willing to stick too close to the two duelists.

"Oh, oh, let me give you a signal to begin~!" Aya shouted at them from a safe distance. "Wait for it… Wait for it~!"

Aya teased them by making them wait for her signal, and she enjoyed every second of it. She intentionally waited until one girl or another would run out of patience.

Hatate finally couldn't take it anymore. "When the heck…?"

"Go~!"

* * *

The distracted tengu was at a disadvantage, but she was still faster than her opponent. She instinctively avoided a fireball that was aimed at her face and started her offense with a non-card attack as well. Her response was a repetitive series of cone-shaped blasts of blue danmaku, but she had about as much success with it as Patchouli had with her initial attack.

Patchouli was already distanced enough from Hatate to easily deal with her wide-shot blasts.

"Hehehe…" Aya giggled as she was circling around them and taking pictures from all angles. "Two shut-ins fighting outside the Moriya Shrine… What a scoop!"

To assess her opponent's abilities, the youkai sorceress tried out another one of her non-declared danmaku patterns. She scattered a pack of water-element projectiles in a symmetrical 360 degree outburst, but the gaps between the short streams were too wide to pose any serious threat. Hatate had no problems finding e safe spot, but that was just the beginning. When she saw 8 bright-red sources of light appearing around Patchouli and slowly beginning to orbit around her, Hatate figured that hovering idly in one place was not going to win this fight for her. In the next instant, the lights that circled around Patchouli simultaneously projected dangerous-looking beams that slowly rotated both clockwise and counter-clockwise.

"Aaah! What's this?!" Hatate was trapped between the rays and the remaining water danmaku, quickly thinking of what to do next.

She tried moving up to fly over the rays, but Patchouli shifted the angle of the whole beam-emitting circle to match her position. The rays were closing in on her from both sides, like some kind of giant scissors. She immediately decreased her altitude, but the elementalist simply aimed the whole laser circle lower. Hatate was starting to panic, and she reached for her yellow camera. Just as she thought that the beams would slice her, she focused the lens and took a picture…

A large rectangular white frame appeared for a moment in front of the tengu girl, and with a clicking sound, a portion of Patchouli's danmaku that was in that rectangular area simply burst into white sparks and gathered to the lens of her camera. That made a brief gap in the beams, enabling Hatate to move out of harm's way. Meanwhile, Patchouli and her attack pattern continued. Even though this battle wasn't limited by the number of hits each of the girls could take, the tengu didn't want to underestimate her opponent. In other words, it was a normal three card match that could be won either by making one's opponent run out of Spell Cards, by opponent's surrender, or by a knock out.

In the initial phase of Patchouli's attack, Hatate failed to notice any opening in the pattern so she resorted to using her special camera to protect herself. But Hatate was no fool. She was well familiar with the Spell Card Rules and she knew that every single danmaku attack in a formal duel, declared or not, had to have some sort of opening to offer the opponent some small chance to evade it. The publisher of the Kakashi Spirit News decided to take a better look at the pattern of her opponent's attack, which seemed to have a regular pattern with some small elements of randomness.

She evaded the blue water orbs and slowly cruised by one of the red lasers that was spinning in a counter-clockwise direction. She patiently kept her eyes on Patchouli, aiming her camera at her. She quickly learned that her first reaction was needlessly panicked and foolish. She saw the opening as clear as day. The opposite laser that was slowly spinning clockwise faded almost as soon as it was about to meet with the other beam. All that Hatate had to do was to stream along one of the rays and wait for the right moment to make a dashing maneuver. Not only did she learn about the opening, she also noticed that the pattern slightly depended on her own position and movements. She no longer saw it as dangerous.

However, just as the tengu learned a thing or two about her opponent's danmaku patterns, so did Patchouli absorb valuable information from Hatate's performance against her non-card attack. For instance, she learned that despite being a crow tengu, her movements seemed a bit stiff and clumsy at times. It also seemed that she preferred to rely on her camera that could remove danmaku in its viewfinder and cause significant spiritual damage to the person being photographed. She knew this little fact from one of her less pleasant encounters with Aya which took place several years ago. Her camera could do exactly the same, though it seemed that Hatate was using a more advanced model. A faint memory from one of her few visits to Kourindou flashed through her mind. She saw a few strange devices that Rinnosuke claimed to be very common in the outside world and one of those devices was very similar to what Hatate was using. The owner of Kourindou has called it a cell phone.

But right now, Patchouli had little time to contemplate about the design of Hatate's camera.

"Reporting "Hatate Himekaidou's Reporting Training"!"

The first Spell Card of the match has been declared. Similarly to Patchouli's initial burst, Hatate's spell began emitting high-density, rapid-fire symmetrical bursts of the same blue arrowhead shots that she used when the duel began.

Patchouli ceased her attack to be better able to see her opponent's danmaku.

"Hya~!"

Just a lucky reflex saved her from the first, surprisingly fast barrage that was almost immediately followed by another one.

The sorceress backed away a bit, but Hatate dashed forward just as her spell was shooting another salvo, the result was a nearly unavoidable blue cluster of chaos and the librarian from the Scarlet Devil Mansion could feel several unpleasant stings on her various body parts.

Seeing that her spell was working, Hatate kept slightly changing her position and altering the pattern of her shot bursts.

"Ouch…" another pair of magic bullets landed on Patchouli's arm and torso.

If Hatate was her opponent during the festival's tournament, Patchouli would be defeated by now. But in this duel, it's not the number of hits that counted.

She was in pain, but she somehow managed to keep herself focused on her enemy's movements, and based on those, she could dodge her annoying blue shots. That's when Hatate readied her camera and aimed its viewfinder at her. Patchouli was in a serious pinch…

"Sun Sign "Royal Flare"!" the usually quiet librarian nearly spat out her vocal chords as she shouted the name of one of her most powerful spells.

This battle was evolving too much in Hatate's favor. If Patchouli wanted to win, she had to go all-out against her and this was her answer.

A whirlwind-like explosion of fire erupted a just a few meters in front of the elemental sorceress, spinning and spreading wide, leaving only hopelessly small openings in its pattern.

At least now Patchouli thought she could take a short break from dodging Hatate's danmaku, but the tengu girl just photographed the epicenter of her Royal Flare, giving herself a huge advantage and even braving a counterattack.

Another pair of rapid bullet streams grazed by Patchouli from both sides. Hatate dared to draw a little closer to get a better shot only to get caught up in the inferno that spawned behind her.

"Uwaaaaa~! Hot, hot, hot!"

Not just one, but several of Patchouli's fireballs found their way to Hatate and the panicking tengu forfeited her attack and proceeded to make rapid aerial circles to put out the flames on her shirt.

"Why you little…" she clenched her teeth in an angry expression which was perfectly captured by Aya's camera who kept photographing the whole battle. She stretched out her left arm and opened her palm to punish Patchouli's audacity. A continuous stream of her trademark blue arrowheads jetted out from her palm with a slight spread. Some of the shots were eaten by the hungry flames of Royal Flare, but some of them indeed hit their intended mark. Under the trance of the card, however, Patchouli felt their impact only minimally.

Hatate kept using her "unfair" tactic of eliminating the most dangerous parts of enemy danmaku with her camera and returning her conventional, non-declared danmaku fire.

Like that, she was able to defeat Patchouli's Spell Card like it was nothing particularly difficult.

The sorceress was starting to grow desperate. Even though she used just one card so far, Hatate's camera was the biggest source of her frustration. She tired combining the elements of wood and ground in a non-card attack to take the tengu by surprise, or at least, to create a diversion.

The air quickly became filled with bright yellow orbs representing the earth element and thin leaf-shaped and colored projectiles that promoted the element wood. While the "leaves" were scattered randomly, the "earth" orbs appeared directly above Hatate and started falling down on her like rocks from a cliff.

The tengu journalist didn't see much threat in this attack. She shifted her attention upwards, thinking that avoiding the green shots will be a piece of cake once all the yellow "stones" fall down. As it turned out, that was one of her bigger mistakes during this match.

As the yellow orbs began dropping from the sky and the tengu spectators on the ground used their shields to protect themselves, Patchouli quickly moved close to Hatate and unleashed her second Spell Card, as one could say, right into her face.

"Metal & Water Sign "Mercury Poison"!"

A beautiful, but dangerous formation of blue and yellow orbs began erupting from the picture on Patchouli's Spell Card and formed regular, almost symmetrical, slow-moving layers with intersecting trajectories. Nothing challenging for a calm mind, but since Patchouli was so close, Hatate stood no chance avoiding the first wave.

"Oomph! You'll pay for this!" Hatate's frustration now matched that of her purple-haired opponent. "Far-sightedness "Tengu Psychography"!" she flashed a card held between her fingers.

Hatate again readied her cell phone-like camera and aimed it at the elementalist. With a push of its button, she not only removed a large rectangular field of Patchouli's danmaku, but in that very field, created a mass of her own projectiles. These projectiles were thin and square-shaped, similar to some of Reimu Hakurei's amulets. These "amulets" scattered randomly in all directions, as if blown away by a gust of wind.

The situation turned into a clash of two Spell Cards, as it was so often observed during the Tanabata festival's tournament. However, some Spell Cards were just more effective in certain situations than others. To Patchouli's dismay, it was again the crow tengu and her spell that had the upper hand. Her camera was able to take shots in rapid succession, but in its "thoughtography" mode, the delay was slightly longer. Patchouli's card was rendered completely harmless and in a critical moment the tengu brunette with twintails took a picture of her.

Patchouli stood stunned for a moment, feeling like she lost a decent portion of her strength. She felt dizzy and weaker than usual, and as if that wasn't enough, she was subsequently showered by a flurry of purple charms.

"Hahaha~!" Hatate's laughter echoed in her ears as she was trying to make her vision clear. The tengu was just about to take another picture. One that would end this duel… "And one for the "Loser of the Year" contest…" she jeeringly taunted the paralyzed youkai magician.

Her finger pushed the button. A frame around Patchouli appeared, followed by a characteristic clicking sound. Poor Patchouli was…

"Gone~?" Hatate's eyes were widely staring at the place where the sorceress should have been when the shot was taken, but she managed to dart off just a split second before the camera did its job.

Patchouli somehow snapped out of her dizziness and using the power of the air element, she propelled herself quickly away from danger. She turned her back on Hatate and flew away from her as fast as possible. The match was not restricted by area, so Patchouli chose to make use of it. This was a desperate maneuver and she knew that Hatate wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of it. But that was exactly what she hoped for.

"Where do you think you're going? You can't run away from a crow tengu!"

She chose to end her Spell Card prematurely and decided to pursue her fleeing target, planning to take her out with conventional danmaku. Even when propelled by the wind itself, Patchouli wasn't faster than a determined crow tengu. With the sight of the Wind God's Lake in front of her, she could already see Hatate's short bursts of bullets flying around her shoulders and getting increasingly more accurate as the tengu girl closed in on her prey. Patchouli flew low, just a meter or two above the ground, heading for the lake.

"So, you think you'll use those onbashira for cover?" Hatate ridiculed her desperate escape. "You know, it would be much easier to surrender~! If I knock you out over the lake, you will drown. Not that I care."

Of course, the sorceress didn't heed the warning and continued onwards, until the ground below her became replaced by the mirror-like surface of the sacred lake. Not long after that, Hatake kept her ominous promise.

"Hnnnn~!" a small salvo of shots peppered Patchouli's back, bringing sharp, throbbing pain as their inseparable companion.

With the last ounce of strength, Patchouli glided over to the middle of the lake, where she stopped fleeing and faced her adversary.

"You and I still have one card." Hatate stopped pursuit and halted her fire. "But if you fail to shoot me down with it, you'll lose all the same."

Patchouli didn't need her explanation at all. She just waited for one thing… Hatate herself.

The youkai sorceress opened her tome and raised one hand, ready to cast her final spell. For the whole duration of the battle, she wasn't even sure which Spell Cards to use until now.

Since the conventional spells have not done their job, it was time to bring out the experimental ones. The lake itself was perfect for that. So much water; so much accumulated faith…

"Divine Water "Neptune's Wrath"!"

"I'll show you MY wrath~!" Hatate hurled a brutal barrage of danmaku to finish off the youkai magician.

Patchouli didn't even attempt to dodge it. Over three dozen magic projectiles have rammed into her body, but the spell itself was powerful enough to protect her from harm. But even after she declared her attack, no danmaku appeared.

"Hmph… Think you can just stand there, taking hits forever? Nothing can stand against this camera…"

And so, the crow tengu charged her camera to take the picture. She already had Patchouli locked on, when a roaring splash, louder than the Waterfall of Nine Heavens, sounded below her. Hatate threw her glance down to see a huge pillar of water shooting out of the lake's surface, much like the famous geyser near the Hakurei Shrine. Hatate just barely evaded the watery mass, but she didn't expect that the pillar of water would change its heading, grow five fingers and grab her like a hand of some enormous water giant.

"Kyaaaaaaaaaa~!" her terrified scream echoed over the plateau as the huge arm started dragging her down to the lake. She couldn't do anything. Her movement was almost completely restricted, not even giving her a chance to cast her own final spell.

Not long after that, Hatate was dragged under the water, then resurfaced, and again dragged under.

"Waaa~! Stooooop~!" she screamed while holding her arm with her camera stretched upwards.

"Are you giving up then?" Patchouli asked her loudly, before Hatate was pulled down again.

"Stop it already~! My poor camera~! It'll be ruined~!"

And so, the elementalist took it as a sign of surrender and released Hatate from the merciless watery clutches of her spell. She was very tired herself, but she still offered her hand to assist the crow tengu.

"She's scary…" Aya muttered to herself as she took one last picture and hurried to help Hatate get out of the water.

* * *

"Oi, are you alright?" Aya asked her colleague and rival once they were all on the lake's shore.

The brown-haired tengu was completely drenched from head to toe, but for some reason her expression was nothing short of happy.

"It's waterproof~! Hahahaha~! The camera is waterproof! Praise the kappa~!"

So perhaps Hatate could have won this match, if she wasn't so worried about her precious little piece of kappan technology. However, now the result was irreversible. Patchouli managed to prove her worth and so, the editor of the Kakashi Spirit News had to keep her end of the bargain.

"What about you, Patchouli?" Aya checked the other duelist. "Are you alright?"

"So tired…" muttered the sorceress with a faint whisper. The battle has put much greater strain on her than her defeated opponent. Now she was starting to wonder if all this was even worth the effort.

"Ah, don't worry, Patchouli-san." the good-natured Aya comforted her. "If you want, I can help you fly all the way to Kazemura… I believe that's where Kochiya-san and the two goddesses went after the fairy attack. Hey, maybe they already managed to resolve it."

Patchouli shook her head in negative response. She highly doubted that the shrine maiden would even know what to do in order to put a definite end to the fairy attacks. Perhaps she could exterminate a few hundreds, but she would only be fighting the symptoms, not the cause.

Aya took her headshake slightly wrong. "Oh, no worries, you don't have to fight me to prove your worth, hehe…"

"Komeiji sisters…" a barely audible sentence came out of Patchouli's lips.

"Huh? Did you say Komeiji? The satori siblings? What about them?"

"It would be good to have them come with us…"

Aya didn't quite understand what Patchouli wanted with the two youkai who lived in the underground, but she tried to help. "So you think that the sisters can help you solve that incident?"

"Yes." the librarian gave a very clear, straightforward answer.

"What?" Hatate gave them both a puzzled look. "But how are you going to call them out? The youkai from the surface can't go underground."

"Hahaha!" Aya had a hearty laugh. "See? If you weren't such a shut-in, you'd learn that pretty recently there was a case where a group of surface youkai entered the underground, seeking the mistress of the Palace of Earth Spirits… The whole thing was a mere agreement between the underground youkai and Yakumo Yukari. And since she's not here, there's nothing preventing youkai from surface to visit the underground and vice-versa."

"I'm not a shut-in!" Hatate pouted at Aya's teasing remarks before she turned over to Patchouli. "Fine… So you won and I'll go with you to that quarry village and do what you need me to do… But if you ask me to start calling you "my lady" or something like that, then you can forget about the deal!"

Hatate's last sentence made Patchouli burst into laughter, which wasn't a very common sight.

"I'm serious…"

"Don't worry…" the laughing sorceress calmed her down. "We already have one very reliable maid…"

"Good for you." Hatate crossed her arms and turned her back on both girls.

"Oi, where are you going now?" Aya called after her.

"Home." she replied tersely. "It feels more comfortable when you're in dry clothes, you know…"

"Oh… alright." the other crow tengu shrugged. "Listen, Patchouli… While Hatate goes get changed. I'll see if I can convince the Komeiji sisters to come with us on our little field trip."

"Huh? Are you serious?" Patchouli didn't expect such enthusiasm from someone who wasn't even responsible for incident resolution.

"Of course I am. There's an entrance to the underground very close by. I bet I'll be back even sooner than Hatate!" and with that confident statement, and a friendly saluting gesture, the reporter of Bunbunmaru took off briskly into the air and disappeared somewhere behind the Moriya Shrine's roof.

* * *

Patchouli still needed a while to gather enough strength to stand up, so she just kept waiting on the lake's shore, enjoying the beautiful lake scenery and the afterglow of her close victory.

The white wolf tengu that still crowded the plateau left her alone. Even when she defeated one of their kind, it was a formal duel. The white wolf tengu were raised as warriors, and their sense of duty and honor was not unlike that of human samurai.

Patchouli was no longer seen as a potential threat to their village, so after assessing the damage to the shrine and filing their report for Lord Tenma, they returned to their guard posts, hidden all over the Youkai Mountain.

Finally, the one week wizard was able to stand up. The sky was getting filled with more clouds, but it was still quite hot. Patchouli sought shade at the Moriya Shrine. No longer than ten minutes have passed when she heard Aya's voice.

* * *

"Ayayaya~! Hold on tightly~!"

The crow tengu appeared on the horizon, holding both Komeiji sisters by the hands, like a jet fighter carrying two missiles under its wings.

"Slow down a bit~!" Satori pleaded her with closed eyes, except her third one, which she couldn't close.

"Ahahaha~!" Koishi's cheerful laughter accompanied her sister's voice. "Onee-chan, this is fun, isn't it~?"

"That was really fast." Patchouli stared at them in amazement.

"Haha~! Hatate's still not here? What did I tell you?"

"How did you manage to convince them both so fast?"

"Well, you see, with Satori-san, I didn't even have to say anything, she just told me that the resolution of this incident is partially her responsibility… Whatever she meant by that… And with the younger sister… She just said that she wouldn't let "onee-chan" have all the fun for herself… Oh, by the way, wasn't that girl supposed to follow us?" Aya turned her face at both of the sisters.

"Oh~! Over there~!" Koishi pointed at the horizon, not far from the place where they appeared just a while ago. "You're slow, Orin~! Hahaha~!"

A short female figure appeared, huffing and puffing, as if she had finished running a marathon.

"Are you *huff, huff* kidding me?! That tengu flies like crazy…"

The girl had fiery-red hair, styled in two braids on both sides, decorated by black ribbons both on their top and bottom. Her eyes were dark-red and besides her normal ears, she also sported a pair of black cat ears. She was wearing a pretty black dress with green frills and decorative patterns and a pair of black low-top shoes. She was dragging a heavy-looking object in one of her hands, which upon closer look appeared to be a wheelbarrow.

It didn't take Patchouli long to figure out what she was.

"A kasha…"

According to some of her books, the kasha were a type of youkai that appeared during storms to carry the bodies of sinners to Hell. They are said to be cats that have turned into youkai, but unlike their cousins, the nekomata, the kasha are those cats who have fed on the corpses of humans. These youkai delight in stealing the bodies of the dead during funeral ceremonies. It is said that the temples in areas where kasha were believed to live, used to hold two funeral ceremonies. In the first, the coffin was filled with rocks, to prevent the kasha from interfering with the funeral.

"That's right." Aya gave a confirming nod. "Satori insisted that she'd come with us. She's one of her pets too."

"Hmm…" Patchouli hummed thoughtfully. "Good thinking on Satori-san's part. A kasha may be very useful in this type of incident. Pleased to meet you…"

"Ohh… You look a bit like Satori-sama… Only with longer hair~!"

Patchouli and Satori briefly exchanged their looks and shrugged.

"I'm Rin Kaenbyou or Orin if you like… If you have any spare corpses in your household, just let me know and I'll help you dispose of them~!" she introduced herself in a cheerful, manner, not lacking a bit of black humor. This time though, the task for Rin did not require carrying corpses away. As a kasha, she was also able to communicate with the spirits of the deceased. Since the fairies were being possessed by spirits, bringing this hell cat along was not a bad idea if Patchouli wanted to put a permanent stop to this incident. In fact, she suspected that the incident was a result of kasha's meddling, as it was during the so called Subterranean Animism.

"It looks like we're almost ready to go then…"

Just as Patchouli said that, a familiar female voice called a question at them: "So you're already here?"

Hatate Himekaidou was back, dressed in a dry change of clothes. When she landed on the ground, she exchanged long silent stare with the two satori sisters and their pet.

"Oh thank goodness you're finally awake and here!" Aya apparently enjoyed teasing this girl just about as much as a certain ghost enjoyed teasing her gardener. "I was starting to wonder what's taking you so long."

"Haha~! You're slow, tengu onee-chan~!" Koishi waved her hand at the arriving spirit photographer.

Ignoring the young satori's childish remark, Hatate pointed her finger at Aya. "Patchouli-san didn't say she needed YOU to come with her."

"That she didn't. And even if she disagreed, I'd just tag along anyway. This whole incident definitely deserves newspaper coverage, so I'm coming whether you like it or not."

"Not fair…" Hatate made another pouting grimace. "You didn't even have to fight against her."

In jest, Aya asked the librarian: "Do you have anything against my company, Patchouli-san?"

"No."

"Do you want to have a duel with me?"

"Too… tired…"

"See? She has no objections." Aya smiled victoriously. "By the way, Patchouli, can you fly on your own, or should I lend you some support?"

"I'm fine." the sorceress lightly waved her hands and made herself levitate.

"So, should we first go get Reimu and others…?"

"No need." Patchouli interrupted her question. "I told them all to wait for me in Kazemura, so I think they're already there by now."

"Very well, let's not delay them." the black-haired tengu girl also kicked herself off the ground and soared into the air. "Don't worry, I'll fly slowly. You girls just go at your own pace, okay?"

A series of affirmative nods from the other non-tengu girls was a cue for Aya to turn to the east and slowly glide from the mountain plateau towards the distant village, where the yama-bito live. In a close formation, Hatate and the other youkai girls followed her lead.

"I wonder if Reimu and Marisa managed to get me some fairy specimens as I asked them…" thought the purple-haired elementalist as she was leaving the Moriya Shrine behind.


	53. Storm over Kazemura

It all started subtly, by the end of year 124, when the first group of fairies attacked the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Ever since then, the attacks have repeated with increasing intensity, always stemming from the same direction – the northeastern corner of Gensokyo. What was first viewed as a mere nuisance, became an anomaly. An anomaly became a threat, and a threat grew into a wide-scale incident that has spread over one half of the small fantasy world, sealed by a powerful barrier. Over the course of 4 months, the rampaging fairies have caused a lot of damage and threatened many lives. However, the ones who suffered the most from this incident… were the fairies themselves. The most common youkai in Gensokyo became shunned, feared and hated, when in fact; they were the victims of something more sinister.

What it was like to live in fear and to be feared at the same time was already well known even to the three fairies of light. Their home was already once destroyed by a forest fire, caused by their own kind. They even had to go through death and rebirth. But despite their small frames, simple minds, childish naivety and humble physical and magical prowess, the fairies were actually very strong creatures. Similarly to humans, or perhaps even better than them, the fairies can quickly adapt and easily cope with even the worst of hardships in short time.

Sunny, Luna and Star have moved not too far away from their previous home. They lived in a treetop close to the Hakurei Shrine. Their relationship with the local shrine maiden was two-sided even before the so-called Fairy Incident broke out. On one hand, the miko was often the favorite target of many of their fairy pranks, but on the other hand, they also feared her retribution.

Today, as any normal day, the three little winged youkai have started a debate on whom to prank and how.

"Hey, how about we painted over the sign on that miko's donation box and turned it into "no donations allowed"?" Sunny suggested an idea as the leader of the trio.

"I'm afraid that in order to do that, Sunny," Star finished the tea in her cup, "you'd first need to know how to read and write. Besides, why does it always have to be the shrine maiden?"

A flustered grimace appeared on Sunny's face. "Well…. You don't know how to read or write either~. And the shrine maiden is the nearest human around." she tried to justify her choice of target.

"Hey, doesn't Cirno-chan know how to read and write?" the third fairy – Luna recalled.

"That's right~!" Sunny clenched her fist lightly out of excitement. "She knows~!"

"Though I'd still prefer to simply sneak into Reimu's shrine and steal all her coffee beans." Luna added in quiet mutter as she didn't want to invoke an argument with the sunlight fairy.

"Except that Reimu doesn't drink coffee." the dark-haired Star Sapphire pointed out. "And do you seriously want to go all the way to Cirno's place, just so we could drag her here again and have her change the sign on the donation box? We might as well prank Cirno instead. Less flying that way…"

"Aww, what's wrong with you, Star?" Sunny asked her. "We're trying to come up with ideas, but you just keep brushing them off. Well then, why don't you suggest something?"

"Hm-hm-hmm~!" Star closed her eyes and stretched out her chest while giggling smugly. "I may have an idea…"

"Oh, let's hear it then!" Luna's wings twitched with impatience.

But instead of answering, Star suddenly stood up and flew out of their dwelling through an opened window.

"Hey, Star-chan~! Wait~!" Luna followed suit and gave chase to her friend.

"Seriously…" Sunny shook her head in disapproval, but then, as if the cheerful, carefree behavior of her friends was contagious, she took flight as well and hurried to catch up with the other two. "I'll catch you~! Hahaha~!"

* * *

Once outside, the black-haired fairy landed on the ground, soon rejoined with her two fair-haired comrades.

"Geez, Star… Tell us your idea already~!" Luna kept circling around her in anticipation.

"I'm also curious to hear if it's at least a little better than what I suggested." said Sunny.

After teasing her friends with making them wait, Star finally pointed her finger in the approximate direction of the Forest of Magic. "Let's go play in the sunflower field~!"

Luna stopped her flight so suddenly; it almost looked as if she hit some unseen solid object.

"…what?"

Sunny blinked twice as she processed the thought. "Sunflowers are so pretty~."

"But Star…" Luna didn't really like the idea. "…what do you want to go there for? There's nothing for us to do there."

"Sunflowers, sunflowers~!" Sunny began to sing merrily, ignoring the conversation between Luna and Star. Of course, a sunlight fairy would love anything relating to the source of her power.

Meanwhile, Star continued to explain her plan. "We'll pick some sunflowers and scatter their petals to create a trail… leading all the way to the Hakurei Shrine~!"

Despite the hot summer weather, Luna suddenly got goosebumps just thinking about it. "Star-chan… You've got a really dangerous idea."

"What did you say about my shrine?" a stranger's voice asked out of nowhere.

"KYAAAAAAAAH~!" the three fairies let out a synchronous scream. "It's the miko~! Ruuuun~!"

"I knew that they had their favorite hangout spot around here somewhere." Reimu smugly gestured at the fleeing trio of fairies with her gohei.

"And it looks like we just caught them in the middle of something." Marisa, who was already seated on her broom, started the pursuit.

Reimu took a pair of her amulets and struck them in midair with the gohei. The charms grew in size and as they began to rotate, they darted after the escaping little youkai A few seconds later, the homing amulets did their job and rendered the moonlight fairy immobilized on the ground.

"That takes care of one…" muttered Reimu nonchalantly as she slowly hovered over to the place where Luna disappeared in the tall grass.

"Oh… ouch… what was that?" Luna didn't even know what hit her. But by the time she regained her senses, a dark shadow projected by Reimu loomed over her.

"Aaaah~! I didn't do anything~! I swear~!" she covered her face with her arms.

But to her surprise, the miko extended her hand towards her. The confused fairy didn't know how to react.

"Or perhaps you like lying there in the grass." the girl in red and white stated in order to prompt the fairy to hurry up and grab her hand.

Finally, Luna got the hint, but her puzzlement didn't shrink at all. "What's going on?" she gazed unintelligibly at the miko. "First you shoot me down and now you're acting like we're best friends?"

"I just came here to talk. It was YOU who started running away." Reimu answered and just as Luna was about to take her hand, she retracted it. "And if you have the strength to talk, surely you have enough strength to stand up on your own."

"Talk?" Luna slowly stood up and dusted off her white dress that was now stained green after the fall into the grass. "A-about what?"

"Oh, I'll tell you… As soon as the rest of your friends get rounded up."

While Reimu was dealing with Luna, there were still two mischievous fairies on the loose.

"You'll never take us aliiiiive~!" Sunny shouted resolutely as she propelled herself across the meadow as fast as possible. Star was in close tandem, hoping that Sunny would know of a better hiding spot.

"Quick, we'll hide in that hedge over there~." she navigated her partner. She was just about to take a dive into the mentioned hedge, when another human popped up from behind it.

"How, ya doin'?" Marisa grinned evilly with the mini Hakkero in her hand.

"Oh, no, Star! We're trapped! What do we do now? Star…?" only now the golden-haired fairy noticed that Star Sapphire was no longer with her.

"Now, now… You don't want to complicate it for yourself by trying to run, do you?" the witch asked her while aiming her mini furnace at Sunny's face.

Before she decided whether she should surrender to her, or to risk it and try to run, Marisa caught her with her with her free hand.

"Remember the night of the festival?" she started with an off-topic question. Instead of a response, the fairy was only struggling to free herself from the human's grip.

"Remember what Patchouli said that night?" Marisa put a more specific question.

"Let me goooo~! Luna~! Star~! Heeeeelp~!"

"She said that it would be good to have some fairy specimens in order to better understand the way this incident manifests itself." Marisa answered the question in her stead. "That's right, little one… Today we're going to do a little sightseeing, hehehehe~."

Star figured that like so many times before, when their pranks failed and backfired, it was again her who was the last fairy uncaught. Sensing that her friends were already in a helpless situation, she made a dash into the woods, hoping that the human intruders would not follow her there. She was right. The humans didn't give chase…

"Well, well, if it isn't one of our lovely patients from the rehabilitation ward~." a chillingly sweet voice made Star's little heart skip a beat. A moment later, a certain Lunarian stepped out from behind one of the trees, bow and arrow ready in her hands.

"Huh? Y-you're… Eirin-sensei…"

"Oh, I remember you." a second female voice sounded from behind the fairy. Star made a 180 degree turn and spotted another familiar face.

"You are a cute one~." Kaguya Houraisan, once taking the role of a temporary nurse, now dressed in her typical daily attire, slowly descended down from the treetops. "A princess fairy… You do look a bit like me."

While both Lunarians spoke calmly and didn't appear to have hostile intentions, Star felt a menacing aura from both of them.

* * *

No longer than two minutes have passed before Star got reunited with her friends. Now the trio of pranksters was surrounded by an unusual team of humans and Lunarians and Reimu started explaining the whole situation to them.

"We don't want to go to Kazemura~!" the leader of the fairies protested.

"Patchouli said she would need just one fairy specimen, so the three of you can decide who's going to go with us. Willingly or otherwise. You've got ten seconds."

"W-wa-what~?! Then I think Star should go. She always slips off the hook when we get into trouble." Sunny started to negotiate.

"No way~!" Star obviously didn't like her decision. "Sunny should go. She's always so eager. And most of the pranks are her idea. I say she's the perfect specimen for you."

The two fairies in question started a heated argument.

So it was one vote against the other and now the burden of decision rested on Luna's shoulders. "I… I… "

"Time's up!" the Hakurei shrine maiden cut her off before she managed to stutter out the answer. "Pick one of your friends who will go with us to Kazemura OR volunteer yourself and become a martyr in their eyes. Otherwise we'll take all three of you."

"Then I volunteer myself!" the blonde fairy with spiral hairstyle shouted an unexpected reply.

"Eh~?" Sunny opened her mouth.

"Luna?"

"I don't want to see Sunny-chan and Star-chan arguing. That's why… that's why I'm going with you to Kazemura, so they wouldn't have to!"

"Great, that's settled then." Reimu stated emotionlessly. She took Luna's wrist into a tight grip and pulled her away from her two friends. "The two of you can go home."

"But… this IS our home…" Sunny uttered, still in bewilderment from Luna's courageous decision.

With her back turned at the two remaining fairies, Reimu made a saluting gesture as she walked away. "Then have a nice day."

Eirin, Kaguya and Marisa followed the shrine maiden and her captive back to Hakurei Shrine, leaving Star and Sunny alone in their meadow with plenty of time to think about what just happened.

* * *

"Star…" Sunny spoke after a long while. Her breaths were loud and heavy due to her accelerated heartbeat. She didn't know what shocked her more - the shrine maiden's sudden ambush or Luna's choice.

With a serious face and a tear rolling down her cheek she turned her face at her dark-haired friend. "Luna-chan is…" she sniffed loudly as more tears began welling up in her eyes. "Luna-chan is… gone!" she cried out and buried her face in her palms.

Star wasn't happy about the outcome of the situation either, and she too was on the verge of crying, but since Sunny had already beaten her to it, at least she wanted to be the calmer one.

"Sunny-chan… Come on… Don't cry."

"They've taken Luna away~!"

"Sunny, listen… Luna did it for us."

"She did it because she didn't want to see us arguing~!" Sunny uttered through her sobs. "Star-chan… I just feel so terrible right now!"

"She did what she thought was the best for us all." Star tried to comfort Sunny's heartache even if she felt a great deal of pain and guilt herself.

"Now they'll drag her to Kazemura!" the sunlight fairy's laments continued. "She'll become just like those crazy fairies that destroyed our home! Just like when… I did… that time… in Alice-san's home…."

"We have no choice but to trust the miko and hope that she's doing the right thing."

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAH~! I WANT LUNA BAAAACK, STAR-CHAN~!" a heart-wrenching cry echoed over the meadow. "I WISH I COULD TRADE MY LIFE FOR HERS! I WISH I DIDN'T START ARGUING WITH YOU, STAR-CHAN~!"

This was too much for even the calmer of the two fairies to take.

"Sunnyyyyy~!" she burst into tears, fell on her knees and embraced her. "I'm so sorry… It's just as you said… I'm the one who almost always gets away when you get caught! I'm a coward! And I only think about myself while I'm leaving you two behind… Friends shouldn't do that… Good friends… shouldn't do that. If I could take back those shameful moments… and stay there with you… while you were getting punished. AND TAKE THE SAME PUNISHMENT AS YOU DID! Luna is a much better fairy than I am! I should have gone with the miko, NOT HER!"

"Star-chan…" Sunny tightened her embrace around her. "Do you think… Do you think that Luna hates us? Do you think we can still make things right?"

"Perhaps we should have all come with her… Together forever… no matter what."

"Star-chan…" the sunlight fairy spoke again after releasing the embrace and wiping the tears off her eyes.

"What is it?"

"If I told you that I have an idea… would you listen to me?"

"W-what are you talking about?" the teary-eyed Star tilted her head to the side.

"I… I want to go there…To Kazemura. I want to follow them all. Even if the evil fairies attack us… Even if we will turn and become like them… I want us three to be together… And what happens after that? I don't care…"

"Sunny-chan… I… I'm with you!"

"Thank you, Star." a weak smile appeared on Sunny's face. Even her tears stopped leaking from her eyes and her heart became filled with enthusiasm, as if she was about to plan and execute the prank of her life. "There's still some time… Here's what we'll do…"

* * *

"Ah, what a great timing." said Reimu when she noticed Remilia, Sakuya as well as Yuyuko and Youmu already waiting at her shrine. Keine, Suika and Akyuu stayed behind to keep them company. "I guess that means we can set out."

"But where's Patchouli?" Remilia asked as she didn't notice the sorceress among the girls that escorted Reimu.

"Good afternoon, Reimu-san~." Yuyuko gave a proper polite greeting.

"Spare the pleasantries." the miko cut her off and turned to the vampire, who was hiding from the sun under a large pinkish parasol. "Believe it or not, your friend went off to the Youkai Mountain all by herself to recruit Sanae and the two goddesses into her team. She told us not to wait for her and head straight to Kazemura, but… I wonder if she's alright. Maybe the tengu have made an example for trespassers out of her."

"Shouldn't we first check the mountain then?" asked the Scarlet Devil.

"And waste even more time? No. We'll just act as though Patchouli did well and fly to Kazemura. If she won't be there, then SOMEONE will have to go and check the Youkai Mountain." Reimu's gaze trailed off to Marisa.

"Why am I always picked as that "someone"?" pouted the blonde.

"Alright, everyone ready~?" the shrine maiden called out loudly so that all could hear her.

"Reimu, wait." Remilia halted her suddenly.

"Hm? What is it now?"

The blue-haired vampire girl opened her palm and drew a small circle on it with her finger.

"What?" Reimu didn't get her pantomime.

She then pointed at the ornamented wooden box standing on a small table in Reimu's shrine. The one where she kept various mementos of her past and various odds and ends that had great sentimental value to her.

Now Reimu understood what Remilia was trying to say. "The amulet? You really think I should take it with me?"

A double nod with a cute smile came as a positive response from the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"Well, if you say so…" Reimu tentatively walked up to her little treasure chest, unlocked it and took the small medallion by the chain. After a while of hesitation, she put it around her neck and hid it well under her dress. "Alright. Does anyone else have anything to say, or can we get moving already?"

"Let's go, ze~!" Marisa was already itching to go. She took flight and so did the rest of the girls, heading off to the distant quarry settlement known as Kazemura.

"Uh-umm…" little Akyuu waved her palm over her head desperately as the girls left her behind. "Excuse me~!"

"And up we go~!" a pair of arms enveloped the little chronicler from behind and lifted her into the air.

"Waaaah~!" the surprised girl let out a scream. "S-Saigyouji-sama?"

"How rude of those girls to forget this lovely child here~." Yuyuko's soft voice sang into Akyuu's ear. "Don't worry, I won't drop you."

The ghostly princess tightly held her in her arms as she followed the other girls in flight to currently one of the most dangerous parts of Gensokyo.

* * *

From a nearby thicket of trees, the two hidden fairies watched as a group led by the miko and the witch flew overhead.

Sunny silently nodded at Star, giving her the "go" signal. The two of them took off and kept a low profile, flying below the treetops. A long, difficult and risky flight awaited them, but their decision was firm. Despite fearing the risk of encountering some of the crazed fairies during their flight to the northeastern Gensokyo, Star and Sunny pressed on. Occasionally, Sunny would pop her head up from the trees, to check their heading. Of course, since they had to proceed with caution, move stealthily and avoid hundreds of trees, they couldn't keep up with Reimu and her company, but they at least knew how to get to the mining village.

"Do you sense any suspicious movement, Star?" Sunny asked her partner, referring to Star's unique ability to sense all living creatures in a wide radius around her. Much like a magic detector that could pick up traces of mana from magical objects and beings, Star could detect life force and even learn the approximate size of the creature and its movement. But that's as much as her divination allowed her to see. For example, she could still confuse a crouching human with a lurking wolf or a large bird with another fairy.

"No, the coast looks clear." she whispered her answer back to Sunny. They kept stopping every couple of meters when Star detected some new living entity and remained motionless until Star confirmed that it was safe to go on. And whenever Sunny scouted and checked the course, she relied on her innate ability to bend the sunlight, which could even make her invisible. However, her power was weaker in areas with lack of sunlight and rain also rendered her light-bending useless.

"Oh, no… This doesn't look good, Star-chan." she shook her head disappointedly at the clouded sky. "Looks like there will be rain today. Maybe even a storm."

"How much further to Kazemura?" came the starlight fairy's question from below.

"Not too far. A couple of more minutes and we're there."

The end of the forest was no further than a few hundred meters ahead, followed by vast grasslands, stretching several kilometers, and there, in the distance, the road that snaked uphill and disappeared in a pine forest… the road to Kazemura. The fairies followed the trail, and in approximately 15 minutes, they arrived at their destination.

"I can't believe we're actually here." Sunny muttered as she poked her head out from the treetops.

"Wasn't following those girls your idea?" Star pointed out and also gave in to her curiosity and took a peek at the small settlement and the large quarry nestled in the middle of a mountain pass.

"Yeah, but still… Oh, that group must be the miko and her gang." she pointed at the center of the large oval pit of the quarry. "Luna-chan must be there with them too. Let's take a closer look."

They glided over to the edge of the quarry pit, hiding behind a large rock and spying on the group of girls, which was now larger than the one they followed…

* * *

"Wow~!" Marisa didn't hide her awe as she observed the whole quarry. "Look how deep this pit has become! When were we here last time? A month ago? It must be at least three meters deeper than before… Those yama-bito sure made some progress, ze…"

The quarry has indeed changed significantly as the local yama-bito spent over 30 days of hard work in attempt to uncover the site's mysteries. The pit was not only deeper, but also wider and several of the houses were relocated due to its expansion. To move the excess soil and rocks out of the pit more efficiently, the youkai populace of this village has devised a system of ramps and slopes that provided easy and relatively comfortable access to the center of the excavation. They've even established a series of small channels connected to a basin at the edge of the quarry pit to help them drain the unwanted water after rain or from underground reservoirs. But apart from the simple, yet ingenious solutions to their quarry access and water drainage, the most interesting part were the uncovered ruins. Even now, dozens of yama-bito prospectors were busily digging and carrying away the dirt, leaving the elder and the wiser members of the village with analyzing the monuments.

"Those obelisks sure look impressive." Alice commented the unearthed part of the ruins. Six tall ornamented obelisks jutted from the ground, indicating that the monuments were even larger then what met the eye. And in the further end of the pit, between the last pair of obelisks stood a cylindrical tower-like construction that had domed roof, but no doors or windows could be seen yet. Whatever this group of structures was, its purpose was not yet clear to anyone.

"So you're actually here. I thought you wouldn't make it even to the Youkai Mountain." Reimu looked a little impressed when she saw Patchouli sitting on a crate in an improvised tent that consisted of several wooden poles stuck into the ground and a large blanket stretched on top as a roof. She appeared to be writing something into a journal.

"Ah, just about time." she put away the journal and the quill and stood up to welcome all the members of her expedition team. "Welcome to the Kazemura excavation site."

"Uhh… yes, this isn't the first time we're here, Patchy." Remilia pointed out. "Could you move on to the point, please?"

The sorceress remained silent for a while, as if agitated from being interrupted, but she continued with no change in tone or expression. "Very well… The Fairy Incident. Please, everyone gather around and step up closer~!" she called out and fired a small, harmless explosive fire bolt into the air to get attention of everyone in the quarry. Not just the girls took a step closer, but also some of the elder villagers.

"Well, I should have guessed I'd see you here as well." Sanae Kochiya, the shrine maiden of the Moriya Shrine just landed in the quarry pit, accompanied by the shrine's two deities. Her words were addressed to none other than Reimu, though she looked surprised to see the other girls from all over Gensokyo. The two goddesses, however, looked as though they expected this gathering a long time ago.

"Hello, Sanae." Reimu greeted her informally and rather indifferently.

"So… was your shrine attacked too?" the green-haired miko asked her out of sheer curiosity.

"Hm? No… Are you saying that yours was?" Sanae's question unsettled Reimu. "I thought my regular patrols around these parts would prevent further attacks."

"That's right. The fairies have come in a small swarm and started attacking the shrine. At first I thought that a hailstorm has started when I heard the racket."

"But it was no hailstorm." added Kanako. "Though I can feel that we're going to have an intense downpour today. I hope you all packed your umbrellas with you."

"Anyway," Sanae continued, "the fairies behaved very peculiarly. As soon as we went outside to take a look, they started attacking us. But not all at once… They simply attacked by small waves, like they just wanted to provoke us or something. A few minutes later, the tengu guards arrived. Then the fairies decided they were more interesting than the three of us and our shrine. It was like they intentionally wanted to provoke a fight and then lose it."

For Sanae, this was the first time she had to deal with possessed fairies, but Reimu still had the epic battle against a seemingly unstoppable fairy swarm in fresh memory. What concerned the Hakurei shrine maiden the most was the fact that the aerial distance from Kazemura to the Moriya Shrine was about the same as the distance from this village to the Hakurei Shrine.

Sanae gave Reimu a friendly tap on her shoulder. "You should be glad that your shrine is still unharmed. Aya-san told me this wasn't anything new to her…"

"What? Aya is here too?"

"She got here shortly after us along with five other girls. She said the attacks have started months ago, only that they've never reached the mountain yet. So I was wondering why someone hasn't done something about it yet. I just arrived here a while ago, but there is no mastermind to stop. No giant swarm of fairies to fight. But to see so many important figures gathering here…"

"I wouldn't say the words "giant fairy swarm" out loud in these parts." Marisa spoke in a hushed voice and shuddered at the thought. "They say it brings bad luck."

"The truth is, I've been stumbling in the dark as well." Reimu admitted while staring at the ground. "But now," she raised her head, "Patchouli says she's found out something, so… I can't wait to hear her out."

"Shhhh~!" the history teacher from the Human Village has hushed the chattering girls like she silenced a bunch of noisy kids during her class. "Patchouli-san is about to start the briefing."

As the expedition team became quiet, Patchouli cleared her throat and began her speech.

"I apologize for summoning you all to this village so suddenly, but the sooner we start acting, the sooner we can resolve this fairy problem."

"What have you learned, Patchy~?" Marisa impatiently shouted a question.

"Thanks to Yagokoro-sensei's findings we have learned that the aggressive behavior of the fairies is not caused by a drug, a disease, or a spell. The fairies… especially those living in this part of Gensokyo are for some reason being possessed by vengeful spirits."

The gathered crowd resonated with a mixture of murmurs and whispers. "But that's nothing new, Patch…" Remilia wanted to point out, but she was silenced by her maid.

"My lady… Please, let Patchouli-sama finish." It was almost as if their roles reversed for a moment.

"As you all well know," the purple-haired elementalist went on, "vengeful spirits are the restless souls of sinners confined to the Old Hell. Alternatively, a vengeful spirit is born when the body of the deceased is taken away by a youkai before the soul crosses the Sanzu River and receives judgement. These types of spirits can take possession of a living being and affect their behavior. There are records of humans being possessed by the onryou, but the ones who should fear these spirits the most are youkai, such as myself. While youkai mostly have strong physical bodies…"

"In that case, you don't have to worry, Patchy." Marisa jokingly muttered under her nose, poking fun at Patchouli's poor physical strength and constitution.

"…they have very fragile hearts." Patchouli finished the sentence. "While I found no records about this matter in my library, there's a highly possible theory that when a vengeful spirit possesses a youkai, it could completely overwrite their heart. The vengeful spirit would become the youkai's core. Essentially, it would be as if the former youkai died, leaving behind its living body possessed by the vengeful spirit. So remember that even though it's an unconfirmed theory, extreme caution should be exercised when dealing with vengeful spirits."

Patchouli's words have nearly caused a panic among those who heard them. But the sorceress herself seemed to be calm. And she was quick to explain why…

"However, there are certain entities that the vengeful spirits are afraid of in turn. Divine spirits, deities, the servants and vessels for these deities – the shrine maidens, and even certain youkai. Yes, as ironic as it sounds, there are youkai that the vengeful spirits fear, or are generally harmless to… I'm talking about the youkai that humanity has hated and feared so much, that they've chosen to live in exile in the underground. The satori race… This is the reason why I summoned you here, dear Komeiji sisters."

"When will the fun start, onee-chan~?" Koishi broke the silence of the crowd and got subsequently scolded by her older sister.

"Koishi, it's rude to interrupt someone when they talk. Even when I'm five sentences ahead of what she's saying…"

"Please, step right up." Patchouli called them to step out of the crowd. It took a while, as the mind reader hesitated, but in the end, she complied and took her sister by the hand.

"Just when the hell did she manage to call them up to the surface?" Reimu was in a state of utter puzzlement as she saw the two siblings from the underground standing by Patchouli's side.

"People and youkai of Kazemura~! Of Gensokyo~! We're facing times of trial and if we are to prevail, we must put aside our differences. The hatred that the satori have received is greatly undeserved and condemnable."

"Wow… That's some fancy speech, Patchy." Marisa lightly shook her head in amazement. "Have you been to the Temple of Myouren recently or something? Byakuren could learn a thing or two from that, ze…"

"Those who hate them categorically because they are youkai and because they can read minds are in essence sharing the same opinions as the vengeful spirits themselves. But those of you who know more about Gensokyo's history… those of you who have seen and experienced those times when these youkai were still sharing this piece of land with us and not living in underground like exiles… just how exactly have they been worse then your average "surface-dwelling youkai"? Even the vengeful spirits are viewed with less contempt than some of the underground's youkai. I could name other examples too. But I have digressed… My point is that I ask you not to fear these youkai, for they are not malevolent. They are the key in helping us rooting out and solving this incident just as much as the shrine maidens that you're all putting so much trust into."

The Komeiji sisters have bowed lightly to the whole crowd. "Treat us fairly and we will do the best we can to help."

Surprisingly the two sisters could sense just minimum of the hatred towards them that Patchouli spoke of. The small yama-bito community probably never even met a satori in their life to be able to have any biased opinions about them. In fact, some of the villagers have applauded to Patchouli's words.

"And since I introduced the Komeiji sisters, I also have to introduce their pet – Kaenbyou Rin. You might well remember the events of Subterranean Animism. The great geyser and the subsequent infestation of the geyser area by Old Hell's vengeful spirits… Merely a distress signal from below caused by this youkai cat… Her ability to communicate with these spirits is surely to be appreciated in our endeavor."

A flash of light appeared in the gathered crowd, and soon after that, a black cat with two tails ran over to the Komeiji sisters and curled around Satori's foot.

"Moving on," the librarian didn't want to waste much time with lengthy speeches, "as you have noticed, I have chosen perhaps a little bizarre combination of members for this expedition team, but know that each of you are here for a reason… Next, I would like to call up, Lady Saigyouji."

A small applause echoed over the quarry pit as the princess of the Netherworld levitated to Patchouli's side.

"Good afternoon, everyone~!" a simple wave of her hand and her smile already seemed to be taking its effect on some of the gathered villagers.

"Saigyouji-sama…."

"Call me Yuyuko~." she asked Patchouli to be less formal.

"Uhh… very well… Yuyuko-sama is also one of the most important members chosen for this team. Not only is she able to communicate with the spirits of the dead, but she can control these souls if she invokes death upon their living husk. This is an invaluable ability that I hope will bring us to the bottom of this spirit infestation."

"I'm looking forward to offering my humble assistance." the ghostly beauty bowed once more.

"Thank you very much." Patchouli reciprocated the polite gesture. "Next up, I'd like to bring your attention to the pair of tengu journalists, Shameimaru Aya-san and Himekaidou Hatate-san."

The two girls quickly landed in front of the librarian and exchanged a few provocative prods as they tried to overshadow one another.

"Thank you, and good day~! Shameimaru Aya here~! Please keep supporting the Bunbunmaru Newspaper~!"

"Hi-umph… Himekaidou Hatate is pleased to make your acquaintance~…Cut it out, Aya~! Ehehe… Anyway, don't forget to support the Kakashi Spirit News~."

Patchouli watched the two rival reporters with her mouth slightly ajar. "Uhh… aside from this little commercial insert, I'd like to point out that Aya-san is not officially a part of this team, but she insisted on coming with us and covering an article about our endeavors… However, Hatate-san's specialization – the spirit photography is going to be implemented as a part of our research to help us find the source of the vengeful spirits… Now I'd like to explain to all of you why we are even here of all places. What connects the fairy attacks and this village is the discovery of these ruins. The direct connection is yet to be confirmed, and for this reason, the core of this expedition team, which includes myself, Yagokoro-sensei, Kamishirasawa-sensei and Hieda-san will focus on direct archeological research of these uncovered structures. At the same time, I'd also like to thank the chief of this village as well as all its denizens for accommodation and an exceptional 24-hour access to both the quarry pit and the village's archives. Last but not least, I have to once again remind us all that this research is not going to be without risks and danger. I know that the village has been already attacked by the possessed fairies several times, and to cope with this constant threat, I had to come prepared… All those whom I didn't mention so far are also part of the force that will guarantee safety and order while the research is being conducted. Experienced specialists in youkai extermination, Hakurei Reimu, Kochiya Sanae, Kirisame Marisa. Loyal servants of their noble mistresses, Izayoi Sakuya and Konpaku Youmu. The goddesses of the Moriya Shrine, Yasaka Kanako-sama and Moriya Suwako-sama. The former Moon princess, Houraisan Kaguya-sama. The specialist in animation magic – Alice Margatroid. And finally, my close and long-time friend and a noble lady, Remilia Scarlet… It is a pleasure to be working with you all."

A deep bow from the sorceress concluded her introductory speech. What followed afterwards was a detailed division of tasks for each of the team members for the following days. When Reimu asked how long this research would take, Patchouli didn't give a straightforward answer, but she said that few days should be enough.

As the girls were discussing each of their tasks, Sanae noticed that the goddess of earth, Suwako was looking absentmindedly at the ground.

"Suwako-sama, what's the matter?"

"Haven't you noticed anything strange while standing here, Sanae?" the goddess with the body of a girl in early teens answered with a question.

"I sure have…" the second goddess replied instead of Sanae.

Sanae shifted her gaze from one to the other, having next to no clue about what they meant.

"The soil here…" Suwako spoke after a pause. "It's sullied by a strong negative energy."

"Not just the soil, but the air as well." Kanako added with a concerned frown.

"I don't sense anything." Sanae admitted while shrugging cluelessly. "Except that I feel a little sleepy. Must be because there's going to be rain…"

"I hate rain." murmured the annoyed vampire girl. As a vampire, she had a natural weakness to running water. "Maybe I should have stayed at the mansion after all."

"Don't worry, my lady," Sakuya comforted her, "I've seen the rooms in the local inn and they're not that terrible."

"Don't you sleep in a coffin anyways?" Marisa remarked jokingly. "If you could sleep well at the shrine during the festival, you'll surely make it through one rainy night here as well."

The truth behind Remilia's discontent was the fact that due to rain, she could hardly be of any help to the expedition team. Therefore, she wanted to confirm something before the weather would lull her to sleep.

"Reimu." she summoned the Hakurei shrine maiden suddenly.

"What is it?"

"The amulet; show it to me." she opened her palm expectantly and tapped her foot against the ground while the miko reluctantly removed the mentioned amulet from her neck. Reimu didn't even hope that Remilia's eyes would reveal anything groundbreaking about the amulet other than what was already known. With a clinking sound, the medallion and its chain landed in the vampire's palm.

Without saying a word, Remilia took the amulet by the chain and stared at it like she was tying to put herself into hypnosis.

"See anything?" Reimu asked her even if she could guess the answer.

The older of the Scarlet sisters silently turned around and started walking towards the mysterious tower-like structure.

"Hey, are you deaf or something?" Reimu called after her. Seeing as the blue-haired youkai with eternally young body showed no reaction, she jogged after her. "Hey~! Why does every youkai have such problem with giving a clear answer?" she muttered as she trotted to catch up with Remilia.

The vampire mistress stopped just a few meters in front of the cylindrical monument, shifting glances between the amulet and the ground beneath her feet.

"I feel tired, Reimu…" she uttered out of the blue.

"I wasn't asking about your disposition." said the shrine maiden. "Just where are you going with that thing?"

"Oh, I'm not going any further…" she pointed her finger at the ground. "Down into the earth is where one thin red string leads. One that connects to this amulet…"

"What?!" Reimu's surprise was obvious from both her tone and her facial expression.

"That's all I can see. What it means, though, I dare not even guess."

Standing there motionlessly, like one of the unearthed monuments, was Reimu with an absentminded look in her eyes. Not even she could make heads or tails about the amulet's connection with the archeological discovery in this remote village.

"We… we should tell that to Patchouli and others." she made a suggestion once she snapped out of her brainstorming mode.

"Yes, go ahead." Remilia waved her hand. "Tell them about it… Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to the inn already. I feel somewhat… under the weather."

She handed over the amulet back to Reimu while covering her mouth as she yawned.

"Hm? What's up with you? It hasn't even started raining yet."

"I'll be fine…" she said reassuringly, but her smile was forced, almost pained.

After Remilia left the quarry pit, Reimu hurried to bring the news about the amulet to the team.

* * *

"Hmmm…" Patchouli hummed in deep thought. A myriad of various theories and hypotheses started whirling inside her head. "So many possible connections and so many different interpretations… I was discussing the seriousness of the matter with the village chief earlier. The ruins are no doubt a part of this incident, but not necessarily their epicenter. However, their discovery triggered these events… the vengeful spirits. Should the situation call for it, I suggested that it would be best to bury the ruins and seal the quarry pit. Even if it would mean that this settlement would lose its purpose."

"No!" Reimu shouted in protest. "What are you saying? I just told you that this amulet is connected with the ruins. Remilia said it…"

"Indeed, Reimu." the sorceress nodded. "This changes everything. It may be our only lead to finding Gensokyo's missing sage, Yukari. Now I know that we have to keep going forward and let the yama-bito excavate the ruins completely until we know what they are."

"I'm glad that we see things the same, but you said that your research wouldn't take longer than a few days. The yama-bito work fast, but it'll take them months to fully uncover the ruins."

"Months?" Patchouli giggled amusedly. "Why do you think I recruited Suwako-sama into this expedition team?"

"Suwako…" Reimu looked over her shoulder at a small group of girls behind her. "But of course!" she lightly knocked her head with her knuckle. "The earth goddess! She can uncover the ruins in a flash! Then what are we waiting for? Let's do it!" she demanded impatiently, but Patchouli raised a hand in a "halt" gesture.

"Not yet. We must first wait for the results of the preliminary research. And like I said, that may take a day or two."

"Why waste time with this nonsense when we can get to the bottom of this incident right now?" Reimu couldn't understand Patchouli's intentions.

"For our safety." Patchouli gave a terse answer. "We must learn how to protect ourselves from the vengeful spirits and prevent them from possessing the fairies."

"Is that why you asked us to bring you a specimen?" Reimu pointed her finger at Luna Child, who was held captive by the expedition team. She had no restraints binding her, but there was no need for them. If she tried to run, she wouldn't stand a chance.

"That's right." the elementalist confirmed and walked up to the frightened moonlight fairy.

* * *

"Oh, no, they're going to do something to Luna-chan!" Sunny Milk whispered to Star as they watched the scene from a hidden position. "We have to do something~!"

"But what?" wondered the dark-haired fairy.

"I don't know…" Sunny hopelessly flailed her little arms. "I… I'm going to rescue her~!"

"Are you crazy?! They'll catch you too~!" Star shouted after her, but Sunny already took off and flew straight into the middle of the quarry. "Sunny~? Sunny~! You dummy…"

With a reluctant sigh, Star floated up from behind her rocky cover. "I won't let you suffer alone this time…" she swallowed her fear and glided right after her fair-haired friend.

"Let Luna-chan go~!" Sunny shouted at the girls as she prepared herself for attack. "Sunlight "Sunshine Blast"!"

"What?" Patchouli turned around to see who was demanding the release of her test subject. Her eyes spotted a pair of fairies making a fly-by to create a distraction. The target of Sunny's Spell Card, however, was Reimu. The shrine maiden didn't have to do much to avoid it, though. Sunny's card created just a few dozens of ellipsoid bolts of intense sunlight in an unimpressive and ineffective barrage that only managed to lightly scorch a few small patches of soil.

"Run, Luna-chan, run~!" the sunlight fairy shouted at her friend from a distance.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Patchouli watched the two incoming fairies with interest. "More specimens. Or perhaps they're already possessed?"

"We'll see soon enough." said Reimu as she flung a pair of homing ofuda at the bold, but foolish fairies.

"Awawa~! Look out, Star-chan~! The miko is returning fire~! Ack!" one of the amulets silenced her and brought her down to the ground with a light thud.

"Sunny you are an idio…ungh!" the starlight fairy followed the same fate and crashed next to her ally.

"Why was my Spell Card so weak…?" wondered Sunny in delirium as she was recovering from the paralyzing effect of Reimu's charms.

"Star! Sunny!" Luna couldn't believe her eyes as she hurried to meet the two stunned fairies. "Is that really you?"

"We… we just couldn't leave you here alone…" chuckled the sunlight fairy as she writhed on the ground.

"Sunny-chan…" Luna was at a loss for words.

"Ah, excellent." Patchouli smiled contently at the trio. "It looks like they haven't been possessed yet. Let's begin with our research, shall we?"

"W-what d-do you want to do to us?" Star's voice trembled with fear as her eyes reflected Reimu's and Patchouli's faces.

"Remilia insisted that I should not take any of her fairy maids to this village, so I had to resort to looking for an alternative. You don't need to worry. The reason why I needed a fairy specimen is to learn whether the shrine maidens, Reimu and Sanae are capable of preventing the vengeful spirits from possessing the fairies."

"Of course I can!" Reimu folded her arms and pouted slightly. "I know several effective apotropaic blessings and chants that ward away evil spirits and misfortune… though I never tried them on a youkai before."

"This is a perfect opportunity to try it, Reimu." Patchouli encouraged her.

"What? Right now?"

"Yes, right now." the sorceress affirmed. "Sanae-san~!"

"Yes?"

* * *

After a while of explaining and a bit of arguing, the two shrine maidens finally began to conduct their protective blessings over the trio of fairies. After over 30 minutes of chanting, dancing and blessing, the Three Mischievous Fairies became perhaps the most blessed fairies in all of Gensokyo.

"Phew… that was more exhausting than I thought." Reimu wiped the sweat off her forehead.

"Do they serve tea in this village?" Sanae, who was equally tired, asked the head of the expedition team.

"There's only one tavern here, but they should have tea." Patchouli replied.

"So… does that mean we won't be possessed now?" wondered the three fairies.

"I only tried those blessings on humans before, so I don't really know." Reimu shrugged. "I don't even know why you asked us to perform the blessings now. They are only temporary and unless the vengeful spirits attack us or something, we'll never even know whether they work or not."

A faint smile brightened up the youkai girl's face. "Exactly." That was all she said. Her answer left both shrine maidens clueless and nervous.

"Hey, what was that supposed to mean?" Reimu called out. "Are we expecting an attack today or something?"

Patchouli remained silent. She looked around cautiously around the crowded quarry pit and walked up to both shrine maidens. She stopped not even half a meter away from them.

"What's going on, Patchouli?" inquired the black-haired miko. "If you want us to cooperate with you, you better tell us everything."

Patchouli leaned her face between their heads and whispered: "I believe our presence alone is enough to provoke the possessed fairies to attack this village. I don't mean to cause panic among the villagers, but we must stay alert at all times."

"What makes you so certain that we'll be attacked here?" asked Sanae.

"I'm not certain, but it's highly probable." Patchouli corrected her. "The truth is, another fairy attack is vital to this research."

"What?" Reimu thought she heard her wrong. "Are you saying you actually want the fairies to attack the village?"

"Your ears aren't deceiving you, Reimu. The fairy attack is one of our objectives. I'll wait for a few days, but if the fairies won't attack us, I'll ask Suika-san to use her gathering ability."

While Reimu frowned in disapproval of her plan, Sanae jumped excitedly. "Haha~! So this won't be just a boring field trip after all! I was hoping to see some action. Youkai hunting is what I was born for!"

"We'll see if you keep that enthusiasm when thousands of fairies swarm this village." Reimu cooled her down.

"Let them come! I'll teach them a lesson for attacking the Moriya Shrine!"

"We may not have the assistance of the Myouren Temple this time," remarked Patchouli, "but we have the numbers and power to stand against even a large-scale fairy attack. I only ask you to be vigilant and prepared to fight. Now, if you excuse me, I've got other team members to supervise."

* * *

The youkai librarian bowed lightly to the two shrine maidens and returned to her provisionary tent. The three fairies of light were there too. Their mood was much happier now. Not just because they were together again, but also because they learned that they were protected by a multitude of blessings. However, Patchouli didn't have much time to pay attention to them. Just as soon as she sat down, Hatate landed in front of her. "Patchouli-san… I've photographed the monuments from all possible angles as you asked."

"Thank you, Hatate-san. Have you learned anything new?"

"With the spirit photography I learned that these structures are approximately ten thousand years old. I sense a strong indication that we're standing on an ancient temple complex."

"A temple, huh?" Patchouli thoughtfully made a few notes into her logbook. "Anything else?"

"Yes, it was built by humans, but not entirely…" Hatate paused herself as she repeatedly pushed a button on her camera to browse between her pictures. "Strong divine power was used in its construction."

"Like the temple of Myouren…"

"The ornaments on the obelisks and the tower appear to be…"

"A star map." said both Hatate and Patchouli at the same time.

"Huh? You already knew this Patchouli-san?"

"I only deciphered a few symbols, but that's all it took to identify their context on these obelisks. Each of the obelisks holds a piece of information about the position of the stars. It's fascinatingly precise for something so ancient… Impressive that you managed to figure that out with your spirit photography, Hatate-san."

Hatate blushed slightly from the praise. "One more thing, Patchouli-san. The base of the ruins is still over 10 meters under ground, but it looks like a volcano must have erupted here and buried the temple, because I can sense that the geological structure radically changes after a few meters."

"That is not a problem." Patchouli waved her hand. Even when the ruins were buried in a mass of rock, with the help of an earth goddess, they could be uncovered without much difficulty. But Patchouli didn't want to proceed to that phase just yet.

"That's all I managed to learn so far." Hatate bowed and took a step back, ready to return to work. "If I find out anything more, I'll let you know."

"Sakuya?" Patchouli wanted to summon the maid, but she apparently wasn't around to hear her. The youkai sorceress only wanted to have a refreshing cup of tea, but since Sakuya wasn't there, she had to overcome her laziness and go to the village's only tavern.

* * *

"One oolong tea, please." she placed her order at the bar. Oddly enough to her, the barkeep was a human, unlike most of the tavern's patrons. He mumbled something under his nose as he took the order and placed a water kettle on the stove. As Patchouli waited for her tea, her eyes drifted into one of the tavern's corners where she noticed a few members of her expedition sitting at the table, discussing something. It was Eirin and Kaguya from Eientei and it looked like Erin was just standing up from the table.

Patchouli's curiosity urged her to speak up. "Going to the archive, Eirin-sensei?"

"Hm? Oh, I didn't even notice you were here, Patchouli-san." the silver-haired Lunarian blinked her eyes at her. "Eh… Yes, I'll take a look at the archives and see if I can learn anything relevant." she smiled and with an elegant bow, she left the establishment.

"Now what am I supposed to do?" Kaguya muttered as she looked outside the window, watching as Erin headed towards the village's archive. She let out a heavy sigh. "This village is so boring… Say, Patchouli-san, are you taking a break?"

"You could say that."

"Mind if I sit next to you?"

"Do as you please." Patchouli gestured at the vacant stool next to her. She was on quite friendly terms with the Moon princess, so she certainly didn't mind her company during her tea break.

"Such a fuss over a few stone pillars jutting from the ground… If it's the source of the vengeful spirits, I'd think we discovered a tomb."

"That might not be too far from the truth." Patchouli admitted and suddenly changed the topic. "She seemed somehow… absentminded today, don't you think?"

Kaguya cluelessly tilted her head to the side. "Hm?"

"Eirin… It's not every day that I've seen her like that."

The Moon princess giggled while giving an understanding nod. "I know, right~? Yes, she was like that since the moment you paid us a visit this morning. She's usually absentminded when she thinks too intensely about a problem… Or when she's telling a lie." she added with a sly grin.

"Telling a lie?"

"Yes. Though it's not very often, there have been a few occasions when Eirin intentionally kept a few things secret from me back in the Lunar Capital, as well as here on Earth. And every time when she lied, she had that strange glassy look in her eyes. It's so easy to tell, hehe… I actually find that trait of Eirin's very cute."

"So, either something is troubling her, or…"

"It was a lie…" to both Patchouli's and Kaguya's surprise, the bartender finished the sentence.

"Pardon?" Patchouli gave him a flabbergasted stare.

"That tall silver-haired lady…" the man specified as he served Patchouli her tea. "She's probably not headed for the archives. She asked me about a certain youkai who lives not too far from here."

It didn't take long for Patchouli to figure out Eirin's intention. "That alchemist?" she asked the bartender.

"So you want to know where to find him too? Heh, I should probably get a cut from that youkai's profit, given how many folks I've guided to his cavern." he chuckled as he made a joking remark.

Patchouli didn't need to ask him for directions, she already had them written in the report that a certain outsider made here over a month ago.

She didn't like the thought that Eirin has gone rogue on the expedition team and was only following her own interests, but perhaps this wasn't all for naught. Patchouli was suspicious of that mysterious youkai alchemist as well, and the only way to find out whether or not he had anything to do with the incident, was to interrogate him. Not even finishing half of her oolong tea, Patchouli stood up.

"You can finish it if you like." she told Kaguya before she left the tavern with hastened steps.

"Wait a minute! Where are you going? Heeey~!" the librarian kept walking, ignoring Kaguya's calls. The door shut behind her, and the Moon princess was left alone again.

* * *

"Geez... Why can't anyone stay for a little chat?"

Patchouli took flight straight to the village archive, which was one of the smaller buildings in the village. The elderly yama-bito lady at the reception desk welcomed her, offering additional assistance should Patchouli ask for it.

After briefly looking around the archive, Patchouli noticed Akyuu and Keine, but no sign of Eirin. She asked the reception lady whether she had seen a tall woman with very long silver hair tied in a thick braid.

"I'm sorry, but I can't say that I have, my dear. Unless you mean that lady over there." She beckoned at Keine. "But her hair is obviously not tied in a braid."

"No, that's not Yagokoro-sensei." Patchouli shook her head negatively. "Thank you anyway."

Patchouli's suspicions in Eirin were confirmed. The archive of Kazemura was not her current destination. With a growing feeling that she shouldn't leave things as they are, the one week wizard took off into the air and decided to look for Eirin. With the twin-peaked mountain in her sight, she headed off to find the home of an old youkai alchemist.

* * *

According to her notes, the cavern where he lived was located under a hill near a small pond and she just noticed these landmarks lying no further than a kilometer away from her position. She didn't see any signs of the Lunarian anywhere, so she assumed that Eirin was either already inside or she didn't go there at all. Finally, she made it to the hill that fitted the description of Xeng-Yao's home. But getting to the location and finding the entrance were two different things. Even with Kyouichi's notes and superhuman intelligence it took her over 5 minutes of intense search to discover the hidden cave entrance masked by a bush thicket. The truth is, she found it not by her eyes, but by her ears. A mixture of unidentified noises attracted her all the way to the door of an underground laboratory. And in that mixture of noises, Patchouli was able to recognize two voices - one male and the other one female. The female voice was undoubtedly Eirin's. Patchouli eavesdropped for a while, with her hesitant hand resting on the door handle, but since she could not make out what either of the voices said, she decided to let herself in.

She followed a narrow passage lined by torches on the cave's walls until she was able to hear the voices more clearly and even see a brighter flickering light coming from the end of the passage.

"Like I sssaid," a hissing male voice spoke, "you can have the whole batch for a sssspecial price of 20000 yen… That's cheaper than buying individual bottlessss."

"I haven't come here to shop." Eirn's voice resonated in the cavern. "I've come to ask you questions."

The man laughed loudly. "I should have guessed it would be about the recipesss after all! I'm sssure you'll recognize mossst of them, Lunarian. They're based on YOUR ideassss after all. I justssst made ssslight… adjussstmentsss to them."

"Even the Hourai Elixir, as I heard."

"It's good to see that my little advertisssing campaign reached even as far as Eientei. I've been imagining thisss moment for centuriessss… To finally meet the one known as the "Mind of God" and show her that there'ssss alwyassss room for improvement if one putssss enough determination into it."

"By using the Earth's fairies' essence to improve the original formula?"

"Oh, you make it sssound so ssssimple, Yagokoro." the alchemist chuckled. "Yessss, the fairiessss are a natural example of immortality. But if you think that a few strandssss of their hair was all that did the trick to improve your old formula, you're gravely misssstaken. And before you asssk, I'm not ssselling you any of my recipesss… Not even for a chicken sssoup."

"I don't care about your twisted formulas." Eirin brushed him off coldly. "But the Hourai Elixir is not to be taken lightly… How many doses have you already made? How many have you sold? Do you know what danger you put Earth into if the Lunar Capital discovers this?"

"You can call them all down here if you want." the alchemist scoffed tauntingly. "As if I wassss afraid of them… But what's it to you, fugitive? Your tiesss with the Lunar Capital are mossstly if not completely sssevered. You think you'd redeem youssself in their eyesss if you reported my activitesss to them?"

"Wrong. I'm concerned about the safety of the princess. If the Lunar Capital learned about your theft and experiments, they'd send an army to search every corner of Gensokyo to find you. And they'd surely find Eientei in their search. If that happened, not even the word of the Lunar Defense Corps leaders would be enough to convince the higher-ups to leave us in peace and let us stay on Earth." the Lunarian pharmacist explained her reasons for concern.

"Oh, ssso that bringsss us to you again, doessssn't it? Alwaysss ssselfishly following your own interesssts and you even worry for sssuch a selfish reason as your own ssssafety."

"Your narrow-mindedness is what I'd expect from a simple creature born on Earth such as yourself. Apparently you fail to realize that you're also putting all of Gensokyo in danger. Should the word of your deeds reach the ears of Lord Tsukuyomi, he won't hesitate to order his army to get you by any means necessary. All those people who know about your business would be in danger. Any youkai who would dare to stand in their way, would be dealt with swiftly and without mercy. And when they'd find you, even worse fate would await you. Is that what you'd really want?"

"Firssst of all, let's not forget where YOU were born, Misss Hypocrite…" the old youkai didn't hesitate to return a verbal blow. "You think your hissstory isss unknown to me? But I digressss… How long hasss it been since the firsssst Genso-Lunar war? Only over a millennium? If anyone on the Moon noticed any… leak of information, don't you think they'd do sssomething about it? And ssssecondly, you – the eldesssst Lunarian sssage, a runaway convict along with your precioussss Kaguya-sssama. You two were the only onesss able to create the forbidden medicine, but you fled to Earth and spent here over 14 centuriesss… If it wasss the meansss or know-how to produce the elixir what the Lunarianssss were ssso sensitive about, they'd take you both back to the Moon… by any meansss necesssssary. But has Gensokyo been invaded by the lunar army yet? I don't think ssso."

"You have to understand that your and my cases are quite different. The Lunar Capital has already tried to find us, and they even managed to. Or to be more precise, I made contact with them."

"The sssecond Genso-Lunar war? Hm… I guess being a Lunarian does put you in advantage… to ssssome extent. Sssso you made contact with the two sisssters of the Watatsssuki family? Is that why Lunar Capital wasss "unable to find you"?"

"So you're finally beginning to understand."

"Not, quite. Hssss~. I ssstil don't underssstand why are you here. If you want me to sssstop my resssearch, we'll be in an open disagreement. Stronger than you have tried to kill me, and they all failed. Nothing can kill me now. Mossstly thanksss to you, hs-s-s-s. In fact, if it hadn't been for you… and for Yukari-sssama, I'd be long dead. But thanksss to your knowledge and wisssdom, my life got a new purposssse. I really musssst expresss my gratitude."

"They may not be able to kill you, but they can still take your freedom." Eirin remarked calmly. "Spending an eternity in a prison cell may not be what I would call an ideal life."

"In that, Lunarian… you are correct." the alchemist paused himself briefly. "So it is again up to you, whether you decide to contact your few allies on the Moon and tell them all about me or not. But know that I won't just stand idly if you do…"

The long silence that followed Xeng-Yao's last sentence was almost ominous. Patchouli, who was still hiding in the shadows and eavesdropping on the conversation didn't like how tense the atmosphere had suddenly become. She was worried that Eirin and the youkai alchemist were just seconds away from starting a fight. That's why she decided to reveal herself.

"Ahh, ssssuch a busssy day. It looksss like I have another cussstomer." remarked the immortal youkai nonchalantly. "Pleasse, pleassse, come in~! Human, youkai… it doesssn't matter. I have the goodsss to sssuit your needsss."

Eirin sighed as she spotted Patchouli inside the alchemist's cavern. "Patchouli-san, what are you dong here?"

"I should be asking you that question." the purple-haired librarian stepped into the light of torches.

"You've heard our conversation didn't you? I'm sure you can answer that question yourself."

"I expected us to cooperate, Eirin." Patchouli addressed her informally without any suffix. "But it seems you have an agenda of your own."

"An agenda of my own?" the Lunarian repeated flusteredly. "I'm trying to keep Gensokyo safe just as much as you or the Hakurei shrine maiden."

"Who's thissss, Yagokoro? A friend of yourssss?" the hissing youkai measured up the girl with his snake-like eyes.

"The truth is, I have intended to pay you a visit regardless, Xeng-san. You can call me Patchouli and I've come to ask you a few questions…" her glance trailed off to Eirin, "and to prevent any unnecessary violence."

"What made you think we were going to fight?" wondered Eirin.

"Patchouli… That'sss an interesssting name, young lady. You're a wizard. Yessss, I can tell jusss by looking at you." his forked tongue fluttered in the air as he was observing the sorceress. "Ssso you've come to assssk quesstionsss too? Perhapsss I should ssstart charging pricesss for information too, hm?"

"Are you hiding here from the emissaries of the Moon?"

"That'sss a thing of the passst, but Yagokoro-sssan here thinksss the Lunarianssss would leave no sssstone unturned here if they knew what I've done. But the thing issss, they don't. Unlesss, Yagokoro-sssan decidesss to tell them, of courssse."

The Lunarian sage showed a weak, but reassuring smile. "I have no reason to do that. But I can't say I sympathize with the idea of you selling the Hourai Elixir to anyone who can pay you well."

"Alasss, I no longer have the ingrediantsss to make any more. I ussssed them all up while working on the improved formula. I haven't ssssold a ssssingle drop to anyone."

"If you were able to make it by yourself, it must mean that the sages in the Lunar Capital have learned how to produce it even without me or Kaguya-sama."

"Yessss, and they did ssso over a thoussssand yearsss ago."

"Without telling me a thing." added Eirin with a frown. It seemed that even with her position among the Lunarian elite, she was not trusted with all the knowledge and Lord Tsukuyomi had kept quite a few things secret even from her.

"If you don't want to report me to the Lunarianssss, or to learn my recipessss, or to buy anything, or to dessstroy thissss lab, then why have you come here?"

"We are investigating a fairy incident." Patchouli answered instead of Eirin.

"That old ssstory again? What? Am I your main ssssuspect?"

"To be honest, yes you are." replied the librarian flatly.

"That was the next thing I was going to ask him." muttered Eirin under her breath.

"You're not the firssst ones who's come asssking me about that. Ressst assured that whatever I'm doing in thisss laboratory isss not affecting the fairiessss to act aggressively. Unlessss it's sssome negative sssside effect that I'm not aware of."

"Do you also dabble in necromancy, Xeng-san?" Patchouli asked another relevant question.

"Necromancy? Hsss-ss-s-s~!" he let out a hissing laughter. "Don't be ridiculoussss. Do I look like I have any undead minionsss around here? That ssskull over there isss jussst a candle ssstand. A memento of my human-eating daysss… Why do you asssk?"

"Can you please tell us what do you know of the fairy attacks?" Patchouli continued the interrogation.

"Look, I sspend mosst of my time here in my lab, only going out to get fresh indgredientsss for my potionsss. I don't need to go far to get them. And I don't show myssself up in Kazemura. I've only heard about the fairy attacksss. Never actually sssaw or experienced them. And what does necromancy have to do with fairy attacksss anyway?"

"I'd like to believe you, but to prove your innocence in the matter, I ask you to come with us to Kazemura where we can keep a close eye on you." the librarian made a proposal.

The half-snake youkai gave her a questioning, almost taunting look. "Come with you? I've got experimentsss to do, businessss to run… And you want me to wassste my time with you in that village? How long do you want me to keep you company before you'll finally believe me?"

"A day would be enough. Perhaps two, just to make sure. Perhaps you could even help us with our research a bit. Who knows? Maybe I'll even be convinced to buy some of your… merchandise."

A tempting offer has stuck Xeng-Yao's sensitive mercantile string. "I don't know what resssearch are you talking about, Patchouli-sssan, but if it meansss businesss for me I'm alwaysss willing to offer my ssservicesss." Then he shifted his glance to Eirin and added: "But you'll ssssooner sssee Hell freeze over ten timesss before you'll sssee me cooperating with a Lunarian."

"Cooperation doesn't always have to involve willingness of all parties." said Eirin with her arms crossed.

"I appreciate your neutrality in regardsss to my craft and I may ressspect you more than other Lunariansss, but I won't ssshake your hand and call you my bessst friend any time sssoon. Now… let me put out the hearth fire and pack sssome of my potionsss. If it'sss proof of my innocence that you want, that'sss what you'll get. It's been a long time sssince I have lassst been to Kazemura."

* * *

About an hour has passed since Patchouli left the quarry village, now she was returning in the company of Eirin and Xeng. Their arrival was impatiently expected by many of Patchouli's fellow team members. The first person to greet her was Sakuya.

"Patchouli-sama! Oh, thank goodness you're safely back. I was wondering where you disappeared to."

"Eirin!" Kaguya was also there in the "welcoming committee", "Why have you disappeared so suddenly? And why didn't you even tell us where you were going? And who's that with you?"

"Oi, Patchy~!" Marisa waved at the trio from the ground. "We already thought the fairies got you, hehe~!"

It took a while for the introductions and clearing up misunderstandings to take their course, but once Eirin's and Patchouli's reasons for their sudden departure were known to everyone, the expedition team returned to work.

For Xeng-Yao, who hasn't seen the mining village for over a decade, the uncovered ruins were a fascinating new thing to see. He heard about them from many of his occasional customers who lived here, but to see something once was more than hearing about it a thousand times. And just as much as he was fascinated by the archeological discovery, so were the local yama-bito staring at him with a mixture of awe and curiosity.

The expedition team with Patchouli in charge didn't trust him yet, so he was under constant surveillance of those girls who were tasked with maintaining the team's security.

When asked what he thought about the ruins, he just shrugged cluelessly, saying that he has never seen such a thing in his entire life. With his focus on the art of brewing potions of all sorts and purposes, he wasn't much of help in the field of archeology. He was also curious about the nature of the reported fairy attacks on the village and its surrounding areas, but he didn't get any information from the team. On the contrary, he was the one who had the most questions to answer. Eirin even insisted on injecting him with a truth serum to make sure he wasn't keeping any dark secrets, but as soon as Satori Komeiji probed his mind with her third eye, no truth serums were necessary.

"What the hell~?!" he hissed in protest. "You… You can't do thisss to me! That girl will learn all of my potion recipessss~!"

It's true that the mind-reader was able to see all sorts of potion formulas in Xeng's mind, but that wasn't much worth to her, since she knew nothing about alchemy.

"It's not him." she shook her head after she skimmed through his thoughts.

"Hm? Yesss, yesss, jusssst as I told you." he nodded repeatedly in agreement to Satori's statement and tried not to think about his most valuable potion recipes. "Now would sssomebody mind telling me what'sss going on here?"

After a confirmation from Satori, Patchouli was willing to share the detailed information about the fairy attacks and the goals of this expedition.

In the meantime, the shadow of suspicion was cast on Satori and her kasha companion.

"Couldn't it be that the vengeful spirits are leaking from Old Hell again?" Reimu speculated. "What if you planned to take Gensokyo over by sending the vengeful spirits to possess the fairies?"

"You dare to suspect me?" Satori stared at her in disbelief.

"Think about it. We can't read other people's minds, so we have no idea whether you're telling us the truth about the ones whose minds you're reading. We have only your word to trust. You could have been intentionally misleading us all this time. That trance and scribbling of those weird symbols from these ruins in Eientei could have been only an act to misdirect our attention to these ruins. And while you act as though as you're helping us, you might be secretly plotting something."

Even Marisa was surprised by Reimu's accusation. "But Reimu. That still doesn't explain Yukari's disappearance. I doubt that this girl would somehow just get rid of her and then proceed to take over Gensokyo with an army of vengeful spirits and fairies."

Satori was saddened that even after all this time of trying her best to offer assistance, Reimu seriously suspected her of some outrageous conspiracy. She had to admit that Reimu had a point, though. She had no way of proving that she wasn't making up what she saw in other people's minds. But Satori had an idea how to convince everyone and silence Reimu's suspicion once and for all.

"Eirin-san… I ask you to inject me with that truth serum of yours."

"What? What are you saying?" the Lunarian raised her eyebrows.

"Perhaps you can't recognize the truth when you hear it," the goddess Kanako suddenly intervened in the conversation, "but I can. Just like with Hijiri Byakuren-san, I sense no falsehood in Satori's words."

"That would make you my number two suspect then." retorted the stubborn miko.

"Reimu…" Sanae put her hand on her shoulder again. "No offense, but by casting suspicion at everyone around you, you're indirectly asking for a teamed-up danmaku walloping the like of which you haven't experienced even during your stay on the Moon."

"Are you threatening me? Perhaps you'd like to have a talk with my Yin-Yang orbs first."

"Stop it already! Both of you…" Satori pierced them with a disapproving glance. "Eirin-san, I'm quite serious. Give me the truth serum and ask me whatever you want before we all turn on each other."

* * *

A tense silence settled in the quarry pit of Kazemura. Eirin, who was not hesitant to use the injection on Xeng-Yao just moments ago, suddenly experienced a moral dilemma when Satori demanded her to apply the drug to her. Reimu too was growing desperate. She didn't know what or whom to trust anymore. Satori's words, Remilia's claims, Patchouli's hypotheses… Everything reeked of suspicion to her. Put in layman's terms, she was starting to lose it. After a while of nervous walking around like a hungry tiger in a cage, Reimu sat down on one of the ore crates in the provisionary tent and tried to calm herself down and refused to speak to anyone.

Meanwhile, Eirin prepared the serum and loaded her syringe. "Are you really sure you want to undergo this?" she asked Satori one last time before proceeding with the injection.

"How many affirmations do you need?" the satori responded with a cheeky question. "Let's get this over with."

"The effect of this shot will last for approximately 4 hours, just for your information…" said the pharmacist and penetrated the skin on Satori's shoulder. "You won't be in a condition to do any work for that duration."

The serum was already circulating in her bloodstream. With each heartbeat, she could feel her limbs numbing and her vision becoming less clear. It wasn't long before Eirin's medicine took over her senses completely and Satori was no longer able to tell apart a dream from reality.

A long sequence of questions and answers ensued. During the interrogation, Satori replied to over 30 of Eirin's questions in a monotone delirious voice. There was no way she could have told a lie. Her innocence in regard to the current incident was now clear as day to everyone who still doubted. When the interrogation was over, Reimu stood up without a word and left the quarry pit. She went to the inn and ordered a room while they were still vacant. She felt a burden of guilt and embarrassment inside her, but saying sorry seemed harder than to face all those girls in a danmaku battle. Since Patchouli currently had no special requests from her, Reimu wanted to have a little rest, which she so much needed.

* * *

The day has gradually shifted to evening and the sky was completely covered by a thick veil of gray clouds. Patchouli has already made several different observations of the ruins. One of them involved a technique that was using the principals of a magic detector, only more precise and reliable. Using an array of crystals, she was trying to reveal any hidden sources of power in the vicinity of the ruins. Her scrying only confirmed the fact stated in Kyouichi's report. No magic, energy, or divine power was radiating from the monuments. It even seemed that the auras of other girls of the expedition team were somewhat weaker than she expected.

She herself felt a little tired, but that was nothing unusual to her. Being a sickly girl, with nearly no physical activity in her daily life, it was no mystery that she would wear herself out quickly, especially after a busy day such as this.

She decided to leave the rest of the scrying methods for tomorrow and prepared herself to spend the evening in Kazemura's archive.

Her peaceful reading was disturbed only by the occasional roaring of a thunder in the distance. Kanako's weather forecast was correct. After over a week of scorching hot days, a storm was a welcome change to both Gensokyo's flora and fauna. The drumming of raindrops on the roof of the archive building was slowly but certainly lulling the youkai librarian to sleep.

* * *

She didn't even know how much time has passed when a particularly loud thunder shook her awake. When she realized that she had fallen asleep at the table, she figured that she was overworking herself. What she needed was a comfortable bed and the nearest place where she could find one was the village's inn. She muttered a spell to create a bubble of water around herself again; this time to protect herself from the rain. She put out the flames of the candles and stepped outside. She was immediately welcomed by an intense downpour and the dazzling flashes of lighting in the sky. Logically enough, there were no villagers outside at this hour and in this weather. The warm flickering lights in the windows of the tavern looked so inviting right now. As she was flying towards the establishment she shot a quick glance at the excavation site. At night, the pit looked like an ominous yawning hole, leading straight into the abyss. Only the slim black silhouettes of the uncovered obelisks and the tower were recognizable in the darkness. For a brief moment, a lightning flash illuminated the whole village and Patchouli wiped her sleepy eyes, which have just seen something that they shouldn't. She blinked repeatedly and stared intensely into the darkness through the dense rain. She saw nothing.

"All that reading is making my eyes see weird things…" she whispered to herself and was just about to resume her flight to the tavern when another lightning bolt made the night as bright as day for a split second.

Patchouli opened her mouth in silent awe. She still had doubts about what she saw in that brief moment, but it looked like a transparent stream of white smoke emerging from the center of the quarry pit.

Just to make sure it wasn't a hallucination, Patchouli patiently waited for the next lightning. And she didn't have to wait long. She saw it again. Perhaps white smoke was not the best comparison for the phenomenon that she witnessed. It was more like a monochrome version of aurora borealis, constantly changing shape and dispersing into smaller particles. The librarian was tempted to get closer to explore this unusual occurrence, but she was also aware of the potential danger that it could present. She hurried to the tavern to share her experience with the rest of the team.

* * *

"Everyone~!" she called out to wake up the girls sleeping in the rented rooms of the inn. "Outside, in the quarry pit… You have to see this!"

"What the hell…?" Marisa muttered lazily in her bed. "Are you drunk?"

After her afternoon nap, Remilia was one of the few team members who was awake. "What's the matter, Patchy? Are the fairies coming?"

"No, but it may not be long before they do." A tone of urgency resonated in Patchouli's voice. "Something is going on near the ruins."

Eirin was another person who often stayed up late and today was no exception. She was looking after Satori who was still under the effect of her truth serum. "It better be worth the trouble of getting my clothes wet…"

"Reimu-san, Reimu-san~!" Patchouli lightly shook the sleeping shrine maiden. "Get dressed! Hurry!"

"Are you out of your mind?"

As reluctant as she was to abandon the warm comfort of the bed, Reimu's feeling of responsibility was stronger, and in a matter of a few minutes, she was ready and fully clothed.

"Hey, listen, Youmu~!" Yuyuko excitedly clapped her hands. "Looks like the girls are having some kind of party in the next room. Perhaps even a pillow fight. And snacks~! Let's join them~!"

"I don't know, Yuyuko-sama." the half-ghost spoke with a serious tone. "It sounds different from a party. Maybe something's wrong. We should check it out."

"Why do you have to bring your swords to a slumber party~?" asked the princess of Netherworld.

* * *

Ten minutes later, the majority of the expedition team was already standing downstairs in the tavern. The ruckus they caused while getting dressed and ready has woken up even the owner of the establishment and his wife. They were curiously watching what this weird group of girls wanted to do at this late hour.

"Aya-san, Hatate-san," Patchouli was giving directions to the pair of tengu reporters, "the phenomenon is only visible during a lightning flash, so please have your cameras ready to take the pictures."

"Don't worry, my camera is equipped with a flash of its own." Aya reassured her.

"I don't even need to wait for a lightning." said Hatate boastingly. "My spirit photography will reveal anything that the naked eyes can't see."

Remilia who was looking out the window turned her face to her friend. "Be careful out there."

With a nod, Patchouli opened the tavern's door.

"You're not coming with us?" the green-haired shrine maiden asked the vampire. Apparently she was less knowledgeable about youkai than Reimu, otherwise she wouldn't ask such a question.

"I can't stand rain, so I'll stay here and wait for you girls to tell me what you saw."

The girls left the tavern one by one and gathered at the edge of the quarry. Everyone was impatiently staring at the center of the pit, hoping to catch a glimpse of what Patchouli just described to them.

"Oh, just now!" Marisa pointed her finger into the darkness. "I think I saw something for a moment! Maybe Patchy isn't drunk after all!"

Aya and Hatate were quick to take pictures. "Well, I wonder what this could be…"

"Oh my, look at all those souls, Youmu~!" Yuyuko didn't even need to wait for any lightning to see what was going on. "Almost reminds you of our home, doesn't it~?"

"G-ghosts?" Youmu stuttered out with a scared look in her eyes. "But these… these are not from the Netherworld."

"Nyaa~. And neither from Old Hell." Rin Kaenbyou eliminated another possibility.

Even Reimu saw the image of white spectral lights for a brief moment before a deafening thunder made her cover her ears.

"So the spirits are leaking from these ruins? Is this what causes the fairy attacks?"

The answer to her questions came quicker than she would like. Distracted by the flashes and thunders, the expedition team had little chance to notice that there was something else going on besides the leak of spirits from the excavation site.

"Kyaaa!"

A very unpleasant blow with burning sensation that came somewhere from behind, knocked the Hakurei shrine maiden off her feet and onto the cold ground dirty with mud.

Several other girls from the team were hit as well, but at least they managed to keep their balance.

"Fairies~!" Marisa shouted to alert everyone, though at this point it wasn't even necessary.

By the time Reimu stood up from the ground and grimaced in disgust from all the dirt that covered her, a full-blown battle has broken out. It seemed the fairies had the whole village surrounded, because smaller flocks of them were assailing the girls from all directions. There wasn't anywhere to hide. The best thing the girls could do was to scatter to reduce the chances of getting hit as a group.

"Everyone scramble!" Kanako took the lead in this dire situation and engaged the intruders with a flurry of polychromic danmaku in the shape of square charms.

The first wave of fairies didn't give her much trouble, but more of them appeared soon after.

"Love Sign "Non-Directional Laser"!" Marisa unleashed a Spell Card attack that sliced the air with a multitude of spinning beam sources. Each beam used a different wavelength, so they each had a different color.

"Hey! That's mine…" remarked Patchouli as she watched the light show.

"You mean WAS yours." the witch retorted with a grin once her short-duration card ran out of power.

"Marisa, look out!" she tried to warn her, but she was a little too late.

Another daring wave of fairies just made their strike and targeted the blonde magician with a crushing barrage.

"Aaargh!" Marisa exclaimed from the pain and quickly started losing her altitude.

"Gotcha!" Suika was just at the right place at the right moment to catch her before the fall would cause her any injury. But the barrage that she took was enough to render her incapable of fighting. Suika needed to put her down somewhere if she wanted to be of any help to the team.

Remilia watched the whole scene from the safety of the tavern and was nervously biting her lip, frustrated that she couldn't go out there and teach those possessed fairies to fear the vampires.

* * *

No longer than a minute after the attack, the whole village was alarmed to the presence of hostile fairies. Everyone capable of battle rushed out of their homes to drive away the invasion of the possessed little youkai. The yama-bito and humans of Kazemura rallied outside and provided additional magical fire support. For a while it seemed that their joint effort was effective and that they had the situation under control, but the constant inflow of fairy reinforcements didn't give them a moment to rest.

The girls were trying to conserve their Spell Cards, but after ten minutes of constant fighting, they were gradually running out.

"Damn it! There's just no end to them!" Reimu cursed as she finished off a small group of fairies with a flurry of amulets. "Is this what you wished for Patchouli?"

The librarian had her hands full with another squadron and didn't even hear Reimu's question.

In the meantime, Aya created a huge cyclone-like barrier around the whole village only to buy the team some time to reroute. While the winds were blowing, the fairies couldn't get to them, but the spell was putting a lot of strain on the crow tengu, so she couldn't keep it up for long.

"Eirin!" Reimu shouted at the Lunarian doctor. "We have one wounded! She needs to be taken to safety while Aya's wind wall is keeping us safe!"

Eirin shot one more arrow that dispersed into numerous fragments, each hitting its mark with perfect precision. "I'll take care of her." she nodded and hurried to help Marisa.

"Sorry… girls." Aya sieved through her gritted teeth. "I can't… keep this up for much longer!"

The wind barrier around Kazemura faded away, allowing the relentless fairy swarms to continue their attacks.

"Kanako-sama, can you concentrate the raindrops into a steady stream?" Patchouli asked the goddess.

"Yes, I think so. Let me give it a try." She focused her power high into the storm clouds above her. Another group of fairies was closing in on her position, but the goddess didn't move a muscle. She appeared to be in a state similar to meditation.

"Kanako-sama!" Sanae hurried to lend her assistance. With her pentagram-shaped danmaku she fended off some of the incoming fairies, but not the whole group. The remaining fairies regrouped and were just about to shower Kanako with their danmaku salvo, when a thick pillar of water descended upon them from the sky. The fairies were smashed against the rocky ground. The few who survived where quickly finished off by the other girls of the expedition team.

Kanako opened her eyes to see what she has done. Then she shifted her glance to the librarian.

"Is this what you meant?"

"Yes, now everyone, back away from the water stream!" She charged her magic and cast it on Kanako's divine waterfall. The whole pillar of water gained a bright-blue glow and burst into an uncountable amount of blue danmaku orbs. Patchouli was giving it her all. She somehow managed to stop the orbs' motion and re-assemble them to a super-dense cluster that she drove across the sky to take out thousands of fairies. But every powerful spell that she cast had a drawback. It reflected negatively on her health condition.

A fit of coughing has taken her in the middle of her spell, forcing her to stop it prematurely.

"Patchouli-sama, are you alright?" Sakuya hurried to her, but as soon as she turned away from the battle, the fairies didn't hesitate to attack her cowardly from behind. "Yaaaah~!"

The maid of the Scarlet Devil caught a few energy blasts, but she was strong enough to keep flying and even execute her revenge.

"Illusion Sign "Killer Doll"!"

Sakuya declared the spell which made the throwing knives held in her hand glow with a purplish light. A simple throw, and the knives multiplied by several dozen times, spinning rapidly before engaging the fairies with lethal precision. One could even say that the knives were guided to their targets by an unseen force. A flock of over 30 fairies was reduced to a cloud of magic dust in a second.

"Patchouli-sama, you should take a break from fighting." Sakuya was seriously concerned about the librarian's health.

"I… I'll be fine…"

Patchouli wasn't the only one who was at her limit.

"I've never… seen… so many… fairies… in my life…" Sanae needed to land to catch her breath. Numerous burns marked her miko dress as well as her body. "Suwako-sama… what should I do?"

The earth goddess fought bravely too, but her attacks were growing weaker until she could no longer provide danmaku support to the team. Kanako became exhausted soon after her.

"I don't understand what's going on here. I am a goddess, but… this place… I feel like my power is being siphoned. I didn't like it here since the moment we arrived."

The scales of battle were now slightly shifting in the favor of the possessed fairies. What could be wrong with this place that it rendered two powerful deities nearly defenseless after using just a few Spell Cards? Nobody had the time to ponder that question, but one thing was clear. The Kazemuran prospectors have uncovered something that should have remained buried forever.

The most powerful youkai members of the expedition team seemed to be doing well so far. Thanks to their superhuman stamina and vitality, they managed to stay in the fight without taking a break. Reimu, Sanae and Sakuya have learned the disadvantages of being a human, when their fatigue has forced them to take a break. Without their support, the fairies were getting ever more successful in breaking through the defenses of the village and causing more damage.

* * *

Remilia was still watching the battle through the window, clenching her fists in fury that boiled inside her. Suddenly, the sound of shuffling steps diverted her attention.

"What? Hey, where are you going?"

It was Satori Komeiji and her dizzy, uncertain steps were directed straight at the tavern's main door. She looked like she could barely stand on her feet, let alone fight, but there she was, opening the door and stepping outside into the unpleasant cold rain and unceasing war between possessed fairies and everyone else in the village.

"Hey, you're in no shape to fight!" Remilia called after her. She didn't even know why she felt such concern for someone who wasn't even her friend, but she couldn't help it. Satori's actions were… irrational at best.

With her mouth opened, the vampire watched as more fairies kept pouring in, as if the storm clouds themselves were spawning them along with the raindrops. Fifteen endless minutes have passed since the battle has started. It was as if the fairies have finally decided to destroy the village.

Satori has finally made it to the edge of the quarry, where her younger sister was tirelessly fighting alongside of others. Even in her weakened state caused by the remains of the truth serum in her system, the mind-reading mistress of an underground palace unleashed her power. And it was a power to reckon with. Thanks to her intervention, the human members of the team could take a long enough break to rejoin the battle.

But then something bad happened. One of the enemy danmaku shots has critically hit Patchouli before she could give the other girls the necessary instructions that could turn the tide of this battle. The young youkai librarian fell on the ground, holding her throat and writhing in pain.

"Patchouli-sama!" Sakuya was in a state of panic when she saw blood leaking through Patchouli's fingers where she held her neck. The librarian was still conscious, but her injury was serious. "Eirin-sensei! We have an emergency!"

Eirin was no longer helping the girls with her danmaku, but by tending to the wounded. As Sakuya called for her, she apologized to Marisa and hurried to assist in a more serious case.

"Patchy…" Remilia's already pale face took on en even paler tone from the shock of seeing her friend collapse to the ground like a rag doll. "PATCHOULI!" she screamed at her through the closed window. Even her patience had its limits and those limits were just exceeded. Against all logic and sense of self-preservation, she opened the tavern door with such strength that she literally ripped it off its hinges. But she didn't care about the unwanted damage. Her friend needed her and that's the only thing that mattered. Just like Satori who selflessly decided to fight against the fairies, the young vampire flapped her wings and darted off into the rain that she so much hated. Only after a few seconds she began to regret her decision. The falling water from the sky has immediately drawn a major portion of energy from her body. Not that she was putting herself in deadly danger, but now she wasn't sure if she could still match a single of the hostile fairies in physical or magical strength.

But anyone who would think that she would be afraid to fight in this condition was in for a surprise.

"Scarlet Sign "Scarlet Meister"!"

The card in her hand turned into a breathtaking cannonade of large scarlet orbs. Each of these large projectiles was leaving a dense trail of smaller fragments like comets. Any fairies that were unfortunate enough to be in their trajectory were obliterated. Remilia could feel that this was just a fraction of her normal power, but she kept shooting the hated fairies down like she was possessed by a vengeful spirit herself.

For three incredible minutes she kept pouring danmaku into the sky, like a raging volcano. Her performance could even score a rank in Gensokyo Chronicle as one of the longest-lasting Spell Card attacks.

And when she couldn't even shoot sparks anymore, she still didn't retreat to the tavern. She ran to make sure Patchouli was alright.

"Patchouli!" she knelt down next to her wounded friend who was being treated by Eirin. "Patchy, can you hear me? It's me… Remilia…"

The librarian could hear her, but her injury didn't allow her to speak. An intense and emotional look into Remilia's eyes was the only answer she could give her.

"She… she will be okay, right, Eirin?" the desperate vampire asked. "Won't she? Eirin!"

"I have to stop the bleeding first." Replied the Lunarian and cut off a length of bandage. She coated it with a chemical that accelerated blood clotting.

"Patchy…" Remilia grabbed her friend's hand, trying to lend her some courage. "I'm with you…"

The youkai sorceress replied with a very weak clamping of her hand. For the first time in her life, Remilia Scarlet was glad that it rained. The drops of water camouflaged the streams of tears flowing from her dark-red eyes.

"You can't die Patchouli… Not here… not now…"

"I'm sorry, my lady." Sakuya's voice sounded from behind her. "I failed to protect Patchouli-sama…"

"Sakuya."

"Yes, my lady?"

"Please stay here with me for a while."

"I will, Remilia-sama. I will stay by your side until the end."

"Thank you…" she tried to suppress a sob. "I… wanted to say that to her… I wanted to prepare a surprise for her. I was so proud when she told me that she figured out the source of this incident. I just wanted to tell her how glad I am for having a friend like her."

"You can still do it, Scarlet-san." Eirin reassured her as she was applying the bandages. "Patchouli-san may have recurring health problems, but she is still a youkai. An injury such as this should not take long to heal."

"When you get better… I … I promise I'll show you how much I like you… So hurry up and get well, Patchy!"

Despite what many people living in Gensokyo claimed, the Scarlet Devil had a heart in the right place.

"More fairies from the west~!" a shout of one yama-bito villager signaled another incoming wave of hostiles. The battle for Kazemura was far from over.


	54. Unlikely Reunion

As the next wave of possessed fairies approached the village, Eirin was applying the bandage to Patchouli's wound.

"I need to take her to safety at once!" she carefully picked up the wounded youkai from the ground and headed inside the tavern as the nearest place with relative safety.

But that's when the fairies swarmed the village again.

"Come on you little wimps!" Remilia taunted them as she drew another Spell Card. "Hell Sign "Mountain of a Thousand Needles"!"

She declared her spell, but instead of turning into a massive could of danmaku, the card harmlessly fell down onto the dirty ground.

"Huh?" Remilia blinked at the dirty Spell Card in puzzlement. "Don't tell me that…"

As much as she hated to admit it, her magic was completely depleted and she could no loner fight in this battle.

"My lady," Sakuya took her by the hand, "it's not safe for you out here. You should hurry and follow Eirin-sensei into the tavern."

"Nonsense!" the vampire ripped her hand out of Sakuya's grasp. "I don't need any stupid magic to fight! I'll tear those sorry excuses for youkai apart with my bare hands!"

"Remilia-sama!"

The maid's attempt to make her mistress see reason failed just as terribly as Remilia's Spell Card. The Scarlet Devil took off into the air and engaged the nearest flock of fairies in melee.

Ignoring the pain from taking a portion of their salvo, she grabbed one of the fairies and used her as a living shield to block off the rest of the shots. Her shield was not built to last long, though. After the fairy took a few hits from her own allies, she dispersed into tiny sparkles that were doused by the heavy rain.

"Hyaaaa~!" the vampire engaged another unfortunate fay creature with a powerful clawing attack. The little youkai was slammed against the ground with such force that her tiny body left a small crater. Another swing of her arm, and another fairy was swatted like a fly.

It's true that she wasn't as effective in melee as opposed to having an ample arsenal of spells and danmaku, but she was not intending to retreat from this fight even if Sakuya suggested so. The maid sighed resignedly and took off to assist her.

* * *

And while the eternally young mistress of the night was busy with her aerial melee, Reimu decided to provide some additional cover fire for Eirin, who needed to carry the wounded librarian into the tavern. She fended off a couple of smaller groups of enemies with her classic homing amulets, but even with her effort, Eirin was still taking hits. Not long after that, the fairies rallied together into a massive formation. As if driven by a collective mind, they attacked the girls who were in the most vulnerable situation.

"Reimu-san! Watch out!" Eirin tried to warn the shrine maiden who was escorting her, but the giant danmaku barrage was faster than the girl's evasive reaction. However, someone was there to protect her.

Turning around, Reimu noticed that there was a person standing right behind her, spreading her arms wide in a desperate attempt to protect her and Eirin from the deadly hail of danmaku.

"Ka… Kaguya-sanma!" Eirin immediately recognized the princess.

Kaguya didn't turn around; she remained standing there like a statue for a while. Then all of a sudden she fell to her knees and subsequently the rest of her body collapsed forward, digging her face into the soaked ground.

Reimu was at a loss for words. The Moon princess just sacrificed herself for her. Though the shrine maiden knew that she'd soon stand up again, she couldn't help but to be grateful for her selfless act.

"We have to keep moving, Reimu-san!" said the Lunarian urgently. "Princess will be alright, but we must get Patchouli-san inside! Keep those fairies off my back!"

Reimu knew that the situation was very serious, but she still hesitated about using her ultimate combat technique. Instead, she switched her homing amulets with a more direct and faster "Persuasion Needles" that ripped through the thick mass of fairies more effectively. With Patchouli in her arms, Eirin was slowly closing the distance to the tavern. Reimu kept up her step with her, all the while pouring her needle-shaped danmaku at the enemy. But the coordinated fairies were quick to regroup and respond with another devastating barrage.

"Uh-oh… They're turning around. Eirin, hurry up, I'll have to dodge their attack if I want to live!"

"I'm almost there!"

The fairies obviously targeted Eirin, but even so, Reimu was in their way, so naturally, a good portion of the enemy danmaku would hit her too. There was another option that she could do instead of dodging, and that was using a Spell Card. However, she was standing too close to Eirin, so the Lunarian would surely take the damage as well. And the same would go for the wounded sorceress. The fairy swarm was almost upon them.

"Sorry, Eirin!" she shouted an apology while darting off to the side, just to graze by the hideously large danmaku cluster.

As she turned around to see if Eirin made it, she exhaled with relief. The doctor form Eientei took shelter inside the tavern just in time. The building was hit by a multitude of magical shots that significantly damaged its front wall and broke a few windows. Under normal circumstances, the building would most likely catch fire, but in this rain, the fairies would have to try much harder to ignite something. As soon as Eirin put Patchouli down in a stabilized position, she hurried outside to rejoin the team in defending the village. She just saw as the fairy swarm was currently regrouping for another assault. And more were coming from all sides. Much more…

"Patchouli-san is safe for now… Has the princess recovered yet?"

Just as Eirin asked that, she noticed Kaguya slowly moving her arm to support her body and stand up.

Reimu took a brief break from shooting to check Kaguya's status. She appeared to be a bit shaken, but otherwise her body was without a scratch thanks to the Hourai Elixir. Though now she was all covered in dirt, just like Reimu.

"Hey, Eirin!" the shrine maiden called at her. "Have you seen the Three Fairies of Light anywhere?"

"No, but I think they're hiding somewhere inside the tavern. Why?"

Reimu didn't have enough time to answer her question, as the fairies, now with fresh reinforcements attacked again, trying to surround them completely.

"Eirin, I'll use a Spell Card so make sure to keep away from me, okay~?"

The Lunarian hovered back while spraying the area with a wide fan of danmaku as cover fire. Even when everyone in the village was doing their best to eradicate the invaders, it seemed that every fairy in Gensokyo was possessed and bent on destroying everything in Kazemura. They formed a huge sphere around Reimu, cutting off any potential escape routes.

"Reimu!" the other shrine maiden shouted at her. The situation looked hopeless, but Sanae dashed right towards the swarm, ready to create an opening for Reimu with a spell.

"Esoterica "Forgotten Ritual"!"

The Spell Card conjured up ten pentagrams around her. Five red and five blue stars consisting of smaller danmaku shots spread out and twisted, gradually dispersing into a chaotic maelstrom. A lot of fairies were taken out just by the initial wave. Just as the wind priestess charged up for a second wave, she could hear Reimu's voice from below shouting something.

"Fantasy Nature~!"

A bright light shone through the swarm of fairies and soon after, a spectacular show began. Reimu's ultimate spell combined with the flashy pentagram barrage from Sanae gave the aggressors a clear message - this village will not fall this day.

A secret and quite extreme technique, handed down by the generations of Hakurei shrine maidens and priests enabled Reimu to float away from reality, becoming completely invulnerable, while unleashing an unceasing stream of powerful homing ofuda. Originally it was not a Spell Card, because according the rules the Spell Card had to give the opponent at least a slight chance to win. The one who made it into a Spell Card was Marisa by giving it a name. Due to Spell Card Rule restrictions, Reimu agreed to reduce its duration in formal duels to just about 35 seconds. Of course, the current situation was anything but a formal battle, so these restrictions could be calmly ignored. The other girls have added their own danmaku into the fray, disposing of thousands of possessed fairies in a matter of seconds. Even the downpour paled in comparison to the combined danmaku fire. Kazemura became the epicenter of a true bullet hell. Seeing that staying in a tight formation was making them easy prey, the fairies dispersed erratically and attacked everything. Houses, villagers, the tavern… everything except the uncovered ruins.

After Reimu's Fantasy Nature ended, the situation became even more serious. As a retribution, the fairy swarm attacked Sanae right after her card ran out of power. Poor girl had no chance to dodge their counterattack. She fell down, just like Marisa did at the beginning of the battle. Her two goddesses were too far to catch her, but luckily for her, Aya Shameimaru stopped her fall in the nick of time.

"Another wounded!" the tengu reporter let everyone know of Sanae's condition.

"Get her inside the tavern then!" Eirin requested her. "Hurry!"

When a crow tengu hurries, one usually doesn't even notice what happens. Suddenly, Aya jetted off to the tavern with Sanae in her arms, and flew back out empty-handed in the next few seconds.

"How many more of those fairies are there?" wondered the Hakurei shrine maiden. She never thought she'd see more fairies than that time when she was catching live specimens for Eirin's research, but given the current state of affairs, she was convinced that tonight she witnessed the largest gathering of fairies in Gensokyo's history.

"We'll see~!" said Suika with a card ready in her hand.

Reimu's intuition told her the most probable spell that the oni was about to use, so she floated away from her out of caution.

"Night Parade of One Million Demons~!" Suika's voice activated the spell embedded in the card.

Reimu's hunch was right as usual. Suika went for the same spell that she used during the Tanabata's tournament; although that time she wasn't successful against her old friend Yuugi. In this fight, the ability to gather the huge swarms of fairies into one place and showering them with equally huge danmaku barrage was very handy. The card darkened and imploded into a miniature black hole while unleashing an all-directional avalanche of magical projectiles. Again, smaller objects, rocks, raindrops and the fairies were being dragged towards Suika by the spell's gravity field. Even when the fairies struggled and returned fire, their danmaku harmlessly disappeared into the blackness.

"It's working…" Aya stopped fighting and just watched the Spell Card with great respect. The overwhelming numbers of possessed fairies rapidly diminished to the point when they no longer outnumbered Kazemura's population. It seemed that the battle was won. The other girls swiftly finished off the rest of the enemies. Oddly enough, the losing fairies did not scatter or retreat when their numbers were swallowed by Suika's black hole. They remained to wreak havoc to the very end.

"Oh, gods…" Reimu sighed in relief. "Is it all over?"

Seeing no more fairies nearby, Suika dispelled her card and landed on top of one of the ruins' obelisks.

"What are you doing?!" Aya shouted at her. Her superior eyesight enabled her to see the distant fleets of fairies rushing towards the village. "There's another wave coming! Don't stop fighting!"

"Damn it!" Reimu cursed and tightened the grip on her gohei. She was already tired, but she didn't want anyone to notice it.

Remilia, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy taking the fairies on in hand to hand combat and now she was taunting for more. Sakuya took some hits in the battle, but was still in a good condition to continue. But Sanae, Marisa, Patchouli and both goddesses of the Moriya Shrine were unable to defend the village.

The Komeiji sisters were pretty much without a scratch. Patchouli was right. The spirits that have possessed the fairies avoided attacking them directly, and the two satori have taken great advantage of it.

Another one who could boast a perfect condition in this fight was Princess Yuyuko. Being already dead, she didn't have to focus on dodging or hiding. Her servant, however, was not invulnerable and Yuyuko took it upon herself to protect her. For many decades, it was Youmu whose sword was always there to guard the Netherworld's mistress. This time, the ghostly beauty was merely repaying a favor.

Time was short before the next wave of fairies would hit the quarry village, and the girls from the expedition team, as well as the villagers, were running out of magic and ideas on how to stop these attacks.

Eirin might have been the brightest mind of the team, but she already had her hands full with other urgent matters. She was just helping Marisa walk into the tavern before the fight would continue.

But there was someone who came up with an interesting idea.

"I'll try to hide the village and make it seem like it never existed, just like that time when the Moon was replaced with a fake one." the half-youkai teacher from Human Village suggested. At first she was hesitant about using her history-devouring powers, because Patchouli explicitly wanted the fairies to attack the village. But Keine Kamishirasawa didn't know the reason why would the elemental sorceress want such a thing to happen. Now that Patchouli was wounded, and the situation obviously out of control, Keine decided to protect Kazemura by any means necessary. She clasped her hands together and closed her eyes, like she was praying. She was actually charging up her power in order to devour Kazemura's history. She thought it would be easier than hiding the Human Village during the Imperishable Night incident, since Kazemura was much smaller, but she soon realized, just like Remilia, that in the heat of battle she had used up a major portion of her magic. Her spell faded before it was completed.

"This is bad." she shook her head in self-disappointment and her face reflected worry about surviving the following minutes.

The storm was still raging above them, not showing any signs of calming down. Just like the seemingly endless downpour of fairies that has targeted this small mining settlement.

"Sleep time is over, ladies!" Aya announced with the tone of a military commander. "Here comes the second wave!"

It was bullet hell all over again. The disorganized team of girls was gradually weakening. Soon, Keine ended up just like Remilia – unable to shoot any more danmaku. A few minutes later, Sakuya ran out of energy not only to use her time-altering powers, but even to fly.

Another Spell Card had to come into play.

"Losing Hometown "Lost Soul's Village –Suicide-"!" Yuyuko Saigyouji declared it just in time to save Youmu from the enemy storm of danmaku. Several wide waves appeared by Yuyuko's sides, consisting of blue, green and yellow projectiles that had only small gaps between them. As they spread out, they intersected each other, resulting in a dangerous crossfire. To top it all, Yuyuko swung her decorative fan that launched five read beams, each of them deadly to the fairies. As she made a half-spin with her fan, the lasers burned every fairy that they came into contact with. But while Yuyuko and Youmu were winning on one side of the battlefield, the fairies have overrun the village from the other side.

Alice and Reimu used their last Spell Cards only so they could survive the wrath of the possessed fairies. But to defeat them, they'd need much more spells…

Even during the second wave, the swarms seemed to have completely ignored the Komeiji sisters and their pet, Rin. But the other girls and villagers were not spared from their attacks.

Seeing how the fairies were attacking everything in their path save for the ruins, the girls decided to use the obelisks for cover. It worked… to some extent. But it was only a meager help in this desperate situation.

"I… I can't shoot danmaku anymore~!" Reimu lamented as she was trying to catch her breath. Never before she had to fight for so long without rest. "At this rate, the village will be one with these damn ruins."

As she peeked out from behind the stone obelisk, she noticed that the fairies have started breaking into the houses through any openings they could find. And when they couldn't find any, they made them with danmaku. The tavern building was no exception.

"The wounded ones…" she gasped in shock. "Everybody, fall back to the tavern! NOW!"

Reimu was on the verge of ending up like Sakuya – unable to fly. Now she was only able to fly short distances, so she proceeded to the tavern in a leaping fashion.

* * *

Naturally, Aya and Hatate were the first ones to make it inside. When even the Hakurei shrine maiden entered the establishment, she could see chaos and desperation as the other girls and the innkeeper were trying to barricade the windows and fix the door that Remilia removed from its hinges. Not to mention they were doing it while fighting against tens of fairies that have already invaded the tavern's interior.

"Help meee~!" a girl's voice called desperately form somewhere upstairs.

"Get off me!" Kaguya struggled with a fairy that somehow ended up tangled in her long black hair.

"Fire in the kitchen!" the innkeeper's wife ran out of the room, followed by clouds of white smoke. "They're everywhere…"

"I'll take care of that." Suika volunteered to help put out the fire.

"And what are you going to do?" Reimu raised her eyebrow. "Douse it with your sake?"

"No, silly Reimu~! I'll become a thick mist and put it out, but I need everyone to get out of the kitchen."

"The kitchen's empty." the woman replied. "Please hurry before we all burn here to death!"

"Actually…" Eirin muttered as she was checking out Sanae's condition, "We would sooner suffocate from the smoke than burn alive, but that's beside the point."

"Okay, Suika, do what you have to do." Reimu gave her approval. "I'm going upstairs. Who's with me?"

"I'll go." Youmu Konpaku stepped forth without hesitation.

"M… Me too!" Remilia also volunteered to join Reimu, though her voice didn't sound too certain.

"You can't even shoot simple danmaku anymore." the miko remarked.

"Well, neither can you!" Remilia opposed. "But I can still give those fairies the old one-two."

"Fine, let's not waste any more time. Up we go!"

* * *

As Reimu and her two teammates ran upstairs, Suika rushed into the kitchen. She was just about to close the door behind her, when she saw a small group of fairies inside.

"Don't shoot us~! We haven't started the fire!" one of them begged with her arms covering her face.

"You…" Suika recognized them at once. "What are you three doing here?"

"It… was Sunny's idea to go here and look for some snacks. Then the other fairies attacked and we were scared so…" Luna began to explain, but the oni silenced her by raising her hand.

"Ok, ok, you can tell me later. For now, you need to get out of here."

"Yes~!" the three fairies replied unanimously and flew out of the smoke-filled room.

"And close the door~!" Suika shouted after them.

The kitchen's door was slammed shut by the last leaving fairy, giving Suika the signal to start her transformation. Density manipulation allowed her to become a cloud of thick mist, much thicker than the smoke rising from the burning furniture. By doing this, she cut off the oxygen supply to the spreading flames, which died out before they caused any serious damage.

At least one part of the problem was solved.

* * *

In the meantime, the girls upstairs followed the voice who was calling for help. They opened every door on their way through the corridor until they found the person in a distressful situation.

"Akyuu-chan!" Reimu saw the chronicler hiding under the bed while fairies from the outside were letting themselves into the room through the smashed window.

"I'll get those little pests!" Remilia threw herself at one of the winged creatures and snapped her neck. "Get the girl out of here!"

Youmu went after the other fairies with her katana. With a few quick and precise lunging attacks, she helped the vampire secure the room.

Reimu trotted to the bed and offered her hand to Akyuu so she could get out faster.

"Ah, Reimu-san… Thank you. But is it really any safer downstairs than here?"

"I don't know for sure, but you can't hide under that bed forever. Come on. On your feet…"

As Reimu pulled the chronicler from under the bed, Youmu suggested that the girls should use the mentioned piece of furniture to barricade the smashed window.

"Not sure how barricading one window is going to help us…" muttered the vampire, but she was already lifting the bed up together with Youmu and placing it at the window.

Reimu took Akyuu by the hand and hurried back downstairs. That's when she heard some suspicious noises coming from one of the closed rooms.

"What was that?" she paused for a second to listen. Even Akyuu curiously stared at the door. It sounded like pieces of glass clinking against each other. Reimu pictured a similar scene as she witnessed in Akyuu's room when the fairies have broken the window.

"Akyuu-chan, run downstairs!" the shrine maiden wanted to send her to safety as she put her hand on the door's handle.

Akyuu nodded obediently and left the corridor via the only stairway leading to the ground floor. Reimu recalled that her powers were almost entirely used up, so she called for Remilia and Youmu to back her up while she'd open the door of the room where the noise was coming from.

"Three… two… one… NOW!"

Reimu swung the door open, while Youmu readied her sword for a vertical slash. At the first sign of movement, she commenced her attack, but she realized that the person standing in front of her was not one of the possessed fairies. The half-ghost's blade stopped just centimeters in front of his face.

"You!" Reimu pointed her finger at the surprised man. "You're that youkai who came here with Eirin and Patchouli."

Xeng-Yao, the immortal half-snake youkai alchemist froze in shock at the sight of Roukanken's blade that wasn't far from chopping his face in two. He protruded his forked tongue and touched the sword's tip.

"Umm… why ssssuch hosssstility, young lady?"

"What have you been doing this whole time?!" Reimu barked a question at him. "The whole village is a battlefield!"

"That fact hassssn't esssscaped me, missss shrine maiden. But it takesss ssssome time to prepare these thingssss without proper lab equipment."

"Prepare what?"

Xeng gently patted a large leather backpack that he carried on his shoulders. Its content let out a few jingling sounds, just like what Reimu heard before she opened the door.

"Everything you might need to help you fight."

Reimu, Youmu and Remilia exchanged heir glances before focusing on the alchemist again.

"We have some wounded downstairs. Think you can help them?"

"Think?" he let out a hissing chuckle. "I've got ssstuff that'll get them on their feet again and ready to fight on. If we had the sssame thingsss back on the Moon, we would have taken the capital for sure."

Reimu made a shrugging gesture. "Then don't waste time up here and get busy!" she beckoned to the staircase.

Xeng sighed and calmly walked out of his room. "I'm alwayssss busy…"

* * *

The group returned to the barroom of the tavern. Everyone who still had some magic reserve left was fighting the fairies guerrilla-style, shooting though the windows in short bursts and taking cover.

"Here they are." Reimu pointed at the girls lying on the ground. "Marisa and Sanae should be fine, but Patchouli took the worst of it."

"What about me then?" Kaguya remarked sarcastically.

"You don't count." the miko brushed her off.

Xeng briefly looked at the injured girls and started unpacking his potions. "Ahh, the wounded - an inevitability of every battle… Let me take a closssser look at you."

"Hmm… An artery wound. But it lookssss like it's already ssstabilized. Decent work… very decent."

"That's because I treated it." Eirin brought the alchemist's attention to herself.

"I ssssee. Poor Patchouli-sssan… Seemsss the injury affected her vocal chordsss too. But don't worry. We can sssspeed up the healing processss by leapsss and boundssss." He took out a flask filled with dark-red liquid and shook it lightly before opening.

"Wait…" Remilia gripped his hand with strength that would cause pain to a normal human, but Xeng didn't perceive it as pain. "I don't trust this youkai. Just what are you going to make Patchy drink, huh?"

"A sssspecial Earth-Lunarian cocktail with nearly instantaneous healing effectssss. It hurtssss a little at firssst, but I think it'sss a worthy tradeoff."

"So that's what you sold to one of my patients." Eirin recalled the events in Eientei, when two of her human patients recovered unnaturally fast.

"I sssold a lot of variousss potionsss to a lot of people. I run a businesss just like you, and like you I've kept my residence a sssecret from the general population for ssssome time. Now I'm more open. And don't you worry, little vampire girl," he turned to Remilia, "this potion isss for youkai. The potionssss for humansss mussst use different ingredientsss. I'm not going to poissson your friend. Though, I have to admit, I don't sssspecialize in medicine… Thisss isss mossstly Yagokoro Eirin's recipe, ssso if you trussst her, you can trussst me."

"A regenerating concoction of this strong and fast effect would require pure ingredients…" the Lunarian sage reasoned. "Ingredients unobtainable on Earth."

The half-snake chuckled and looked up proudly. "That'sss a little trade sssecret of mine, but yesss, you're right. I would be looking for the necessary ingredientsss for these potionssss on Earth in vain. But there are waysss…"

"So she supplies you?"

"Hm? Who?" Xeng didn't get Eirin's question.

"You know well, who I mean."

"Yakumo-ssama? No, no, no…" he shook his head in denial. "I haven't ssseen her in a very long while. I wonder how she'sss doing. And if she still looksss as pretty as when I sssaw her lassst."

"That's what you say." the pharmacist doubted his words.

"Oh, come now… Haven't we already been through all thisss? Hey! You, girl with that red eye over your chest, look at me… Am I lying?"

Satori fired a flurry of danmaku out of the window before responding to his question. "He's telling the truth. He doesn't have a supplier. His ingredients come from…"

"Alright, alright, alright… That'ssss enough." he raised his voice to silence her before she'd reveal his well-guarded business secret, "there's no need to go into details."

"I think there is." Reimu disagreed. "Otherwise you will remain suspicious."

"Do you want me to help your friend or not?" the alchemist changed the topic, trailing his glance off to Patchouli.

After a while of hesitation, Remilia released his wrist. "…Fine."

"Now why don't you tell us about your way of obtaining those ingredients?" Reimu continued the interrogation.

"If you come to my lab, I'll show you…" he muttered his response as he was lifting Patchouli's head and prompting her to drink from the potion bottle.

"You'll tell us NOW." the shrine maiden didn't let herself get brushed off and demanded an immediate answer.

"I grow the ingredientsss in sssspecial containersss that emulate the pure environment of the Moon. Are you happy now?"

"My, that would be quite interesting to see." Eirin was already making plans on revisiting Xeng's cavernous dwelling to it for herself.

The alchemist ignored her and focused on not spilling too much of his potion while making Patchouli drink it.

"That should be enough…" he backed away from her slowly and watched her reaction.

Patchouli confusedly blinked her eyes and put her hand over her bandaged wound. Not long after that, her eyes widened with the arrival of the potion's negative side-effect. Strong searing pain overtook her wounded neck and the youkai girl started stirring about on the floor. She kicked down a nearby chair as she tried to endure it. Remilia was not pleased to see her in that state at all. But just as suddenly as the pain arrived, it left, leaving only a faint afterglow deep inside the librarian's throat. She tried to speak, but only a faint whisper escaped her lips. It would still take some time before her voice would return back to normal, but at least she was able to stand up again and perhaps even continue to fight.

"Patchy~!" Remilia threw herself at her. "Are you alright?"

The purple-haired girl opened her mouth, but no words came out. However, she was still able to muster a smile. With a few pantomimic gestures she requested for something to write with. Akyuu was willing to rip a few blank pages out of her notebook and even offered her a writing brush.

The first words that Patchouli wrote down were: "Thank you, everyone."

"Patchouli…" Remilia again couldn't help herself, but to tightly hug her friend once more. The sorceress looked a little baffled, but she slowly raised her hand and patted the Scarlet Devil's head. When Remilia finally let her go, Patchouli wrote down: "I'm alright now, but it still hurts when I try to speak."

"Patchouli, listen..." Reimu spoke up to her. "You got what you wished for. The fairies have swarmed the village in tens of thousands. We're cornered in this tavern; we're tired and wounded and we don't know how much more fairies will come even if we manage to beat those that are here. Do you have any suggestions what to do now?"

To everyone's relief, the librarian nodded and started quickly scribbling something on the paper sheet. The curious girls who weren't currently preoccupied with shooting the fairies outside the tavern gathered around Patchouli and impatiently peeked over her shoulder to see what plan she had in mind.

Satori would be able to tell them sooner then Patchouli would write it, but she was one of those girls who were busy with fighting.

When the elementalist was done with writing, she picked up the paper and showed it to everyone.

"The warding blessings have worked with the three fairies of light, as they were not possessed…" Reimu started reading the text aloud. "The vengeful spirits rarely act with such coordination as we've seen here. I suspect that they are manipulated by someone. And that someone is somewhere close by."

"I knew it all along!" Remilia called out. "The culprit is hiding in this village. We should go out there and gather every villager and have Satori look at them to find out who's doing this."

"However…" Reimu continued reading, "it's also possible that the spirits are manipulated by a master spirit… Wait, what?"

Patchouli put the paper down again and hurried to scribble an answer. The sounds of battle, explosions and screams from outside were filling out the otherwise quiet tavern. Patchouli showed the paper to the girls and the shrine maiden took the initiative to read it again.

"In one of the many books on occult – the Binding of Souls, I found a very interesting passage about necromancy and the art of binding one's spirit so that it wouldn't leave the mortal plane even after one's death. Especially on page 489 where…"

"Umm… Patchy?" Remilia interrupted Reimu's reading and looked into Patchouli's eyes. "Could you be a bit terser?"

"Yeah…" Reimu seconded the vampire's suggestion.

A bashful smile settled on the librarian's face and she lightly bowed in a gesture of apology. She took the writing brush and underlined the key part of the text, showing Reimu what they should focus on.

"In the past, some necromancers undertook a ritual to seal their souls inside their bodies, so they'd achieve immortality."

"Such foolishness…" Eirin muttered and disapprovingly shook her head.

"Sure it issss… an elixir of immortality is a much better method, isss it not, Lunarian?" Xeng-Yao asked her with clear sarcasm in his tone.

"I'd say being a vampire is the best way to go." Remilia voiced her opinion.

"The best way to become immortal is to leave it all to the natural order of the universe and simply die." Yuyuko added her bit of wisdom into the discussion.

Eirin was about to retort, but Reimu graced her and the youkai alchemist with a silencing gaze. When both of them understood that there was no time for their bickering, they allowed the shrine maiden to continue reading Patchouli's explanation.

"With their bodies dead, but their souls still residing inside, they continued their lives as corpses retaining their intellect, memories and abilities. These undead necromancers, commonly known as liches could manipulate other undead and use them as minions, and were even able to re-attach their souls to another dead body as a precaution. They could still be killed if their body took significant damage and their soul could no longer hold it together. In rare cases, a lich could possess a living being, but only if his or her soul was strong enough to take over and dominate its host's soul. That's why they preferred to possess small animals as creatures with weak spiritual resistance. If my theory is correct and we are facing a lich, we must take into consideration that it could be one of those possessed fairies."

"Eh…" the shrine maiden scratched her head. "That's interesting and all, but… how are we supposed to find a lich's spirit amongst the zillions of fairies?"

Patchouli ran out of space to write on, so she turned the paper and started writing the answer on the other side. After a while she showed it to the shrine maiden.

"There are several ways to find this out: Remilia's fate vision, Satori-san's mind reading or Yuyuko-sama's invitation to death… I see. And after we take out the right fairy? What's going to happen? I mean… what prevents that lich spirit from simply taking another host?"

The elemental sorceress nodded repeatedly and dipped her brush into ink again. After a half a minute she presented her reply.

"Unless a lich performs another binding ritual beforehand, slaying its current body will return it to the cycle of death. The sinful spirits usually go to hell or wander eternally on Earth, but they lose their power to manipulate other spirits. Without this power, the fairies will be thrown into disarray. But I already have a better plan than just slaying the master fairy. Yuyuko-sama already knows what to do… Huh? Yuyuko?" Reimu's glance shifted to the ghost.

"Why, yes~." Princess Saigyouji confirmed with a nod. "I'm not afraid to go out there again, but what about the rest of you?"

That's when Marisa's voice diverted everyone's attention. "Ahh… Whoa! What was that drink you gave me?" she wiped her lips with the back of her hand and jumped up on her feet. "I feel awesome!"

"Don't mention it…" Xeng-Yao was satisfied with the result and proceeded to treat Sanae. "Now for the lassst patient… Oh, so she's a shrine maiden too? So we need a potion sssafe for humansss."

"Actually, she's a living goddess." Kanako corrected him. "But otherwise, yes, a human…"

The alchemist paused for a moment, giving Kanako an intense stare. Only now he noticed that she bore signs that separated her from both humans and youkai. "That mirror and shimenawa circle… You… you are a goddess too, aren't you?"

"That's right; I'm Yasaka Kanako, from the…" she suddenly interrupted her introduction when she saw Xeng prostrating in front of her."

"I'm sssory that I didn't notice sssoner."

A little confused, Kanako exchanged her glance with Suwako. "Uhh… Thank you for your gesture, but right now we really don't have any time for this." she prompted him to stand up.

"Please, just help our dear Sanae like you helped the other two girls."

"Of courssse…" he stood up again to prepare a dose for the wounded shrine maiden. "Okay, thisss should be enough… He measured an appropriate amount of potion and made Sanae drink it.

The pain of rapid healing was more intense depending on the seriousness of the injury. Sanae was only lightly injured, though, so her recovery wasn't too hard for her to endure. In a matter of seconds, she was fully recovered and healthy.

"Thank you."

"My pleasure, Sssanae-san." the half-snake mustered a crooked smile. "Now you can fight the fairiessss in full strength again."

"Actually…" Reimu raised her finger in objection. "I ran out of energy… I should rest, but I can't! Look at what's going on outside. And I'm not the only one…"

"Well, why didn't you ssssay so sssooner?" the alchemist pulled out a large bottle filled with a peculiar opaque blue liquid. "Bartender, bring us ssssome shot glasses! Thisss round is on the houssse."

The owner of the establishment thought that Xeng was joking about it, but the alchemist's eyes were staring back at him, radiating an aura of urgency and seriousness.

"Sure, give me a second."

The man reached for a serving tray and loaded it with over a dozen shot glasses.

"Do I get a taste too?" he asked as he put the tray on the nearby table.

"Not unlesss you're going out there to fight."

"What a pity."

When Suika saw the scene, she couldn't hide her curiosity. "Oh~! What drink are you serving?"

"Thisss juice will replenish your magical energy. It's not a medicine, ssso it's sssafe for both humanssss and youkai to drink. Even when you feel exhausssted, the potion will charge you up." Xeng explained as she poured the blue liquid into the shot glasses. "Cheers, everyone! Don't be shy."

"Cheeeers~!" the oni didn't hesitate to have a taste. Everyone else cautiously watched her to see her reaction.

"Awww… What is this~? I can't get drunk from this."

"Hmm…" the alchemist thoughtfully rubbed his chin between his fingers. "Perhapsss I should invent a tastier brand of these magic replenishersss."

Reimu, Sanae and Sakuya were each holding their glass and staring at its content with suspicion. Marisa, on the other hand, didn't have any qualms about trying out new potions.

"Ya, know, I also dabble in alchemy a bit, and I still remember the thrill of my first taste of my first potion from the mushrooms that I harvested in the forest… Let me sample that blue stuff, ze!"

She downed the glass just as quickly as Suika and exhaled deeply. "Hmm… I don't mind the bitter taste, but is this potion supposed to make me feel refreshed? Because I can't say that I feel any diff… oh…" she paused herself in the middle of the sentence as a strong feeling of warmth began spreading from her stomach throughout her entire body.

"And the poison has begun to take its effect…" Reimu remarked jokingly.

"How do you feel, Marisa?" Alice asked her.

"Like I could brawl with an oni!"

Suika crossed her arms over her underdeveloped chest as a sign of accepting her challenge. "Really, Marisa-chan? Shall we go outside then?"

"Eh… that was just a metaphor, Suika." the witch bashfully backed one step away. "But seriously, I feel like Master Sparking some fairies. You should try it too, Reimu."

The black-haired maiden still had her doubts, but she let Marisa convince her. She threw the glass's content into her mouth and swallowed it, without trying to savor the potion's flavor.

"You know," she spoke after she drank her dose, "I'm a shrine maiden, and as such, I use divine powers rather than magic."

"Reimu-san has a point." Kanako nodded agreeingly. "As a goddess, will drinking this potion really help me and Suwako?"

The immortal youkai from China fluttered his tongue in the air as he thought about the question. "That I don't know, Yasaka-sssama. I've never tesssted the stuff on a god before. There are some thingsss that I can put into a bottle and sssome that I can't. You can ssstill drink it if you like, but I can't guarantee it will work."

"Well, it's not like it could kill me anyway." the goddess of wind and rain shrugged and sipped the potion to the bottom. Suwako followed suit and so did Sanae.

Kanako waited for a while for any strange sensations, but she was only met with disappointment. "Well, I can't say it did the trick, but at least it was worth a try."

Likewise, the shrine maidens from both of Gensokyo's shrines felt no difference after ingesting the magic replenishing potion.

"Hmm~." Yuyuko also gave it a try, even though she was aware that it would bring her no benefit. She drank it just for the sake of tasting something new. "I think it could use a little more sugar."

Remilia, on the other hand, felt the magic rush almost instantly. Despite being drained from the rain and hard battle, just one shot glass of the elixir restored her magic to full amount. Almost like after drinking a satisfying amount of human blood.

"Sakuya." she addressed her maid without making eye contact.

"Yes, Remilia-sama?"

"Drink it up and meet me outside."

"Wait, mistress, what are you…?"

Before Sakuya could formulate her question, her mistress took flight and exited the tavern through one of the smashed windows.

* * *

"Thought you've seen the last of me? Come at me, you fools! "Scarlet Gensokyo"!" her taunts and Spell Card declaration could be heard from outside even through the noises of battle and thunder.

Just as the name of the spell suggested, the card flashed in a bright scarlet glow and launched a spiral of large violet orbs that began exploding from the center and making the neighboring danmaku bubbles follow suit in a chain reaction. Each exploding bubble produced several smaller red fragments that littered a wide area. Although slow in movement, the resulting projectiles were so dense and so numerous, that the fairy swarm couldn't do much to avoid them. And while Remilia was launching wave after wave of decimating magic barrages, Sakuya quickly obeyed her order, drank the potion and hurried outside to add some sharp metal to her mistress's danmaku patterns.

* * *

Alice and Marisa didn't want to waste their time inside either, and both of them returned to the battlefield, lasers blazing. All the girls left the tavern with the exception of Reimu, Sanae and the two goddesses. The potion failed to restore their divine powers, so they decided to lay low and protect Akyuu.

Xeng-Yao apologized that despite his extensive knowledge of alchemy, he could not create a drinkable substance that restores divine power. He put away his half-empty bottle and slowly approached the tavern's window.

"Hey, where are you going?" Reimu halted him as he was about to climb outside through the broken window. "I know you're a youkai, but… can you even fight? You don't look like it…"

"I took part in the first Genssso-Lunar war, dear shrine maiden and my reward was a recipe for immortality. I'll be fine."

"Hmph…" she let out a snort of indifference. "I'm not worried about your life. Taking part in a war and fighting in it are two different things. I was just wondering if you had any danmaku to fight the fairies with, considering how you were hiding in one of the guest rooms when we found you."

The alchemist unstrapped two small bulb-shaped bottles from his sash and showed them to Reimu. They were filled with a bubbling liquid of bright orange color. "Thisss is my danmaku." and with those words, he slipped outside into the fray. When he saw a thick cluster of fairies, he flung one of the bottles at them with all his might. With so many fairies, it was quite hard to miss. The flask shattered on the face of one unfortunate fairy and as soon as its content came into contact with water, a violent explosion followed. Over a dozen of enemy youkai were scattered into all directions from the power of the shockwave. The exploding potion also created a small cloud of highly toxic gas that continued to reduce the enemy ranks before it dispersed. He didn't have much combat experience, but with most of the expedition team soaring above, the fairies didn't pay him much attention even when he was throwing his explosive concoctions at them.

* * *

Everyone was fighting hard. Even Patchouli didn't hold back and joined her friends in the grand battle, this time paying extra attention to incoming enemy projectiles. With the rain powering the element water, she kept casting water-based danmaku as her basic attack.

The youkai dollmaker got an interesting idea how to aid her allies. With magic energy to spare, Alice summoned a horde of dolls, all of them bearing large kite shields and commanded them to form a protective cocoon around all the other girls. With this additional protection, the girls were effectively breaking the fairies' offensive and began pushing them back beyond the premises of Kazemura.

When Keine saw this, she hurried to Patchouli to ask her how to proceed.

"Patchouli-san…" she interrupted her sentence to fire a burst of shots. "Do you want me to hide this village's history? I have enough magic to do it properly, just give me the signal."

Patchouli locked her eyes with hers and shook her head profusely. She pointed her finger at Yuyuko, then clenched her fist slowly and finally waved both of her hands sideways.

"I'm afraid I don't understand, but I hope you know what you're doing."

The teacher parted with her and continued to chase down the dwindling groups of fairies with the rest of the team.

"Patchouli-san." Satori came flying to the librarian with interesting news to tell. "The spirits… they are returning back underground. All of them are thinking the same thing, like they're driven by something…" She threw a quick glance at Remilia with her third eye to analyze her thoughts. The vampire was still sending the fairies to the ground by dozens with her Spell Card, not having any time to report what she saw. But Satori could see her thoughts and even slightly tap into her fate vision. What she saw warranted Patchouli's highest attention. The fairies each had two particular fate strings that distinguished their fate. One was leading towards the center of the quarry pit and the other one was trailing off somewhere to southwest before fading into nothing. When Satori broke the news to her, Patchouli knew that this was the right time to act. She pointed her finger at the sky and shot a bright-yellow signal bullet. Right on cue, Aya arrived to meet up with them.

"Ayayaya~! You gave the signal, so I'm here!"

Perhaps Patchouli couldn't speak yet, but Satori was there with her to help her convey her thoughts to the tengu.

"Oh, I see… So you've tracked down our primary target? Then we must strike without warning and surprise the mastermind!"

"Let's not forget to bring Yuyuko-sama along with us." Satori reminded her.

"Alright, I'll let her know!" the reporter nodded affirmatively. "I'll be right back."

In a few seconds, she returned along with the Netherworld's princess by her side.

"So we finally rooted out the source~?" the ghostly girl asked when she saw the group.

"Hey~!" another girl's call sounded. "You haven't thought of tracking the culprit down without me, have you?" Remilia Scarlet finally finished her spell and rejoined them, even bringing an extra member to the team. In her arms, a desperate possessed fairy was quivering violently, trying in vain to break free from the vampire's unyielding grip.

"Remi…" Satori spoke out Patchouli's thoughts aloud. She sounded a bit awkward, addressing the vampire so informally, but she didn't have the time to explain that she's merely reading the librarian's mind aloud. "Okay, I see you've captured one alive… Together, we'll find a way to reach the manipulator of these spirits. Lead the way!"

With a slight flap of her bat-like wings, Remilia followed the fate string's trail of the fairy that she was holding.

"Wait~!" Yuyuko called after her, "You're going a little too fast~!"

Soon the girls realized that a significant portion of the fairies that were raiding the village suddenly shifted the center of their attention to the Scarlet Devil.

"Ayayaya~! I think we have company!"

Satori rolled her third eye at the fairies that pursued them. "Just like that time when we were trying to catch specimens for Eirin…"

"What are you talking about?" Aya didn't understand.

"Their thoughts are now focused on eliminating the fairy that you're holding, Remilia-san. Whoever is manipulating these spirits must be aware that we've captured one and is trying to prevent us from finding them."

"Well, tough luck!" Remilia began flying even faster. "They're not catching us!"

"Butterflies, butterflies, pretty, pretty butterflies~!" Yuyuko who was tagging behind the rest of the girls was flying backwards and covering the team from behind. Her trademark butterfly-shaped danmaku was making it hard for the fairy swarm to achieve their goal.

And while Yuyuko was having fun with the fairies, Remilia was only focused on that thin red string that was showing her the way.

"Aya, can you see anything?"

The crow tengu who was holding both Satori and Patchouli to help them fly faster indeed noticed some suspicious movement in the distance. "Keep flying, I think I see another group ahead."

"How many?"

Aya made a quick and rough estimate of the enemy number. "Hmm… About a few hundred."

"Ha! We'll obliterate them in seconds!" declared the vampire with strong confidence.

They pressed on, not afraid to face another battle in this terrible weather. Remilia was again starting to feel her magic quickly draining and she wanted to reach the mastermind before the rain would wash it away completely.

"I can see them." She halted about a hundred meters away from the enemy fleet of fairies.

Satori again looked inside Patchouli's thoughts and figured that the librarian was pretty much about to say the same thing as her.

"Just show us which fairy harbors the leader spirit and let Yuyuko-sama do the rest."

With the captive fairy still struggling in her arms, the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion focused her sight at the group ahead and trying to identify which of those fairies was the fate string pointing to. The opposing fairy swarm was much smaller compared to what she faced over Kazemura's quarry. But despite their relatively small number, the fairies attacked with uncanny ferocity. The target was, of course, Remilia's captive.

"Here they come! Spread out and hold your fire!" Satori took the leading role in this fight and issued a command.

"Hold our fire?!" Remilia spewed out. "What the hell is she thinking?!" She just narrowly dodged a straightforward burst of magic orbs that were thrown at her and proceeded to strike back.

"Eat this!" she began rapidly casting danmaku out of her right hand while still clutching the captured fairy tightly with her left arm. Satori and Patchouli noticed that she disobeyed them and started killing the enemies without discrimination.

"Remilia~! Stop!" Patchouli spoke through Satori's voice. Even when repeatedly asked by her best friend, the stubborn vampire continued to exterminate the small winged youkai. Her uncontrollable behavior was threatening Patchouli's plan to end the fairy incident here and now. She was worried that the chance to stop the vengeful spirits would elude her when she already had it within her reach. She swallowed her own saliva and with great disgust over her own decision, she aimed her finger at Remilia's back. A single watery projectile was summoned from her fingertip. It traveled a short distance before it splashed on Remilia's back.

"Kyaaah~!" she let out a surprised shout. The shot was weak and technically harmless to a youkai like Remilia, but Patchouli still winced at the thought that she had to use it against her.

"What the hell are you doing?!" the vampire yelled at her. "Have you become possessed too?"

Satori wanted to explain Patchouli's plan to her, but the hostile fairies didn't allow her any time for that.

"Satori-san, look out!" Aya grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her away from an incoming volley of enemy danmaku.

As if things weren't bad enough, another squadron of fairies took advantage of distracted Remilia and attacked the fairy she was holding in her arms.

"Gah! Damn it!" all she could do was to utter a curse as her captive was assassinated.

Infuriated and frustrated, she continued killing every fairy in sight. "NOBODY… MESSESS… WITH REMILIA… SCARLET!" she bellowed as she kept repeatedly flinging smaller versions of her danmaku spear.

"She's completely out of control." was what Satori saw when reading Patchouli's current thoughts. If one of those fairies was possessed by a mastermind spirit and it made another binding ritual beforehand, killing it would not solve anything. On the contrary, it would make things even more complicated, because the girls would have to search all over again. Patchouli and others were just watching helplessly as the Scarlet Devil wiped out half of the fairy swarm. But due to the rain, she could not keep her magic strong for too long.

"Why?" she suddenly turned at Patchouli with a blaming look in her crimson eyes. "Why did you tell me not to shoot them?"

Instead of answering her question, Satori asked her: "You can still see them, can't you?"

"What…?"

"The strings of fate." the mind-reader specified. "Even if you lost your hostage, you can still track the position of our primary target from the fate strings of other fairies. If you haven't killed her already…"

When she ran out of danmaku to shoot, Remilia was finally able to calm down and realize the mistake that she was about to do. And even if she slipped and stumbled, she could still help make things right again. With as few words as possible, the satori explained to her the importance of following Patchouli's plan.

"I… I will." she nodded repeatedly. "I can't shoot danmaku for too long in this damn rain anyway. I'll show you which fairy is in charge of all this mess…"

She spread her wings again and soared up, paying close attention to the curving and heading of the enemy fairies' fate lines. The fairies, of course, were still relentlessly assaulting the other girls, but they decided to just dodge and stand down until Remilia designates the main mark.

"Hurry up, Remilia." Aya muttered impatiently as she kept circling around and avoiding shots.

She could already see the massive cloud of fairies that abandoned the fight at Kazemura getting closer to their position.

After about 30 seconds that seemed like eternity, Remilia's unique vision finally saw what she was looking for. At the rear of a small fairy squadron that was somewhat holding back compared to the rest of the fairies, there was an odd one out. There was a huge knot of fate strings spreading out from her head to the heads of other fairies that were nearby.

"That's the one~!" Remilia shouted at the other girls while extending her finger at the target. "The one in the black dress! After her!"

"It was about time!" Aya exhaled in relief from the fact that she could now defend herself and annihilate any other fairies without holding back. Once she swatted down the most annoying and persistent fairies that were attacking her, the reporter took a closer look at the fairy that Remilia was pointing at.

"Why, that's Lily White!" she identified the host of the mastermind of the vengeful spirits.

"Indeed~!" Yuyuko confirmed. "Though not so white anymore."

A blonde fairy with dark feathery wings, all dressed in black was calmly observing the battle from a distance.

"I thought she only appeared in springtime."

"She's truly acting out of character." the ghost remarked as she followed Aya. "Now to see if Patchouli-san's theory was right…"

It didn't take long for Lily to notice the impending danger, so she tired to flee and hide herself among the other fairies that were arriving from Kazemura.

"She's trying to get away!" Remilia alerted the team to the sudden movement of their primary target.

"Let's see if she can get away from me!" Aya accepted the challenge. "Sorry, Satori-san, I'll let you go now so I could fly at full speed."

A silent nod of consent came from Satori, and the tengu girl was already chasing Lily White down like a hungry dog chases after bacon.

Of course, the fairy's maximum flight speed could not compare to that of a crow tengu, and it wasn't long before Aya crossed Lily's path.

"Gotcha!" she grinned ominously. She extended her arms to grab the fairy, but the spirit that possessed Lily White did not want to give up easily.

"What the…? Kyaaaaaah~!"

The fairy that normally announced the arrival of spring surprised Aya with an attack that she'd never expect from her. Out of her palms she fired a beam not unlike Marisa's favorite Master Spark. It was a bit smaller, though, and instead of producing dazzling light it sported a somewhat dark shade of violet.

"Aya~!" Remilia shouted at the falling tengu. Even if she hurried as fast as she could, she would not be able to catch her. She could only watch as Aya's unconscious body disappeared among the treetops, followed by a series of loud snaps and cracks of tree branches and rustling of leaves.

"Aya-san…" Yuyuko uttered her name, hoping that the tengu didn't suffer a mortal wound. But she couldn't go and see if she was okay at this moment. Lily White had to be stopped here and now by any means necessary.

"I'll get you for this, you little bitch!" Remilia's anger again boiled up her vampiric blood. Just like a couple of minutes before when she ran out of magic, she decided to incapacitate the fairy's movement and perhaps give her a weak slap or two, just not to kill her.

This time it was Patchouli who worried about her friend. Remilia fearlessly engaged the black-clad fairy in melee. But to her great surprise, Lily fought back with physical strength that was unheard of for a fairy.

"Take this! And that! And… ungh! What the hell?!" she didn't know whether her opponent was so strong or whether the heavy rain has made her so weak, but Remilia was having a hard time pacifying her.

And while the two of them were wrestling with each other, the bulk of the fairy armada from Kazemura has finally caught up to them, followed by a part of the expedition team that was shooting them down from behind. The center of the battle was now shifted to a forest not too far from the mining village.

Yuyuko hurried to help Remilia, but she and Lily were already swallowed up by the rest of the swarm.

"Aaaaaaargh!" Remilia's pained shriek helped the ghostly princess find her even in the whirlwind of fairies and danmaku. It seemed that Lily has just slipped out of her grasp and replied with a powerful projectile right at the vampire's chest.

"Remilia-san!" Yuyuko could see that the blue-haired youkai was shaken by the hit and the fairy that she wanted to catch was charging up for a finishing move. The other girls from the team were too far to lend her a hand. But Princess Saigyouji did not need anyone's help. She already knew what to do…

Just as Patchouli told her, she was aware that she was probably the most important part of the team because of her unique ability. The very ability that had driven her to suicide over a thousand years ago. Now, that ability could be actually put to good use.

"Now, herald of the spring's arrival," she addressed the fairy with a chant-like tone, "I shall free thee of thy tormentor."

The ghostly princess spread her arms wide, as if ready to embrace someone. "Gaze upon me and abandon thy husk, for I am thy death… Embrace it!"

As Yuyuko was slowly closing her arms and embracing the air, Lily White's facial expression changed from a hateful grin to a lifeless, empty stare. As she fell backwards, a white cloud-like form escaped from her open mouth and the fairy's dead body crashed on the ground. Suddenly, it was as if the time stopped for a moment. The fairies stared with awe at their fallen leader and in the next moment, they began scattering and bumping into each other in confusion. Some even seemed to have forgotten that they were in the middle of a grand battle just a while ago.

"They're retreating!" Keine called out loud as a huge burden has fallen from her heart.

Some of the girls from the team tried to hunt down the confused fairies, but it was obvious that they could not get them all. Nevertheless, they didn't need to.

"You did it! You really did it, ze!" Marisa and Reimu have just met up with the mistress of the Netherworld.

"Yuyuko-sama!" Even Youmu couldn't hide her elation when she saw her hovering there calmly, as if nothing happened. "You were amazing~!"

"WE, my sweet Youmu." she corrected her loyal gardener. "We were all amazing."

"The culprit was caught…" Reimu still struggled to process the sudden end of this grueling battle.

"I thought fairies were immune to Yuyuko's death invitation." Marisa scratched her head in puzzlement.

"They have lifespans and they can die when mortally wounded." Keine began to explain. "But they always rise again after a while."

"Who's the culprit~? Who's the culprit~?" Suika repeated her question as she just arrived to the scene.

"Yeah, who was behind all this?" Reimu was also curious to know. "And are you sure that the culprit won't run away from us?"

"I'm absolutely certain about that." Yuyuko reassured her. "Because I was the one who invited it to death. Just like Patchouli-san asked of me…"

Only a few other girls from the entire team were aware of how Yuyuko's power over death worked. Patchouli, being one of them, has specifically chosen Princess Yuyuko for the task, because without her, it would not be possible.

Not only could she invite mortal beings to their death, but she could also gain absolute control over the spirits of those that she has killed in this way. The spirit that she extracted from Lily White's body was completely at her mercy. It could neither run, nor fight back.

"And as I expected, this spectral mass consists of two souls. Just like with every other possessed fairy." she pointed her finger at the formless, swirling ghostly cloud. By a simple movement of her finger, she separated one soul from the other.

"Reveal yourself!" she commanded one of the two apparitions.

The white mass began to shift and twirl until it gained humanoid features. In a moment, it formed into a clear image of a short winged blonde girl wearing a white dress and hat.

"Lily-chan." Yuyuko immediately identified the fairy's original soul. The confused spirit of Lily White blinked back at her, uncertain of what just happened.

"Go freely, my dear, and be reborn as your true self." With a flick of her fingers, Yuyuko broke the spell of domination over her and Lily's soul began to descend down, returning to its body.

Moments later, the same fairy that led her other minions into battle resurrected and soared up again until she reached Yuyuko. She locked her shy eyes with the ghost girl for a while and tentatively hovered closer.

"Like I said, you are free to go, Lily-chan."

The fairy of spring planted a fleeting kiss on Yuyuko's cheek out of gratitude. Before the ghostly princess could react, Lily White pulled her face away, waved her hand and dispersed into a flurry of glowing sakura petals.

Yuyuko smiled sweetly. "So cute…"

All that was left to do was to identify the soul that possessed the poor fairy, and so, Yuyuko ordered it to reveal its true form.

Just like with Lily's soul, the second spirit began to form a recognizable human shape. When the transformation was complete, Reimu and Marisa exchanged glances with their mouths ajar.

The person that formed out of the mist looked around herself, bearing the same signs of confusion and puzzlement as Lily. But at least she was able to recognize someone.

"Ah… It's been quite a while, hasn't it, Reimu?" she addressed the shrine maiden like she knew her for a long time. "And you've changed quite a bit too, Marisa…"

"Well, I'll be damned…" the witch shook her head in denial.

"Mima…" Reimu spoke the spirit's name.


	55. What do you mean it's not over?

She stared back with her piercing green eyes, shifting her gaze slowly from one person to another and wondering where they all came from. Her equally colored hair flowed down her back and ended somewhere around her waist, seemingly unaffected by the strong wind or even rain. She looked mature, yet youthful. Comparable to Eirin or Keine.

Dressed up in a blue and white dress and a matching blue cape with tattered edges, fixed around her neck by a yellow ribbon, and wearing a pointy blue hat with a yellow sun pattern, she emitted a strong impression of a magician. A mysterious and eerie white ghostly tail waved down from her waist where her legs were supposed to be, making it clear to everyone who saw her that she was not a living person. In her pale hand, a bloody knife was faintly reflecting the light from the lightning flashes that were still taking place every few moments in the dark clouded sky. Despite everything that just happened a while ago, she seemed completely calm.

"Pleased to meet you. I'm Saigyouji Yuyuko." the ghostly princess courteously bowed her head to her.

Some of the girls have seen this woman for the first time, but to Marisa and Reimu, this young lady was already a well known and old acquaintance, for she was Mima – an evil spirit who could not move on to afterlife due to a grudge. However, she was so ancient that in her countless years spent on Earth, she even forgot who or what she held a grudge against. Even though she did say in the past that she wanted to take revenge on the entire human race, her reason for it was never quite certain. Reimu's first encounter with her took place almost a decade ago, when Mima appeared in the midst of Hakurei Shrine's hokora, which is a miniature Shinto shrine, usually attached to a larger shrine dedicated to the worship of minor folk kami. She was defeated by Reimu and sealed back within the hokora. Some time later, she managed to break the seal and stir up an incident. The second time she encountered the Hakurei shrine maiden, Marisa Kirisame acted as her apprentice, but Reimu managed to deal with both of them. In fact, Reimu knew Mima even longer than she knew Marisa. Mima's second defeat was followed by another sealing ritual into the hokora, only to break free just a month later. She has been seen around the Hakurei Shrine on several occasions, but her relation to the shrine was always a big mystery to Reimu. In the few documents that her ancestors left behind, she wasn't even mentioned. On the other hand, Mima proved to be quite knowledgeable about the history of the Hakurei Shrine, including the exact purpose of the Yin-Yang orbs. One day, however, she simply stopped coming. For several years nobody witnessed her, so it was even rumored that she finally found her peace and crossed the Sanzu River to afterlife. Apparently, these rumors were now swept away as the evil spirit has made her great comeback.

"So it WAS you all along!" Reimu accusingly pointed her finger at the green-eyed ghost.

Mima first returned a gesture of courtesy to Yuyuko and introduced herself before she shifted her attention back to the shrine maiden. "I wonder what you could be talking about."

"How many times do I have to seal you?"

"If you ever knew how to do it properly, even once would be enough." Mima replied with a soft, but cocky smile.

Reimu gripped her gohei tightly out of anger. Even though Mima was defeated, she acted as though as nothing had happened.

"Just one thing before I exterminate you again… Why have you done all this? Because of your grudge against all humanity?"

Mima just curiously tilted her head.

"Answer me!"

But instead of giving an answer, she asked a question: "Just… how did I end up here?"

"It's a bit too late to play dumb, don't you think?"

"No, I mean really… And why am I suddenly surrounded by all of you? I know some of these faces, but…"

"Are you making fun of me?!" Reimu threateningly raised her voice, to which Yuyuko shook her head.

"I'm afraid she can't, Reimu. Once under my control, no spirit can do as they please. She can't even lie."

"Ah, that explains why I feel so calm." Mima nodded understandingly.

"Is… Is that true?" the shrine maiden's voice, now laced with uncertainty forwarded a question at the mind-reading youkai.

"I can only see confusion in her mind. No memories of what happened tonight…"

"It can't be…" Reimu refused to believe. "We've caught her. She was leading the evil spirits to possess the fairies and used them to terrorize Gensokyo. She must be the culprit!"

"Lead an army of possessed fairies, you say?" Mima suppressed a laugh. "What kind of joke have you all played on me?"

"By the looks of it…" Marisa finally managed to speak up in front of her former ally, "It seems Mima-sama has suffered the same kind of amnesia as the possessed fairies that were slain and have resurrected."

"Ha!" the miko scoffed in apparent disbelief. "Even if she did lose her memory, that won't wash the blood off her hands!"

"Uhh… Blood?" Marisa scratched her head. "I never heard that that anyone died during the fairy incident."

"Well, uhh… The blood of those fairies that her undead subordinates have possessed! They're living beings too, you know!"

"Look who's talking." the blonde witch grinned at the great irony of her friend's remark. "Gensokyo's number one activist for the rights of all fairies…"

The flustered miko turned away, mumbling "Sh-shut up…" under her breath.

"Anyway," she quickly regained her composure and again pointed her index finger at Mima. "You need to answer for what you've done."

"Sure, sure…" the ghostly woman yawned in mockery to Reimu's threats. "But first, I'd really like to know how I got from the edge of the Forest of Magic to this place in a single moment… And why is everyone here? And why is there suddenly a thunderstorm?"

Just as she asked that, another loud thunder roared over Gensokyo.

"Is that… Is that the last thing you remember?" Marisa wanted to know.

"I think so." Mima's had an absentminded expression in her eyes as she tried to recall the last moment she remembered.

The ordinary magician hummed and nodded to herself. "Interesting."

"Don't tell me you believe her… Wait… Of course, you used to be her subordinate. So you're siding with her, huh?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Reimu. Haven't you heard what Yuyuko and Satori said? She is bound by a spell to speak only the truth."

"But you also saw what happened right after Yuyuko caught her, didn't you? All the fairies have stopped fighting and scattered everywhere. If that's not a clear proof that she was the one pulling the strings, then I don't know what is. Even Remilia must have seen it clearly."

"Speaking of that, we can try something out and see…" Yuyuko got an interesting idea.

"Like what?"

"If it really was Mima-san who was controlling the other spirits, it means she can still order them around."

Reimu silently blinked at the princess of Netherworld, eagerly waiting and pondering what kind of experiment she was about to demonstrate.

"Now, Mima-san… Call your minions to you." Yuyuko gently spoke an order that her captive could not disobey. Even if she had no idea what she was talking about. Yuyuko simply wanted to try if Mima still had the other vengeful spirits and their hosts under her control.

Mima's lips jerked slightly as she was forced to issue an order that didn't make any sense to her.

"Since when do I have minions?" she asked in her thoughts as her lips spoke the words: "Come to me, my followers!"

A silent moment of anticipation came about, as all the girls were waiting and looking around to see if the fleeing fairies haven't changed their heading to return to their supposed "master".

"Well…?" Reimu asked after a few seconds have passed without anything happening.

"Nothing's happening." said Marisa as she scouted the area. "Oh, wait… Some of the fleeing fairies have stopped."

Although not all of them, but some of the still possessed fairies have reacted to Mima's summoning call and began returning to her.

"Ha! There's your proof." Reimu crossed her arms as a sign that she made her point. "She's the mastermind. Can I seal her already? I'm already getting cold standing in this stupid rain."

Even Mima herself found a fact that she had obedient fairies at her disposal as surprising. Though as the little youkai were in flight to her position, some of them reconsidered and again changed their heading into the unknown, forsaking their mistress.

"Maybe the spell is wearing out." Marisa remarked as she observed their unusual behavior.

"Yuyuko's?" Reimu confusedly blinked.

"No, Mima's."

"I didn't cast anything." the evil spirit insisted. "I'd remember it, wouldn't I?"

The summoned fairies began slowly, but certainly dispersing again and before they made it to Mima, only a handful of them remained. They no longer considered her as their master.

"Youmu." Yuyuko addressed her servant.

"Yes, my lady?"

"Please, release them out of their misery."

Without any objections or questions, the white-haired half-ghost bowed. "Yes."

All it took was a few seconds, a few quick maneuvers and a few slashes, and the small group of fairies was no more. The spirits that possessed them finally realized that they weren't safe and began to flee to all directions. However, Youmu didn't let them. Her Roukanken sliced through their ethereal formless bodies, and the evil spirits were thus forced to reincarnate. It was basically an act of mercy, because this way, the souls of these sinners were automatically given a second chance to lead another life, perhaps as better people then they used to be.

Mima hummed to herself. "Interesting sword you have there, young miss." After seeing what it was capable of, she instantly started to ponder if it wouldn't be better to start anew. "If you cut me down with that…" she left the sentence unfinished and visualized what her next life could be like.

"Hmm… Not a bad idea." Reimu also liked the thought that she wouldn't have to put up with Mima anytime soon, but Yuyuko shook her head disagreeingly.

"I'm afraid that sealing Mima-san or forcing her to reincarnate won't resolve anything. In fact, I'm afraid this incident is far from being resolved."

"It can't be!" the shrine maiden refused to believe.

"I wish I could stay like this forever~." sighed Mima with a blissful expression. "I feel so at peace."

"Guess only time will tell." the ordinary magician shrugged. "But if she doesn't remember anything, doesn't that raise suspicion? You know… like someone else manipulating the spirits… including Mima-sama."

"That's what I think too." the ghostly princess nodded affirmatively. "But we really have no other leads, so there's nothing we can do for now."

"Someone controlling me?" The very notion sounded ridiculous to someone as powerful as Mima, though considering that she couldn't recall what happened ten minutes ago, she couldn't exclude it completely. After all, even right now she was also under someone else's control.

"There's still that unearthed temple in Kazemura." Remilia joined the conversation. "We should decide what to do with it. Bury it? Destroy it? Uncover it completely and all its mysteries? Whatever we choose, we better do it quickly."

That's when Reimu recalled the vampire's words, claiming that there is a connection between the communication amulet and the temple itself. And while a part of her would certainly agree with Remilia's first two suggestions, she also wanted to learn what became of Yukari. And only way to find that out, was obvious – let the Kazemura's miners dig deeper and uncover the whole temple.

But before she opened her mouth to speak, someone cut in with probably the most rational suggestion of the day.

"How about we all went someplace dry, warm and comfortable first?"

"Princess…" Eirin Yagokoro looked over her shoulder.

Kaguya Houraisan, the former princess of the Moon floated behind her, drenched to the last thread of her clothes, which got so torn up in the battle that they weren't leaving much to the imagination.

"N-no, I mean really~." she shivered and rubbed her hands against her arms to make herself feel warmer. "Let's go back already~. We can have this Mima person come with us."

"I agree." Remilia was also reaching her limit. Standing in the rain for a vampire was only one step less severe than basking in the sun, and she started to feel really weak.

Sakuya was at her side with a parasol in an instant. "You've put yourself in too much danger tonight, Remilia-sama. Please grab my hand. I'll support you."

"And what about Patchy?" the little vampire threw a glance at her friend.

Patchouli silently waved back, surrounded in a water bubble, letting them know that she'll be okay.

"And, and… I saw Aya falling down somewhere around there…" Remilia pointed her finger at the estimated place. "Someone should check if she's okay."

"I'll go." Eirin quickly began to descend. "You can go on ahead without me, Kaguya-sama."

The girls have slowly begun to return back to Kazemura, but Reimu remained there until she was sure that everyone from the expedition team was alright. Of course, where was Reimu, there was Marisa. Both of them waited until Eirin poked her head out from the treetops with an unconscious crow tengu in her arms.

"Aya…" she hovered over and took a close look at her. A few thin trails of blood flowed down her forehead and she had numerous bruises, cuts, lacerations and burns scarring her entire body as a result of being hit by tree branches on her way down to the ground. Definitely not a pleasant sight, but Eirin reassured them that such a strong youkai would recover from them completely in a matter of just a few days.

"Maybe we should let her drink some of that stuff that got Patchy back on her feet." Marisa thought aloud as she followed Eirin and Reimu back to the quarry village.

* * *

The storm still continued, but now, the only things that were hitting the roofs and walls of the village's buildings were the raindrops. The girls have returned to the damaged tavern and helped its owner and his family to at least put some provisionary covers on the windows to temporarily replace the broken glass. Everyone was soaked, tired, hungry and cold, but now they could finally satisfy all of their needs. They gathered in a half-circle around the tavern's fireplace, where they spread their futons and enjoyed the fire's inviting warmth with a cup of hot tea or other beverages in their hands. While some of them were celebrating their victory, other girls felt that it was too early to party and were intensely discussing the incident and planning their next steps. They've come to a conclusion that Mima was not the cause of the Fairy Incident, and despite Reimu's protests, Yuyuko lifted her spell of domination from her. Right now, the more pressing concern was to decide on how to prepare the village and whole Gensokyo for any potential future fairy attacks.

"So there will be more?" the shrine maiden mumbled as she stared into the fire.

"Probably." Yuyuko gave an uncertain answer.

"At least now Mima won't be leading them." Marisa tired to make the best out of it.

"Are you so sure?" Reimu eyed the evil spirit with doubt. "If she really was controlled by someone else, what prevents them from doing it again?"

"I really wouldn't like that." Mima acknowledged. "What fun is there in wreaking havoc, if you don't even remember it?"

"What if you tried out the same thing you did with the Three Fairies of Light?" the witch suggested.

"That ritual?" Reimu thoughtfully placed her finger on her chin, but then she just burst out in laughter. "What a joke! Performing a ritual that protects from evil spirits on an evil spirit…"

"Well, I'm not a shrine maiden. I was just asking, ze… Maybe Patchy knows something about the matter." she shifted her gaze at the sorceress.

Now wrapped in a blanket and warming herself up by a cup of tea, Patchouli Knowledge tried to speak once more, but the burning pain in her throat only allowed her to utter quiet whispers.

"We are dealing with a being powerful or knowledgeable enough to manipulate the spirits."

"I think we all know that." the blonde witch grinned crookedly.

"Marisa." Alice hushed her. "Let her spea… uhh… whisper."

"I know of one who would fit the description." said the Hakurei shrine maiden. "Powerful enough to make even Mima bend to her will. Although I can't imagine what would drive her to do that."

"If our enemy is the boundary youkai," Patchouli continued in her hushed whispers, "then there is no defense. If not, then we should put isolating any potential spirits from the reach of this mastermind on the top of our priority list. Judging from Mima-san's words, we must assume that the influence radius of this manipulator reaches as far as the northernmost areas of the Forest of Magic, which is almost over half of Gensokyo. However, seeing that Yuyuko-sama was unaffected by this manipulating power, I'm hesitant to draw any definite conclusions. There are several ways to cut ties between controlled spirits and their master."

"Uh-huh, we're listening, go on." Marisa prompted her to continue.

"If we don't wish to fight Mima-san again, we could seal her back in the hokora to protect her from any necromantic attempts to dominate her will."

"Finally, someone who speaks some sense!" Reimu approved of resealing Mima once more, even if she'd just break free again.

"You already released me from that tranquil state." Mima remarked with a sly grin. "Do you really think I won't fight back if you'd try to seal me again?"

However, much to her chagrin, nobody paid attention to her semi-threatening remark.

"Alternatively, we could use Reimu's and Sanae's spirit wards and place them all around the excavation site. That way the spirits that emerged from this temple would be trapped within and unable to make a move. Lastly, we could perform our own necromantic ritual and put every spirit in the area under our control, though in order to do that, we'd need someone skilled in the arts. And I know of no other candidates than Yuyuko-sama."

"Eh~? But I'm not a necromancer, Patchouli-san."

"Maybe not, but you've got an incredible gift, that many necromancers would be jealous of. But of course, I'd also prefer a different way to deal with this problem then to delve into the darker areas of magic."

"That second option sounded quite reasonable." Sanae Kochiya spoke up. "Spirit wards are not that hard to make, and even when they've only got a temporary effect, they should buy us enough time until the temple is fully uncovered."

"True," said Reimu, "but uncovering the temple and learning all of its secrets are two different things. While the former may take only a month, the latter could last for years."

"That, Reimu-san…" Hieda no Akyuu suddenly joined the discussion. "That, you can leave to us." she gestured towards Keine, who nodded in response.

Though doubt still resided in her eyes, Reimu didn't have much of a choice but to put her trust in their words and hope for the best.

"Very well. We'll proceed with placing the spirit wards around the quarry. Maybe I could even make some extra money if I started selling some protective trinkets to the villagers…" the black-haired miko spoke her intentions without any restraint.

And as the plan for the future was decided, the goddesses Kanako and Suwako couldn't help but to remind everyone their concern about the fact that their divine powers were severely weakened just by being present in the village. Kanako even compared her feelings to those she felt in the outside world where the faith in gods was giving way to trust in science and common sense.

"In that case, I think it would be in your best interest to return back to the shrine." Sanae kindly asked the two deities.

And just as the wind priestess was worried about her goddesses, so was Sakuya starting to look more worried about Remilia. The vampire girl was quiet the whole time, looking really under the weather. Oddly enough, even Hatate showed signs of worry about her rival Aya when she watched Eirin treating her injuries.

"She'll wake up soon, right?"

"Don't worry, Hatate-san. Aya-san will yet write many more articles, but we should let her rest."

"See what you did, Mima?" Reimu shot an accusing glance at the ghost, who didn't remember shooting down any crow tengu.

"I wish I could remember that beautiful moment, but I really can't."

"It would be better to have you on our side than against us." Yuyuko spoke to her. "Maybe only the spirits like you are prone to being dominated. But if you were to be judged and moved on to afterlife, then perhaps you wouldn't have to worry about anything like being controlled again."

"Oh, I'll teach whoever did that to me what a vengeful spirit can do." she smiled and looked lovingly at the knife in her hands.

"Harboring grudges will keep you chained to this pitiable existence forever. Wouldn't you want to live in peace?"

"For what I've done, I'd be sent straight to Hell. Or perhaps this is my Hell… But I've already gotten used to living among mortals. I wouldn't mind spending another thousand years here. There are always ways to have fun in this world."

"Well, at least you weren't causing all this chaos out of your own volition."

"Whoever's doing it has some nice sense of humor, I'll admit. But using me like a puppet… that I can't approve of. If not me, then promise me that one of you will give them what's coming to them."

"Our enemy is smart." Patchouli sounded with her barely audible whisper. "The fact that they are able to rid their defeated minions of any traces of memory means that they know how to cover their tracks. But since we already know where the spirits are stemming from, it's already too late for such tactics. Once the temple gives away its secrets to us, it's just a matter of time of time before we end this incident."

Even though waiting another month seemed like an eternity to Reimu, she had to bear with it. At least things were starting to look promising again. Once more, all hopes were placed in the efforts of the bookworm sorceress, a young chronicler and the half-youkai teacher of history.

* * *

"Ayayaya~! What? Where?" a call from behind distracted everyone's attention.

"Oh, look, she's up already." Eirin walked up to her to make a check-up.

"Oh…" the crow tengu took in her surroundings and realized that she was no longer outside. "Don't tell me I missed it all."

"You only missed the end, Aya-san." replied the pharmacist. "Here, have some tea."

"What do you mean "only missed the end"? That's the most important part! And I didn't take a single picture."

"Now, now…" Eirin put on a sheepish smile, since she wasn't sure how to comfort her. "You should be glad that you're still here among us."

Ignoring her words of reason, Aya instinctively began searching her pockets. "Where's my camera? Don't tell me I lost it… I'll, I'll…"

"H-here you are." Hatate bashfully stepped up to her, handing over the camera to its rightful owner.

"Huh? Hatate?" Aya measured up the other tengu and her eyes brightened up as soon as they saw the familiar little device resting in Hatate's palms. "My camera! You have it…"

"I kept it safe for you." the brown-haired tengu made an offering gesture.

Aya was usually a very talkative girl, but seeing her rival in journalism returning back her precious camera after keeping it safe has taken all the words out of her mouth for a while. She realized that she hasn't shown any reaction for a few seconds and as a response she deeply bowed and took her camera back.

"Thank you."

"D-don't take this the wrong way." Hatate turned her back on her as soon as the camera was removed from her hands. "You're still a rival to me. But… but I know how awful it is for a journalist to lose her important instrument."

Happy that her tool of the trade was unharmed and charmed by Hatate's very kind gesture, Aya couldn't help but to smile.

"Hatate~!"

"What?!" she gasped from the shock of finding Aya's arm wrapping around her waist.

"Hey, everyone, let's take a picture together!"

"And then let's drink together~!" Suika raised her gourd and began pouring her sake into everyone's cups even without their consent.

"Everyone, gather around, we'll make a beautiful group photo to celebrate our victory~!" Aya called out with renewed enthusiasm. That's when her eyes have caught the presence of Mima "Huh? And… who's that?"

"The mastermind." Reimu uttered semi-seriously.

"Hey, Shameimaru, don't you recognize me?"

It certainly took a while, but Aya really did see her in the past quite a few times. Those were the times long before Reimu's birth and Aya's memories of them were not so fresh anymore.

"Eeeeeh~?! You can't be Mima-san, can you?"

"In the flesh… uhhh… I mean… in spirit." the ghost quickly corrected herself.

"Woooow! I haven't seen you in the longest while! Sorry it took me so long to remember you. How have you been? Still haunting around Hakurei Shrine?"

"Umm, Aya?" Marisa spoke up to the journalist. "This person was the one who knocked you out of your senses."

"Really? I thought it was a fairy."

"And I keep telling you it wasn't my fault."

"But… whatever the case, the incident is solved and we should commemorate this! Come on, let's take a picture with all of us… That goes for you too, mister." She pointed at Xeng-Yao, who was quietly drinking his own brewed spirits in the corner.

"Me? No, thanksss, I don't need any…"

"No talking back~. You've fought with us, so up you go and stand over there."

After a while of arranging the group and setting the timer on her camera's auto-shutter, Aya hurried to take a place as one of the members of the expedition team and put on a bright smile in an attempt to look cute.

"Why do I have to stand next to the Lunarian?" the single male from the group grumbled as he stared at the camera, trying not to show his forked tongue when the picture would be taken.

Even though Aya just woke up and didn't quite understand the situation, everyone stayed quiet about it and let her be in blissful ignorance to the fact that the incident was not yet resolved. At least until her happy mood still lasted. There was a party that lasted till morning and even Remilia, who looked rather sickly has risen her sake-filled cup more than a few times that night.

* * *

"Are you really feeling alright, my lady?" Sakuya asked her. "Being out in the rain certainly didn't do you any good."

Lying in her futon, the young vampire lady shook her head. She felt terribly, but so good at the same time. While a strange infirmity took over her body, her heart was singing with joy, because her dear friend was saved. Not only that, but she felt very proud of Patchouli and how well she was handling the whole incident.

"Pa-Patchouli…"

"Yes… I'm here." the elemental wizard sat next to her and listened to what she had to say.

Remilia just reached out her little palm and took the librarian's hand.

"So warm..."

"What is it, Remi?" the purple-haired girl whispered a question.

"I'm so happy, that I have you. Even if you just freeload in my mansion… I'm happy that I've met you and taken you in. You can't believe how proud you make me… leading this team on its way to resolving this incident, when even Reimu and Marisa would just be stumbling in the dark without your guidance."

Patchouli replied with a soft smile. "You're giving me too much credit."

"No. I've barely given you enough credit. But tonight I've realized just how important… how precious you are to me. Losing you… I don't think I'd be able to take that. Even though I'd really like to deal with this incident as fast as possible, please promise me that you'll be more careful from now on."

"I'm sorry too." Patchouli lowered her head in an apologetic gesture. "It's because of me that you dove right into that heavy rain and are now in such a state."

Remilia let out a weak coughing chuckle. "And I'd do it a hundred times more if it was for your sake. I really don't know what I'd do without you. It's a scary thought... You heard what I told you when Eirin was treating your wound, right?"

Patchouli remembered those words well and replied with a nod.

"I really meant them… as I said them."

"…"

"Come closer." Remilia beckoned with her finger. Patchouli hesitated, but leaned a little closer as she asked.

"Closer." the vampire still thought the distance between them was too large. Growing suspicious of her friend's motives, Patchouli said that she can already hear her well enough.

But Remilia was very persuasive. "Come on… Just a little closer."

The nervous sorceress first quickly looked around to make sure none of the other girls were paying attention to her and then she leaned her face towards Remilia's by yet another few centimeters.

"Hehe~." The little vampire giggled impishly as she got her right where she wanted. She put her free hand on the librarian's back and drew her face towards hers.

"Hey, wha…?"

"Pat*chuu*li." A short, but sweet kiss was planted on Patchouli's cheek. "I like you so much."

"Silly Remi." Patchouli held back a chuckle. "But now, you're making me worried about you in return."

"It's alright. I'll be fine. I'm just tired, that's all."

"Then you should rest. I'm also exhausted after today. I hope my health won't betray me again."

* * *

As the girls went to sleep, the storm calmed down, and by the time they woke up, they sky over Gensokyo was already clearing up from the grey clouds. The village of Kazemura survived, but the nightly battle has certainly taken its toll on almost all of its buildings. Only after waking up, the girls found out how unhealthy it was to fly around in heavy rain for an extended period of time.

Loud coughing echoed in the tavern when Reimu welcomed the new day. And she wasn't the only one. Patchouli and Remilia were now displaying all sorts of ill symptoms from runny noses to high fever. It was unusual for a youkai to be stricken with disease, but certainly not unheard of. In Remilia's case it was fairly obvious that her reckless act of heroism would not end without consequence. As for Patchouli, she was actually used to being sick. Knowing that she would no longer be needed outside in the quarry pit, she took this as an opportunity to keep on studying further information about repelling spirits and counteracting the powers of those who are able to control them.

"My, you don't sound very healthy either, Reimu-san." Eirin remarked as she noticed the miko's abrupt coughing. "Perhaps you should have a rest as well. I'll give you some medicine to sort you out after Remilia-san's checkup."

"I can't *cough, cough* rest. We must set up those spirit wards around the whole quarry to secure it."

"I can do it myself, Reimu." Sanae informed her. "You really should listen to Yagokoro-san."

"I'm *cough* perfectly fine." the red-white shrine maiden insisted stubbornly as she was putting on her daily attire.

Eirin smirked at her reaction, which was pretty much as she expected. She dug around her medical bag for a moment and took out a small box of pills. She then walked up to Reimu, and a little forcefully, stretched her palm open and handed it over to her.

"I'm not going to keep you locked in. I already learned my lessons with patients running away, but please take that medicine. It should cure you in a few hours."

"What a pity…" Xeng-Yao sighed disappointedly, "that those healing potionsss only work on injuries."

"You said you didn't specialize in medicine?" Eirin raised her eyebrow.

"That'sss right. I revel in mixing variousss, I prefer to call them, "utility" potionsss. Sure, I have sssome knowledge of medicine, but mossst of it I obtained from the Lunar Capital. There isss only one universssal medicine that can cure everything… Isn't that right, doctor?"

Of course, he meant the Hourai Elixir - the medicine which Eirin created, but was reluctant to produce and offer it to anyone after her exile from the Moon. Xeng wouldn't have any moral problems with selling the forbidden medicine, if only he hadn't run out of ingredients to make it.

"I will not brew that medicine ever again."

"Yesss, yesss, you and your moral high ground. What would be so terrible about it? Imagine a whole world where everyone could live forever. Where there would be no disease, no deaths. Where any conflicts and wars would be pointless, because nobody could be killed. Where food shortages would not matter, because people would no longer need to eat."

"That's a very narrow-minded idealistic vision. A utopia so unrealistic, that it would even make the Lunar Capital pale in comparison. Because you only see the good points without seeing the whole picture. It would be a world full of endless suffering. You think people would stop fighting? Just look at my princess and her eternal rival. It would completely throw off the natural order. We would offend every single god in existence. The stronger nations would conquer the weak and subdue them to eternal slavery. And that's just a drop in the ocean of problems that would arise if such a world would come to existence."

"That's right." Yuyuko joined the discussion. "The elixir is a bad thing. There would be no new ghosts coming to Netherworld. It would become a dull place."

After Eirin's serious explanation and Yuyuko's rather funny remark, the youkai alchemist suddenly started laughing. "Alright, alright… I wassss jussst joking. But ssselling the ssstuff to thossse few who could afford it… I would have no qualmsss about that."

"I believe we already talked about that in your… dwelling."

"Yesss, we know our opinionsss are different, but thatsss only natural. Besidesss, you know that I can't reproduce the elixir anymore." and as he said that, she tightened the strap on his backpack and put it on his shoulders. "Well, I assume I'm not needed here anymore, but in cassse I wasss, you know where to find me."

"Leaving already?" the Lunarian looked at him questioningly.

"What elssse should I stay here for? I already proved that I'm not guilty of causing thossse fairy attacks. Now if you'll excussse me, I have businesss to run."

He stood up and opened the tavern's door, when he stopped in the doorstep and added: "Good luck with solving the incident." After that, he left the village and headed back home.

* * *

While Doctor Yagokoro was tending to her patients, Reimu and Sanae have gone outside and began proceeding according to Patchouli's suggestion.

Spirit wards were specially enchanted blessed ofuda, the purpose of which was quite obvious – protection from evil spirits. By forming a large circle around the whole quarry pit, the two shrine maidens have created a barrier, through which, in theory, no evil spirits should be able to pass. However, in order to ensure the ofuda would not get worn out or destroyed by the weather, they each needed some sort of protective shelter. That's when the villagers of Kazemura have shown their generosity and offered the two miko their help in crafting wooden hokora to house these warding amulets.

"It would be best if we had some shimenawa rope, but this will have to do for now." Reimu noted as she and Sanae watched the villagers encircling the excavation site with hokora. "I have some stored at my shrine, but barely enough to link two or three of these wards."

"That would surely strengthen the ward." Sanae nodded agreeingly. "But regretfully, I haven't been taught how to make shimenawa. However, I think I could ask Kanako-sama how to make it."

Shimenawa ropes were widely used in Shinto for ritual purification and were believed to have warding effect against evil spirits. Their addition to the hokora would certainly make the barrier more effective. However, even with the whole quarry site perfectly warded against evil spirits, the danger would still remain.

"How's the progress on that spirit ward, girls?" a woman's voice slightly startled the duo of busy shrine maidens.

"Ah, Kanako-sama." Sanae offered a gesture of courtesy to the goddess of wind and rain. "What a good timing. We were just talking about the idea of using shimenawa rope to link each hokora around this pit."

"Ah, I see…" the goddess nodded understandingly.

"But the thing is... I have no idea how to make those ropes." the green-haired girl smiled sheepishly. "It may be a bit improper to ask this, but…"

"I understand." Kanako smiled before Sanae finished her sentence and placed her hand on the miko's exposed shoulder. "I'll teach you how to weave shimenawa."

"Wouldn't it be faster if you made some now and then teach her how to make it?" Reimu never showed much humbleness, even when facing a god.

"It would…" Kanako's smile gained a regretful tone to it. "But it's this place… It's a source of such an oppressive energy that my and Suwako's divine powers were almost completely drained. The best I can do to help you for now is to teach you how to make sturdy and effective shimenawa."

"Please teach us, Kanako-sama."

And so, the mountain goddess began to explain the details of the process of creating the sacred ropes out of rice straw. It took her two apprentices a fair while to grasp the skills, but the girls had nothing better to do anyway. They still needed to wait until the villagers placed the miniature shrines on short wooden pillars all around the mining pit, so learning how to weave ropes was actually a worthwhile pastime.

"Well done." she praised the girls after they finally succeeded in creating their first, two meters long piece of shimenawa. However, there wasn't enough of materials in the village for them to make a rope long enough to encompass the quarry, nor was it a task that could be accomplished within the span of one day.

"You still need a lot of practice, but you'll get there eventually."

"Thank you for your assistance, Kanako-sama." Sanae bowed thankfully.

"Yeah, thanks, I guess." Reimu also expressed her thanks in her own way.

"I feel an obligation to ward this area, so while appreciated, your thanks is not at all necessary, my dear children. You still have a lot of hard work ahead of you after all."

"But thanks to you, we can now make a powerful spirit ward that will protect Gensokyo from the vengeful spirits that reside in those ruins."

"Actually, Sanae…" Kanako's face turned serious. "Even with the shimenawa ward in place, this place will still be far from safe. You both must have noticed that after we defeated the fairy possessed by that dead magician, the major portion of the fairy swarms has fled the battle. As long as they are possessed, they still remain a threat. Even Patchouli-san has brought it up as I was leaving the tavern. The barrier will protect the village as long as it's intact, but it's still vulnerable to attack and easy to destroy. What this village needs is to build up some defenses to protect this spirit ward, because if our enemy has any intelligence, they will attack it using those fairies that we didn't defeat yesterday. But without help from outside, this village can barely defend itself. I'll see what I can do about it…"

"Are you heading back to the shrine then?" asked Sanae.

"Yes. I have to regain my power from the faith of our shrine's visitors. You should also tell Suwako to do the same. She seems to be too carefree about this situation. This place does not do well to the gods. Perhaps because that temple houses a nasty dormant deity that feeds upon these divine powers. Even if that's just a speculation on my part, Suwako should not take this lightly and leave the village as soon as she can."

"I'll try to talk to her about it." replied the shrine maiden from the outside world.

Kanako offered Sanae one more smile before leaving the village. "I'm counting on you." As she turned her back on the two girls, she let out a sigh of reluctance and muttered: "It's going to be a long walk home."

Sanae blinked surprisedly. "Wait, you're going on foot?"

"I just told you. My power is nearly gone. Without it I can't even do as much as fly. And since the two of you also rely on divine powers, you'd do well not to stay in this place for too long."

"We'll keep that in mind." said Reimu to the departing goddess.

Once the miniature shrines were in place, Reimu and Sanae have placed their blessed ofuda inside each of them and created a basic spirit ward.

"I don't know about you, but I've gotten really hungry." the dark-haired girl informed her colleague and headed back into the tavern.

"Wait for me~!" Sanae trotted after her, looking forward to some refreshing meal as well.

* * *

Once their stomachs were filled, the shrine maidens have discussed the issues of Kazemura's defense with the rest of the team. Meanwhile, Sanae tried to persuade the earth goddess to return to Moriya Shrine. The little and cheerful kami thought that there was no real danger in staying here a little longer and have fun with everyone, but this time Sanae would not withdraw from this opinion dispute.

"Alright, Sana-chan. I guess I should not leave Kanako alone. I just thought this village is really charming. The surrounding landscape is so beautiful… I just wanted to enjoy this little trip to the fullest, because I'm nut sure when I'll come back here again."

"Maybe once we find out what's absorbing divine powers and stop it somehow, it would be safe for you to come here. Maybe placing the shimenawa around the pit will suffice. But for now, it would be wisest if you followed Kanako-sama's example and regained your powers."

"So you really are worried about me, aren't you, Sanae? How sweet~. I'll be waiting for you home then. You should come back soon as well, okay?"

"As soon as our work here is done, I'll return." promised the green-haired miko.

"Well, then… See you later~." the earth goddess waved her hand on the tavern's doorstep, when she realized that she was missing something. "Huh?" she patted her fair-haired head, "Where's my hat?"

"I haven't seen it." Sanae scratched her head in puzzlement.

"Pyonta~! Where are you~?"

As the girls have carefully looked around the tavern's interior, they managed to find Suwako's unique hat on the ground right next to Suika, who was using it as a stand for her sake gourd.

"Ah, there you are~!"

"Oh, you'd like a drink, Suwako?" the oni looked at her expectantly. But when she saw that the goddess only intended to retrieve her hat, her smile faded a bit. Right after that Suwako left and headed a back to Moriya Shrine.

* * *

The afternoon was slowly shifting to evening and the band of girls who formed the expedition team was having another discussion about deciphering the temple's symbols. Meanwhile, Reimu and Sanae were talking with Remilia and Patchouli about their spirit ward. The whole group planned to stay in Kazemura for at least one more day, but the two shrine maidens needed to fly to Human Village and buy enough rice straw to make the shimenawa rope.

"So you're leaving too?" Remilia asked them.

"No, no." Reimu shook her head. "We'll go tomorrow and probably take Suika with us too."

"Hm? Why me?" wondered the horned youkai.

"You'll carry the materials, of course." replied Reimu matter-of-factly.

"I'm not your pack mule~!"

"Think of it as repayment for all the days I let you freeload at my shrine."

"Well, at least it's tomorrow." Suika muttered contently and downed another few gulps of sake and adjusted her position to maximize her comfort. "Today I only want to laze around and drink~."

"More importantly…" Reimu shifted her gaze back at the Scarlet Devil, "I wanted to ask about…*cough-cough*." Her sentence got interrupted by another series of coughs. Eirin's medicine was taking some time to work.

Remilia, who was in no better health condition, chuckled weakly. "Just look at us… Done in by some pathetic rain. Maybe you should just get in a futon and take it easy like me and Patchy. I can send Sakuya to the village to get the materials for you."

"Eirin said the medicine should take effect any moment. Anyway… Remilia."

"Yes?"

"About your ability to see fate strings... What do you see when you look at Mima now?"

"That ghost?" Remilia rolled her head on the futon to glance at the spirit in question. "She was linked with the possessed fairies. The evil spirits were following her will, but…"

"But what?" the miko narrowed her eyes.

"All these strings seem to be severed now. But just as Patchouli says, I also believe that the true mastermind is yet to be revealed."

"I heard the prospectors started digging in the pit again." remarked Sanae.

"And that's where our only remaining clue points to." Remilia added. "Here's hoping that your spirit ward can keep the spirits and whoever is controlling them in check."

"The spirits may be impeded by the ward, but the fairies can still destroy it." Patchouli reminded them.

"Yes, we heard from Kanako. But what can we do? Even if I excel in youkai extermination, and have a whole team to back me up, we just lack the numbers. There's still enough possessed fairies out there to raze this village. They don't even need to fight us. If they focus their offense against the ward, then all that we've done so far will have been for naught. This village needs reinforcements. Badly."

"I'm sure after yesterday's battle, the Human Village will double up on the Ryuuken stationed here." said Marisa.

"That's still not enough." Reimu wasn't satisfied.

"Well, no." the witch admitted. "But it's a start."

"When we go shopping to the village tomorrow, we ought to stop by the Myouren Temple and drag them all here. By force if necessary."

"Oi, oi…"

* * *

For the rest of the day, the expedition team was mostly just killing time in the tavern while the more academic individuals were conducting research. It was on the next day when Reimu, Sanae and Suika traveled to Human Village to purchase some quality rice straw for their shimenawa barrier. In the meantime, Eirin made her best effort to treat her illness-stricken patients. While Reimu recovered from her symptoms rather quickly, Patchouli and Remilia were a different story. Remilia never thought that enduring the rain would put her into such a pitiable state, which even Eirin's best drugs failed to alleviate. As for the librarian, her asthma was a chronic condition, but now on top of it, she had to deal with fever. Despite this predicament, she was doing her best to direct her team and study the mysterious tomes that the yama-bito have accumulated in their archive. From 10 hours a day, she now studied only two, but even that was commendable, given her health condition. Eirin couldn't stay in Kazemura any longer. She had duties in Eientei, but she told Kaguya that she could stay longer if she wanted. Knowing that there were still illnesses that her normal medicine couldn't cure, she decided to devote more of her time to research.

As the shrine maidens finished the final touches on the shimenawa rope, the sun was already sinking behind the trees in the west.

"Hey, Reimu, look up there in the sky!" Sanae suddenly pointed her finger upwards, prompting her surprised teammate to look in that direction.

There was a large group of shadows flying towards them from the west.

"Fairies?" Reimu was already reaching for her ofuda, but something about those distant figures seemed different. They were larger and considerably fewer in numbers than the usual fairy swarm. Still, there was about a hundred of them and everything indicated that they were heading towards Kazemura.

When they got closer, Sanae was able to recognize them. "Those aren't fairies. Those are…"

"The white wolf tengu." Reimu completed Sanae's unfinished sentence. "What are they doing here?"

When the whole company of whife wolf tengu warriors landed in the village, their leader flashed an official-looking document to the first villager he saw.

"By the will of Yasaka-sama and by the order of Lord Tenma, we, the White Wolves have come from the Youkai Mountain to assist you with guarding this settlement from hostile intruders.

Reimu scoffed bitterly at their arrival. "Where have they been two days ago when the village really needed some help?"

"It still does, Reimu." said Sanae. "Kanako-sama said she'd help us protect the village. I see now how she meant it. This is her doing."

"I wonder how long they'll stay here."

"I don't know and it doesn't matter right now. Come on, don't laze around and help me hang this rope properly."

* * *

And so, the girls have finished the spirit ward and even tested its functionality by asking Mima to pass through. The ghost tried various tricks to get around it, but the sacred barrier didn't allow her any way through. She tried cutting the rope with her knife, but she couldn't even get close to it. She tried flying over it, but it didn't work, as the barrier has formed an invisible pillar that prevented the evil spirits from approaching it from any direction. And if there were some spirits left buried within the ruins of that mysterious ancient temple, they were now imprisoned. Finally, she resorted to magic and with a glorious smile on her face she destroyed a section of the rope with her danmaku.

"Well, thanks, Mima." Reimu nodded to her. "Now we'll have to weave a new one."

"It's not perfect, but at least it should work on the ordinary evil spirits that don't use magic." Sanae made a note to self.

"Well, you have your tengu "friends" here to prevent something like that from happening, don't you?" Mima pointed her thumb backwards over her shoulder at the tengu reinforcements.

Kazemura's elder welcomed the tengu guardians with open arms, even when the white wolves seemed to look down on everyone who wasn't one of them or their superior. This additional protection allowed Kazemura to fully resume its trade with Human Village and the villagers to work in peace without fear. After a few days, only a skeleton crew remained in Kazemura from Patchouli's expedition team. Since no fairies dared to attack the village, there was no longer a need for those who specialized in combat. Only digging, studying and research were important now. Reimu and company were waiting impatiently to hear the latest news on the progress from the excavation and any information that could help them uproot the source of the "Fairy Incident".

This incident was not only a test of their valor in combat, but also a great test of patience and determination.

* * *

And while Reimu nearly forgot about it, another parallel incident still remained unsolved in the Human Village. The spirited-away humans from the outside world were working every day to get another step closer to their homes. And they've made quite an impressive progress thus far. But even if they didn't want to rely on anyone else's help, they still needed the Hakurei shrine maiden for one task – to send them across the barrier. Their preparations were nearing completion and they already had a decent amount of supplies stored at the Hakurei Shrine. But as they often say: "Plans are meant to go wrong."

"Have your read the news?" Asakura Soudai, reading a newspaper asked his friend, Ishimaru Kyouichi as they walked down the village market square on their way to work.

"I'd only take Bunbunmaru if it had some crosswords or something. Not much for the articles."

"Oh really?" Soudai shaped a grin under his nose. "Not even if it had some interesting pictures of, let's say, Patchouli-san?"

Kyouichi blinked at him cluelessly. "What…?"

"No? What about Yuuka-san?"

Figuring out what sort of pictures his friend had in mind, Kyouichi failed to suppress a chuckle. "Yuuka-san, eh? Well… maybe… Anyway, why are you asking me in the first place?"

"One of the articles says something about a shrine attacked on top of the Youkai Mountain just a couple of days ago. Doesn't seem too serious, though."

"The other shrine… you mean Moriya Shrine?"

"Yes, that one. Ever been there? The view from up there must be really neat."

"No, I haven't been there. And I doubt any other humans have. You heard Keine-sensei, right? The tengu won't let anyone up there."

"Well, apparently they did let a decent number of fairies up there to cause a stir. And of course, the reporter is criticizing the tengu security measures…"

"Well, the mountain is far away from us. Let's hope the fairies won't take their attacks further south."

"In other news…" Soudai flipped a page of the newspaper, "it seems that our village elder's intentions haven't escaped the attention of the tengu."

"What intentions?"

"It seems that they are going to rebuild the village's fortifications, just like how they were in the times before the Great Hakurei Border."

"What?" the unexpected information took Kyouichi by surprise. "So that's what those workers were measuring around the village the other day… So this village used to have walls before."

"Maybe they tore them down when they needed to build more houses."

"I can't say it makes much sense to me." Kyouichi scratched his head.

"Why?"

"Like why would they want to rebuild the walls? To protect the village? From what? Most if not all youkai out there can fly. Heck, even a decent number of local humans can."

"Hmm, that's indeed true." Soudai admittedly nodded. "I doubt the walls are going to help them against flying creatures. But if the village had them in the past, then perhaps they won't be completely useless… And hear this: the elder plans to finish their construction by the end of this month."

"That's impossible!" Kyouichi shouted out, making the passerby in the marketplace look curiously in his direction. "But… wait… Myouren Temple was technically built overnight, so… perhaps not."

"It's still really strange. And suspicious. It's like the elder was preparing to go to war or something."

That's when a very uncomfortable thought floated up from the bottom of Kyouichi's mind. "Something tells me we're not going to like it."

"I don't like it already, but what exactly do you mean?"

"These walls. If they'll really finish them as quickly as that tabloid says, that could mean trouble for us outsiders sneaking out of here when our time comes to leave Gensokyo."

"That couldn't have been the reason why the council decided to re-fortify Human Village, could it?"

Even to Kyouichi, the idea seemed irrational. For the village elder to frivolously spend the money from his coffers on such a seemingly unnecessary thing, there would have to be some serious reason for this sudden decision. If keeping the outsiders from escaping the village was his only goal, there were certainly cheaper ways to achieve it. But still, Kyouichi couldn't shake off the thought that this was indeed the case and the council's step to ensure that the spirited-away humans would not attempt to venture out of the village without his knowledge and consent. He faced a big dilemma whether to work harder and attempt to re-schedule the day of departure before the construction of walls would finish, or to stick to the original date.

"Now I know what keeps Naota-san's friends who help us with renovating that hunter's cabin so busy every day."

"Surely they were hired to work on those walls." Soudai stated what was pretty much already obvious. "But at least they still show up to help from time to time."

* * *

Another routine day of farm work awaited the two, and after half of their strength was used up for the completion of their given tasks, they were once more given the job of delivering fresh products to supply the buyers - the marketplace in Human Village, Kourindou and the fishing colony at Misty Lake. As they were heading out of the village to the antique shop, Kyouichi couldn't miss some unusual activity going on at the place of his previous employment. He saw Daisuke Shimizu, the owner of the Starlight Glyph bookstore removing the shop's name sign from its position over the door.

"Hey there~!" Kyouichi greeted the middle-aged storekeeper by waving his hand. "Been a while, hasn't it, Shimizu-san?"

"Hm?" Daisuke, still in a half-absentminded state, hummed in an asking tone as he heard someone calling his name. Since he was standing on a rickety-looking ladder as he was putting the sign down, he couldn't really turn around to look at who was greeting him. Only once he had the wooden sign firmly in his grasp, he dared to slowly turn his head to cast a glance over his shoulder.

"Oh… Why hello there, Ishimaru-san!" he belatedly reciprocated his gesture of greeting before he began to descend down the ladder's steps. "Indeed, it has been quite a while. In fact, I believe we haven't seen each other ever since you quit working here."

"Uhh, yes…" this time it was Kyouichi who threw an absent-minded stare at the wooden sign in Daisuke's hands. "Just what exactly are you doing, Shimizu-san? And where is your assistant?"

The storekeeper raised his eyebrows. "You haven't heard yet? This shop is going to have a new owner, and therefore, a new name."

"What?!" Another stunning information left Kyouichi's mouth ajar. "But… why?" he failed to understand. "And just when you bought a new printing machine… And you even said your business was picking up."

Daisuke took in a deep breath and sighed. "I realize this decision was made rather suddenly, but I believe it's the best one I could make."

"If it's not a rude question, may I ask what drove you to sell Starlight Glyph?"

"You see…" the short, plump man cleared his throat and put the sign down, "I've recently become a grandfather. My son's wife gave birth to a beautiful girl. My granddaughter… After some thinking, I figured that maybe I'm already old enough to finally settle down and leave the business to someone younger and more enthusiastic. I'll still be doing what I always used to – write stories that will perhaps even find their place in the shelves of this shop. I just don't want to be tied down by my work schedule anymore. I want to play with my grandchild as much as I can, so she'd at least think of me with a smile on her face when I will no longer be in this world. I realized that I have already achieved everything I had wished for, so I feel no regrets about retiring and selling the bookstore."

"I see." Kyouichi finally began to understand Daisuke's motive. "Congratulations to your granddaughter's birth, but… what will become of this place now?"

"Oh, it'll still serve its purpose as a bookstore. Or to be more specific – a book renter. On top of selling the books it'll also allow customers to simply rent any title for a fraction price. Something I didn't even think of doing while running the Glyph. Oh well, I do feel a little sad about not being able to print out Hieda-san's latest update to Gensokyo Chronicle personally, but what's done is done. Motoori-san has been known to collect books for a long time, so I put my full confidence in his ability to handle this business. As for my assistant, Hiroto, I haven't heard from him in a while. When I told him about selling the shop, he left without much regret. I'd even say he was happy to leave, but I don't know if he got accepted into apprenticeship if he still wishes to follow in his father's footsteps. You will most likely not see him employed here again when Motoori-san takes over."

"Is he talking about that guy who gave you a beating?" Soudai murmured a question to Kyouichi.

"Uhh… yeah, that one." the long-haired outsider grimaced as he replied.

"Well, that's about the whole story about the fate of this bookstore." Daisuke shrugged his shoulders. "Starting next week, this place will be known as Suzunaan. If you'd like a book, please stop by."

Kyouichi peered into the bookstore through the window and a strange feeling of nostalgia overcame him. "May I… take one last look inside?"

"Why of course you can. Come right in!" the storekeeper's usual cheerful tone returned as he opened the door.

"Kyouichi, we really don't have much time for this." Soudai tried to talk him out of it. Unsuccessfully.

Despite the pressing time on their next delivery run, Kyouichi entered his previous workplace one more time before it would change its owner and name. Everything was exactly placed just as he remembered it. The shelves, the counter and other pieces of furniture, the printer in the back room and the houseplants that decorated the shop's interior. He wanted to imprint the image of that place as much as he could into his memory. Losing his track of time, Soudai had to walk in and tell him to hurry up.

"Alright, alright. I'm coming." He said his farewell to the old bookstore and rejoined his friend to finish their work. A long trip awaited them, so they needed to keep up if they planned on returning before sundown.


	56. A Few Surprising Facts

The two outsiders were already used to the long walks with a loaded cart, but one thing they couldn't quite understand were the instructions from their boss. One of them was to always use the northern road from the Human Village when making a delivery to the Misty Lake's fishing colony. It meant that Kyouichi and Soudai needed to plot their course by visiting Kourindou first, Human Village market as second, and from there take the longest trip to the lake. They were always escorted by a handful of Ryuuken on their trip to the colony and back, unlike when traveling to Kourindou. The reason why both outsiders questioned their logistics was because the western road from the village leading to Kourindou apparently continued through the Forest of Magic further north. When the two young men arrived at the antique shop at the edge of the mentioned forest, they asked the storekeeper what he thinks of this.

"Oh, you're asking about the Old Road, huh?" Rinnosuke nodded knowingly.

"The Old Road?" the outsiders repeated after him as they exchanged glances.

"That's what they call the road that enters the forest and leads north. Not the one that goes to the shrine."

"So, where does the Old Road lead to, then?"

"It's hard to say with certainty, as in the present day it might already be overgrown with vegetation and simply disappear somewhere in the middle of the forest after many years of disuse. But in the past, this road once led all the way to the Youkai Mountain. Marisa and Alice who live in this forest use that road often, but whether the road is still useable all the way to the mountain, I don't really know. You should ask them instead."

"All the way to the mountain… That means we could take it to get to Misty Lake too, right?"

"Yes, you could," said the owner of Kourindou, "but please don't take it. Use the northern route from the village."

"But why?" Kyouichi asked. "The northern path is a giant detour. If we took the Old Road, we could be at the fishing colony faster by at least two hours."

"The reason why your boss and I don't recommend you taking it is also the reason why it is called the Old Road nowadays." replied Rinnosuke with an ominous tone in his voice.

Kyouichi threw another glance at his friend and with a silent gesture they let Rinnosuke continue his explanation.

"The Old Road is called like that simply because nobody uses it anymore."

"Didn't you just say that Marisa and Alice use it often?" Soudai pointed out.

"I did. Up to a certain point the road is still safe, but for you two even entering the forest is a gamble with your life. Marisa and Alice are both capable magicians who can take care of themselves, but I don't think even they use the Old Road when they want to go to the Youkai Mountain or Misty Lake. And it's not just because they can fly…"

"So it's become too dangerous?"

"That's correct, Ishimaru-san. I remember that people used to take this road without fear just about ten years ago. But then I've kept hearing rumors about many of the travelers disappearing in the forest and never coming back. Some say that it was because at that time a new and very dangerous youkai moved to that area. There was even a band of Ryuuken warriors sent to investigate the matter shortly after the first disappearances. None of them were seen or heard from again."

"What about the shrine maiden?"

"Reimu was one of the people who warned the villagers about the great risk of taking the Old Road. She went there several times but I don't think she managed to find a permanent solution to ensure people's safety on the Old Road. I think the situation with it is similar to that of the Scarlet Devil Mansion – while it poses no open danger to the people of the village, wandering around there may end up unpleasantly. So much I've heard from my customers. I'm not even certain if any of it is true. My ability does not extend to tell rumors and truth apart, so I can only give you a warning about the possible risks."

"Thank you, Rinnosuke-san. It was a good thing that we asked him about it, eh, Soudai?"

"Better than if we took the road without asking where it goes first." the older of the two outsiders smirked under his nose.

"You'll be better off obeying your boss and taking the safer road."

"Yes, we get it now." said Kyouichi. "We should get going. The sun won't wait for us until we get back to the village. Here's your delivery, Rinnosuke-san."

The half-youkai took the last bag out of Kyouichi's cart and thanked both outsiders for their business.

"Before you leave, won't you buy something while you're here?"

"Yeah, how about a motorbike?" Soudai asked out of jest. "Or a scooter? That way we wouldn't have to walk so much and we would be done with our delivery run much sooner."

"And spend the time we save by working on the fields…" Kyouichi added to his friend's statement.

"Uhh… point taken."

"Ah, I know what you're talking about, but I'm sorry, I have no gas-propelled means of transport in here." Rinnosuke shook his head apologetically.

"But we could buy something." Kyouichi admitted as he scratched his head.

"I hope it's not pastries…" Soudai muttered under his breath so that the owner of the shop would not hear him, but Kyouichi's snicker raised Rinnosuke's suspicion.

"No, I just thought that since we're renovating that hunter's cabin to make it habitable, that maybe we could buy some tools or materials for the job."

"I have some tools from the outside world available for sale, but I'm afraid I can't help you much with construction materials. By the way, how much have you progressed on the renovation?"

"Naota-san and his friends are just working on fixing the roof. The old one was full of leaks."

"Well, I don't know how bad that roof was, but if I have problems with leaking roof in Kourindou, I have just the right thing to fix it."

"Really? What is that?"

"Hold on, I'll show you." Rinnosuke disappeared in the back of his shop and came back a while later with a metallic crate in his hands.

"A few years ago, Yukari brought this from the outside world, curious about what it was. But she brought in so much I didn't even know where to put all that stuff. I even have some crates under my bed. It looks like a fine quality modeling clay and works perfectly for plugging small holes and leaks in the roof. When I looked at it, I learned that the purpose of this clay is removing obstacles, which puzzled me, to be honest. I tried putting it on all sorts of obstacles, but it didn't remove them at all… I figured I might as well use it for fixing my roof. By the way, you outsiders come up with the strangest names for your inventions. This clay here, for example, is commonly known in your world as…"

"C-4!" Kyouichi exclaimed as he just noticed the sign on Rinnosuke's crate.

"Why, yes." the shopkeeper nodded with a smile. "It even says so on the box. I know that the "C" stands for "composition", but what does the "4" stand for? I'd like to know. Is this like the fourth model or something?"

"Holy crap!" even Soudai couldn't remain calm when he witnessed the box that was apparently of military origin.

Both humans have taken a few steps back out of caution, even though it wouldn't really help them if the worst-case scenario would occur.

"Is something wrong?" the white-haired half-youkai curiously observed their reaction and scared faces. "I'll sell you a box for just ten thousand."

"Damn! That Yukari is a really dangerous person." said Kyouichi as he still struggled to process the fact that Rinnosuke's shop was loaded with plastic explosives.

"Well, I can't completely disagree there, but…"

"Rinnosuke-san?" he interrupted the shopkeeper before he finished his sentence.

"Yes?"

"Do you realize… that you've been sleeping on a bomb for the past few years?"

"A bomb? You mean a device that explodes, right? So this clay here…"

"It's a military-grade plastic explosive! In other words, a bomb!" the alarmed outsider tried to explain the truth as simply as possible.

But instead of getting shocked, Rinnosuke's reaction was the very opposite.

"Fascinating! So that's what makes it an obstacle remover. Yukari herself wondered why would people of the outside world keep some boxes of clay locked up in a heavily guarded buildings crawling with soldiers. Do you know how to make it explode by any chance?" he asked with an innocent smile as he made an offering gesture towards the duo of outsiders.

Both young men yelled out and covered their faces as he did that.

"But wait…" Soudai tentatively lowered his guard and leaned closer to peek into the crate. "I've also heard that C-4 is highly stable and won't explode without a detonator."

"That's… true." Kyouichi admitted and slowly dared to take a look at the bundle of C-4s in the box. There was at least a dozen of clay bricks equipped with a receiver, but nothing inside the crate looked like what could be a remote detonator.

"A detonator! But of course!" Rinnosuke called out, as if he just uncovered one of the world's greatest mysteries. "Just where did I put that little gadget?" He knelt down and started searching under his counter. "Oh, here you are. Resting among other similar devices that nobody wanted to buy…" he stood up and revealed a small controller with a trigger-shaped red button in his palm. Then all of a sudden, he did something that made both unsuspecting outsiders shout out in terror and hit the floor while covering their heads.

*click-click-click* The half-youkai repeatedly pushed the detonator's button. "Seems like it doesn't work."

"AAAAAAAAAH~!"

"What are you two doing down there?" he arched an eyebrow at them.

"You crazy lunatic!"

After closer inspection, Rinnosuke learned that after several years, the detonator's battery has run out of power. However dangerous his manipulation with the triggering device looked, it was still rather safe, since the charges themselves were not armed. Still, the two outsiders were already seeing their lives flashing before their eyes for a while.

"Please don't try to test it!" Kyouichi begged on the ground. "Just… bury all that stuff far away from your shop before you blow yourself up!"

"Along with us…" Soudai concluded.

"Bury it? Is it that dangerous?"

"Do you like your shop? Or your life?"

"I'd say I do…"

"Then you should get rid of that."

"That would be a terrible waste." argued the owner of the antique shop. "I'd rather sell it… Or remove some obstacles with it."

"You know what? Do whatever the hell you want with it, but just please… wait until we leave your shop, okay?"

Smiling as if nothing happened, Rinnosuke waved his hand at the leaving visitors. "Okay. Say hello to Kirisame-san when you meet him~!"

"Come on, Soudai! We better get out of here."

"I was just about to suggest the same thing." said the shorter outsider and hurriedly left the shop after his friend.

* * *

From that day onward, the two outsiders always made sure to only take the safe road when traveling to Misty Lake and to make their unloading in Kourindou as short as possible. Days went by and the remaining members of the Transfer Students' Club watched with awe as the walls around the Human Village were growing at an incredible rate. It was almost surprising that even with all the fortification craze, Naota's younger friends were still able to find some spare time to help the outsiders with renovating a cabin of the late Fumiaki Kinjo.

While the older and experienced workers were finalizing the roof reconstruction, Kyouichi, Soudai and Midori were handling the easier part – the garden. Even when there was still a lot of work to do on the whole building, the garden in front already lived with all sorts of colorful flowers that the young outsiders have bought and planted.

"Hey, guys." Midori addressed her two classmates. "I've just finished reading them yesterday… You wouldn't believe what was written in all those diaries and journals that Kinjo-san left behind. It was like reading an anthology of adventure novels."

Soudai rubbed off the mud off his hands and straightened up to hear her out.

"Are you going to tease us, or are you going to tell us, Midori?"

"Kinjo-san has basically traveled to every part in Gensokyo. As Naota-san said, he was not just a hunter, but also a collector. Herbs, rare stones, feathers, talismans, trinkets… He personally knew Kirisame-san and often traded with him. And he even made some of the most accurate sketches in an attempt to map Gensokyo and its roads, forests and even caves. And he even predicted his death of a sort. In one of the diaries he left a message, saying that if anyone is reading it, it means he is already dead. His last known destination was in the northeast of Gensokyo."

"Northeastern Gensokyo? That's where Kazemura is." Kyouichi sharpened his senses as soon as Midori mentioned the location.

"And I haven't even got to the most interesting part yet. He wrote that he intended to travel to the farthest reaches of Gensokyo to revisit a certain place he hasn't seen for a very long time."

Midori opened up her notebook and found the part that she copied from the original diaries.

"I think it'll be best if I read it for you: "It's been a while so long, that even my memories about it have reached the borders between nostalgia and forgetfulness. I'm sure I've been there, and even though my feet may no longer recognize the path they have once trodden, my heart that always longs for adventure still remembers that place. That picturesque little village that sits there in the quietness, the serenity of the sound of rustling leaves in the wind…"."

"So he DID go to Kazemura!" Kyouichi declared the case as closed.

"Will you please let me finish?" Midori gave him a mean stare.

A little taken aback by her sudden mood drop, Kyouichi zippered his mouth and let the young girl continue reading.

"True," she spoke up after a pause, "it does sound like he's talking about the quarry village of Kazemura, but listen to this: "I felt like walking in a daydream, the village that the time itself has forgotten about, the village with no people, but me – a stranger walking in its sun-flooded streets."

"It's true that there aren't too many humans living in there…" Soudai muttered thoughtfully, but in a moment, Midori forced his and Kyouichi's mouths to open in surprise with the final words from the copied text.

"Even with its houses devoid of human beings, cats were crowding nearly every corner. Only one mansion was the closest to the sky, dwarfing the neighboring houses with its size and splendor. But I dared not knock its gate, I dared not step inside, I dared not meet the family that in the Yakumo manor reside."

"Yakumo!" exclaimed both male outsiders almost simultaneously, which made Midori's grin from seeing their reaction even wider.

"Pretty interesting find, huh?"

"Almost as surprising as when we learned that Rinnosuke-san is a freakin' arms dealer." remarked the oldest of the three.

"Well, I'll be… Kinjo-san visited Mayohiga." Kyouichi whispered in awe.

"And he apparently wanted to find his way there one more time." said Midori and closed her notebook. "What happened to him afterwards? We will never know."

"But wait…" Soudai halted them. "It could also mean that he is still alive."

"He could be." Midori admittedly nodded her head. "But none of his previous journeys have taken longer than a few months. Being gone for over two years doesn't make the odds of him being alive too likely."

"That means… That means Mayohiga lies in the northeast, not southwest, like some rumors say. We should probably tell this to Reimu."

"That we should, Kyouichi, but when are we going to do it? From what I hear, you and Soudai are always busy on the farms and return home exhausted. And during weekends we help with work on this cabin…"

Almost as soon as she said that, another worker approached the hunter's cabin and whistled loudly at his colleagues.

Five heads peeked up from the attic section of the house to see what he wanted.

"Listen, gentlemen! The foreman has called for all capable men to work on the fortifications. He even promised extra payment for working on weekends."

"Then it seems we have to delay our work here for the time being." said another one of Naota's friends. Once they all climbed down the ladder, they walked up to Kyouichi as the official owner of the building and apologized.

"I can understand, so you don't need to apologize. Your work on this cabin is voluntary, because Naota is your good friend. But if you have the opportunity to work AND earn some more money for it, then by all means, do it. You can finish this reconstruction once you have more free time again."

"Then we thank you for understanding. Tell Naota to have some patience and that we will finish that roof some day."

"We will. I hope you finish those walls soon." Kyouichi wished them luck, even when in his heart he was against the whole fortification project.

One more bow of courtesy and gratitude and the whole group left, moving on to the high-priority construction.

"Well, I doubt the three of us will be able to finish their work by ourselves." said Soudai when the men were no longer in sight. "What do you think we should do now?"

"We basically have a day off now." the female outsider summed it up.

"By the way, I really wouldn't believe the villagers are going to erect those walls so quickly, but by the looks of it, it really seems like they'll be finished soon." Kyouichi changed the topic as he shot a glance toward the village.

"It's not a big surprise, considering that some of the builders are using magic to speed up the whole process." explained Midori.

"I thought so."

"What are we going to do when they finish the walls?" pondered Soudai. "We probably won't be able to leave the village as we please."

"Should we go to the village hall and ask the elder about it?"

Kyouichi took a moment to consider Midori's suggestion, but he soon shook his head dismissively. "If we go there and ask him, we would just raise his suspicion. He might assume we are planning something and make the security even tighter."

"So we just act as if it didn't bother us?"

"That's the plan for now, Soudai, yes."

"But we'll need to think of some backup plan if the Ryuuken will refuse to let us go outside the village."

"We'll think of something, Midori." Kyouichi reassured her, but he still had no idea on how to deal with the problem.

Since the three outsiders had no work to do, they decided to pay a visit to the Hakurei Shrine with the intention to bring Kinjo-san's diary to Reimu's attention. Before the walls were completed, leaving and entering Human Village was still not a problem, so the outsiders wanted to use this still-lasting freedom while they could. But before they left the village, they noticed something rather surprising near the marketplace district.

* * *

"Hey, isn't that the girl who was in Eientei along with us?" Kyouichi gestured at a short-haired girl with a purple umbrella encircled by a bunch of children.

"You're right, that's Kogasa-chan." Soudai also recognized the umbrella youkai as soon as he sighted her. "What is she doing?"

"Looks like she's playing with the children." Midori puzzledly watched as Kogasa was just scaring a bunch of laughing kids with her one-eyed umbrella with a mouth and long tongue.

The older kids only began laughing louder, while the smaller children got frightened and started to cry.

"Hey, hey, Kogasa-oneechan can we play with that umbrella too?"

"Hey, show us some danmaku, please!"

"Give me a piggyback ride, Kogasa-chan~!"

"Geez, don't pull on my skirt!" the karakasa girl didn't know what to do sooner. "Hey put that back on the ground, you can't eat that! If you all don't start behaving yourselves, I won't just show you danmaku, but also let you know how it feels like!"

All three outsiders were mighty curious about the situation that Kogasa got herself into, so they headed her way to greet her.

"Good afternoon, Kogasa-san!"

The young youkai girl lifted her two-colored gaze at the approaching humans and recognized the two roommates from Eientei's Rehabilitation Ward.

"Oh! Hello~!" she returned the greeting with a sweet, but a little troubled smile on her face.

"What's going on here?" Soudai glanced at all the children that wouldn't let Kogasa rest for one moment. "Have you opened up a kindergarten, Kogasa-chan?"

"Ehehe~." she let out a nervous chuckle. "It started so innocently… A couple of years ago I was only stopping in this village for a while when I saw this crying kid, so I stopped and tried to cheer him up."

"And? Something went wrong?"

"No. I managed to make him stop crying somehow… and then we played for a while… and… and then he said he'd introduce me to a friend, so then there were three of us. Then the other kid brought his friends and those friends have called their friends and… now… this…" she gestured at the whole band of noisy and energetic adolescents.

As if to make the final punch line, a woman from the village, holding her daughter by the hand approached Kogasa and greeted her.

"Ah, good afternoon, Tatara-san. Would you please look after my daughter today as well? I'll be back as soon as I do the shopping."

Kogasa's face flushed in an expression of both goodwill and helplessness. "Uhh… yes."

"Thank you very much. I knew I could count on you." the woman bowed thankfully before she turned to her preschool-aged daughter. "Now be a good girl and play nicely with Kogasa-san and the other children, okay? Mommy will come back for you in a short while~."

"Okay~." the little girl waved her palm at her mother as she was heading towards the center of the marketplace.

Kogasa's hopelessness was even more evident as she had yet another child to look after. Apparently she was so well accepted by the villagers, that they entrusted her with their children. But playing baby-sitter looked like a difficult job even for a youkai.

"So you've been doing babysitter for a couple of years?" Kyouichi asked her. "How come I haven't seen you in the village playing with children before?"

"Because~." she crossed her arms and protruded her tongue. "Why don't you try spending four years looking after these little nuisances every day?"

"If you don't like it, why did you start doing it in the first place?"

"Well, I still don't quite understand, but I learned that in the human world, the babysitters fly through the sky using an umbrella."

Kyouichi blinked puzzledly at her, and then looked over at his two friends. "What is she talking about?"

Soudai just shrugged cluelessly.

"Marry Poppins?" Midori made a blind guess, looking equally puzzled by Kogasa's strange reason for becoming a babysitter.

"But… that's not a real babysitter." Kyouichi silenced his chuckle after realizing what a silly association it was.

"So after I learned about this, I decided to be a babysitter. I mean… kids are easy to startle, right?"

"Uhh… Kogasa-chan? I don't think startling children or flying through the sky with an umbrella is what babysitters do."

"Umm… well…" the karakasa bashfully lowered her gaze and began gently colliding her index fingers against each other. "My babysitting wasn't met with much understanding from the humans when I kept surprising their children… But I learned a few things about the job of a babysitter since then. I just don't do this every day, because it's really exhausting. I simply wanted to find a new purpose for my existence, since nobody wants to use me as an umbrella anymore. But all I'm good for is surprising humans; therefore, I tried to think about what people want so that I could make myself useful again. I believed this would be the new form of a tsukumogami. Many of the adults here still don't like me, but the children seem to be naturally attracted to me for some reason."

"So cute…" Soudai cooed quietly. "Are you sure I can't take you home?"

"Eeh? Absolutely not~! Don't treat me like an object~!" the teal-haired girl pouted and looked away.

"Isn't that what you are?" he asked her a provoking question.

And got what he deserved…

"Hmph~!" Kogasa reached for her inseparable other half and suddenly spread the eggplant-colored umbrella in front of his face in an attempt to surprise him. "Urameshiya~!"

The result of her attempt, however, ended up to be an almost complete opposite of what she was aiming for.

"Gnnnh!" Soudai grabbed the shirt over his chest, as if he was in pain. He turned away and with a blissful smile he uttered to his friend: "Damn…. Even the umbrella is moe~!"

"That's our Kogasa-chan for you. Try not to faint. It would be a pain to drag you all the way to the shrine without our good old cart."

"How about we got going already?" Midori reminded them both of her presence.

"Uh, yeah, good idea." Soudai snapped out of his euphoria and gathered the courage to face the young kasa obake one more time. "We'll be going then… See you some other time. And don't bully the children too much."

"Uhh… who's bullying who?"

"Take care, Kogasa-chan." Kyouichi and Midori said their parting lines as well.

And as Kogasa was waving to the trio of departing humans, a boy's voice sounded from behind her.

"Hey, Kogasa-neechan? Why aren't you wearing anything under your skirt?"

"Kyaaaaaaah~!" she turned around, instinctively pulling on the hems of her skirt to hide her intimate parts and to protect whatever remnants of innocence these children still had. "Why you little…! Boo~!"

The flustered karakasa stretched out her hand and fired a barrage of danmaku that missed the peeping boy's feet by mere centimeters. This time it was the children's screams that echoed throughout the street. Even when none of them was hurt, Kogasa could not simply deny her true identity and purpose.

Kyouichi and Soudai both exchanged their flabbergasted glances, before one of them burst into laughter, contaminating the other after a few seconds.

"Come on already, you two." Midori put on an exasperated frown as she grabbed both boys by their sleeves and walked onwards.

"But seriously…" Soudai spoke after he tamed his urges to laugh. "That Kogasa… She's a true youkai of moe!"

"Well, I admit, she is adorable," Kyouichi partially agreed, "but Yuuka-san is the real youkai moe."

"Eh? No, Kogasa-chan!"

"Yuuka-san!"

"Kogasa!"

"Yuuka!"

Midori let out a sigh of resignation. "You two are giving me a headache."

* * *

Keeping an average walking pace, the Hakurei Shrine was in their sight within less than 30 minutes, and lucky for them, the resident miko wasn't away or too busy to accept visitors.

"Oh, it's you guys." she slowly stood up from the shrine's porch where her cup of hot tea was cooling off and walked towards the arriving guests. "Have you come to pray?"

"We could… while we're here." admitted Midori. "But we're actually here to bring you an interesting piece of information."

"What information?"

"Maybe I should begin explaining tings in proper order first…"

And so, the three outsiders have told Reimu all the details of what they found out and how. She learned about Naota Tanisake, his missing friend, Fumiaki Kinjo, who was proclaimed as missing or dead, and the pile of diaries he left behind. And lastly, the most important information of them all – the most probable location of the illusionary village of Mayohiga – the presumed home of Gensokyo's sage, the boundary youkai, Yukari Yakumo.

Midori even read the passage out of her notebook, and according to the slow change in Reimu's expression, it surely was something that has stirred a whirlpool of thoughts inside her head.

"So… what do you all make of this, Reimu-san?" Kyouichi asked when Midori finished explaining.

"Please excuse me for a moment." She apologized herself and walked off towards her shrine. She opened the door, entered and closed. The three outsiders stared curiously, waiting for what was going to happen next. But the only thing that followed after Reimu's disappearance was a loud yell from within the shrine.

"I'm such an airhead~!"

While the outsiders were wondering whether to wait and watch, or to rush into the shrine to see what upset the shrine maiden so much, Reimu opened the sliding doors herself and walked out, while rubbing her forehead with her palm. She looked as though as she was deeply embarrassed about something.

"Are you feeling alright, Reimu?"

"Yes, I just felt like venting it out a little…" the shrine maiden replied with a sheepish smile.

"So about my previous question…?"

"You heard me. I'm a real ditz sometimes…"

"Why would you say that?"

"Of course it was like that. Yukari lives somewhere in the northeastern corner of Gensokyo! She even told me that herself."

"What?!" the three humans from the outside world gasped out of surprise. "She… told you? When was that?"

"When we first met. And when we had our first battle…" she sat down on the porch again and checked whether the tea has already cooled enough to be drinkable. After confirming it, she took a sip and dove deeper into her memories. "She told me that. But after all the years… after all the incidents… I just… forgot. And now this memo that you've brought… It all makes more sense now. You didn't really bring me any news. You just refreshed my memory."

"Are you going to try and find her now? Are you going to look for a way to Mayohiga?"

"I… I'm not sure myself." she stuttered out an uncertain reply. "Northeastern Gensokyo… The uncovered temple, the vengeful spirit incident. It's all taking place so close to Yukari's supposed home, but… But Remilia said that the communicating amulet is connected with the temple somehow. If Yukari was still in Mayohiga, it would probably lead us there. But it didn't." Reimu's eyes trailed off towards the trees on the northern side of her shrine yard. "I know it may sound really weird, but my hunch tells me that she might be inside that temple. Leading the spirits? Trapped by them? I don't know… I just keep waiting here every day to hear the news from the girls who stayed at the site do continue research. And I haven't heard anything from them in a while. I'm starting to grow anxious."

"I've only heard the rumors, but… from what I heard, the northeastern Gensokyo is nowadays the most dangerous area."

"Those aren't rumors. That's a fact… Well…" she paused herself with a thoughtful look in her eyes. "Unless you'd go picking flowers in the Garden of the Sun, hehe~."

"Where?" Kyouichi lifted his brows questioningly.

"No, seriously. Don't go there. Anyway, a huge burden was lifted off my chest after we made the spirit ward in the quarry. We've had no fairy attacks since then. If only it stayed that way until we figure out what was controlling the vengeful spirits and stop it."

"That's good news."

"But now I'm also tempted to find Mayohiga again. Maybe… even if I won't find Yukari there, I'll be able to find something… some clues that might tell me more about what she planned or where she went."

"Then we're glad our trip here wasn't a complete waste of time." said Soudai.

"No, thank you for coming over. I know... I'll make you some tea. Then you can tell me what's new in Human Village."

"Thank you for letting us stay for a while." Midori bowed and her two male friends followed suit.

As promised, Reimu served fresh tea to her guests along with some snacks that she always kept reserved for occasions like getting expected or unexpected visitors.

* * *

And so, she traded her knowledge and information about Kazemura situation in return for the outsiders' information about their lives, their plans and their troubles. It was a nice, peaceful, enjoyable afternoon at the Hakurei Shrine. But once the outsiders have exhausted the light, funny and carefree topics, Reimu began asking serious questions.

"Our plans for leaving Gensokyo?" Kyouichi parroted the last line of the miko's question. "Only one or two more weeks and we will already have all the equipment and rations we'll need to survive for a few days in the mountains. But we will not change our day of departure. We head out on the first of Kannazuki, as we already all agreed upon. I see no need to make any changes to that."

"I see. But are you going to be fine when the walls around the village will be finished by the end of the month?"

That was a question neither of the outsiders could really answer at that moment.


	57. If Only We Could Fly

One month has passed, and the Human Village was now fortified like it once used to be before the Great Hakurei Border was put up. But life within its walls continued in the same way as it always has. While not too thick or tall, the walls were now giving some of the villagers a feeling of increased safety, and on the other hand, to some they represented a restriction of freedom. The outsiders never asked at the village hall about the reason for their construction, but from what they could observe, it seemed that the Ryuuken have been using the fortifications and the gates to keep a better control over trade with other villages, for the purpose of tax collection and to prevent or at least, to hamper smuggling attempts. For any outside merchants that wanted to sell their goods in Human Village, there was now an entry toll in effect. Naturally, the guards were now checking everyone entering or leaving the village, but rumors were that they were not very serious and diligent about it. Soudai and Kyouichi went through those gates every day on their way to the farms and back. The first few times they had to show their official contract with their employer's signature to the guards to pass, but soon even their faces became known among the Ryuuken, and now all it took them to enter and leave was to show them their ID cards.

However, not all outsiders could benefit from that convenience. If someone had no business outside the village, the militia would simply send them back. Arguments about having basic human rights were of no help when talking to them. But there were always a few individuals who kept passing through as they pleased. Those who had their homes outside of the village were not halted when leaving, but most of them preferred to simply fly over the walls and avoid the annoying guards altogether. As the outsiders could see, the fortifications were not perfect.

Still, they now posed a certain problem to their future plans of leaving Gensokyo. For this reason, the Transfer Students' Club had to have another meeting in the school's library to discuss the issue and find a solution.

* * *

"The Ryuuken are now checking the content of every trade wagon entering or leaving the village." Yuujin Ueda, a man who now worked as a caravan runner explained the situation to the rest of the club members. "Even if we were to put you into empty sacks and try to smuggle you through the gates, they'd find out."

"The walls are barely three meters tall." the vice-president, Midori Iwakami stood up and walked up to the chalkboard. She took a piece of chalk and drew an irregular oval shape. "This is our village." she made a dot in the middle of the oval shape. "And these are the walls." she pointed at the chalk line.

"Artistic." Soudai Asakura made fun of her drawing. "Almost unrecognizable from the real thing."

But it seemed that Midori wasn't in a mood for jokes today. "Have you been addressed, Asakura-san?"

"Why is she so formal all of a sudden?"

Midori waited for the chuckling of other club members to die down and then resumed her explanation. "As I was saying; these are the walls, right?" she sketched a few lines across certain points of the fortifications. "And here are the three gates. As you can see, the eastern section of the village does not have a gate, which means it is also the least guarded area. If we are to leave the village without detection, we should do it there."

"But how are we going to climb over?" Sayuri Hayashi, the ever laid-back office lady raised her hand.

"With a ladder of course." the vice-president replied.

"And I suppose there will be another ladder waiting for us on the other side of the wall so we could get down without risking any fractures."

"Ehh… no, Hayashi-san, there won't be another ladder. The walls aren't tall enough to be too dangerous to jump down from."

"Well, for you maybe not, young lady, but…"

"Hmm… Then how about you two?" Midori got an idea, and for some reason she was now gazing at Soudai and Kyouichi.

"Hm? What about us?"

"You two work on the farms, don't you?"

"Yes, we do, as does Daniel over there and Yuujin drives the caravan wagon." Kyouichi summed up. "All of us have permission to leave and enter the village. Now that I think about it… why don't all of you get a job that would give you the same benefits?"

"And the Ryuuken won't suspect anything when a dozen of outsiders suddenly declare that they want to work on the fields." Midori retorted sarcastically. "Really, Kyouichi... Think a little before you say some nonsense again."

"Okay, okay. It was just a thought."

"My idea," she continued explaining, "was to ask some of you to check out the situation from outside the village to see if there aren't any patrols around the eastern wall. And if there aren't, you could stack up some hay on a pile that we could use as a cushion when jumping down."

"Oh… That's quite… simple, yet it sounds like it might work." Kyouichi nodded in acknowledgement."

"But Midori." this time, it was Soudai, who had his hand in the air. "I have to object."

"What? Are you allergic to hay or something?" she asked in jest.

"No, Ishimaru is." Soudai replied seriously. "But that's not the issue here."

"Really? I didn't know."

"Midori, you no longer live in the barracks as most of us, so you probably haven't heard some rumors I have when the guards were talking about the walls."

"Oh really? Such as?"

"Well, it wasn't about the walls directly, but I overheard some of the higher ranked officers talking about some device that they're using to detect movement of youkai and villagers that they call the Dragon's Eye. They must have it somewhere in the command center where civilians like us have no access to. And maybe there's even more of them. We may already be monitored by them as we speak."

Although doubtful, Soudai's rumor has still caused quite a stir among the outsiders, whose chattering filled up the cramped library.

"Are you sure you heard them well?" Midori raised her eyebrow questioningly.

"As clear as you. And they even mentioned a familiar name. Kirisame. That's that blonde witch girl, right? Reimu-san's friend. She must have been the one who made it for them."

Kyouichi opened his mouth, but words got stuck in his throat as he was piecing together a few details that he heard.

"Wait a second…" he suddenly pulled out his magic detector and placed it on a desk. "Soudai… Marisa isn't the only Kirisame in Gensokyo. Her father has a shop here."

"Her dad?"

"Yeah. I don't know his first name, but he invented this thing right here."

"A magic detector?"

"Exactly. He even revealed that he originally invented this detection technology for the militia and after he successfully sold a whole batch of those detectors, he figured he could start making smaller, short-range detectors for civilians too. Like this one on the desk."

"So you believe that the Dragon's Eye is actually just a big magic detector?"

"Well, based on what you said, and what I heard from Kirisame-san, I suspect it is. Which is good."

"Good? How?" Soudai scratched his head.

"Why, just take a look at my little magic detector right now."

The club members sitting near him leaned over and observed the lens. "I don't see anything."

"Me neither."

"Ah, there's a white dot near the edge just now."

"And another one…"

The white dots that appeared passed right through the middle of the lens and disappeared at the opposite edge.

"What was that? Ghosts?" Soudai who had a slight idea about the device's purpose asked a rather silly question.

"No. Probably just students on the floor below."

"Ah, I see… But… what about us? I don't see us on that detector."

"Exactly." Kyouichi smiled and crossed his arms. "We are outsiders. There's not a speck of magic about us. So if this Dragon's Eye thing is indeed Kirisame-san's invention akin to this one, we should be invisible to them."

"That's one moment I'm actually grateful for not having any magic." Soudai nodded to himself.

"Then I agree with Midori's plan." Kyouichi straightened up and pocketed the magic detector. "Even with my allergy, I think we should be able to pile up some hay on the outer side of the wall. As for the rest of you, your homework will be to casually stroll around the eastern part of the village and closely observe the patrol routes of the Ryuuken. We should not risk anything unless we are sure about our success. In the meantime, all of us should also come up with alternate solutions in case Midori's plan would have some critical flaw."

Even as he said that, Kyouichi already had one more idea on his mind, but it was a risky one. He wasn't even sure if it was worth mentioning, so he didn't even bring it up during the meeting.

"That is all, friends. Dismissed."

As the outsiders were leaving the library, Midori threw an inquisitive glance at the club's president. "Aren't you even going to ask me if you can copy my homework?"

"Hm? Did we have any?"

The girl buried her face into her palm. "You are so hopeless…"

"Huh? What did you say, Midorin?" Soudai caught up to them. "Homework? Surely you'll be kind enough to let us copy it, right~?"

With a sigh of reluctance and disgust from her friends' carelessness about their education, she continued treading down the hallway without words. Another class was about to begin soon…

* * *

It was almost alarming how Kyouichi's marks went downhill since his earliest days on the Kamishirasawa Academy. He lost his focus and interest in Gensokyo's locations, youkai and its history. His answer to Midori's questions about it was always along the lines of: "Like I'll need to know any of that when I'll be home in less than two months…" Even the teacher, Keine Kamishirasawa has reprimanded him several times, but Kyouichi didn't take her words to heart. He no longer cared if he'd pass the next exam or not. Or whether he got punished for his neglect of homework. All that mattered to him now was to somehow wait through the next 45 days – the time remaining until the 1st of Kannazuki.

The outsiders already had all the necessary supplies stored in the safety of the Hakurei Shrine. Now all that they needed to work for was their own comfort. According to Midori's plan, Kyouichi and Soudai had sacrificed their time of lunch break and loaded their hand cart with a stack full of dry hay. As expected, Kyouichi's allergic reaction didn't take long to show up, but even with teary eyes and forced into sneezing every minute, he helped his friend drag the cart all the way to the outer section of the eastern walls. But as soon as they turned around the corner, they both stopped dead in their tracks.

* * *

"And what the hell is this?" Kyouichi let go of the cart's handle and wiped his eyes to observe the image before him.

"Looks like the Ryuuken have their favorite lunch spot here." Soudai stated bluntly.

"I can see that. But why here of all places?"

Upon closer look, Soudai figured that eating lunch wasn't the only thing that the group of militia guards preferred to do at this place. The less dutiful of the Ryuuken were enjoying full cups of sake, while others were gambling with each other for their money or small belongings. Out of sight of their superiors, it seemed that these men were not restricted by their conscience which would prevent them from ignoring their duty and forming their little outdoor tavern. Nevertheless, the outsiders quickly realized that getting over the walls without detection was going to be much harder than they thought.

* * *

"Man! That was a total waste of time!" Soudai angrily kicked the wheel of the cart, making the hay stack wobble lightly from the impact. "And I didn't even get to eat my lunch."

"We'll just have to think of another way."

"Another way, you say… But what another way? Should we report those slackers to their superiors?"

"If we did that, then the Ryuuken would probably send regular patrols to check the area to make sure none of their men are getting drunk over there. That wouldn't solve our problem. But I've had another idea on my mind. Do you still remember Lt. Takamori from our stay in Eientei?"

"Uhh… yeah… what about him?"

"If he's by any chance assigned to one of the gates, he could… I don't know… maybe he'd let us pass even without permission."

"And if not? Is it really worth the risk of spilling our beans to one of them?"

"I don't know, but we're running out of options here. We should try whatever we can."

"How about we asked Reimu-san?"

"Reimu? And what will she do? Fly us over the walls one by one?" Kyouichi asked a joke question.

"Well maybe not her, but that little oni had no problems with hopping over the Hakurei Shrine with you during the festival." Soudai reminded him the event during Tanabata.

"Fine… We'll go to the shrine on our next delivery run, but if Reimu won't give us any helpful suggestions, then we're going to try talking to Lt. Takamori."

"Alright." Soudai shrugged, which was more or less a gesture of agreement. "But hey… Maybe Midori or someone will think of some other plans how to sneak out of the village."

"Maybe they will." the long-haired young man threw a quick glace back towards the village gates. "We shouldn't underestimate them."

* * *

Walking back towards the fields where they spent most of their work shift, the two outsiders stopped for a while at Fumiaki Kinjo's cabin. It was a rather sad sight now that its reconstruction was left half-finished. Neither Naota, nor his former apprentices showed up ever since the fortifications were built. Kyouichi and Soudai believed that this was also due to the fact that Naota had no real business outside the village, so the Ryuuken wouldn't let him leave. It is true that he bought off the cabin, but it was Kyouichi's name that was written on the ownership documents.

"It's a shame we won't get to rebuild it as we planned."

"Well, you know what they say, Kyouichi. If you want something done right…"

"You have to do it yourself." he finished the rest of the proverb. "Do you really think I alone can do anything about it?"

"Well, perhaps not you alone, but the two of us, with guidance from Naota-san… I think we can at least make it habitable. Look, all the building materials are still here. Piece by piece, I think we should be able to finish the rest of this work."

Soudai's words were brimming with confidence, even though he had no experience in construction work himself. And despite his younger friend's skepticism, he managed to convince him that the two of them had what it takes to finish the roof by themselves.

"Maybe we should ask Hijiri-san how she re-fitted the Palanquin Ship to a temple in a day." Kyouichi jested as he and Soudai were walking past the Temple of Myouren.

* * *

As the summer was in its prime stage, the workers on the fields were making preparations for harvest. These duties didn't leave out even the two young men from the outside world. During the recent days they were busy more than ever, and their physical strength was being put to test every day. But even with the tiresome and often dirty work, the mood on the farms was always cheerful. The farmers were often throwing parties and inviting everyone over for a few mugs of beer or even to dinner. The parties were often accompanied by mirthful singing and dancing or even some folk drama performances. It was a much simpler lifestyle than in the big city, but certainly not boring. It were simple joys such as these small parties that were motivating most of the farm workers to work hard another day, so they could enjoy their reward later in the evening. Recently, however, there was a big fuss on the farms due to preparations for something much grander then the typical Friday evening drinking party.

After a bit of asking around, the outsiders learned that there was going to be a festival to thank the harvest gods for the bountiful harvest. Supposedly there was a great feast that attracted a lot of villagers to leave the village and celebrate with the farmers. Rumors had it that even the Ryuuken at the gates might actually permit everyone to attend this feast without halting them.

At first it seemed like a perfect opportunity for the outsiders to sneak out of the village, but where would they stay until the first of Kannazuki? Besides, their sudden disappearance would likely alarm the village officials to initiate a search for them, which was the last thing the outsiders needed.

When Kyouichi and Soudai were tasked with another delivery run, they planned to visit Reimu. They didn't waste any time on the farms. Once their cart was loaded with goods, they headed off towards Kourindou. They didn't want to stay there too long ever since they learned what the half-youkai shopkeeper stored in his little shop, but a sudden downpour made them prolong their stay.

* * *

"You haven't got rid of those explosives by any chance, have you, Rinnosuke-san?" Kyouichi asked him nervously.

"Well, no." the bespectacled man shook his head negatively. "Nobody seems to be interested in buying it. So I figured that in order to sell it, I needed to prove that it really works for the purpose it was made for. The clay itself is harmless. You can even put it in a fire and nothing will happen. Just as you said, you need to use the detonator device in order to awaken the fire kami resting within the clay."

"Don't tell me you already tested it."

"Hehe, what did you blow up, Rinnosuke-san?" Soudai was now more curious than scared.

"I didn't really test it yet, though I must admit, the temptation was great. However, what I did learn is that the detonator needed its battery replaced in order to work. However, none of the batteries I have in stock were compatible with it. So I made a few slight adjustments to the device, so that it could use the standard 9 volt batteries and this is the result."

He reached under the counter and pulled out a jury-rigged detonator with a few lose cables coiling around its frame, connected to a battery holder.

"I admit it isn't the most elegant design, but at least I made it work." He then turned on the mini switch on the side of the detonator and the red trigger button started glowing.

"For God's sake, turn it off! Do you want to kill us?!" Kyouichi yelled out in panic.

Even Soudai quickly lost his relatively calm composure at the sight of the ominously glowing red button.

"If you don't turn it off this instant, then we'll never come to your shop again!"

With a stoic expression on his face, Rinnosuke shrugged and switched the detonator off. "Your disinterest is obvious, but as a salesman I can tell you that it's hard to sell goods that haven't been tested."

"Like I said, don't try to sell it! Just get rid of it… in a non-explosive fashion."

"Selling it IS a non-explosive way of getting rid of it." the half-youkai replied teasingly.

"I swear, if it wasn't for this sudden rain, I'd be out of this shop half an hour ago." Soudai muttered as he took a wishful glance through the window.

"I could offer you a raincoat or a variety of umbrellas if you like."

Soudai raised his eyebrow at him with suspicion. For a half a minute the two of them just silently stared at each other. Then the outsider finally made his decision. He noticed an umbrella stand just by the counter. He walked up to it, took the first umbrella that he reached for and put 2000 yen on Rinnosuke's counter, not even caring about getting his change.

Rinnosuke counted the money and before he realized that something was not quite right, Soudai was already standing at the shop's exit.

"Come on, Kyou! I don't want to be here when this place becomes a big smoking crater."

The white-haired shopkeeper peeked over his counter into the umbrella stand and figured out that the umbrella that Soudai took was not a regular one.

"Hold on, mister! That umbrella! Please put it back and pick a different one. Slowly…"

"Hm? What's the problem? I paid for it. Probably more than it's really worth. I'm not staying in this arsenal any longer. We're leaving."

"No, wait! You don't understand!" Rinnosuke called after him, but Kyouichi was already opening the door and Soudai was already on his way out.

"Good bye, Rinnosuke-san!" Soudai said his parting words, raised his newly bought umbrella and pushed its button to spread it open.

But instead of spreading up, a horrendous bang not dissimilar to a gunshot thundered from the umbrella's tip. Both outsiders froze in terror. The raindrops falling on their heads made them slowly raise their glances upwards. They found a large gaping hole in Kourindou's roof and a thin pillar of smoke rising from the tip of Soudai's umbrella.

With his mouth agape, Rinnosuke thoughtfully rubbed his chin. He was too late to stop the damage from happening, but at least nobody was injured.

"Well…" he spoke up after a pause. "That's another leak in the roof for me to fix."

The umbrella suddenly made a mechanical clicking sound comparable to the reloading mechanism of a pump-action shotgun and a single 12 gauge shell case fell out from the side of its handle.

With trembling hands and face pale with fear, Soudai slowly put the shotgun umbrella on the floor, making sure the tip wasn't pointing at anyone and then took a few big steps back away from it.

"I… I'm not even going to ask…"

"I'm sorry; I forgot to put that dangerous piece on a safer place." Rinnosuke made a belated apology.

Rain or shine, Soudai couldn't stay in Kourindou another second. The departure of the two outsiders was very similar to the one from one month ago when Rinnosuke revealed his stash of plastic explosives. This time, however, the weather was less inviting.

"What about your money~?" Rinnosuke called after them, since Soudai did pay for the umbrella, but left the store empty-handed. Seeing that the two humans were not tracing their steps back, Rinnosuke shrugged and put the money in his pocket. "I guess that's what Reimu-san would call a donation…"

He didn't have many reasons to enjoy it, as it was more like Soudai's compensation for accidentally blasting a hole in Kourindou's roof.

* * *

A couple of hours later when the outsiders finally made it all the way to the Hakurei Shrine, they found Reimu hanging out in front of the shrine with Marisa and someone they haven't seen before. Based on her clothes, which were very similar to Reimu's with the exception of color, they deduced the green-haired girl to be another shrine maiden.

"Good afternoon, everyone." Kyouichi greeted them tentatively. He felt as though as he arrived at the wrong moment, because all three girls who were having a lively conversation just a moment ago were now oddly silent. "Sorry to barge in uninvited."

"Who are these two?" the guest shrine maiden asked and alternated glances between Reimu and Marisa.

"Tourists." Marisa gave a short and slightly humorous reply.

The other shrine maiden nodded understandingly and turned to Reimu. "See, Reimu? Your shrine does get some visitors after all."

The "tourists" properly introduced themselves to the green-haired miko, and she in turn introduced herself to them.

"Kochiya Sanae. Wind priestess of the Moriya Shrine. Pleased to meet you."

"Ah, so you are Sanae-san! We heard a bit about you, right, Soudai?"

"Something about her shrine being attacked by fairies…" the older outsider vaguely recalled an article from the newspaper.

"Ah, that was over a month ago. Just the day before that big battle in Kazemura." she gave a confirming nod. "But it was nothing serious. And ever since the village is guarded by tengu and since our spirit ward is in place we haven't been troubled by any fairies or vengeful spirits anymore."

"That doesn't mean the end of the incident." Reimu reminded her. "And there is still one certain vengeful spirit that poses a certain degree of trouble for me…"

"True, but at least now we don't have to worry about that village so much."

"By the way, Sanae-san?" Kyouichi remembered one bit of information he heard about the wind priestess from someone, so he wanted to confirm it.

"Yes?"

"Are you an outsider too?"

"Why yes~. I am. This is my third year of living in Gensokyo." She replied with a smile, but then she suddenly opened her mouth as if she just realized something. "Wait… You said "too", so the two of you are…"

"That's right. Just like Marisa said." Soudai played along with the witch's joke.

"Tourists, huh?" it wasn't clear whether she took the joke seriously or not. "So judging by that I assume you won't be staying here."

"No, that we won't. I don't know what made you move here or stay here, but we and a few other people are already firmly determined to return home."

"What made me move here? That's a bit longer story." said Sanae.

"And I'd like to hear it once, but unfortunately, we're in the middle of our shift, so we should cut to the chase."

"Oh great. Now they're going to ask me another favor…" Reimu predicted the situation with an annoyed tone in her voice.

"Point for you, Reimu-san." Soudai nodded in confirmation.

The black-haired miko breathed a sigh. "I prefer money over points."

"We'll pay." Soudai added quickly.

Instantly, Reimu straightened up from her comfortable sitting position and sharpened her senses. "I'm listening."

"It's a wonder you haven't sold your soul to the Devil yet, ze." a satiric remark on Reimu's address escaped Marisa's lips.

"The walls, Reimu… Those walls…" Kyouichi made the explanation extremely terse.

The shrine maiden made a hissing sound as she inhaled through her mouth. "They're a problem, aren't they?"

"We non-natives have a problem with them, alright."

"But you made it to the shrine just fine." Marisa pointed out.

"Because going out of the village is a part of our job. Look, we just wanted to ask you how you would deal with this situation if you were in our position."

Reimu didn't really take long to come up with an ingenious solution. "I'd fly over it."

"By "in our position" I also meant having no superpowers."

"Superpowers? They're pretty standard shrine maiden talents handed down the generations of the Hakurei clan."

"And do I look like a shr… uhh… actually, never mind." Kyouichi silenced himself before he'd remind everyone of his embarrassing experience that he wanted to be forgotten. "Anyway, I've already seen a whole platoon of shrine maidens in the outside world and I doubt any of them could fly or shoot homing orbs of divine energy."

"Not to mention eating tons of sweets and never getting fat." Sanae mentioned another one of Reimu's interesting abilities. From the look in her eyes, one could even assume that she was a little envious of that.

"Yeah, Reimu is so slim because it makes it easier for her to dodge danmaku that way." Marisa explained while trying to grab Reimu by the waist. Giggling from the ticklish sensation, the shrine maiden was attempting to resist Marisa's grapple.

"Yahahaha! That tickles! Cut it out, Marisa!"

When the girls calmed down a bit, Reimu remembered that she still hasn't answered Kyouichi's question, so she gave it a bit of thought and came up with an even more brilliant solution.

"Well, if I couldn't fly over the walls, and the guards wouldn't let me through the gates, I'd just beat them up with danmaku."

"Gee, why haven't we thought of that in the first place?" Kyouichi asked his comrade sarcastically.

"I'd really like to see you wipe the floor with some of the Ryuuken that we live with in the barracks." Soudai admitted. "Some of them are really getting on my nerves. But actually, I've been thinking that flying over the walls might not be such a bad idea."

The blonde magician raised her eyebrow at him. "You can fly?"

The two males replied with grimaced smiles, which could convey their question "Are you serious?" even without saying any words.

"I guess that if they could, they wouldn't be asking us for help." Sanae tried to keep the conversation on a serious level.

"So how many of you would need a lift?" Marisa stopped joking around and asked seriously this time.

"Thirteen. If nobody changes their mind before the 1st of Kannazuki."

Marisa hummed in deep thought. "My broom can take two passengers at max. So I'd have to make seven trips to the village and to the shrine."

"Like a taxi driver." Sanae giggled at the thought.

"That's too much of a hassle, ze…"

"Then how about creating a distraction or something?" Reimu suggested another idea. "Like smoke or something. Then someone will just shout: "Help! Fire, fire!" and the guards at the gates will have to abandon their posts to check it out."

"Sorry, Reimu, but that idea is just wrong on several levels." Sanae disapprovingly shook her head.

"Well, they why don't you suggest something? Although it would probably be just like that idea with your weird cold fusion experiment…" Reimu jabbed back at the other shrine maiden.

Kyouichi and Soudai tilted their heads to express their surprise and curiosity. "Did you just say cold fusion experiment?"

"That's right~!" Sanae excitedly confirmed. "We made an experiment here a few days ago. A lot of youkai and people from the village came to see. You haven't been here?"

"Not really. So what exactly did you do for your experiment?"

"We tested the possibility of cold fusion by applying electricity to a rod made out of palladium alloy dipped into a tub of water. And it was a success! Right~?"

"It made the water boil." Reimu muttered unamusedly. "Amazing… for heating up tea and powering hot springs."

The outsiders were still in great puzzlement. "What does a shrine maiden's job have to do with performing cold fusion experiments? And where the heck did you get electricity and a palladium rod from?"

"The alloy was provided by Reimu, who made a request from Kanayamabiko no Mikoto, the god of metals. The rod was made in just one night."

"Whoa! Reimu can do such things too?" Kyouichi was quite impressed by her. "Say, Reimu, do you happen to know any gods of… I don't know… instant travel from Gensokyo to Tokyo?"

"I don't."

"Then at least some gods of passing undetected through the Human Village's gates?" Soudai made a more modest, but still ridiculous request.

"There is no such a god, you know."

"What a pity… So anyway, where did you get electricity from?"

"That was applied by Kanako-sama." answered Sanae. "The goddess of the Moriya Shrine."

"I see. But why would a shrine maiden be conducting an experiment straight out of a sci-fi movie?"

Before Sanae could answer, Marisa beat her to it. "Why else? For gathering faith for her shrine, of course."

"That's not the main reason." the green-haired girl mustered a pout. "It was because I realized that the underground nuclear reactor in Old Hell is imperfect as long as it relies on the power of a yatagarasu. Its cost is too high. We chose this shrine for the public experiment because our shrine is quite hard to reach and we wouldn't get as much publicity as here."

"Yatagarasu?" Kyouichi repeated after her. "Does it have anything to do with Satori-sama's certain pet?"

"The very one. It was actually Kanako-sama's doing that the otherwise ordinary, although exceptionally airheaded hell raven now possesses the powers of a sun god. You see, Kanako-sama is a goddess who supports technological progress. Although it was that very same progress that has resulted in the decrease of faith in gods in the outside world. And since in Gensokyo, things that have become illusions in the outside world could be used, the Old Hell's reactor is imperfect."

"I never even knew there was such a thing in Gensokyo." Soudai couldn't hide his amazement. "So what is it powering?"

"The hot springs." Reimu snuck in a reply before Sanae.

"How many times do I have to tell you it has nothing to do with the hot springs?! It powers the industry of the kappa. But it could be used for so much more…"

"Still… one thing doesn't quite add up." Kyouichi thoughtfully bit his lower lip.

"Is there something confusing about what I just said?"

"If the outside world's illusions such as youkai, ghosts, and… I don't know… UFO's are becoming real here in Gensokyo, then wouldn't that make the reactor you just mentioned actually perfect?"

"How so?" this time it was Sanae who blinked in confusion.

"Due to the fact that perfect things don't exist in the outside world. They are an illusion of an ideal product or result, or a person… Wouldn't that reactor be also one such an illusion of a perfect energy source?"

"Well, not exactly." the wind priestess corrected him. "While it's true that there is no such thing as perfection in the outside world, the things that happen to become reality in Gensokyo are more often than not things that were once real in the outside world and became obsolete, forgotten, disused, no longer needed…"

"Are you saying that we are no longer needed in our world?" Soudai looked a little offended by the idea. "What a cruel thing to say. I thought at least my family would care."

"Wait a second." Marisa interrupted his laments. "There are more ways to get to Gensokyo. Just because you're here doesn't necessarily mean that you've been forgotten by everyone."

Looking a bit relieved, Soudai exhaled his worries and let Sanae carry on with her speech.

"So where was I?" the green-haired miko lost track of what she was talking about due to derailment of topic.

"Sitting on my porch." Reimu muttered quietly.

"Oh yeah, cold fusion! So in order to utilize the reactor's true potential, it would need to become self-sustaining energy source. And to achieve that, it would need to become a nuclear fusion reactor powered by Hell's geothermal energy. But the main problem with the reactor is not its reliance on the powers of a yatagarasu, but its inaccessibility. It lies deep in the underground protected by multiple barriers. Not to mention the underground is inhabited by some of the most fearsome youkai the world has ever known."

"But Satori-sama is actually very cute." Kyouichi argued, but the girls pretended they hadn't heard anything.

"For that reason," Sanae continued without getting sidetracked, "it's become necessary to search for a new source of energy. And that source lies in cold fusion. In theory, it would allow nuclear fusion at lower temperatures and pressures that the currently existing fusion technologies require. Although, as you already said, it's something that you'd only find mentioned in science fiction. The topic of cold fusion has become a taboo within the community of physicists. Even Julian Schwinger, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics was shunned among the fellow physicists, just because he showed genuine interest in cold fusion experiments. A technology that could not be spoken of in the outside world made a perfect candidate for implementation in Gensokyo. If our experiment would turn out to be successful, it would be a first step to shutting down the inefficient Old Hell's reactor."

"And you said your experiment succeeded?"

"Just read the upcoming issue of Bunbunmaru!" the shrine maiden of the outside world smiled contently.

"It was quite disappointing, really." Reimu expressed he opinion. "They just boiled the water in the tub. That's about the only thing that this cold fusion is good for."

"And for making hotpots." Marisa added.

"It's just the first step, but a successful one nonetheless." Sanae concluded the discussion.

"Too bad I wasn't ever good at physics." Kyouichi chuckled afterwards.

"Don't worry, Kyouichi," Soudai comfortingly tapped his shoulder, "I was even worse… I don't even remember the Pythagorean Theorem anymore."

"That's a geometry relation though."

"Heh… Only proves my point."

"But Sanae isn't the only one who wanted to have the Old Hell's reactor shut down." said Marisa after a moment of thought.

"Right… that nagging hermit." Reimu seemed to know the person in question even without Marisa having to specify. "Something about the geyser in Hell's Valley being dangerous to humans."

"Hermit?" the outsiders were again clueless.

"They're talking about Ibaraki Kasen-san." Sanae cleared it up. "She lives on the mountain like me and she's got an impressive dojo."

"That's right." Marisa affirmed her statement. "I met her recently after some while at the Human Village. Then on the same day she showed up at the shrine and ever since then she started paying Reimu a visit every once in a while."

"And who invited her to come over so often?" the brunette miko threw an accusing look at her.

"But now you don't seem to mind her so much." the witch defended herself. "She knows methods that can extend human lifespan. I'd like to learn them one day. Who knows? Maybe she could even help you guys with leaving the village. She visits it every now and then. She's tall, has pinkish hair, usually wears white shirt and green skirt and has a bandaged right arm, so she's kind of hard to miss. If you'll hear someone in the village preaching others how they should live their lives, you've got a 50% chance it's her…"

Only now did the two outsiders realize that despite their attempts to waste as little time at the shrine as possible, they have in fact, wasted quite a lot of it. And they didn't even get any useful advice from the girls hanging out at the shrine.

"Ah, damn it! Kyouichi, we stayed here too long. Let's move it to the fishing colony." Soudai alarmed his colleague.

"It can't be helped." Kyouichi backed two steps away from the girls and bowed. "We really need to hurry. Thanks for your time. "See you again sometime."

As a good host, Reimu saw her guests off by accompanying them to the shrine's torii.

"If you two are really serious about paying me for helping you, then I'll try to come up with something, but it may take a while."

"As long as it doesn't take you longer than a month, we'll appreciate it… and pay you accordingly." Kyouichi promised her.

"That's more than enough time for me." Reimu smiled reassuringly.

"Before we part ways, have you tried finding Mayohiga again?" the outsider asked her one last question when he and his friend were already standing underneath the tall red sacred gateway.

"I gave it a try, but so far no luck. I just kept flying aimlessly in circles before I even realized it. If only I remembered how exactly I ended up in there that one time…"

"Well, good luck on your next attempt. I wish I could stay longer, but we are in a hurry. Until next time..."

"Bye now."

Reimu watched for a while as the two visitors walked down the stairs, grabbed their cart and set off towards Misty Lake, escorted by a pair of impatient militiamen. But at least those Ryuuken were willing to wait for them while the outsiders took care of their business at the shrine.

* * *

Reimu rejoined her two remaining visitors and perched herself on her favorite sitting spot. Marisa and Sanae were expecting her to say something, but since she remained silent, the witch had to ask.

"You're really willing to do anything as long as you get paid, aren't you?"

Everyone has their flaws, and Reimu's two biggest ones would be her greed and sloth. However, Marisa's concern wasn't stemming from her friend's hunger for money or her lack of self discipline.

"Shouldn't we be doing something towards the resolution of the vengeful spirit outbreak? Or at least keep trying to find a way to Mayohiga? Now you also want to think of a way to smuggle thirteen outsiders out of Human Village? Even if they are willing to pay you, you already have enough work to do as it is."

While Marisa was partially correct, Reimu apparently had to remind her of the priority in resolution of Gensokyo's numerous problems.

"Marisa… You and I both know that until Patchouli and her team discover the source or the mastermind behind the spirit outbreak, we really can't do anything, unless you'd like to take a pickaxe and help the yama-bito with digging. As for Mayohiga, finding it won't be as easy as I thought. Even with the hints from this… Kinjo-san's diary, "somewhere in the northeastern Gensokyo" is still very vague. I think that right now we should focus on the easiest of the incidents – sending the outsiders back to the outside world."

"They are not our most pressing concern, though." the magician polemized.

"They're not." Reimu agreed with her. "They plan to leave Gensokyo in over a month, so there's still plenty of time to deal with their problems. But…" she paused herself to emphasize the following statement, "the solution to their situation seems the easiest out of all our current problems."

"You say that after you couldn't give them any useful ideas?"

"Don't you worry, Marisa." Reimu tapped her shoulder and made a gesture at Sanae. "We will put Gensokyo back into order. One incident at a time."


	58. Tea with Yuuka-san

The month of Hazuki was slowly, but certainly nearing its end. The grand harvest and the subsequent festival was due to take place in just a few days and by now almost everyone in the village was talking about it. With the fields dyed in golden color of the ripe wheat, or other colors depending on the type of crops, there was not a single idle person on the farms. Even the children were tasked to provide some assistance to their hard-working parents.

The Human Village's agriculture was a mirror to its cultural image. Just as the Japanese houses stood next to their westernized cousins, so did the farm production represent a blend between typically eastern crops and imported ones. The only thing that was missing from the typical Japanese cuisine in Gensokyo was seafood, but even without a sea, one could still find an abundance of freshwater fish at the market.

Soudai and his younger friend had almost forgotten what it meant to have a good rest. Izuru Takeda, their strict boss with high expectations ordered them to load as many crop sacks into his barn as they could per one day. After about 20 runs with their cart to the crop fields and back, they managed to fill up the barn's interior with something over 250 sacks, each weighing approximately a hundred kilograms. Needless to say that after such a day, every single part of their body ached from exertion. At least their boss was satisfied with the result.

* * *

"Good job, boys, good job…" he praisingly tapped them on their backs when he came over to the barn to check how much work has been done. "The gods have blessed our crops this season. With this surplus we won't starve even if the winter will be as long as the one in 119. Take your deserved rest and your payment. And don't spend it all on booze. I hope to see you here for the harvest feast. It will be the first time for you, right?"

"Uhh… yes." Kyouichi exhaustedly breathed out. "And the last one." he whispered quietly.

"Just don't let him hear you say that." Soudai's hushed voice reminded him.

The payment on the farms was actually worth the hard work, unlike some part-time jobs Kyouichi took back in Tokyo.

On their way to the village, they stopped for a while at the hunter's cabin.

* * *

"Maybe we'll even get this thing done before we say our goodbye to Gensokyo." Soudai commented the progress he and Kyouichi have made on the roof. Even without the assistance of professional carpenters and builders, Naota-san's guidance was enough to help them get a basic idea of what to do. They haven't done much, and even the little they did was of questionable quality, but they at least wanted to cover up the hole in the roof, so that the next rain wouldn't flood the cabin's interior.

"The difference between our work and that of Naota's friends is like heaven and Earth." Kyouichi stated self-critically. "I'm not sure if anyone would want to buy a house with such a roof."

"Oh come on! Give us some credit. The roof will be done in a few weeks. And we did it all by ourselves."

"Well, it's not like I'm the one who's going to be living in this cabin anyway, so… I honestly don't even care if the roof will be sloppily built or not."

"It will be just fine." Soudai reassured him, but he silently thought just the same thing as Kyouichi.

"Let's go already, I'm hungry."

"Yeah, me too."

As their footsteps quietly resonated on the dirt road to the village, Soudai suddenly asked an unexpected question.

"Say, Kyouichi…"

"What is it?"

"Do you already know what will you tell to your family when you reunite with them after over four months of absence?"

Naturally, Soudai caught him completely off guard with that question. Sure, he has thought of his home and family since his spiriting away many times, but he couldn't really find the right words to give an answer. On one hand, he was very much looking forward to returning home, but on the other hand… he was afraid of something. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it was a feeling that not everything is going to be the same when he comes home. He won't even be able to explain to his mother where he was all this time and why hasn't he even called or left a message. Is she still even hoping for his return? Has she already given up hope? Four months certainly is a lot of time. And a lot of things could have happened in the outside world. That's why Kyouichi's thoughts about home have always brought a mixture of anticipation and unease to his mind.

"I'm going to tell them that I've been taken to a magical land full of youkai, fairies, ghosts and gods…." Soudai spoke when he saw that Kyouichi wasn't answering. "And a lot of really cute and beautiful girls, but I better omit that part."

It was a bit admirable that even in this situation he could still joke about it. But perhaps Soudai's belief in a good outcome was stronger than Kyouichi's.

"Then, I'm going to show them my autograph from Kaguya-hime. And I'll even bring a few old issues of Bunbunmaru with me, so that they'd believe me…"

"Will you?" Kyouichi finally opened his mouth. "Well, whatever sanatorium you'll be placed in afterwards, I'll pay you a visit."

Both of them burst into laughter.

"But seriously…" Soudai stopped joking around. "I think if people will start asking me where I was all this time, I'll just say that I was in a coma and I had no ID on me when I was hospitalized, so they couldn't contact my family."

"That's actually a pretty smart excuse." Kyouichi acknowledged. "Considering it's coming from you…"

"Hey! I heard that!"

* * *

After a couple of days passed, the day of the harvest feast was almost here. Not much has changed in the village since then. The outsiders held a few more meetings, but they couldn't find an appropriate alternative to Midori's plan. They even tried signing a petition for free passage through the gates for everyone, but it didn't end well. Kyouichi also tried getting in touch with the only Ryuuken he considered a friend - Lt. Takamori, but the man was still assigned to caravan escort and letting people through one of the village's three gates was not in his jurisdiction. The situation looked almost hopeless, but fortunately, someone showed up in the Human Village, bearing some promising news.

* * *

"Mmm… crunchy, hot and delicious…" Ishimaru Kyouichi took delight in eating freshly baked taiyaki from his favorite stand in the Human Village marketplace.

His friend, Soudai, rolled his eyes with slight annoyance from seeing the same scene for an umpteenth time since the two of them became acquainted with each other. Kyouichi's fondness for the popular Japanese snack was obvious to him since the day they made their daring run from Eientei.

"Come on… Do you have to buy these every time you cross the marketplace?"

"Mmm?" the long-haired male turned his head around with his mouth full. After taking a while to chew and swallow, he took a defensive stance towards Soudai's accusative question.

"I only buy taiyaki once or twice a week. Not my fault they're so good…" he shrugged to emphasize his innocence in the matter and took another bite. "Want some?"

After Soudai showed him his palm as a gesture of refusal, he continued justifying his reason for buying another couple of pieces of the treat even today.

"Besides… Today's the harvest feast. We have no work, we earned quite a bit of money, and we no longer need to spend them on food or traveling gear. Why not sweeten this day up a little? This is most likely our last festive day we get to experience in Gensokyo."

"You'll get fat if you keep up the same trend." the older outsider warned the younger one.

"Who cares?" Kyouichi freewheelingly asked as he took another nibble.

"So you won't mind if girls won't find you attractive, huh?"

"Please!" he waved his hand dismissively. "The girls don't find me attractive either way."

As he said that, he heard someone calling his name.

"Kyouichi! Over here!" a girl in the crowded marketplace waved her arm clad in a white detached sleeve.

"Are you sure they don't?" Soudai gave him a teasing elbow nudge.

"Oh, Reimu!" Kyouichi identified the voice and the familiar piece of clothing. The big red hair ribbon that the Hakurei Shrine maiden always wore guided him like a beacon in the sea of people and youkai that have gathered in the marketplace.

"And there I thought she had already forgotten about us." Soudai tailed Kyouichi's steps while talking to himself.

"Good afternoon, Reimu." Kyouichi courteously bowed to the girl who represented his last remaining hope of returning home. She wasn't standing too far away from the taiyaki stand, but it was still a small miracle that se managed to recognize someone familiar in that crowd. During this special day, the marketplace was bustling with much more activity than usual. There were much more stalls and much more customers, even from the faraway villages. The tengu, the kappa, even some yamba-bito could be sighted among the dominating human populace of this village.

"Three months spent in Gensokyo, and this is the first time I caught you doing shopping here." stated Kyouichi with a chuckle. "How did you even know we were here?"

"Just a hunch, I guess." Reimu smirked lightly. It was more or less a well-known fact that Reimu's luck and intuition was leagues above average, but still, it was a very nice surprise for the two humans to actually meet her here.

"That, and I heard your friend's voice telling you something about eating too much taiyaki, so I figured you'll be here too." she finally gave a reasonable explanation for identifying two ordinary humans in a crowded place. Soudai's loud and slightly hoarse voice was admittedly hard to miss.

"Hey, Reimu-san." he greeted her after Kyouichi. "So, are you here for the feast as well? Or have you perhaps figured out how to help us sneak out of this village?"

Reimu graced him with another smile and extended her shopping bag-wielding arm towards him. "Will you hold this for a second? I need to pay for the groceries first…"

"Uh… sure." Soudai took the bag and held it while Reimu searched her pockets to find her money satchel. She haggled with the stall vendor for a while before she sighed and reluctantly paid the original price for the groceries instead of getting a discount.

"One would think that at a festive day like this, one would be more open-hearted and offer some goods at a cheaper price…" she lamented as she was turning her face back at the two outsiders.

"With increased demand, the prices have to rise as well." Kyouichi explained. "It's one of the fundamental rules of economy. At least they haven't made the taiyaki more expensive today…"

Soudai, having his question unanswered, had to ask Reimu once more whether she visited a village just to do the shopping or she actually had other reasons to come here.

"Ah, yes, I was just about to get to that." said the shrine maiden. "I had an idea that one of those who could help you get past the guards undetected would be Sakuya Izayoi. You know Remilia's chief maid, don't you?"

Both outsiders nodded in unison.

"She was amazing during the Tanabata's festival tournament in the Spell Card Survival discipline." Soudai recalled. "She kept dodging shots like Neo and then she was like "Stop! Dagger time!"."

"Well, I tried asking her for assistance and told her about your offer, but she doesn't care about money at all. I just don't understand her…"

"Wait, you just went home after she turned down your request? Without a fight? That doesn't seem like your style." Kyouichi asked her teasingly.

Reimu exhaled, as if from annoyance, but the smile didn't leave her lips. "Of course we had a duel, but… Like your friend Soudai already mentioned, she's pretty decent when it comes to evading patterned danmaku from Spell Cards."

Kyouichi corrected the position of his glasses. "You're saying that you lost a duel?"

"Well, contrary to popular belief, even I, the shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine occasionally lose battles. You could see that for yourself during Tanabata's tournament."

"If she isn't going to help us, why did you even mention her in the first place?" Soudai raised his voice out of impatience.

"However," Reimu smirked slyly, "she cannot disobey her mistress's orders. Remilia has taken into her head that she wants to resolve Gensokyo's problems. Whatever her motives are, she spoke to Sakuya shortly after our match, and now the maid is obliged to lend us her power."

"That's… that's great!" Kyouichi exclaimed excitedly. "Thanks for your effort. Even if you had to suffer a defeat."

"It happens." the miko waved her palm. "The important thing is that Sakuya is going to lead you out of the village and help me with one of my problems. Without having to baby-sit you outsiders, I can fully concentrate on facing the breakout of the vengeful spirits."

"The village council is the one doing the most of baby-sitting for us, but that's beside the point. I was just wondering whether this maid is truly capable of getting us out of here without the Ryuuken taking notice." Soudai raised his eyebrow in slight doubt.

"She can manipulate the flow of time itself. Trust me; the Ryuuken will have no idea that you're gone until it's too late." Reimu promoted Sakuya's abilities. "She will be here on the first of Kannazuki, waiting for you."

Kyouichi still had his doubts and misgivings about Remilia's chief maid, but given the current state of affairs, he didn't have much of a choice.

"Fine, then whom should we pay our money to? You or Sakuya?"

"Me, of course!" Reimu said without the slightest hint of hesitation. "Since Sakuya isn't interested in money and neither is Remilia, since she's so damn rich, I'll gladly take the burden of excessive funds off your shoulders…" she cupped her hands together, as if she was expecting to receive something.

Kyouichi leaned towards her, closing the distance between their faces to just a few centimeters and spoke: "AFTER we manage to reach your shrine on the 1st of Kannazuki, Reimu. After…"

If disappointment had a color, it would probably be brown. Deep dark brown like the color of Reimu's eyes that were staring back at Kyouichi after hearing that she would not get paid in advance.

"Not even a little down payment?" she asked pleadingly, still holding her hands cupped in hope of seeing at least a fraction of the money the outsiders promised her.

That's when Kyouichi got an idea. He opened the paper bag he was holding and placed a fresh taiyaki into Reimu's anticipating palms.

"There you go~!" he flashed a smile bright like a Hollywood movie star.

The shrine maiden puzzledly blinked at the carp-shaped pastry in her hands. "Taiyaki?"

"Yes, it's rally good." The outsider demonstratively took another bite from his half-eaten snack and delightedly patted his stomach. "Mmm… Besides, Soudai here says I'll get fat if I eat these so often."

"And I thought you said you didn't care." the older human was quick to remind him of his own words.

"Still, I might have bought a bit too many this time." Kyouichi gestured to the paper taiyaki bag that still looked decently filled and heavy.

"Were you seriously going to eat all of those by yourself?" Soudai disbelievingly asked as he poked a glance into the bag.

"Actually just two, I bought a few extra ones for the Saitou kids and one for Midori. Go ahead, Reimu, have one, don't be shy."

The shrine maiden hesitantly eyed the taiyaki before taking an equally tentative bite. Even though she really liked sweets, she'd still prefer if it was money she was holding instead.

"And how exactly is Sakuya-san going to lead us out of the village?" Kyouichi suddenly returned to the original topic.

"I just told you, didn't I? She is going to stop the time and get you all past the gates. You'll most likely use the western gate and the western road to get to the shrine, even if it isn't the shortest one. You're much less likely to run into a youkai or a Ryuuken patrol that way. Sakuya said she'll be waiting here for you in the afternoon on the fist of Kannazuki, so you better be there on time."

"We'll be there, alright. The only reason I'm asking this is because I want to have absolute certainty. I don't have the patience for experiments."

"This is no experiment." Reimu wiped the crumbs off her lips. "Did you see how Sakuya repaired the hole in the stage behind my shrine after the tournament?"

"Uhh… no."

"Exactly! You didn't. Because she stopped time. Nobody from the village is going to notice your disappearance. How else do you think she keeps up with her chores of cleaning up such a huge mansion?"

"Ehh… the fairy maids?"

"Was that a joke? Those maids are useless! I don't even know myself why Remilia keeps them. Sakuya is the only competent maid of the house and she uses her time manipulation for both combat and mundane tasks. If you can trust me, I see no reason why you shouldn't trust her."

Reimu's reassuring words certainly left a good impression on the two outsiders as they both nodded in agreement.

"Thank you for making this arrangement, Reimu."

"I won't buy anything for your "thank you"." she muttered and took another bite of the taiyaki.

"No, but you can't complain about poverty either." Kyouichi made a good point. "You're a shrine maiden and you receive rewards for solving incidents. Our presence in Gensokyo is just another incident for you. When you or your friends see us safely out of here, then you'll really see just how grateful we are for your kindness."

With a sigh, Reimu nodded understandingly. "I get it. I'll make sure you reach the shrine safely, but once you're on the other side of the barrier, you're on your own."

"We know. That's what we bought all that traveling gear for… To tell the truth, I'm going to miss it here a bit. But I miss my home even more."

"You're not the only one." said Soudai.

"In the end, it's all up to you to make the decision." said the shrine maiden wisely and finished the rest of her taiyaki. "Just don't tell me you suddenly changed your mind after I went through so much trouble to arrange your escape. Otherwise it's Fantasy Seal for both of you." she added a joke threat.

"Hahaha!" Kyouichi's laughter got drowned out in the ocean of voices in the busy marketplace. "It would have to be some really damn good reason for me to change my mind!"

"Same here." Soudai seconded.

"Then there's nothing more I need to tell you." the shrine maiden took her shopping bag back from Soudai's hands. "See you later…"

"Wait a minute." Kyouichi halted her. "Aren't you going to take part in the harvest feast?"

"I don't plan to. I better be available at the shrine in case of any news from Kazemura."

"That's a pity. I wonder who else we should go there with… Maybe Akyuu. I haven't seen her for a while." the outsider thought aloud.

"That's because she's in Kazemura as a part of the research team. But I haven't heard much information about their progress besides their complaints." Reimu exhaled through her nose.

"What sort of complaints?"

"Oh, you know… how the digging is becoming more laborious and how tired everyone is… They said they've hit a solid rock layer or something and even the yama-bito are having a hard time breaking through. There was only one bit of information from their research report that caught my interest."

"What could that be?"

"The material the temple is made of. They said that it's remarkably durable. As in durable enough to withstand powerful impacts and high temperatures, such as from a volcano eruption. That's the reason why the whole temple is intact even after millennia."

"Well, isn't that interesting?" Soudai looked as though as an interesting idea crossed his mind. "The other day when we visited Kourindou, we learned that…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, Soudai." his friend halted him from finishing the sentence. "I hope you're not suggesting that the diggers in Kazemura should use THAT to speed up their excavation."

"Well, if the temple's walls are as strong as Reimu-san says, and if they use the right amount…"

"Do you really want someone to get killed by your idea?"

Now that the outsiders have started a conversation about something that Reimu had no clue about, the young shrine maiden found it extremely difficult to maintain a facade of indifference.

"What do you mean by "THAT"? What did you say about Kourindou?"

"The shop is full of… umnmmfm!" Kyouichi promptly gagged Soudai's mouth with his palm.

"Useless junk. That's what Soudai wanted to say…"

Reimu obviously wasn't gullible enough to believe that and her squinting eyes were a sign of suspicion. "It sounded like you got an interesting idea. Let's hear it."

Still holding his palm over Soudai's mouth, Kyouichi stood stiffly and refused to give a single hint to what his friend wanted to say.

As the young miko was gradually running out of patience, she reached inside her sleeve and pulled out something that looked like a regular ofuda charm. "Look… We can do this in two ways: Ether you tell me what's in Kourindou or I can beat the answer out of you."

Seeing as how the marketplace was full of people, Kyouichi didn't find her threatening gesture all that convincing. "You wouldn't dare. Look at all these witnesses. If you attacked us now, your reputation as a shrine maiden would suffer."

"Do I look like I care? My shrine rarely sees anyone form the village unless it's some festive event."

"But at least they're not chasing you with torches and pitchforks."

Reimu figured that the crowded marketplace was not the best location for open threats of violence, so she changed her tactics.

"Fine. Have it your way. Then I'm not going to let you out of Gensokyo until you tell me."

Of course, nothing prevented the black-haired girl from simply flying over to Kourindou and figuring it out first-hand form Rinnosuke, who would probably even be glad that someone is interested in buying his multi-purpose clay, but since she had the people with some knowledge already at hand, she intended to get the answers out of them and saving herself the trouble.

"Seriously, why not just tell her straight, Kyou?" Soudai finally freed his mouth from Kyouichi's hand. "If we tell it to someone competent like Reimu-san, she might actually convince that crazy guy to get rid of that stuff."

"Okay, you," Reimu addressed the older of the two, "tell me what's in Kourindou."

"Lots of stuff that goes "boom!"." Soudai tried to interpret the fact that the antique shop is loaded with explosives in a way that even a Gensokyo native would understand.

"Stuff that goes "boom!"?" the shrine maiden tilted her head. "You mean fireworks?"

"No, I mean much bigger "boom!" It's a clay that's used in the outside world by soldiers to demolish buildings for instance."

"And… could it be used for digging too?" Reimu inquired.

"I think that miners are using a slightly weaker explosive called dynamite. The stuff Rinnosuke-san has is relatively safer, but more powerful than that."

"It's very dangerous and Rinnosuke's shop is full of it." Kyouichi raised a warning finger. "He did manage to find a way to make the detonators work, but I doubt there is anyone in Gensokyo who properly knows how to work with explosives. Unprofessional manipulation could cause a disaster and many deaths. I told him to just bury that stuff far away from any houses, but he refused to."

"Who else knows better how to work with outside world's inventions than you, outsiders?"

"Trust me, Reimu, we don't. It's a dangerous weapon and those are only handled by specially trained experts. It's not like you could buy a crate of plastic explosives at your local marketplace."

"Technically," Soudai shared his modest knowledge about the matter, "all you should do is plant the explosive, plant a detonating device with a receiver, arm it, go to safety, and push the button on the detonator, but… that's all just theoretical. I wouldn't dare to touch it myself."

The miko hummed thoughtfully. "If it really is that dangerous, then I should probably not mention it to the girls in Kazemura… But what about Rinnosuke-san? Isn't he in danger?"

"I'm glad you understand the danger." Kyouichi breathed out a sigh of relief. "Yes, even if Rinnosuke knows what he's storing in Kourindou, I can't help, but to think that he is gambling with his life and the lives of any potential customers. He wouldn't listen to us, but maybe… maybe he'll listen to you."

"Then I guess I won't avoid a trip to Kourindou after all, huh? Even when such a device could help the Kazemurans dig through that rocky layer that encases the temple..."

"Maybe it could, but the risk is too great. Even if it would be simple to use, apply the wrong amount and you won't just blow up the temple, but the whole village."

"In any case, I'm going to talk to Rinnosuke-san about those explosives. It's a good thing you told me about it…" said the miko as she withdrew her Spell Card back to her sleeve. "See you on the 1st of Kannazuki, then. Or perhaps sooner… Bye." she lowered her head to indicate a bow and lifted off with her fresh groceries into the sky.

The outsiders looked at her distancing figure in silent awe before Soudai broke the silence.

"She didn't really mean she'd beat the answer out of us, did she?"

"Perhaps not, but something tells me I'd rather not try to find out."

* * *

After their coincidental encounter with Reimu, the two youths headed off to Naota's house to meet up with Midori, but they only met the master of the house who welcomed them with his usual gruff attitude.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not going to buy any of your… oh… sorry." he paused himself as soon as his aging eyes recognized the familiar faces. "It's you two… If you're looking for Iwakami-san, you just missed her. Try looking at the farms. That's where all the feastin' is going to take place."

"Are you going to go there too?" Kyouichi asked him, even though he could already guess what answer would come out of the old man's mouth.

"I might…" the retired master craftsman replied with uncertain positivism to Kyouichi's surprise. "Most of my drinking buddies said they'd be there, including Mizuto. I just hope not too many youkai will be there this year. Don't understand why they keep participating in human festivals, but with us in the minority, there isn't much we humans can do about it. The fairies are bearable, or so I thought until I read about them in the news. Wouldn't want to live in Kazemura now, even if they paid me… If you'd like, you can come in and have a few drinks with me."

The young men were grateful for Naota's offer, but they kindly turned down the invitation.

"Well, suit yourselves. I'm sure there's going to be plenty of liquor and sake to drink at the feast. I'll come over there later when the sun won't be so strong. Good luck finding Midori in that crowd, boys!" those were the last words of the old carpenter before he closed his door behind the leaving guests.

"It must be pretty hard… Living here all those years with such a strong aversion to all youkai." Kyouichi mused aloud as he directed his steps back towards the marketplace. As he and Soudai could guess, Midori wanted to use today's exceptional opportunity to leave the imprisonment of the village's walls as soon as possible.

"I'm sure he's not the only man in the village who thinks like that." Soudai stated while mustering a shrug.

"Maybe not, but in his case… I don't know. He refuses to talk about it when questioned. Maybe he could deal with this problem much easier if he talked about it with someone."

"He's the kind of person who believes only he knows what's best for him. At least in my opinion."

"I guess so." said Kyouichi. "If he doesn't want to leave Gensokyo with us, then he can't hate it here that much."

* * *

After a few minutes, the outsiders somehow weaved through all the people in the marketplace and successfully made it to the familiar street, with the Hieda residence, a flower shop, the Kirisame-ya second-hand magic store, and the newly established book renter, Suzunaan, that replaced the former Starlight Glyph. At its end, there was a large gate, casting its shadow on the nearby buildings, and to Kyouichi's and Soudai's surprise, there appeared to be a young Ryuuken guard who kept halting the passerby and checking their identification. The fact that the gates were usually staffed by at least two militiamen at all times was making the lone Ryuuken's presence there look even more out of place.

"I thought they would spare us from this bureaucratic nonsense today." Soudai commented the guard's presence and actions from a safe distance. "Wait… It's THAT guy…" he grimaced with evident contempt as soon as he recognized him.

"You know him?"

"You bet. Osamu Nishio, one of the biggest jerks in the barracks... Remember our conversation with Reimu-san when I mentioned that I wouldn't mind seeing her beat up some of the Ryuuken with her danmaku?"

Kyouichi fished around inside his memory and slowly nodded. "Vaguely."

"Well, this guy would be the first on the list."

As they approached the gate, they could already hear his smug-sounding bossy voice as he halted yet another law-abiding villager just so he could massage his own ego.

"Hey, you there! Anyone passing through needs to present himself with proper identification and you, sir, are no exception!"

"Oh, boy…" even at first glance Kyouichi figured that this man and the likes of him live for the enjoyment of patronizing everyone and overstating the importance of their position. "Should we try another gate?"

"Well, if we just show him our ID, he should let us pass without a problem, but…" Soudai stopped mid-sentence just as he stopped his feet. "Just seeing his face again makes me want to spit in it."

"Woah, Soudai... What did he do to you?"

"Have you ever been bullied at school?" he replied with a question.

"Well, I don't know… maybe a little, but…"

"Because I think this guy must have been bullied, his parents hated him, if he had any and now he joined the militia to take his revenge on anyone he sees. As outsiders living in the barracks, we are obliged to listen to the orders of the Ryuuken. Most of them are reasonable, but not from this guy… Everyone cursed the day when he was on cleanup duty, because we knew he was going to give us the dirtiest most degrading work possible. Lucky Midori… She found someone to take her in, because she couldn't stand it there. I think Nishio was one of the reasons she decided to stay with Tanisake-san."

They were standing no more than ten meters away from the gate when Osamu Nishio halted another person, this time asking the woman to empty all of her pockets for no stated reason.

"Charming fellow…" Kyouichi muttered an ironic remark under his nose. That's when his glance fell on the shoulder part of Osamu's uniform, which like all Ryuuken uniforms bore the ranking of the person wearing it.

"Why, he's just an ordinary grunt."

"Yeah, he has the lowest rank in the militia," Soudai nodded affirmatively, "but he carries himself like he owns the world."

"So he must be a fresh recruit… abusing his new superior position against ordinary citizens. Come to think of it, Gensokyo doesn't differ all that much from the outside world when it comes to the different kinds of people, does it?"

Soudai didn't answer. He just stood there with eyes focused on Osamu's face, his jaw moving slowly from one side to another, as if he was chewing something. But it was just a sign of him brainstorming.

"Tell you what, Kyou…" he spoke without blinking his eye or shifting his glance to his comrade.

"What?"

"Since today is such a special day… Why not commemorate it with some enjoyable scene?" his lips then bent into a devilish grin. "Like seeing Osamu-san go packing to the barracks and cleaning latrines for the rest of the day after I report his actions to someone more sensible and with real authority?"

"Are you serious?"

"Why not? We won't be in Gensokyo for long. Thirty days will pass by like a blink of an eye. When will I get another chance like this?"

Kyouichi didn't feel so positive about his idea, though. "I don't know about that, Soudai… I just don't want your prank to cause us trouble with the Ryuuken."

"Prank? I'll be doing this whole village a favor by reporting him. There should be no guards here today and even if there should, they shouldn't be pestering everyone about their business in or out of the village. Instead of keeping the order, this guy is overstepping his authority."

"Oh, come on, Soudai, just let it be. We can take the northern gate or the southern one." Kyouichi tried to talk his friend out of it, but he knew how stubborn Soudai could be when he took something into his head.

"No." he declared firmly. "You bought yourself half a ton of taiyaki; I'm going to report Nishio and watch him get reprimanded. Wait here, alright? I'll be back soon."

"Soudai? Soudai!" Kyouichi's calls deflected off Soudai's eardrums without notice. He was determined to go to the barracks and no words could stop him now.

"Not going to stop, are you? In that case… I better stay here and wait for what happens."

* * *

And so, Kyouichi waited. To hide from the intense sunlight, he casually walked up to the gate and leaned himself against the wall facing east. Of course, it didn't take long for the young Ryuuken to notice him and scold him.

"Hey, you! What are you doing there? Move along."

Apparently, leaning against the fortifications was against the law.

"Me? I'm just waiting here for someone." Kyouichi replied with an innocent tone and didn't move from the comfort of the shade.

"You can't stand here blocking the gate." Osamu warned him. "Move somewhere else."

Only now Kyouichi turned his head to face the cocky Ryuuken, and as he did so, he raised his eyebrow at his somewhat nonsensical request.

"I'm not blocking the gate or the road." he explained stoically. "This is a wall. The gate is where you're standing. I assure you my presence here won't delay the traffic."

"Don't you get smart with me, punk! Who do you think you are?! Let me see your identification."

Kyouichi made a snorting chuckle before he turned his face away from him and pretended that the two of them never struck up a conversation.

This vexed the inexperienced guard to such levels, that to prove his authority, he drew his blade. "Is something wrong with your ears? I asked you to show me your ID!"

Seeing the guy's short temper in combination with the sharp blade glittering in the sun, Kyouichi started to actually care about his word choice and behavior. He stepped away from the wall, as he was asked and showed the inquisitive Ryuuken his identification card.

"Ishimaru? Ah… an outsider, huh? Haven't seen you in the barracks… You must be one of those who's been taken in by some family."

"Yes, sir. I'm not from Gensokyo, so I'm not really familiar with all the laws of this village."

"Unfamiliarity with the law does not exonerate those who break it." Osamu growled as he tossed Kyouichi's ID card back at its owner like he was tossing a bone to a dog.

"Excuse me, sir, but I heard that the Ryuuken would permit free passage in and out of the village to anyone during the harvest feast."

"We don't publicize every change in our internal regulations. Just be glad I'm letting you go without a fine." Osamu sheathed the sword, turned on his heel and marched back towards the gate like a soldier on a parade.

* * *

Kyouichi decided to wait for Soudai in front of Kirisame-ya, which was basically just a few meters away from where he was previously standing. But the outsider in question was taking his time to show up. Out of boredom, Kyouichi watched Osamu doing his "work" at the gate and disapprovingly shook his head every time the fresh Ryuuken stopped someone. The constantly perpetuating scene was gradually starting to tire even the patient-minded outsider until Osamu Nishio halted someone who Kyouichi recognized…

"Halt! If you want to enter the village, you need to present proper identification."

"Identification?" a tall lady with shoulder-long green hair, wearing tartan red dress and carrying a parasol blinked her puzzled ruby eyes at him. "I'm afraid I don't have any."

"No identification means you're either an unregistered outsider or a youkai. According to the new regulations, only spirited away humans are permitted to enter the village without identification if they seek shelter. As for youkai, they need to first fill in a registration form, and once the office approves of their request, they receive their identification documents and permission to enter Human Village."

Ignoring the guard's words, the lady waved her hand at someone familiar who she noticed standing and waiting on the other side of the gate.

"Hey, lady, are you listening to me?" Osamu raised his voice at her.

Only now, Kyouichi dared to approach the gate and the irritable guard who manned it, probably in conflict with the Ryuuken internal regulations that he sung so much about.

Yuuka Kazami, the youkai who frequently visited Human Village during spring and summer, sported a bemused look on her face as the young militiaman explained the details of the new regulations, many of which reeked of suspiciousness and absurdity even to someone as unfamiliar with human ways of life as her. As the Ryuuken kept flapping his gums and trying to look important, Yuuka tilted her head to the side and stated the obvious with her typical smile that only her delicate lips could shape: "You must be new here."

The young guard's confident look just suffered a direct blow from her spot on remark, so he had to straighten up and raise his voice by another couple of decibels to prove his competence. "You dare question my authority? What does the fact that I'm a fresh reinforcement to the village's militia force change about the regulations that everyone must adhere to?"

Yuuka widened her smile from amusement. "I'm asking simply because even before these… laughable walls were built, I've been able to pass in and out of the village without any complications from your older colleagues. They just greeted me, bowed and let me through with no questions asked."

"W-well… Rules are rules. My colleagues might not take their work seriously, but I do!"

As if Osamu's confidence wasn't undermined enough, Kyouichi nonchalantly approached him from behind, chewing on his second piece of taiyaki, and with a teasing tone he asked: "Problem, officer?"

"Huh? It's you again?! You already showed me your card, so don't bother me and just pass through. I'm busy now…"

"Actually, that's not why I'm here. Just wanted to say hello to someone… Good afternoon, Yuuka-san~." he properly greeted her, now that he was within earshot.

"Good afternoon~." Yuuka reciprocated the greeting.

"You know each other?" Osamu looked surprised by that fact.

"Why, yes." Kyouichi confirmed. "Yuuka-san is telling the truth. She visits the village almost regularly. I bet her first destination is the florist's."

"Indeed." she nodded in acknowledgement. "And usually the only destination."

"That doesn't interest me at all. Unless she gets permission and identification documents from the village council, she cannot pass through the gates. Period."

"How is she supposed to get the permission from the council if she cannot enter the village?" Kyouichi questioned the logic of the regulations this inexperienced Ryuuken just explained. And before Osamu could answer, he pointed out another fact that undermined the very existence of village's fortifications. "And besides… Don't most youkai and outside visitors simply fly over the walls anyway? How do you Ryuuken keep an overview about them?"

"That doesn't need to concern you, Ishimaru-san. As I said: she can fill in the registration form, which I can provide her with even now, hand it over to me and wait until her request gets accepted or denied. Without official acceptance, I'm not going to let this youkai through, even if she is a close friend with the village elder himself. If she wants to get some flowers, why doesn't she go pluck some on the nearby meadows?"

Completely ignoring Osamu's monologue, Kyouichi took out a fresh snack out of his paper bag and offered it to Yuuka: "Taiyaki?"

"No, thank you." she politely refused.

With a shrug, Kyouichi put it back in the bag at about the same time as Osamu finished his speech, the point of which completely eluded both the outsider and Yuuka.

"I hate to break it up to you, Nishio-san," Kyouichi pointed his finger over the Ryuuken's shoulder, "but while you're conversing with us, people are passing through the gate behind your back without your consent…"

The guard turned around and found out that Kyouichi wasn't just making fun of him. People were passing through the gates towards the farms in smaller groups. "Oh, damn it, you're right! Hey, you! Hold it right there!"

The moment Osamu turned his back on them; the young outsider took it as his best opportunity. Without thinking, he took Yuuka by the hand and mimicked a signal for her to follow him quickly and quietly. "Come on, Yuuka-san, now's the right chance!" he whispered to her as he tried to suppress his urge to chuckle at how they just managed to fool the annoying young Ryuuken.

She was a little surprised at first, but she was quickly able to understand the intention behind Kyouichi's sudden action. She tightened her own grip on his hand, using just the right amount of strength so as to not inflict pain or unintentional injury. As a youkai, her strength was very dangerous, but as someone who was manipulating with fragile, vulnerable flowers on daily basis, Yuuka was also very gentle when she wanted to be. Once they were both inside the village, Kyouichi finally relived his urge to laugh, which partially rubbed off to Yuuka, as she also giggled from amusement.

They didn't get to enjoy this moment for long, though. The short-tempered Ryuuken gate guard decided to give chase after he noticed that Yuuka trespassed into the village while Kyouichi distracted his attention.

"I'm not going to warn you again!" he bellowed almost manically, his sword drawn and slightly trembling from how tightly he held its hilt. "Either you get out of this village right now, or I'll be coerced to use force!"

"Oh come on!" Kyouichi tried to reason with him, but he already figured that Soudai's introduction of Osamu Nishio was in no way an exaggeration. The outsider's thought at the moment when Osamu was pointing the tip of his sword at both the trespasser and her accomplice, was what exactly was taking Soudai so long to bring in some higher-ranked Ryuuken to end this charade.

Only Yuuka looked absolutely unfazed by the sight of Osamu's weapon, with her beaming smile spreading widely across her face. One could even assume she was having fun.

"Ooh, this is starting to look interesting."

"Umm… Nishio-san… I'd really not recommend you disrespectful or violent behavior towards Kazami-san." Kyouichi attempted to prevent the impending fight.

"I don't know where you know my name from, but you should know that assisting a trespass is a crime! You have ten seconds to comply! Out of the village! NOW!" Osamu assumed a fighting stance after giving his last warning.

"It's true I haven't had a danmaku battle in a long while, but I'm not that desperate to dive into every duel that's going to end up so one-sidedly. Where are your reinforcements, human?"

"Is it really necessary, Yuuka-san?" Kyouichi still hoped to find a peaceful way out of the situation, even when the chances were slimmer than Reimu's waist.

"Sometimes it is. Especially when dealing with humans. No offense." Yuuka briefly stole a glance at him as she replied.

With a sigh of resignation, Kyouichi nodded. "At least try not to hurt him too much. Even if he's an idiot…"

"Reinforcements?" the Ryuuken laughed heartily. "I think you're underestimating the training of the Ryuuken militia. Not to mention our weapons, which are specially blessed to exterminate youkai."

"So you're challenging me by yourself? I should at least give you the advantage of first hit." she casually rested the tip of her parasol against the ground and closed her eyes, allowing her challenger to take the first attack. "Your best slash, please." she asked him so politely, which took the green Ryuuken by surprise. Bragging about Ryuuken training and armament was one thing, but when it actually came to demonstrating his combat prowess, Osamu Nishio has failed disappointingly. Kyouichi wasn't sure if this was his first actual battle against a youkai, but Osamu sure looked amusingly desperate. Yuuka's overabundant confidence was stealing the Ryuuken's courage to actually try and attack her, even if she bluntly asked him to.

After a while has passed with nothing happening, the flower youkai grew bored and opened her eyes to see what was taking Osamu so long to strike at her. "What's the matter? Do you need help or something?"

"Silence! Or I'll, I'll…"

"Run home to mommy?" Yuuka was obviously enjoying every second of the young guard's nervousness.

"You'll regret trespassing into the village on my watch!" Osamu finally decided to push his luck… down a deep chasm. He swung his blessed sword with all his might at the youkai.

Kyouichi who watched the scene along with a few curious villagers expected Yuuka to block the attack or evade it, but she didn't even move a muscle. The blade of the guard's katana has landed on her shoulder as he tried to bring her down by a downward diagonal slash.

Kyouichi opened his mouth in shock and awe as Osamu nearly lost the grip on his weapon from the recoil when the blade hit Yuuka between her neck and her shoulder. It was like he tried to cut down a tree or rather a stone pillar. Only a small tear on Yuuka's clothing indicated that the weapon actually hit her.

Without even the slightest change in her smiling expression, she just stood there, as if she was enjoying the warm summer breeze. She rolled her eyes to casually observe the damage to her dress, before shifting her gaze back at the one causing it.

"Was that the best you can pull off?"

If the Human Village held a contest for the most flabbergasted facial expression, Kyouichi would still have strong competition in Osamu at this moment. It was as if he just realized what he has done and that he wasn't very successful in his "youkai extermination" attempt.

"Maybe you hit me with the blunt side of the sword." Yuuka elegantly teased the greenhorn man of the law. It was obvious that Osamu didn't confuse the blunt side with the edge when attacking, but now, even he himself had doubts about it.

"Who knows if you wouldn't make a better farmer instead of a Ryuuken? Or at least a half-decent fertilizer…"

Those words seemed to have inspired Osamu to retry his attempts. "Begone, youkai!" he shouted out in a delusion that it would make his sword arm swing harder. He performed a combination of cuts, swings and finished them with a thrust aimed right at Yuuka's heart. Again, the alluring youkai lady just stood there motionlessly, even as the sharp edge of the sword repeatedly tore at her from all angles, with all the force the young man could lend it with his muscles. All he managed to "exterminate", however, were another few patches of Yuuka's clothing. Her inhuman body that got slightly unveiled after the second assault showed no marks of injury. As Yuuka widened her smile, it became clear to him that nothing good awaited him in the following seconds.

"Wh-what are you?! W-why is the blessed sword not working?!" he accusingly stared at his weapon, which was supposed to be super-effective against youkai.

"Have you ever heard of Spell Cards~?" Yuuka resumed her verbal teasing. "Because when you challenged me, I expected to see some new danmaku patterns, but you're obviously still too inexperienced to use them~."

"HYAAAAAARGH!" with one last desperate battle cry, Osamu thrust the sword at her, but this time Yuuka actually moved. She grabbed the blade with her bare hand and slowly pulled the sword towards herself.

"But if you can't use Spell Cards, you can't fully blame your weapon. You should first practice against equally strong opponents, like fairies, before challenging a full-fledged youkai." she spoke to him with her ever-calm voice.

Afraid of what might come next, the Ryuuken tried to yank the sword out of Yuuka's grip, but the green-haired lady held it so tightly that an oni would have a problem pulling it, let alone a human. She drew the sword closer to her by yet another couple of centimeters and with her second hand she grabbed the panicking guard by his sword-wielding fist.

"W-what are you doing?! Let me go!"

"If you want to exterminate a youkai without Spell Cards, you're going to have to apply a bit more strength to your attacks." she spoke as she drove the tip of Osamu's blade to her own throat. The point of the sword was already touching her neck, but Yuuka didn't stop her arm and pulled the sword even closer. And just as one would expect the sword to pierce her throat, it began to bend instead. With her gargantuan strength and her adamantine body, one could see how the blade of Osamu's weapon was being deformed into quite an avant-garde shape. Yuuka kept pressing the blade against her throat until she held the hilt just a couple of centimeters from her neck. By now, the blessed katana turned into an indefinable lump of crooked metal. Yuuka finally released it along with Osamu's hand, whose owner was so shaken that he couldn't maintain a firm grip of it. With a clucking sound, the scrapped sword fell on the ground.

"And now," the youkai lady calmly picked up her parasol from the ground, "it's my turn to hit back~ ."

At those words, Osamu lost his last remaining bits of courage. "L-leave me alone, you… monster!" he took to his heels while screaming in panic. Those villagers who didn't witness his confrontation with the youkai of flowers were confusedly turning their heads after him as he ran past them crying like there was a fire or something.

Kyouichi stepped over to where the Ryuuken was standing and picked up what once used to be a sword. "Hey~! Nishio-san! You forgot your… corkscrew!"

"I guess that concludes the "duel"." Yuuka frowned disappointedly.

"Are you alright, Yuuka-san?" Kyouichi asked her, even when the youkai still appeared to be in perfect condition. "Didn't that sword hurt you at all?"

"It stung a little, since it was blessed, but the quality of the sword was rather… questionable."

"Well I don't know…" the ever-curious Kyouichi wanted to check the quality himself. He carefully grabbed the side of the blade and tried to bend it at least by the slightest bit, but of course, he couldn't bend it no matter how hard he tried. "Unnnf… damn it…"

In spite of what Yuuka said about the sword's quality, it was made of solid steel and could not be bent by human hands.

"Umm… what do you eat for breakfast, Yuuka-san?" he wanted to know the secret behind her amazing strength. It was more or less a joke question, so he didn't really expect her to answer it. But when Yuuka just stood there silently for about a minute without moving or saying anything, Kyouichi became both curious and concerned.

Has she really told him the truth? Has the sword really left her unaffected? The flower youkai still sported a smile as she had her face turned at the sky with her eyes closed, as if she was relaxing or meditating. No better way to find out then to ask her directly.

"Excuse me, but… What are you doing, Yuuka-san?"

Her reply left the outsider even more confused then he was before asking her: "Having lunch~ ."

"Excuse me?" he thought he heard her wrong. "What do you mean?"

After another couple of seconds, Yuuka opened her red eyes and spread the parasol over her head again. "Mmm…" she let out a moan of delight. "Refreshing…"

Only then Kyouichi figured out what she meant. "Ah~! I see… Solar powered, huh?"

"I love sunny days like this, but windy, cloudy and rainy days are also necessary." she spoke with nonchalance, as if nothing happened.

"Do you also eat some normal food? Just asking, since the other day you bought all that flower patterned kitchen ware…"

"Oh, I do eat meals too~ ."

"In that case…" Kyouichi hesitated for a while, considering whether he should speak his mind or not, but upon realizing how little time he had left in Gensokyo, he assumed that he couldn't lose anything by asking.

"Yes~?"

"W-what would you say if…" again, the words got stuck in his throat and he subconsciously began scratching his wrist from nervousness.

"Come on, Ishimaru! You can do it. All you have to do is say it loud and clear…" a voice spoke to him inside his mind.

"But I swore to myself that I would not get romantically involved with anyone in Gensokyo!" the voice of reason argued. "It's only going to complicate things…"

"Who says you need to get into a relationship?" the voice of temptation countered. "You'll just have a good time and go home without regrets. The worst that can happen now is that she'll reject you. Just go ahead and say it already!"

And so he said it: "What would you say if I invited you to some food… or just tea if you're not hungry?"

"Oh my… Was I just asked out on a date?" Yuuka was genuinely surprised and yet, her smile looked a bit mocking at the same time. "By a human, no less…"

"I knew it was a dumb idea." Kyouichi thought to himself, but it was too late to unsay what's already been said.

"It's a pity that my dress got ruined, but in this regard, it's partially my fault as well. I wouldn't want to be seen with these clothes in any establishment. I'll have to go home and get changed."

"Wait… was she seriously considering it?" the outsider asked in his mind.

"Oh, I have an idea, Yuuka-san." he said suddenly. "You could have Minako-san take a look at your dress and borrow some other outfit while she gets it mended."

"Minako-san?"

"Yes, she and her husband took me in when I first came to the village. Minako-san has a clothes shop nearby. Let's pay her a visit."

"Saitou?" Yuuka asked about Minako's family name, which, to Kyouichi's surprise, was a correct guess.

"Why, yes. Minako Saitou. I guess you already know about her shop then."

"I don't know the Human Village too well except this street and the market square, but I've been to Saitou-san's shop a few times."

"Well then, let's go see her. Maybe I'll convince her to give you a discount. Besides, we should probably not be here in case any Ryuuken reinforcements will come looking for you."

"Why not?" Yuuka offered him a puzzled look. "Let them come. Every one of them, if they dare. Just like the first time… I don't wish to antagonize the place I go buying and sometimes selling flowers to, but if I'm not given a choice, then I must teach the rude humans some manners."

"I kind of understand now why the Ryuuken allow you to pass freely into the village without asking questions. Well, with the exception of some… individuals."

Kyouichi let go of the destroyed sword once he gave up on bending its blade by at least a little bit. "I'll just leave this here in case Nishio would come looking for it." he explained, even though he couldn't imagine anyone using the mutilated weapon as anything more than a paper weight.

And so, the two of them left the street and headed towards the center of the village. The crowd of curious onlookers who saw the whole situation at the western gate slowly began to disperse. It appeared as though none of them wished to find themselves in Yuuka's way, even by accident. Kyouichi was starting to awaken to the notion that Yuuka was a highly respected and perhaps even a feared youkai in the village. The rumors that circulated about her certainly weren't completely baseless. But as it already turned out, not everyone in the village was familiar with these rumors.

* * *

"And so we're here." said Kyouichi when he and Yuuka stopped in front of Minako Saitou's shop. "After you, Yuuka-sama." he made a hand gesture towards the doorway as he held the door open for her.

The flower youkai smirked. "What's with the sudden change of honorific?"

Kyouichi didn't even realize he addressed her that way until she asked. "Uh… I don't know… The sort of the impression you give away, Yuuka-sama. To me you seem like a... a noble lady, who lives in a big mansion and has many servants and…"

Yuuka covered her mouth as she giggled. "You know… I used to live in a mansion before. And I also have a servant. But not here in Gensokyo."

"Really? You mean in Mugenkan?"

"Yes. I left that place about ten summers ago, but I still occasionally return there out of nostalgia or when the winter is too cold and long.

"So that's how it is, huh? You really are a noble lady."

"I don't really insist on being addressed as such, but if you wish, I'm not going to stop you."

"And to think I once believed you to be a lesser youkai…" Kyouichi murmured to himself. But Yuuka's hearing was as sharp as expected from a youkai.

"Lesser youkai?" she tilted her head to the side. "Excuse me, but who did you hear that from?"

"Ehehe… I… uhh… forgot." he lied for the sake of protecting the safety of the florist who didn't know much about Yuuka and judged her based on his personal impressions. "Anyway, let's step inside already."

Before stepping inside, Kyouichi instinctively reached inside his pocket for his gift from Kirisame-san to check on something. Its whole lens flashed in dazzling bright light, just like the last time when Yuuka accompanied him and Soudai to Kourindou.

"There's no mistake about it now." he whispered to himself. Yuuka Kazami was the reason why it flashed so intensely. She harbored enormous magic potential.

They entered a shop full of clothes of all shapes, sizes and colors. From simple rags to expensive kimonos for special occasions. Like with most things in Gensokyo, even the shop's inventory wasn't exclusively in oriental style. Many foreign-looking dresses were on display and affordable for reasonable prices. Minako-san was skillful and versatile in her craft. Right now, however, she only devoted her time to selling her products.

"Hello, Minako-san." Kyouichi greeted the familiar woman.

"Oooh, Kyouichi-kun. That's rare… What brings you here? Did something happen, or have you perhaps grown tired of your old kimono?"

"Actually, yes, something DID happen, but the customer is not me…" he stepped aside, allowing Minako to see Yuuka standing behind him, casually browsing through the selection of clothes.

"Kazami-san? Welcome again to my shop~!" she heartily greeted the youkai.

Despite the fact that Yuuka never used to stay in human company for extended periods of time, she never seemed to lack tact and polite manners.

"Greetings."

Her aura of nobility, however, suffered from the fact that her clothing was riddled with numerous tears and cuts, which didn't take long for Minako to notice.

"Oh my… Looks like your dress could use some serious needlework~." she stated with an amused tone. "A danmaku battle?"

"Something like that." replied Yuuka.

"Alright, let me see if I can still save your attire. But first, let's pick something that you can change into while I mend your dress. I think I should have a few identical skirts and vests in stock that you could buy or borrow, or if you want to try out something new, you can pick from whatever you see on display~."

"It's hard to choose from so many…" Yuuka undecidedly shifted her glance from left to right.

"I know that feeling exactly~!" Minako seconded with a compassionate tone. "Like when I want to buy myself a pair of new shoes…"

"Should I pick a kimono for a change? Or maybe something different?" thought Yuuka aloud.

"Then how about trying this new maid uniform~?" Minako suggested excitedly.

Kyouichi wasn't even sure if she meant it seriously or just as a joke.

"Why, yes It's one of my recent models." the tailor declared proudly. "See those little frills on the hem? Isn't it cure~?"

Yuuka wasn't sure what to say to Minako's suggestion. "Maid uniform…"

"Care to try it on? It just might be your size."

The flower-loving youkai stole a glance at Kyouichi to get a hint of what he thought about the idea, only to see him grinning widely with his eyes closed, rapidly repeating the word "yes" in whisper.

"On second thought, I think I'll just borrow the identical dress to my usual one."

"You don't like it? And how about a shrine maiden outfit? It's not too dissimilar from what you always wear."

Shifting her eyes to Kyouichi again, whose reaction hasn't changed, Yuuka decided to stick to the classic look.

"The same as always, please."

"Suit yourself, Kazami-san~." Minako chimed as she disappeared behind the shelves, returning after a moment with a folded red plaid skirt and vest and simple white shirt. "You probably don't need me to guide you to the changing cabins, do you?"

"I can find the way myself." Yuuka replied as she took the clothes and walked away to the changing cabin.

While Yuuka was changing, Minako stepped over to Kyouichi and spoke to him with a hushed voice: "My, my… Kyouichi-kun, how did you get acquainted with Kazami-san?"

"I don't know… I just saw her visit the flower shop often when I was working for Shimizu-san. One day I greeted her, we exchanged a few words and… that's about it. From then on we met a few times and chatted a bit… I was a bit surprised myself that you know her, Minako-san."

"Well, as you can see, she's also one of my customers."

"Yeah… Why do you ask me about her anyway?"

Minako smiled almost mischievously. "Oh, it's nothing... It's not like I'm here to judge you for who you choose to like. I just… wanted to give you a little, but important advice."

"An advice? What sort of advice?"

"Well… I know you're a good person at heart, so I probably don't need to tell you this at all, but… Please treat Kazami-san with respect and chivalry at all times. Her mental image of humans was never too great, but her personality is like a mirror. If she's treated nicely, so she treats others nicely in return. But if she gets offended somehow…" Minako left the question unfinished, allowing Kyouichi to use his imagination.

"I think I was just a witness to that a while ago. Don't worry, Minako-san. I never intended to mistreat or insult her. I couldn't forgive myself if I did."

"I see… I didn't need to tell you after all. I just wanted to be sure, Kyouichi-kun. I would really be sad if something… bad happened to you. Especially if I could do something to prevent it."

"I understand. Thank you, Minako-san." he bowed to his caretaker in respect.

After a couple of minutes, Yuuka stepped out of the cabin with a new dress, faithful to her old one in about every aspect. Kyouichi was a little disappointed that he didn't get to see the beautiful youkai wearing something different, but somehow, he thought that this dress really suited her well.

"I'm counting on you." said Yuuka to Minako as she handed over her damaged dress to her.

"I will do my best~. That will be 4000 yen for borrowing. Come back in a week. I should have it mended by then."

"Four thousand…" Yuuka muttered as she opened her wallet. "Wasn't borrowing always for three thousand in your shop?"

The owner of the shop giggled in response. "That was two years ago, Kazami-san. The prices went slightly up since then and so has my rent for this store. I have to make a living out of something too, you know.

"It can't be helped, can it?" Yuuka paid the price with a slight hint of reluctance. She pitied every yen that could be spent on buying flowers instead. "It's better than walking around naked."

"Well, the weather is nice and warm, but yes, it would be rather indecent to take a stroll in the village with no clothes." Minako's giggling echoed inside the shop. "See you next time, and enjoy the harvest feast~!"

"Speaking of which..." Kyouichi spoke up, "Shouldn't your shop be closed on a festive day like this?"

"I'm working until 6 p. m. today. The feast begins in the evening as well, anyway, so it's not like I'm going to miss anything. Our whole family will be there. You're invited too, of course, unless you already had other plans…" she gave him a suggestive wink.

Kyouichi rolled his eyes sideways to Yuuka. "Would you like to come to the harvest feast?"

"I don't like crowds very much."

"Oh… What a pity." the outsider frowned.

"But I'm willing to accept your earlier offer~." she added and brightened up a little.

"My earlier offer?" Kyouichi just experienced a momentary short-time memory failure.

"Have you already forgotten what you asked me before we went to this shop?"

Only now he recalled and correctly identified what she was referring to. "Oh, that! Wait… Are you serious?"

Her reply was unexpectedly cold: "No, I was just joking."

Kyouichi was struck dumbfounded, unable to spit out a single word. Yuuka, on the other hand, sported a look of amusement on her face.

"Hmhmhm~. Your face looks endearingly amusing when you're confused… I just wanted to tease you a bit."

"Wh-wha..? Really? So does that mean…?"

"Like I said: I accept."

An invisible rock fell down from Kyouichi's heart as he exhaled with relief and joy. "Thank you."

He walked up to the door and bowed to Minako one last time before leaving her shop together with Yuuka.

* * *

"Well, so much for getting a discount." the youkai humorously commented the situation when she closed the shop's door behind her.

"You said it yourself that getting your clothes ripped up was partially your own fault."

"True. I should probably try to protect myself a bit more next time. Even if it's just for the sake of my outfit. I just wanted to put on a little show, that's all."

"You certainly left Nishio-san impressed. I don't think he'll ever forget about this day."

"You reap what you sow. He only got a little dose of fear. Hopefully he'll learn something from the experience. But enough about rookie militia guards. Have you already decided where shall we go now?"

"Hmm…" Kyouichi ran through his mental list of known establishments in the Human Village and tried to pick the most suitable one.

"So you said you don't like crowded places. Then I guess I can cross out Uzume…"

"Oh, look there's one establishment right here~." Yuuka pointed at the building bordering the marketplace and the so called Western Street, where she and Kyouichi came from.

"The Drunken Oni?" he raised his eyebrow at the tavern which he was already familiar with. "Thanks, but I already had enough of Ryuuken for today. That place is their favorite hangout."

"I didn't know that."

"You really don't know this village despite visiting it so often and for so long?"

"Why should I know it well? I only go here for shopping and stay only as long as I need."

"Hmm… point taken." The human shrugged and resumed his brainstorming for a fitting establishment to visit. "Oh, I might have an idea. Let's go to White Sakura. It's a teahouse that has this really nice and calming atmosphere and nicely decorated interior too."

"A teahouse sounds fine~." Yuuka agreed with him. "Well, then… lead the way."

"It's right this way, Yuuka-san." he picked up his feet and guided his inhuman companion towards the southern part of the market square. Yuuka followed his steps as he entered a narrow street leading past the walled compound – the headquarters of the Ryuuken militia, until they both stopped at a small house that didn't attract much attention if it hadn't been for its sign board hanging above the door.

Kyouichi opened the door and let himself inside. "Well, here we are. It's just my second time visiting this place." He found himself in the entrance corridor of the teahouse decorated by numerous bonsai.

* * *

"Welcome to White Sakura, mister." a young waitress welcomed him almost as soon as he stepped in. "Table for one?"

"For two, actually." he corrected the waitress and found it a little weird that she hasn't noticed two people entering the teahouse. Well, one human and one youkai… He looked back over his shoulder to check if Yuuka actually followed him in.

"Hey, Yuuka-san. Come in, come in; don't be shy."

The youkai lady was just admiring one of the bonsai trees that lined the wall shelves on both sides of the corridor. For a moment, it looked like she forgot the reason for coming here in the first place.

"Oh…" she snapped out of her trance-like state and stepped up next to Kyouichi.

As soon as the waitress witnessed her, her behavior changed in almost parallel fashion to that of Kyouichi's former employer, Daisuke Shimizu, whenever Yuuka showed up in the bookstore.

"W-welcome t-to White S-sakura, madam… Um… ehh… P-please let me show you the way to our best tea salon."

Kyouichi raised his eyebrow in slight bewilderment. "Excuse me, but I don't think I can afford such luxury."

"N-no, please, don't worry abut it. Just follow me." she insisted with her voice trembling from nervousness. She led the human/youkai couple towards the back of the establishment and with a key that she pulled out of her pocket, she unlocked the door to a beautiful tea salon for wealthier clients.

"Please, make yourselves comfortable. Here's our menu. If you'll need anything, please just ring the bell on the table." She seemed to calm down a bit, but her forced smile and sweat droplets on her forehead told a different story.

"Well, if they insist, I won't complain." Kyouichi seated himself at the table and Yuuka took the opposite side.

"It's pretty." she commented the decoration and furnishing of the salon.

"You should have come here in spring then. They even had the floor sprinkled with real white cherry petals."

"Really?"

"Yes, but apparently they already cleaned them up since my last visit."

"Interesting…" Yuuka picked up the menu from the table and glanced through the various sorts of tea. "Now, which tea should I pick?"

* * *

And while Kyouichi and Yuuka were solving their tea choice dilemma, Asakura Soudai finally arrived at the western gate with a respected Ryuuken major by his side.

"Wait… where did he go?" Soudai turned his head to all directions, but couldn't see anyone even remotely similar to Osamu. "I swear he was standing right here and halting people."

"Are you sure it was initiate Nishio?" the major asked him as he cast a suspicious glance at the outsider.

"I wouldn't lie to you about it, sir. And where's Ishimaru…? My friend was supposed to be waiting here for me. Although I admit, I took longer than I thought I would…"

"Perhaps they both went to the farms already." the Ryuuken speculated, but then a sparkle of something on the ground near the gate caught his attention. "And what's this?"

He walked closer to the unknown object that reflected sunlight, leaned over it and observed it with puzzlement.

"It looks like it has a hilt of a sword, but…" Soudai also couldn't make heads or tails of it.

The Ryuuken major picked it up. "By the gods, you're right… It IS a sword hilt… of a sword issued to Ryuuken. So, Nishio WAS here after all. But the blade is bent like it was a wet noodle… Just what the hell happened here?"

And while the Ryuuken was scratching his head over the mystery of the super-deformed katana, Soudai exhaled with relief that at least there was some evidence that backed up his story. A false accusation could cost him dearly. Still, he was a little troubled by his friend's absence and his gut feeling told him that his and Osamu's disappearance might be somehow linked together.

"Alright, Asakura-san… I'll go look for Nishio and have some words with him when I find him."

"Then I should probably go searching for my pal too."

Having little to no leads, Soudai thought that Kyouichi simply lost his patience for waiting and headed off to the farmlands to join everyone in the preliminary stage of the harvest feast. And that's where he went…

* * *

"Mmm… this is some really well-made sencha." Kyouichi praised the quality of the tea that the waitress just served to him and Yuuka a moment ago.

"The bitterness is just as strong as it should be."

Since the two of them had problems with deciding what to pick, the waitress suggested one of their best blends of green tea. What surprised Kyouichi the most, though, was that she even brought a large wooden platter loaded with beautifully arranged and delicious-looking sushi.

"But we didn't order any…"

"A courtesy of the White Sakura manager." she said as she brought it to the tea salon. "Please enjoy!"

As the waitress left them in privacy, Kyouichi looked Yuuka in the eyes and asked: "Are you sure this is your first time visiting this place?"

"Why would you think otherwise?" she asked and took another sip.

He gestured at the sushi platter as a response. "This isn't how they normally treat guests. I got nothing for free the first time I've been here. In fact, I was under the impression that all they served here was tea. So it has to be something else… I think it's because they know you and respect you. Unlike some individuals…"

"But I've never met these people." she reasoned.

"You never needed to. It's simply enough that they know about you."

"Well, that's very nice of them~." She flashed a beautiful smile and picked up the chopsticks.

"Almost makes you wonder: What's the catch? Right?"

Yuuka took the privilege to taste her first roll of sushi, which she apparently enjoyed.

"For a long, long time I never much understood humans. And I never tried to. Before I moved to Gensokyo, I only viewed people as a nuisance and cheap target practice. Later, they became just pests who distracted my peaceful flower viewings. Then I met Yukari Yakumo. And I could not understand her… Her fondness of humans. What she saw in them? I could never comprehend. Back in Mugenkan, meeting people was not that uncommon. Those who dreamt could sometimes wander to my home. There wasn't much for me to do, so I got bored easily. Talking, playing games, having tea, or beating someone to death from which they woke up… It didn't matter to me as long as I could have my fun. But I think I must have gradually changed a bit since those times. Even in Mugenkan, I learned that there were some people who were so nice that I didn't have the heart to tease them. My human friends were very few, but I treasured them. I agreed that they could visit me every time in their sleep. But those were no real encounters. Time went on and the short-lived humans who I liked died of natural causes. Those who came afterwards… I could never grow attached to. I wanted to experience the real world beyond that which I was born into. And here I found my greatest passion."

"Flowers?"

"Indeed. I was disappointed by the humans I first met in this world. Not only how they treated me, but the way they treated everything around them. I chose the life of seclusion, trying to avoid human contact as much as possible. My only real friends who could understand me were flowers."

"So the change in your thinking happened after you met Yukari?"

"She's a part of the reason. We met each other by chance. Both of us were youkai in a world where humans have spread across nearly every inch of Japan. To survive in this world, we needed to keep our presence in the human minds known somehow and the best way for that was to instill fear. But when I met her… I began to see her as a rival entering my turf, trying to spread fear among the humans who were MY prey."

"So you fought."

Yuuka chuckled lightly. "And how… There were no Spell Card Rules like there are now. One danmaku shot could blast through a house, kill an undefined number of people and still keep going strong. Magic and attacks were not made to look beautiful, but to be effective. Yukari and I fought many times. None of us could kill each other, though. Or perhaps, none of us really wanted to. Our fights caused a lot of damage to the land, which I regretted in retrospect. Back then I could not even manipulate plants so I couldn't bring the dead fields and forests back to life. I didn't want to go on fighting senselessly, when it was obvious that Yukari was a completely different league from anyone I fought before. So instead of fighting, we took a more civilized approach to our exchange of opinions. It wasn't immediate, but… after a few years, we no longer saw each other as rivals. I learned a lot from our conversations. She hadn't yet told me about her idea to seal Gensokyo by that time, but from her demeanor, I could deduce that her view of life, of humans, gods and of youkai differed from mine in many ways. Out of spite, I refused to consider anything she told me seriously, but… I kept thinking a lot."

"Wait a minute, Yuuka-san… I was just wondering if you also fought in the first Genso-Lunar war."

"She was trying to convince me to join her, yes. But you know what I told her?"

Kyouichi shrugged. "No idea."

"Why would I go to explore another new world when I barely got to exploring this one? That's what I asked her. Oddly, she never forced anyone to join her invading army to the Moon. If one said "no", she just left them alone and asked someone else. And so I stayed here. Only when she returned from her little war campaign, she finally told me what she planned to do with this piece of land from the very beginning."

"Let me guess. You probably didn't agree with being sealed here."

"Naturally, I was against it. Why would she do something like that? Why should we, the youkai live like exiles? Why was Yukari so eagerly helping the humans to seal our home from the rest of the world? Why siding with humans in the first place?"

"You had another fight?"

"Not this time." The youkai shook her head. "For I could see in short time afterwards… She wasn't siding with anyone; she was siding with all the parties. Youkai, humans, gods, she told me that even the Lunarians themselves should somehow benefit from the aftermath of the failed invasion, even though I don't see how…"

"What happened after Gensokyo became sealed?" wondered the young human.

"I started to become more open-minded. Little by little. Step by step. Petal by petal…" Yuuka couldn't help inserting a flower-related metaphor, "Of course, I still enjoyed the company of flowers over the company of anyone else, but at least I occasionally took a walk to the village every now and then."

"Come to think of it, I never asked where you live now."

"It's better if you don't know then." she gave a cryptic reply with an equally cryptic smirk.

"I imagine it must be a dangerous trip there." Kyouichi guessed wildly.

"It's no place for humans, suffice to say."

"Alright, I won't pry. So you said you started visiting the village. How did the people react to that?"

She hummed thoughtfully. "How to put it...? They weren't quite ready for it."

"Could you elaborate a little?"

"After I crushed every solider they sent to exterminate me, the common villagers weren't in the mood for a conversation or doing business."

"You massacred the Ryuuken?"

Yuuka chuckled at the question. "There were Spell Card Rules already in effect by that time. But a massacre it was. People believed I was ruthless and that I enjoyed their suffering, but they were completely missing the point. I couldn't care less about most of the humans. As if I'd enjoy fighting such weak opponents. They simply didn't give me a choice. The were-hakutaku tried to drive me away too, but she was easy too. After that, no Ryuuken ever had any objections to my occasional presence in the village. But the rest of the humans were still somehow… afraid maybe. Funny… after all those centuries of living off people's fear, I never really quite understood that emotion myself."

"You don't know what fear is?"

"Can you tell me?" she smiled sheepishly. "I'm a little at a loss."

Kyouichi scratched his chin as his mind pondered the question of what fear is and how to explain it to someone who has little to no clue.

"Well… how should I say it in an understandable way? For example: you love flowers, right?"

"Of course I do~. But what do flowers have to do with fear?"

"Surely you must have a garden at home, right?" he asked another question.

"Naturally."

"But what if something bad was going to happen to it? Like some natural disaster? Pest infestation, wildfire, hail storm or something like that…"

Yuuka furrowed her eyebrows as she heard that. Apparently, imagining it was not pleasant for her. "It would make me both sad and angry." she tried to give an honest reply.

"And understandably, you don't want to be sad or angry."

"I don't, but sometimes, I can't avoid it. Life brings such instances to anyone sooner or later."

"That's true. But that feeling that you have… The unwillingness to be sad, angry or in any way upset, while knowing that sometimes you won't escape from those emotions… is a form of fear."

"Oh… I think I'm beginning to understand it a little. I thought I was never afraid in my life, but… I guess worrying IS a form of fear too."

"There's nothing wrong with fear, Yuuka-san. It can help us humans be more careful and creative. Many of mankind's inventions were more or less born out of necessity… the fear of something, be it disease, bad weather, wild animals, wars and so on. Fear can sometimes save lives, but like fire, when it gets out of control, it can consume a man. Even drive people insane. But a healthy dose of fear is what helps us stay alive in this world. But we digressed from your story, haven't we?"

"Yes, a little… I already said the humans from this village were avoiding me as much as possible afterwards. I thought that it had to be because everyone could tell even from afar that I was a youkai. So I cut my hair shorter in order to look a little less youkai-like."

"Really? You had long hair, Yuuka-san?"

"Yes~. Falling all the way down to my waist." She gestured the approximate original length of her hair with her hands.

Kyouichi spent a moment in silent daydream as he tried to imagine a long-haired Yuuka. "It must have been a pretty sight. But I think your current hairstyle suits you perfectly."

"It's also easier to wash and dry~. And combing takes me less time too."

"And…? Did cutting your hair do the trick?"

"Not as quickly as I thought. It took a few years and dozens of visits before people stopped hiding from me. But they became accustomed eventually. As long as nobody wanted to exterminate me, I had no reason to fight. And as long as the people could understand that, they had no reason to be afraid. I don't think I'll ever share the same fondness for humans as Yukari, but at least she taught me that they're not so bad. There still are a few nice ones in the world…" she smiled as she lifted her gaze from the sushi platter to look Kyouichi in the eyes.

Kyouichi could feel his blood pressure slightly rising. "Hehe… Then you haven't looked hard enough. There are many nice people in the world. Much nicer than I perceive myself to be. Even here in Gensokyo. You'd know if you talked to them more."

"You're telling me to be more open?"

"Well, the choice is yours to make, of course, but if you want people to understand you better, you should make some effort to understanding humans too. You are a nice person, so I'm sure you'll find many friends even among the human population of Gensokyo."

"Thank you." she thanked him suddenly.

"What for?"

"For being nice. For increasing the number of my human friends by one. And for your invitation to this place."

"You know, if there's one thing I don't regret about being spirited away to this place, it would be meeting you. It's me who's happy that I've met you. It's me who should be thankful. I can't stay here, so I ask one thing of you… For your own good, Yuuka-san, please don't give up on people. You'll have no problems making as many friends as you want. Even if you'll surely meet some unpleasant types, know that there are just as many people who would never betray your trust. Try talking to them. Idle mundane talk, just like we had so often."

"I can try, but I'm not going to promise any miracles." her reply was strikingly similar to Kyouichi's when he was asked a favor by someone. "I'm a youkai after all. It is in my nature to be different from humans. As it is in human nature to fear youkai and fight against them. But who knows? Maybe you are right."

"Don't tell me you don't get along with any human in Gensokyo except me, because I won't believe you." Kyouichi let out a slightly forced chuckle.

"Hmmm." the flower youkai dove deeply into her thoughts. "Maybe there are a few." she finally acknowledged it.

"See? All you had to do was think for a moment. Haven't you ever been to Hakurei Shrine for instance?"

"Of course I have~." her tone suddenly perked up a little. "The cherry blossoms are so lovely there in spring…" she cast a daydreamy gaze into the ceiling before snapping back to reality.

"What about Reimu-san?"

"She doesn't bloom as lovely as those cherry trees." Yuuka showed a bit of her humorous side.

"Sometimes we watch the cherry blossoms together, but most of the time she's just like: "What are you doing here?" whenever I stop by. It makes me want to tease her with my presence even more~ ."

"So do you get along or not?" Kyouichi blinked quizzically.

"Yes and no. Kind of like me and Yukari long ago. Reimu says I shouldn't come to her shrine, because I scare potential visitors away. But I come anyway. She doesn't like it, but she never resorts to challenge me. Instead, she makes tea. It's a bit hard trying to convince someone to leave by serving them tea, don't you think?"

"Well, unless the tea is poisoned, it's a little hard to get the point across."

"And people have tried that one too many times in the past. I might even say I developed a decent resistance to that. Reimu's tea is not bad, but not as refined as the one they serve here."

"Have you two battled before?"

"A couple of times. I don't care about winning or losing in danmaku battles. It's just an innocent game. Reimu seems to think differently. Both of us have scored victories and suffered defeats against each other. Life in Gensokyo is much more entertaining than in Mugenkan. Even the flowers here are more interesting." again, she concluded the topic with a remark about flowers.

"You said earlier that you have flower viewings throughout the whole year, didn't you?"

"That's right. I am known around Gensokyo as the Flower Master of the Four Seasons. And every season yields different flowers. That ephemeral beauty that repeats itself in cycles… That's what I live for~ . I never get tired of watching seasons change. The spring of pink-colored sakura, the summer of yellow sunflowers, the autumn of blazing colors of the drying leaves and the winter of pure whiteness, when most flowers rest and await their awakening. There is beauty in every season."

"I like all four seasons too, but I don't wish to experience them all in Gensokyo. However, I at least want to make some nice memories of this place. Today is probably our last chance to enjoy it to the fullest, so… I'm looking forward to the harvest feast."

"Are you going to get dressed in a cute yukata too~?" she directed yet another teasing question at Kyouichi.

"Ha! If that would convince you to go there as well, I might as well do that."

"Oh, really?" Yuuka batted her eyelids as her lips shaped an amused smile.

"No, probably not." Kyouichi repaid her the teasing from earlier. "Even if it was just for fun, I'd probably get drunk at some point and then wake up in the morning to the sounds of clicking camera shutter and "Ayayaya~!"."

"Ufufufu…" the flower youkai giggled at the mental image of passed out Kyouichi in a yukata being photographed by the crow tengu. "At least you'd gain some popularity. Although I personally don't read newspapers."

"I already had some of that, thank you." the human lowered his head from embarrassment. "And being photographed in a yukata would not have as much impact as that first time…"

"That first time~?" Yuuka curiously tilted her head.

Kyouichi straightened up again and chuckled. "I'm glad that you don't read Bunbunmaru, Yuuka-san."

The two of them spent at least another hour in the tea salon even after they finished their tea and sushi. Just talking about everyday life was enjoyable enough for both of them to prolong their stay in White Sakura. Just as their knowledge about each other gradually deepened as their conversation progressed, so did Kyouichi become gradually more aware that he developed a strong liking to the youkai of seasonal flowers. Likewise, Yuuka was reliving a nostalgic memory of the time when those few humans that she could call her friends were still among the living. For someone who was usually not interested in ordinary humans, Yuuka not only enjoyed Kyouichi's company, but she also realized how talkative she could be when she had a good listener. She never really said it aloud, but on the inside a little bit of regret settled at the bottom of her heart. After so many years when she finally made another rare human friend, she knew that the said human would not stay here for long. Perhaps that was a part of the reason why she grew to like him in the first place. Just like the seasonal flowers that bloom for but a fleeting moment before withering and scattering, so was Kyouichi's time in Gensokyo running short.

* * *

"That was an enjoyable time, Kyouichi." she said as they walked out of the teahouse. The sun was slowly, but certainly nearing the western horizon. "But all things must come to an end."

"Same here, Yuuka-san… In the end, there is but one thing that I regret about meeting you."

"And that would be?"

"The fact that I have to say farewell so soon. Either way, I won't forget about you."

"I won't forget about your gift either." she showed her smile one more time.

"You mean those hibiscus seeds I found in Kourindou? Wasn't that what Yukari smuggled in for you?"

"Perhaps, but it was you who bought them to me. I'll extend my thanks to Yukari as well, when she deigns to come back. But it would be a bit impolite of me to receive a gift and not give anything in return. Something that wouldn't wither away as soon as a flower in a vase…"

"Then I have an idea." Kyouichi pulled out a memo pad from his pocket and handed it over to Yuuka. "My friend and I have started a habit of collecting autographs from various people we've met in Gensokyo. If you're ok with it, I'd really love to have your autograph."

"That's a really modest request, but if that's what you wish," she borrowed Kyouichi's pen and scribbled an elegant signature on the front page of his memo pad, "then so be it."

"Thank you, Yuuka-san."

"Live a good life, Ishimaru Kyouichi… Goodbye."

After that, Yuuka turned her back on him and directed her steps back to where she came from.

"You too…" the outsider muttered as he watched her slowly disappearing into the crowd.


	59. Harvest Feast

The rumors were not a lie. The harvest feast was a big event for the human population of Gensokyo. The attendance was no smaller than New Year's or Tanabata at the Hakurei Shrine.

But despite being an event celebrated by humans, they were still outnumbered by masses of sociable and curious youkai. And more often than not, there were human-eating youkai among them, waiting for someone they could eat. It's easy to get lost in a big crowd and highly unlikely for anyone to take notice if one or two people suddenly disappear. That's why people always had to be on their guard when attending such events. Even when the native human inhabitants inherited magic from the previous generations of youkai exterminators, and were under the protection of those who deemed themselves as the spiritual successors of those exterminators, there were still rare instances when someone was reported missing after a festival such as this one. Having that on his mind, Kyouichi headed for the farmlands, trying neither to blend into the crowds, nor to stray too far away from them. He suspected most of his friends to already be there, enjoying the feast. He just needed to find them.

That, however, proved to be much easier said than done. Once the villagers have swarmed the farmlands in hundreds, even such a vast area suddenly felt so small.

Kyouichi checked out the places where food and beverages were being served, but he couldn't find a trace of any familiar face. At this time he felt an increased longing for one of the conveniences of the outside world's technology. Back there all that he needed to do was to take a cell phone and call up whoever he was looking for so they could decide on a meeting place. But without a signal, even if he and his friends carried cell phones, he wouldn't be able to get in touch with them.

He spent at least 30 minutes walking around aimlessly, just casually observing the feast's attractions and the hordes of people and youkai shifting around in an uncoordinated fashion.

And while he had no luck finding his friends, they had luck finding him.

* * *

"Oi~! Ishimaru! This way!" the unmistakable voice of Asakura Soudai pierced the air and Kyouichi turned his face to its direction. As expected, the slightly eccentric and outgoing outsider was not alone. Midori, Sayuri, Daniel and even Hikaru-san were there, each holding a different kind of treat or drink and waving at him.

"Where have you guys been? I've been searching high and low for you."

"That's my line!" Soudai retorted. "I was starting to wonder what happened to you when I didn't find you at the gate. Especially when that slimeball Nishio was also gone by the time I brought a Ryuuken major to have a few words with him. All we found was his sword on the ground. What's left of it, anyway… What the hell happened there?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yeah, I do. I wanted to see that smug bastard humiliated publically."

"Then you should have waited here a little longer." Kyouichi grinned suspiciously.

"Will you finally tell me the reason?" Soudai asked with an impatient tone.

"The reason is about this tall, has green hair, red eyes and loves flowers."

It didn't take too long for Soudai to decipher his friend's riddle-like answer. "What? Kazami Yuuka?"

Kyouichi's silence was merely a gesture of affirmation.

"Damn… now I really regret not waiting there."

"Hey, who is this Yuuka you keep talking about?" Midori, who never met the youkai in question felt left out of the conversation.

Ignoring her question, Soudai just disbelievingly shook his head and chuckled. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but… Is Nishio still alive?"

"He is. But I think he's going to seriously consider a change of profession after today."

"I knew there was something really unsettling about that youkai."

"Unsettling? She's actually really sweet. But you were right that time with the magic detector… It was shining like that because of her."

"I should imagine. With magic that can bend steel like that…"

"Bare hands, Soudai. Bare hands. No magic."

"Okay, forget about "unsettling". She's scary!"

"Not unless you give her a reason to be."

"Guys, I hate to interrupt your conversation," said Midori, "but it seems people have started gathering over there." She pointed at the slowly growing crowd of people who were taking their seats at the long tables laden with all the "gifts" of a good harvest. "Should we go too?"

"I wonder if there's going to be any sort of program to this whole feast." said Sayuri thoughtfully.

Midori shrugged. "I'm not sure about the program, but I doubt we're going to see another danmaku tournament today. Although to be honest, I don't even know what to expect from this festival."

"I'm surprised how none of you even considered asking the locals about the festival." Hikaru Nagahashi lightly shook his head. As a man who kept notes of just about everything he's seen, heard or done in Gensokyo, it wasn't a big surprise that he'd have more insight about the harvest feast than his peers.

"Do you know something, Hikaru-san?" Midori shifted her glance to him.

"Besides gluttonous conduct and drunken revelry, this festival bares many similarities to the American holiday known as the Thanksgiving Day. However, in this case, the people offer their thanks directly to the harvest gods who are even said to manifest themselves and accept the gifts that the villagers have prepared for them."

"The gods are going to show up? Really?"

"I'm not sure whether the villagers meant it literally or figuratively, Iwakami-san, but in this wonderland, I guess we shouldn't be surprised by anything."

"I wonder how a kami could look like."

"That's easy, Midori, " Soudai spoke to her, "all you have to do is have a couple of drinks and maybe you'll see one."

"Or all 8 million of them." Kyouichi played along with the joke.

"Let's go and take a look at what's going on there." the young female outsider suggested. The other outsiders were curious as well, so they had no objections to following her.

They made the right decision to obey Midori's suggestion, as the tables were quickly running out of vacancy.

"Is all of that food for free?" Soudai didn't hesitate to ask as soon as he took his seat. All the meals on the table were taunting him and fueling his temptation to start eating.

"It's an "all you can eat" festival, young man." a stranger sitting next to him replied.

Midori wasn't sure if it was the reflection of the sun, but she would have sworn that she saw tiny stars in Soudai's eyes.

"This is the best festival I've ever experienced!" he exclaimed and reached for the nearest platter.

"Whoa, not so fast, hungry one." the same stranger halted him. "The village elder is about to give the opening speech soon. It would be rude to start eating before him."

"Damn it…" Soudai muttered disappointedly. "But if all this food is free, then I wonder what's the point of all the stalls that sell snacks, sweets and alcohol."

"That's simple. Only the food is free during the harvest feast. If you want sake or some light snacks, you'll have to buy them."

"I see. In that case, the elder better hurry up. I can already hear the orchestra playing in my stomach"

"Haven't you eaten anything today?" Kyouichi asked him.

"Only breakfast. I wanted to save some room for all the goodies this feast has to offer."

"Well, if you're that desperate, I still have two pieces of taiyaki with me."

"I'll pass. I can wait a few minutes longer. Besides, didn't you want to give those to your step-siblings?" Soudai referred to the children of the Saitou family.

"I suppose… But if I'm going to have just as much trouble finding them in this crowd as I had with finding you, I might as well eat them myself or share them with someone else."

"Shhh~!" Midori suddenly hushed them both. "The village elder is here."

Everyone turned their necks in the same direction as Midori was looking. The middle-aged man with a graying goatee and sideburns was approaching the tables, followed by his family members and escorted by a small squad of elite Ryuuken who served as his honor guards.

He made his way to the middle table where everyone could see him. His family occupied the seats by both his sides, while he was having a few words with some of the head farmers who organized the whole event. After a while of going over the fine details, Elder Fukukane took a spoon in his hand, cleared his throat and rang the spoon against an empty porcelain bowl to attract everyone's attention.

"Dear citizens of Human Village, dear guests!" he started off pompously like he was making a speech for his election campaign. "For the seventeenth year of my reign as the village elder, I have the pleasure of standing here before you during another harvest feast. As you well know, not every year has been as generous to us to hold this feast. Ever since our village has become sealed off from the outside world, we had to become completely self-sufficient, without the assistance of our supporting towns. Thus we had to develop from a simple war camp to an agricultural colony, which should still be able to survive the occasional youkai attacks. Instead, we had to rely only on our hard work, but sometimes even that was not enough when Mother Nature frowned on us. Floods, hailstorms, pests, droughts… Those were just some of the disasters that befell our fields and farms ever since the sealing of Gensokyo. But we still prevailed. With our work and with our faith, we always managed to get back up on our feet and kept the village fed for generations. It's been one and a quarter of a century now since this tradition has started and I indeed feel incredibly lucky and grateful at the same time, that I could celebrate it with you for seven consecutive years. May this trend continue for many years to come! It is therefore my obligation and pleasure to initiate the 125th harvest feast and express my gratitude to the harvest gods together with all of you!"

A wave of applause and cheers spread across the farms as the elder took a small cup filled with an unknown liquor and raised it into the air. "As one wise man said: "Eat a lot, drink a lot and be merry, for tomorrow you may die." In the same spirit, I, Fukukane Toshimi officially begin the feast! Raise your cups and mugs with me! Cheers~!"

"CHEERS~!" a thunderous reply of the massive crowd echoed back as everyone who had any alcohol-filled liquid container was now holding it over their head.

"Hey, what about us?" Soudai hastily shot his glances left and right, looking for anything he could drink from, but with no luck. "Won't we get any sake?"

"Damn… it seems everyone has some except us." the foreigner Daniel also wanted to have a toast with everyone, but lacked both the beverage and the vessel.

"Umm, mister village elder, could you please wait for us while we quickly buy ourselves something to drink?" Soudai attempted a sort of telepathic thought suggestion as he was standing up from his seat and searching his pockets for money. But as soon as he tried to straighten up, he felt someone suddenly tapping his shoulder from behind and pushing him back down.

"What's going on?" Poor Soudai was so shocked, that for a second he believed that someone from the militia was about to arrest him.

"Looks like you kids are in dire need of some liquid bread." a ragged voice unmistakably belonging to Naota Tanisake reached the ears of the group of outsiders.

Looking back over his shoulder, Soudai only confirmed the identity of the familiar voice by visual contact with its source.

Naota, still holding his palm on the young man's shoulder while holding a big bottle of sake with the second, smiled and shook the bottle in an almost hypnotic motion.

"Oh man! Naota-san to the rescue!" the same sparks as when he heard that all the food was for free reappeared in Soudai's eyes.

"Are we supposed to all drink from one bottle?" Kyouichi rolled his eyes skeptically. "Not that I have anything against the idea."

"Me neither!" Soudai declared, still not letting his mesmerized glance off the bottle swaying in Naota's hand. "I hope none of you guys mind getting an indirect kiss from me, hehe."

"No worries, children, I thought ahead." the carpenter retiree put down the bottle on the table and deftly unpacked his backpack. In a few seconds, he unloaded over a half a dozen small drinking cups in an irregular formation on the table.

"Well, don't just sit there, junior," he beckoned Soudai, "open the bottle and fill 'em up!"

"Me?" he confusedly blinked, as if he just snapped out of a daydream.

"Yeah, you. Hurry up already!"

With an adequate amount of force, Soudai managed to open the bottle and obediently poured the content into the cups.

"Bottoms up, everyone!" Naota picked up his cup without waiting for others and drank it up in a flash.

Kyouichi and others followed suit, even though they already missed the toast with the elder of Human Village and most of its inhabitants.

As soon as the liquid touched his taste buds, a strong, sharp taste spread all over his mouth and a sensation of warmth all over his stomach once he managed to swallow it.

"Hey! That's not sake!" he threw an accusing glance at Naota.

"Noticed the difference, huh?" the old man grinned impishly.

Even Soudai wasn't quite prepared for the intense taste of Naota's strong liquor, but he at least managed to flush it down his throat.

Midori nearly spat it out too, but courtesy dictated her to drink what was offered to her.

"Water… someone… please?" she was desperately shifting her glances left and right.

"Water? You haven't come to the feast to drink water, have you?" Naota was having a good laugh at everyone's reactions.

"Now, let the feasting begin!" the village elder prompted everyone to eat.

To Midori those were the words of salvation, since now she had no moral obstacles that prevented her from eating anything she saw on the table in order to mitigate the unsavory taste of alcohol in her mouth.

"Thanks for the food!" she uttered and stuffed her mouth with a slice of cherry pie that was resting directly in front of her.

And so, everyone at the tables followed suit. The whole event looked almost like an eating contest, only a little more laid-back. Those who weren't eating anything were entertaining themselves by playing various music instruments or dancing. There were even some interesting, if not slightly crazy competitions set up for anyone who'd like to try them. From fishing apples out of a barrel of water using only the mouth, through various racing disciplines like the 3-legged race or the wheelbarrow obstacle course. For those who wanted to test their strength, there was the classic arm-wrestling contest or the millstone rolling. There was even an archery contest for those with good eyes and steady aim. The inhabitants of the Human Village didn't lack creativity when they wanted to have fun.

Even youkai had fun during the feast. Especially the fairy kind. In desire to repeat everything after humans, just like little children, they applied all sorts of sneak attacks or offensive raids on the food-laden tables to grab something and eat it.

"Hey, get back here! That's mine~!" Soudai yelled out while threateningly shaking his fist at the fairy that just snatched a chicken leg right out of his hand.

"Not anymore it isn't." Kyouichi tried to maintain a serious face, but failed ultimately.

"Damn vultures!"

A few seconds later, the very same chicken leg landed right on top of Soudai's head, nearly shocking the poor outsider out of his wits. "What the fu…?!"

Apparently, the fairy who stole it preferred vegetarian lifestyle, but still wanted to try meat regardless. This time all the outsiders had to cover their mouths as they laughed at his misfortune.

"Yeah, ha-ha! Very funny!" Soudai grumbled and wiped the chicken grease off his hair with a piece of cloth. "Stupid fairies… can't even appreciate what they steal."

"At least chicken legs hurt less than their danmaku." Kyouichi spoke from his experience.

"Maybe we should move somewhere indoors."

"Aww, what's the matter? Don't you like fairies?"

"You're the last person I want to hear that from, Ishimaru! You were once so scared of the little critters that you refused to enter the rehabilitation ward in Eientei."

"Suffice to say I've become more used to them."

"You shouldn't speak of the Devil, you two." Midori cut in. "You know that the fairy incident hasn't ended yet."

"Yeah, yeah…" Kyouichi waved his palm with an annoyed expression. "It's not like saying something is going to bring it about."

"You'd best hope it applies in Gensokyo too." she said with faint hint of concern.

"Midori… Relax and eat, will ya?" Kyouichi had just about enough of hearing about problems, threats and incidents. At least today, all he wanted to do was to have a good time with his friends without worrying about anything.

* * *

The same thing, however, couldn't be said about Reimu Hakurei, whose usual laid-back demeanor and lazy attitude was now a mere facade to camouflage her inner feelings of uptightness and unease. And with that unease, she just entered the well-known antique shop on the crossroad at the edge of the Forest of Magic. Her intention: to investigate the rumors about Rinnosuke's abundant supply of dangerous explosives from the outside world.

She stepped inside without a greeting. Only the chime hanging over Kourindou's main entrance announced her arrival. The man in his shabby kimono who owned the shop lazily lifted his eyes from the book about computers that he was reading and saw the shrine maiden approaching his counter with a deadpan serious face.

"So…" he tossed in the first word, "what can I provide you with today, Reimu?"

"A word has reached me that you possess something dangerous in your shop."

"I possess many things that could be considered dangerous in the wrong hands. You'd have to be more specific."

"I think you know very well what I mean, so I'd appreciate if you stopped acting so innocently and told me the truth."

"My, my…" Rinnosuke corrected his glasses and looked Reimu in the eyes. "Word certainly travels fast around here. It's just as you probably heard. Over two years ago I received a shipment from Yakumo-san."

"What sort of shipment exactly?"

"About a dozen crates, weighing something over 15 kilograms each. Inside the crates I found blocks of clay with small electronic devices attached. I knew they served for removing obstacles since the day I received them. However, only recently I've finally understood the true nature of their purpose which was revealed to me upon first glance."

"Well, from what I've heard from a trusted source, you are in possession of an outside-world weapon." Reimu crossed her arms and gave him an intense stare, as if demanding an explanation.

Rinnosuke didn't even need to guess who she meant by "trusted source", but he had no intention of hiding the truth from her. The outsiders have most likely told her everything anyway.

"That might very well be the case. But I haven't yet got the opportunity to test it. I succeeded in modifying the triggering devices and bringing them back to life, but I'm still hesitant about making an actual test explosion." he then paused himself and nodded. "And I think I know what you've come here for… Heeding the advice of those outsiders, you want me to get rid of all my C-4 supply. Am I right?"

That was what Rinnosuke thought, but Reimu's reply surprised even this exceptionally intelligent half-youkai.

"I have a little dilemma here, to be honest." she began undecidedly. "On one hand, that explosive clay of yours could potentially speed up the excavation works in Kazemura, but on the other hand, if the explosion damaged or destroyed the spirit ward that we've put up there, then all of our efforts to solve the incident would be pushed back by a long leap."

"The Kazemura excavation…" Rinnosuke spoke in hushed voice, nearly whisper. "What better place to test explosives than the quarry pit? Unfortunately, I'm afraid that not every Kazemuran would agree to that. I heard they uncovered an ancient temple there. Using these clay bombs could devastate it and you know how fanatical the yama-bito can be when it comes to protecting the historical heritage. They don't care if it's their own or of any other civilization. They'll protect it steadfastly."

"Personally, I couldn't care less about the yama-bito or their archeological sensation. If it becomes clear that the temple needs to be leveled, not an army of them will prevent me from doing so! But according to Patchouli's studies, the temple is made to withstand even a volcano eruption."

"Hmm…" the man with glasses hummed. "That changes everything. You see, I don't really wish to hold such a quantity of dangerous materials in my shop. I'm afraid the word that the outsiders have spread about me is already going to hurt Kourindou's reputation, and with it my business. I assume the wisest thing to do would be to get rid of them, as they advised me. But before that, I'd like to test at least one. I want to see its power with my own eyes."

"And I want the vengeful spirit outbreak resolved as quickly as possible." the miko stated her desire.

"Then we may share a mutual interest. That is if you agree with the notion of testing this explosive clay in Kazemura…" Rinnosuke leaned slightly backwards, making the back of his chair let out a few squeaks and cracks.

"A single test might tell us whether it's too dangerous to use or not. But who is going to do it? You?" she lifted her eyebrows questioningly at him.

"If I had no other options, I'd do it myself. However…" he left the sentence unfinished, raising Reimu's tension.

"However?"

"However, there are some people who apparently have more knowledge about what this clay is and how it works."

"You want the outsiders to carry out the test?" Reimu nearly burst into laughter. "I never thought I'd hear such a ridiculous idea from you, Rinnosuke-san."

"If not carry out directly, then at least supervise. That should help us reduce the risk of something going wrong."

"I'm fairly sure they are not going to agree to that."

"Then we'll have to find some outsiders who will agree, or conduct the test without them. But we'll never know if we won't ask."

Reimu sighed out. "Fine… I'll try to be as convincing as possible."

"I have my full confidence in your convincing abilities, Reimu-san." the shopkeeper smiled at her cattily.

"Sheesh… another trip to the village awaits me just as soon as I leave it. All this hassle better we worth it."

After exiting the antique shop, Reimu's course wasn't plotted for the Human Village yet, as she has just returned from there with a bag full of groceries. Even though she said she wouldn't be joining the village's celebration of a good harvest, it appeared that the circumstances have made her change her mind.

* * *

"And now, dear denizens and guests of the Human Village," elder Fukukane rose from his table after he finished eating, "I would like to announce that due to exceptional success during the festival of Tanabata, we extended our request for another concert to the popular trio of poltergeist musicians! Yesterday, we've received their reply. Ladies, gentlemen, the Phantom Ensemble shall play for us all tonight!"

The elder's announcement has nearly caused a mass frenzy of cheers and shouts from all the fans of the Prismriver sisters. They were so loud, that the elder's following words were completely drowned out. All that indicated that he hasn't finished talking was the fact that his lips were still moving. But much to his dismay, nobody seemed to care.

Even Soudai's lukewarm mood, mainly caused by rude thieving fairies, suddenly got a boost when he heard about the concert.

"Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Can't wait..."

"Just try not to get wasted like during Tanabata." Midori peeled his old wound by reminding him of his not exactly pleasant experience when he drunk himself to unconsciousness. That is to say if Soudai had any memories of that in the first place. But not even Midori's snarky reminder didn't worsen his current upbeat mood.

"Don't worry," Kyouichi reassured her, "I don't see any oni around, so he should be fine tonight."

"I got a feelin'~" the elated Soudai began singing, "that tonight's gonna be a good night, that tonight's gonna be a good night, that tonight's gonna be a good, good night~!"

Kyouichi felt a strong urge to rub his palm against his forehead. "Oh, Jesus Christ…"

"Hehe, since when did you become a Christian, Ishimaru?"

"Ever since you became a pop star, Asakura."

Their mutual fun-poking at each other was suddenly interrupted by Naota, who stepped between them. "Boys, can I have a word with you for a second?"

"What is it, Naota-san?"

"So, I've taken a look at that hunter's lodge and the work you two have done on the roof…" he started calmly, but the two young outsiders were starting to feel very tense and uneasy for some reason.

"U-oh."

"I only got one question for ya."

"And that would be?" Soudai tentatively asked.

"Just what on Earth were you thinking?! What has that poor roof done to you to deserve such mistreatment?"

"W-we were merely following your guidance and doing what we could to get it finished."

"If you were my apprentices, I'd make you redo it not once, but as many times as it would take you to learn how to do it properly!" the carpenter showed them how strict he used to be before he retired from his craft.

"B-but…" Soudai opened his mouth in protest, but was silenced by another shower of unflattering words.

"I've never seen such a half-assed work even from the biggest dilettantes and carpenter anti-talents I've ever been mentoring. Even fairies could do better."

"Well, I hate to say it like this, Naota," Kyouichi could no longer remain quiet, "but seeing how we already have a way home secured, we are really not going to benefit from rebuilding the cabin. We don't need to loan anything anymore and neither do we need the cabin for any other purpose. I might as well go to the village hall and proclaim you as the new owner via a donation agreement. Surely the Ryuuken would allow you free passage through the gates at any time that way."

"That's not the point. I won't change the ownership of that cabin until you lot are long home with your families." he declared firmly.

Nobody really knew why the old outsider was so adamant about it, but neither did it matter to them.

"Then I see no problem. Once we're out of here and you inherit the cabin due to our contract, you can redo the roof with your ex-apprentices."

"I thought you'd put more care and effort into rebuilding the roof of something that could be your own house." Naota's voice trailed off as he turned his back on them and took his regular "medicine" from the bottle.

"Hah! My own house, he says." Kyouichi scoffed at the thought. "That was never the point of buying that abandoned shack. It was just supposed to look like that to the village officials in case we'd be asking for a loan. And ultimately for you to sell the renovated cabin to someone else. I'll never live in that shack and you know it."

"We can never know…" Naota wiped the sake droplets off his grey beard with his sleeve, "what the future holds in store for us."

"That almost sounds like you don't want us to succeed in returning home."

Naota's reply was a resigned sigh before he shuffled away from the group of young outsiders. When he was barely within earshot, he mumbled, as if to himself: "You're wrong…"

For a few seconds, Soudai and Kyouichi just blankly stared at each other in a loss for words until the older one of them broke the silence with nonchalance only he was possessed of.

"So, Kyou… Wanna go enter some of those crazy competitions?" he gestured towards the various attractions that the villagers were participating in.

"I'm not in the mood, Soudai." Kyouichi replied negatively. Naota was partially to blame for that.

"That sounded like an argument, ze." a voice that nobody expected, but everyone recognized sounded from behind them.

"Marisa? What are you doing here?" Kyouichi curiously eyed the witch in suspicion that she probably heard the whole verbal exchange between him, Soudai and Naota.

"Hmph! How rude." she pouted huffily. "As if I had no right to be here."

Kyouichi was quick to apologize, intending not to rub his worsened mood off on her. "I'm sorry. I just… didn't expect you here. If you're looking for Reimu, you missed her. She was here about an hour ago."

"Oh, not really~." she playfully shook her head. "I just came here to have fun with Alice and to see my dad. And then I heard some familiar voices having some serious-sounding debate…" a grin flashed across her lips.

"You heard it all, didn't you?"

"Just a part of it. Didn't know you two were carpenter apprentices." she shrugged, obviously misunderstanding the conversation she was eavesdropping on.

"Wrong. We're just doing the finishing touches on the roof of a certain cabin that the old man bought. It was meant to kill two birds with one stone by enabling Naota-san to sell a renovated building and for us to commit a loan theft."

"Ooooh, loan theft!" Marisa perked up. "I could tell you a thing or two about that, hehe."

"There's no more need for that, though." the outsider burst her bubble. "We already have all we need. But ever since the Ryuuken have introduced those strict regulations for entering and leaving the village, it's become impossible for Naota to finish the work he started. I still don't understand why he wouldn't want to claim the ownership of that building until we leave Gensokyo."

"Ha! You guys aren't the only ones who are rebuilding a house." said the blonde girl.

"You're rebuilding yours too?" Soudai tilted his head quizzically.

"I'm talking about Alice's house."

"Ah, that's right… The one that burned down." Kyouichi recalled overhearing the story, even when he never actually saw the house or the fires that destroyed it.

"Yeah. We're almost finished with it. All that needs to be done is to furnish it and Alice can live just like before. Thanks to Reimu for that."

"Reimu? How so?"

"She offered a decent sum that she received as donation money during the Tanabata festival, so Alice could rebuild her house faster."

"Reimu actually did that?" Kyouichi grimaced disbelievingly.

"I know, right? But then again, I know how adorably sweet she can be at times. Her shrine was destroyed and rebuilt twice, so she knows what it's like."

"By the way, where is Alice?" wondered the long-haired male.

"Oh, around. It's easy to get separated and lost in this crowd, but we have our secret signal, so we can find each other fairly easily." said the magician with a grin as she corrected the position of her pointy hat.

"Secret signal?"

"Yup, secret signal. Like this…" the witch produced a palm-sized hexagonal object out of her pocket and flashed it in a showy manner. "Ta-dah~!" The object, which appeared to be made out of wood, sported trigrams on each of its edges and a small round hole in the center. Before either of the two outsiders could ask what it was, Marisa put the object closely to her mouth and whispered some inaudible words into it.

"Is that a Gensokyian version of a cell phone?" Soudai inquired with a puzzled look.

"Didn't you watch my matches during Tanabata?" she replied with a question as she pointed the object towards the sky.

The two young men exchanged their glances in an attempt to recall any possible hints pointing towards the purpose of Marisa's little hexagon, but none of them managed to come with an answer before the fair-haired lass shouted: "Love Sign "Masteeeeeeeer Spaaaaaaaaark"!"

As fast as the light shot out of the mysterious six-edge box, so did both outsiders immediately remember what Marisa was referring to. A dazzling beam of all colors, blending into a white pillar, pierced the sky and created a turbulence produced by the super-heated air as it traveled upwards. The whole spectacle was accompanied by the characteristic monotone high humming sound, making the whole "spark" impossible to miss even for a blind person. The small flock of fairies that were flying overhead bolted off into all directions out of sheer fear, even when they were all gifted by natural immortality.

Even some people on the ground were shocked by Marisa's spell, but oddly enough, after double-checking what it was, they returned to their interrupted activities, as if nothing unusual happed. After several seconds when the humming was silenced and the light died out, only a thin trail of white smoke was coming out of the hole in Marisa's magical box.

She pulled it towards her mouth again, and like a cowgirl from a classic spaghetti western movie, she blew the smoke off the barrel of her weapon and promptly pocketed it with grace of a skilled juggler.

Not much more was needed to impress all the outsiders who saw her spell and to attract the attention of anyone who recognized the beam.

"T-that was your secret signal?" Kyouichi slowly fixed his glasses and closed his mouth after realizing that he left it open.

"Mhm~!" she smiled contently. "Alice couldn't have missed it."

She was right. Alice and half of Gensokyo couldn't have missed her "secret signal" and it didn't take long for Marisa to receive a reply.

"Ah, there you are! I've been looking for you. Thanks for easing up my search, Marisa." a flying young female slowly descended to the ground, however, not the one that Marisa originally meant to contact.

"Oi, Reimu~! You were looking for me? So you changed your mind after all, huh?"

"I wasn't telling that to you, but to them." Reimu corrected her friend and pointed at the outsiders.

"Pardon?" Soudai tilted his head. "You were looking for us? Is there something you forgot to tell us?"

"No, I simply bring you some news. Not sure if good news for you, but it is news regardless. But before that," she rolled her eyes towards Marisa, "I'd like to ask you: What was the meaning of that Master Spark? Did you have a duel with someone?"

"Ehehe…" the ordinary witch giggled sheepishly, "No, no, nothing like that. I was just calling for Alice. Surely she's on her way to me right now, unable to wait any longer to be embraced in my arms…"

"Are you an idiot?" a third female voice asked a question directed at the caster of the spell.

"And there she is~. Just as I predicted, ze." She spread her arms wide welcomingly at the approaching puppeteer, only to be bonked on the forehead by the tiny fist of one of her magically-controlled dolls.

"Hey~! What was that for, Shanghai?"

"If you need to ask, it only proves my point that you are an idiot." remarked Alice, recalling her remote-controlled minion to herself.

"Nobody told you to wander off on me." Marisa defended herself and her actions.

"Okay, why don't you two go confessing your love for each other somewhere private?" Reimu poked fun at both of the girls and their bickering. The outsiders weren't certain whether she meant it as a joke or a serious suggestion. "I've got business to deal with."

"Oooh, let us hear it too~." Marisa instantly changed her object of interest, like an immature little girl.

"Whatever this business is, it probably doesn't concern me." Alice assumed and she was about to walk away, when her human friend grabbed her sleeve to halt her.

"What are ya talking about? Aren't you curious at all?"

"Whatever." Reimu breathed a sigh. "Maybe it's better if you hear it too."

"See?" Marisa gave Alice a soft nudge with her elbow. "I told you this would be interesting. Okay, Reimu, let the cat out of the bag!"

Reimu took a breath and began explaining what conclusion she and Rinnosuke have come to in regard to Rinnosuke's stockpile of explosives and the stagnating situation in Kazemura.

"And therefore I ask you to do one more favor for me… for us." she corrected herself as she was winding up her monologue. "I want some of you to go to Kazemura and conduct a test of that explosive. Do this for me and you can leave Gensokyo and return to your homes."

"Hey!" Midori didn't take long to show her disagreement. She and other outsiders have gathered to the scene after getting curious about Marisa's light show. And while Kyouichi and Soudai haven't been with her the whole time, her drowsy-sounding and louder than normal voice indicated that the young girl had a bit too much alcohol for today. "That wasn't a part of our agreement, Miss Red-White!"

"I really wish people would stop calling me that." muttered the miko, folding her arms across her chest. "Look, I never said it has to be YOU, or you, or him…" she started pointing at random members of the Transfer Students' Club. "I'll just need a few volunteers. You can decide that among yourselves. Those volunteers are going to deliver the clay to Kazemura… under my escort, of course, and either conduct the test themselves or supervise it."

"And if none of us will want to be your guinea pigs?" Midori hissed the question at her, to which Reimu was already prepared in advance.

"Then you can enjoy your stay in Gensokyo until you decide on the volunteers."

"I'm not sure if they could still be called volunteers then, ze." remarked Marisa.

"Hey, Midori…" Soudai whispered at her. "Are you drunk?" She apparently was, which was ironic, considering that she was the one lecturing Soudai about not drinking too much earlier. But even in her current state, she was able to lead a conversation and think straight. Or so it seemed at first glance.

Midori certainly didn't expect Reimu to impose such demands on the outsiders and she let her anger be known.

"Did I just hear you well? Are you threatening us?"

"No. Just stating my conditions." the shrine maiden replied stoically.

In complete contrast to Reimu's cold-blooded calmness, Midori blew her top and threw herself at the girl in red and white. "Why you dirty bitch! I'll scratch your eyes out!" she screamed furiously, to everyone's fortune, before she made any actual assault, so her friends had the time to grab her by the arms and drag her away from Reimu before things could turn ugly.

Reimu instinctively reached for her gohei as well as her ofuda and assumed a battle-ready stance, but the two male outsiders were already working on pacifying their infuriated friend.

"Midori!" Soudai shouted into her ear. "Pull yourself together! Just calm down! Damn it! Kyouichi, hold her!"

"I got her!" the other outsider hurriedly immobilized Midori's right arm which she was using to repeatedly hit Soudai in order to set herself free.

"Let me go! I'm gonna kill her! Who does she think she is?!"

"Hmph? Who am I, you ask?" Reimu slowly withdrew her weapons and straightened up proudly. "I am the Hakurei shrine maiden. I am the law and order in Gensokyo. And no human, no ghost, no youkai or god is going to keep me from doing my job. Anyone who disrupts the order shall answer to me and will be dealt with swiftly and without remorse. That is who I am."

"Well, the one causing the spirit incident is still at large, you know" Marisa pointed out, but Reimu wasn't paying attention, as she continued explaining her purpose to the intoxicated girl.

"All of Gensokyo knows my name. You'd do best to remember that, my dear, and show due respect. Otherwise I might confuse you for a youkai when the two of us cross paths again." she leaned closer to Midori's face to emphasize her words. The young female outsider's only regret was that she couldn't move her hands to strangle her.

"I'll burn your shrine down while you sleep." she sieved through her gritted teeth.

"You sound like someone possessed by a vengeful spirit." Reimu calmly stated as she drew her face away. "Perhaps I should perform an exorcism on you just in case."

"Oi, oi, Reimu, that's really going too far." Even Marisa was slightly disturbed by her friend's acting.

"Just teaching her some manners." she shrugged, as if her bully-like behavior was ethically correct.

"She's obviously drunk. Can't you see that?" Kyouichi explained on behalf of Midori's defense. Then he turned at the rioting female in his grasp and asked with a voice as calm as possible: "Say, Midori… How much sake have you had?"

But he couldn't get any intelligible answer out of her.

"Seriously, Soudai, how much did she drink today?"

"What am I? Her parent? I haven't been keeping a constant watch over her. I'd think she was responsible enough not to overdo it."

"She's still underage. She shouldn't be drinking at all in the first place."

"Well, you know how teenagers feel about rules and such…" Soudai shrugged, while still holding a firm grip on Midori's left arm. "She's in a rebellious age. We've all gone through that, haven't we? Well, sometimes I feel you haven't fully overcome that stage, Ishimaru, but that's not the point right now…"

"What was that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, I don't know… A certain run from Eientei, maybe?" Soudai asked in sarcastic tone.

"Hey, at least I didn't pick a fight with anyone… I've never seen Midori mad like this before."

"You mean so wasted."

"And to think she and Akyuu are the same age..." Kyouichi scratched his head. "My brain fails to process it."

"Hey, what about Reisen?" Marisa's face brightened up with the arrival of an idea. "If she's here today, maybe you could buy some of that alcohol remedy from her just like last time."

"I think I saw a pair of rabbit ears in the crowd." Alice recalled with a distant look in her eyes. "I'll try to look around. You wait here, alright?"

"Don't worry. If we move somewhere else, I'll just give you another signal." the witch showed a thumbs up with a teethy smile, earning an exasperated sigh from her youkai friend.

"Attention magnet…" Alice muttered while leaving the scene with her floating doll.

Marisa overheard it, though and puckered her lips in a playful pout. "How rude."

"And I used the more polite version of the term." the puppeteer retorted without stopping or turning around.

"Tsh… the thanks I get for letting her live in my house. Unbelievable." Marisa grumbled when Alice was already gone.

By now, Midori resigned on her struggling and just calmly rested, supported by her two friends, with her head dizzily dangling on her neck.

"I think she tired herself out." Soudai estimated by waving his palm in front of her eyes.

"Oi, Midori…" Kyouichi tried communicating with her. "Are you calm now? Okay… I'm going to let go of you… slowly. Three, two, one…" and true to his word, he released the grip on her arm as he counted down to zero. Soudai was more hesitant, but after registering no violent attempts from Midori for several seconds, even he slowly set her arm free.

Midori stood there in silence for a while, her figure swaying slightly back and forth before she started falling backwards. Luckily for her, her friends didn't let down their guard and caught her just in time before she came to harm.

"Gotcha!"

"Let's make her sit down." Kyouichi suggested and with Soudai's help, they seated the young high school student on the grassy ground.

"She reminds me a bit of my first meeting with Suika." Marisa reminisced as she watched the drunken girl trying her best not to pass out.

"We're sorry for this trouble, Reimu." Kyouichi began apologizing in Midori's stead. "And I'm sure Midori would be as well… if she was sober."

"She'll get her chance to apologize." said the shrine maiden haughtily.

"But I also have to say that I partially agree with her." the outsider added after a pause "I honestly didn't expect you to demand something like that from us. Don't you understand the danger you're putting everyone involved into?"

"And don't you understand the danger EVERYONE is being put into with each day this incident remains unresolved? It's much greater than if all of Rinnosuke's clay exploded in the middle of this village." Her reply certainly had its point, but Kyouichi wasn't willing to undergo something so dangerous without an argument.

"Look, I promised we'd pay you for taking us out of Gensokyo safely; not that I'd be tinkering with a deadly device just so you could get your incident resolved by a few days sooner."

"And I'm giving you a choice. Lend us a hand, or don't."

"No, Reimu. What you're doing is not really giving us a choice. It's an ultimatum. I'm not sure if a return trip to Tokyo is worth the risk of losing my life."

The black-haired girl crossed her arms and let out a sigh. "Fine. Rinnosuke wanted me to convince you somehow… so I tried."

"So that's how it was." Soudai nodded understandingly.

"Even money becomes insignificant when we're facing a large-scale problem such as this." Reimu continued. "We can help each other out. We're going to test the explosives with or without you. But your assistance would help us a great deal."

Kyouichi took a long pause before choosing his reply. This wasn't just about him. Every outsider could decide to offer his or her help for Reimu's cause, but there weren't any volunteers raising their hands and standing in line to risk their lives for it. And as much as he didn't want to end up as a bloody smear on the ground after an accidental premature detonation, he didn't wish the same fate to Reimu or anyone else.

"If it's just for supervision…" he spoke up slowly.

"Even that will be fine!" Reimu immediately responded.

"Then I'll volunteer myself."

"Great~! Anyone else?"

"Think you'll take all the glory for yourself? Not on my watch!" Soudai stepped forward. "I'll go too… But just to supervise! You hear me?"

"Don't worry. We're going to apply magical counter-measures that will maximize the safety and minimize the risks." the shrine maiden reassured them.

"Hold it right there!" Kyouichi showed a palm in front of her. "If you can make magical countermeasures, why don't you just use magic to blow up that rocky layer around the temple?"

"That's the problem. The rock, the temple encased in it… It dampens magic. Mostly divine power, but also magic. That's why the yama-bito haven't breached it yet. Physical force is the most effective choice, but it's going to take those youkai long before they clear the way. That clay could help us. Kazemura isn't in the most suitable area for casting magic, but at least we can muster some basic spells to provide safety from the explosion."

"Just tell us when are you planning to conduct the test?" Soudai asked.

"As soon as possible. How about tomorrow?"

"Are you kidding? We'll just be recovering from our hangover after we end up like Midorin~!"

"Did someone say hangover?" a rustle in the grass foretold the arrival of another person to the scene. It was Reisen, the Moon rabbit from Eientei, tagging along Alice who called her there.

"Oh, hello, Reisen-san." Soudai sheepishly grinned at the familiar lunar youkai as he waved his palm with equal bashfulness.

"Well, if it isn't our pair of fugitives." the rabbit remarked satirically. She didn't even give them a proper greeting when she rolled her eyes downward to take a look at the "patient" in need of help.

"Hey, I remember this girl."

"Yeah, that's our friend, Midori. She got a little out of control…"

"Well, last time it was she who was helping you stand during Tanabata if I recall." Reisen pointed out as she knelt down to give Midori a quick check-up of vital signs.

Soudai was quick to come up with a witty and yet truthful reply: "Hehe… I remember no such thing. And what I don't remember didn't happen."

Reisen ignored his answer, as she was focused on examining Midori. She looked alright, but her glance was all distorted and her breath alone was strong enough to make another person drunk from inhaling it.

"Whoa, Midori-san…" Reisen turned her face away as she took a whiff of the intense sake smell leaking out of Midori's mouth. "Accepting challenges from the oni is never a good idea unless you are one of them." she then took a small packet filled with a powdery content out of her pocket and ripped it open. "Can anyone bring me a glass of any non-alcoholic beverage, please?"

"I'll get some for you." Soudai trotted off as soon as he said that, returning in a moment with a cup full of water. "I hope fresh water is good enough."

"Of course it is. Thank you." the Moon rabbit accepted the cup and spilled the powder from her bag into the water. She then covered the cup's top with her palm and shook it well so the powder remedy would dissolve faster.

"Here, Midori-san… Drink it all up, nice and slowly."

The young human girl didn't react to the presence of the cup in front of her nose, so Reisen had to assist her, spilling some of the mixture over Midori's clothes.

"Like feeding an oversized baby." Soudai tried to hold back a chuckle.

"You were no different when I was making you drink that stuff at Reimu's shrine." Kyouichi replied.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Of course not…"

"The remedy takes a few minutes to take effect, so you should stay with her and keep an eye on her." the rabbit nurse from Eientei advised them. "However, this time it's not going to be for free."

"Sure, how much do we owe you?" Soudai asked her.

"Five hundred."

"No problemo…" he showed an "ok" gesture while he searched Midori's pockets with his free hand. "No... Not here… No cash here either…"

"What… the heck… are you doing?" Kyouichi arched his eyebrows at his friend's rather improper actions.

"Looking for money to pay Reisen for the remedy, of course." Soudai replied nonchalantly.

"Don't you have any money on you?"

"I do, but I'm not the one who drank the remedy, am I?"

"Soudai… stop touching her everywhere. She'll kill you when she comes to her senses!"

"Hmph…" Soudai resignedly shook his head and left the poor girl alone. "Fine…" he dug out a 500 Yen note out of his own pocket and reluctantly handed it to Reisen. "But she better pay up when she gets better."

Reisen took the payment for the medication and dusted her palms off. "I'll be somewhere around the village during the whole festival if anyone else needed to buy some medicine." She took a step forward, as if she was about to leave, but stopped to say one last warning: "Oh, and… don't overdo it with alcohol. Just because your friend did, doesn't mean you should compete with her… Take care."

"Thank you Reisen-san~!" Kyouichi waved his palm at the leaving Moon rabbit.

With the situation under control, Reimu once again cut the silence with the sound of her clearing her throat. "Getting back on topic, we still haven't decided when to conduct the test. If tomorrow is not a good time, then the day after tomorrow should be alright. Meet me in Kourindou at noon to pick up the clay and head out to Kazemura."

"Wait, wait, wait… Hold it, Reimu." Kyouichi tried to halt her, but the shrine maiden was currently in a "broadcast only" mode. "And don't forget to pack your bento. The road is a long one."

"I just want to know why do WE have to carry the explosives to Kazemura? I thought you just wanted us to supervise the test."

"Because, there's apparently more of that stuff than I alone can carry." she replied. "In fact, more than both me and Marisa can carry."

"More than I can carry? There's no amount big enough that I couldn't stea… errr.. carry." Marisa's tongue slipped.

"But why take everything with us when we're just doing a test of a single charge?" Kyouichi questioned her idea.

"Because, if the test is successful, we can put the rest of the clay to immediate use in the quarry without having to fly back to Kourindou."

"Are we supposed to bring a cart with us?" Soudai asked flusteredly.

"If you have a cart, then by all means, use it.

"Well…" Kyouichi spoke again after a moment, "At first it seemed like Reimu was asking for volunteers, but given our current employment and the situation with the village gates, I think we're the only ones who can."

"What about Dan-san?" Soudai recalled the foreign member of the Transfer Students' Club, who also worked in agriculture sector and could therefore pass through the gates of Human Village without problems.

"Oh, yeah, Daniel. Almost forgot about him. Dan! Come over here for a second!" Kyouichi called at him.

The young man with fair hair hesitantly stepped forth. One could easily tell he wasn't quite willing to undertake the dangerous trip to the distant village. Let alone with a cart full of explosives. "A-aren't two volunteers enough for this task?" he asked sheepishly.

"Hmm… maybe they are." Reimu acknowledged after a moment of thought. "The hand cart solves our need for more than two people."

"Oh, thank God…" Daniel exhaled with relief. "You two can handle that just fine, right?"

As much enthusiasm as Soudai showed when he agreed to help Reimu, he was now having some serious second thoughts about the whole idea when he heard that the miko wants to take all of Rinnosuke's stockpile of explosives.

"Seriously… If I had known that you'd ask us to drag all of those C-4s to Kazemura, I would surely react just as Dan now."

"Why don't you switch places?" Reimu suggested teasingly.

"I don't want to die yet~!"

"But we're the only ones with permission to leave the village." his younger friend reminded him.

"Dan doesn't seem too enthusiastic about it and I can't say I blame him now."

"Hmm…" Kyouichi rubbed his chin as he brainstormed for any alternate solutions. "Yuujin works with a caravan… Technically… he could…"

"Why, of course~!" Soudai wiped away his pessimistic expression in an instant. "He also has the permission to leave. And even travels to Kazemura regularly. And he's a jerk…"

Luckily for, him, Yuujin Ueda wasn't there among the outsiders to hear Soudai's words.

"Let's have Yuujin make the delivery." he showed his fondness for the idea with a sly, almost scary-looking grin.

"…let's." Kyouichi also agreed after a moment of silence.

"Ok, so where is this Yuujin person?" Reimu cast her glance in the direction of the gathered outsiders, but received no reaction from them.

"Apparently, not here." Kyouichi summed up after double-checking the faces of the gathered people. "I'm not really in the mood for looking for him, thank you."

"Then unless you find him and convince him, our agreement remains unchanged."

If Kyouichi had the willpower to look for someone he never got along with only to brew up another argument, he would probably start searching for him by now. But his feet remained firm on the ground like they were nailed down. Soudai wasn't hurrying anywhere either.

"I guess your passivity means you agree with me, yes?" Reimu asked without waiting for an answer. "Good. Saves me the trouble of explaining everything all over again to a stranger. Now that that's taken care of, I can finally go home and start making dinner."

"Why won't you stay here and join our fun, ze?" her blonde-haired friend curiously tilted her head.

"Because I don't feel like celebrating. Besides, news from Kazemura can come at any moment. I need to be available at the shrine in case of an emergency."

"Don't feel like celebrating? But hey, if it hadn't been for the good harvest, you'd be starving through the winter." Marisa countered.

"And if we underestimate the situation, we might not even have anywhere to live before winter comes. I don't want to end up like Alice, with my shrine burnt down when I wasn't home."

"My house was burnt down even when all three of us were there. I don't think your over-vigilance will make much difference when the swarms come swooping down on us again." Alice made a valid point with a stoic calmness in her facial expression.

"And you seem to be overly carefree about it. Do you want all that money I assisted you with to go to waste?"

"Look, Reimu." Alice let out an annoyed sigh. "I appreciate the gift and can't thank you enough, but… I'm going to live my life as I see fit. And seeing how you've been acting lately, I suggest you should ease up too. I bet even the girls working in Kazemura aren't as uptight as you are. If the expedition team needs to find you, they will."

"Yeah, Reimu." Soudai joined the conversation, siding with Alice. "We just signed up for a potentially deadly mission just because we care. And yet you can't do anything for us in return? How about this idea? If you can stay and have fun with us during this feast, then and only then we'll go to Kazemura with you."

"I guess you really do want to spend the rest of your lives in Gensokyo." the shrine maiden returned to her previous intimidating tactic.

"Reimu…" Marisa put her hand on the brunette's shoulder. "You were the one who wanted to get the outsiders home before moving on to solving the vengeful spirit outbreak, if I recall. Be reasonable."

Seeing as even her own friends have teamed up to convince her to stay, Reimu became frustrated. If this was a normal day without an unresolved incident still hanging in the air, she would have no objections joining the festivities, drinking cupfuls of sake and partying until tiredness takes her. But now, even the slightest thought of easing up and letting her guard down brought searing discomfort to her already troubled mind.

"Don't they realize that in these troubling times, it is necessary to be in constant alert?" she thought to herself as she silently clenched her right fist in anger. She swung her gohei in a dangerously-looking motion, stopping just inches away from Kyouichi's nose, who flinched out of shock. "This conversation is over! Goodbye." She announced her departure in an aggravated fashion and took her feet off the ground. Marisa's and Alice's calls after her did nothing to stop her from returning home to her shrine.

"W-what did I do?" Kyouichi still didn't understand why Reimu specifically chose him when she swung her gohei, even when the miko was already long out of sight.

"You were just unfortunate enough to stand right in front of her." Marisa gave him a terse explanation.

That's when Kyouichi felt a light tug on his hakama. As he lowered his head, he witnessed as Midori was trying to stand up, using his leg for support.

"You alright?" he asked her, even when he wasn't sure if all of her senses have returned to her.

"I feel dizzy…" she murmured a barely audible reply.

"You don't say." Soudai scoffed sarcastically.

"I must have drunk too much…"

"I see you're recovering your scattered wits." he reached for her hand and helped her stand up. "Today you'll be drinking just tea, understand?"

Both of her friends helped her walk to one of the provisory benches that were surrounding every table, but they haven't even made two steps when someone from the crowd crossed their path.

"I see… You're the source of that Master Spark, as I suspected." The woman with slivery-bluish hair peeked at Marisa over Soudai's shoulder.

"Oh, crap. The last person we needed to meet right now." Kyouichi whispered to his friend.

"Oh, hello, Keine-sensei…" the older outsider sheepishly greeted the village's teacher.

"Does the half-beast have any business with me?" Marisa curiously eyed her.

Not minding the witch's rather rude demeanor, Keine simply wanted to know what was going on. "I have business with anything that disturbs the village's peace. And your little magic show has caused quite a ruckus, I must say."

Marisa shrugged, as if casting Master Sparks was a part of her everyday routine, which probably wasn't too far from the truth. "I was just calling for Alice, that's all. I didn't ask half the village to gather around me, ze."

And while Keine's attention was mostly focused on Marisa, the outsiders attempted to make a smooth and quiet getaway, but the sound of Keine clearing her throat has stopped them dead in their tracks.

"And where are you lot off to?"

"Um, ehh, just going to take a seat." Soudai tried to keep calm, but the summer heat in combination with his nervousness has made his forehead perspire more than usual.

Both he and Kyouichi were trying to inconspicuously support Midori and prevent her from losing her balance. Letting their teacher find out that Midori got herself smashed was the last thing they wanted, but so little could be done when Keine's probing eyes scanned the trio of outsiders suspiciously.

"Well, how is your day, "transfer students"?" she asked them with a tiny hint of derision in her voice.

"Uh, perfect!" Kyouichi took over the talking part. "Great! Fantastic… Couldn't be better." if his nose would grow each time he told a lie, it'd probably be poking into Keine's face by now.

"My…" Keine smiled warmly, "you seem to be so close to each other. You must be really good friends with Midori-chan…"

The fact that they were standing too close to each other couldn't be denied, but at least they'd hope Keine wouldn't notice that one of the best students in her class is barely able to stand.

"Sure we are. Hahaha…" Soudai forced a chuckle in hope of looking natural.

"You seem oddly quiet today, Midori." the half-youkai was dangerously getting closer to revealing her intoxication. The fact that Midori's head was basically hanging on her neck and looking down was only further arousing Keine's curiosity.

And in a last hopeless and desperate attempt to camouflage it, Kyouichi used a sleight of hand to lightly pull Midori's head upwards and tried to imitate her voice: "I'm sorry, Keine-sensei, I'm just a little tired today…"

Soudai tired his best to resist bursting into laugher over his friend's pathetic attempt.

"Man… You suck at ventriloquism."

Keine tilted her head to the side with a poker-face expression and hit the nail on the head with her question: "Is she drunk?"

"Uhh… yeah." Kyouichi knew that it was no use trying to deny it now.

"Oh, my, shouldn't we take her to the village clinic?"

"No, we already met Reisen-san from Eientei. She gave her some remedy; we just need to wait for it to take effect."

"And I was hoping she'd be setting an example for you two…" Keine let out a sigh of disappointment. "Just because today is a festive day doesn't mean you have to drink till you drop."

"We don't even know when she drank so much." Soudai gesticulated with one hand, while supporting the girl with another. "She just showed up, curious about Marisa's "signal". She looked alright, but then it all came down on her suddenly. She almost started a fight with a shrine maiden too."

"The shrine maiden is here?" wondered Keine as she looked around.

"Nope." Marisa replied negatively. "She took off pretty pissed. She acts all cool and strong, but somehow I think she desperately needs help."

"She just wants to be left alone." Alice shrugged. "I can understand that."

"I know she does. I just think that she doesn't really know what's good for her." said the ordinary magician.

"Now, now, Iwakami-san." Keine wagged her index finger patronizingly. "It's not nice to pick fights with a shrine maiden, you know… And being drunk is not an excuse. Make sure you apologize properly, okay?" she finished her mild scolding with a smile.

Midori finally managed to return the gaze and weakly nodded her head. "I... I'm sorry, I… I feel terrible."

"Let's help her get to that bench already." Kyouichi took the initiative and with slow steps he and Soudai carried her to the nearest bench and carefully seated her.

"Don't worry; in 15 minutes you'll never know you even drank anything today." Soudai reassured her, talking from his own experience after ingesting the same remedy almost two months ago.

"You're lucky to meet Reisen-san today in such a crowd. Not to mention that she doesn't appear in the village very often." the teacher pointed out a little fact about the mysterious Moon rabbit.

"That was Alice who found her, so… yeah… Thanks, Alice." Kyouichi belatedly expressed his gratitude for Alice's assistance in need.

"Don't mention it." she waved her palm dismissively, as if she couldn't care less about their gratitude. "Come on, Marisa." she beckoned her friend, "I'm not letting you wander off again. You'll just do something stupid as usual."

"Ahh~! Alice-chan! I'll stay with you forev…. ugh!" Marisa tried to cuddle to her, but was pushed back by the puppeteer's pale palm.

"That doesn't mean you can invade my personal space, though."

"So cold… Hey, hey, Kyouichi!" the witch suddenly called the outsider.

"Hm?"

"What did you say a person acting hostile on the outside and being all lovey-dovey on the inside was called again?"

"A tsundere…?"

"Ah, that's right." she nodded affirmatively. "You're such a tsundere, Alice!"

"Whatever. Let's go. See you around." Alice bid everyone else goodbye.

"Yeah. Bye, ze!" Marisa followed suit and waved her hand before she and her youkai friend got lost in the shifting masses.

Keine gazed quizzically at the departing duo of magic-users and asked herself: "Was that a pun?" By which she meant a pun on the Chinese name of her youkai species.

Pun or not, Marisa and Alice were gone and so, Keine's attention reverted back to the outsiders.

"Mind if I sit down here with you for a while?"

"Not at all." Answered Soudai and slid a bit aside to make room for her. But his friend had different thoughts.

"Actually, yes." Kyouichi had enough of unpleasant conversations for today and he didn't even care if he was expressing his desire for Keine's departure with blunt rudeness.

"Hey, that was unexpectedly untactful of you." the teacher of history frowned and sat down on the bench anyway. "Did I do something wrong to you?"

A sigh of utter tiredness left Kyouichi's mouth as he slowly shook his head while looking at the ground. "No… I just don't want to talk with anyone."

"What's the matter?" Soudai teasingly prodded his shoulder, to which Kyouichi didn't even react. "Did Reimu's "everyone, leave me the hell alone" mood rub off on you too?"

"Probably…"

"Hey, maybe you just need a drink."

"Don't… even… mention… drinks… ungh." Midori begged him as the medicine in her system was fighting against the residual ethanol.

"Ah, right. Sorry there, Midori." Soudai promptly apologized. "

"I've been meaning to ask you what your problem was." the were-hakutaku got straight to the point.

"What problem? Whose problem?" Soudai offered her a clueless stare.

"Yours and Ishimaru-san's. You used to do better in your studies, but at some point, it's as if somebody swapped bodies with you. Of course, you're still the same people, but… your grades are below the class average and I simply don't believe that there isn't some sort of problem in your lives that caused it…"

Both of the boys stayed silent, not willing to admit anything, even when Keine was not an easy person to fool. They both knew why they weren't taking their studies seriously for some time, but if they told Keine the truth, it could put their plans of leaving Gensokyo into jeopardy.

"If you can find it in you to tell me what's preventing you from getting better results," she continued, "perhaps I can aid you with your problem. But if you stay quiet, you'll be left to deal with everything by yourselves and nobody will be able to help you…. It's not a shame to ask for help sometimes."

"We don't need help." Kyouichi insisted stubbornly.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, we're sure. Now please leave."

Keine nodded and stood up. "As you wish." she said without even hinting that she was in any way offended and marched away from them.

Soudai has never seen Kyouichi speak his mind like that in front of their teacher, so despite being quite talkative, he suddenly had a problem to word his thoughts. But on the other hand, he had understanding for his reaction. Nobody could predict what outcome it could have to tell Keine about their planned escape from Human Village. While she knew about the purpose of their club – collecting the village's lore about the youkai of boundaries, the current plan of the Transfer Students' Club was, for all intents and purposes, kept a secret from her.

Soudai finally broke the awkwardness with his heavy sigh: "And this day started off seemingly so well…"

"Couldn't agree more." Kyouichi grumbled quietly as he stared into nowhere. The day started off really well. Everyone was looking forward to this evening, but now the three young people from beyond the boundary just sat there at a half-empty table without a mood to do anything. Even Kyouichi's pleasant afternoon spent with the lovely nature youkai seemed like it took place a year ago. Where did it all take such a wrong turn? After some inner reflection, Kyouichi let out a weak chuckle that sounded more pained than joyful.

"Maybe you were right, Soudai."

"About what?"

"Maybe I could use a drink right now."

"Nooooo~!" Midori begged them with a tired monotonous moan.

"Don't worry; not for you." Kyouichi reassuringly patted the poor girl's back. Luckily for him, someone left a half-empty tankard at the table filled with what looked and smelled like wine. He didn't care who it belonged to, he took it without asking and finished off its content to the last drop.

Soudai tapped his shoulder to get his attention. "Kyou… What the hell?"

"It was just standing there; taunting me." Kyouichi shrugged innocently, earning an amused laughter from his friend.

"I can see that… Just wanted to tell you that you don't want to be sitting here when the owner of that beverage returns and starts asking questions."

"And where should we go?" the long-haired young man asked a rhetorical question. Before Soudai could even begin to think about a reply, a sudden wave of applause took the trio of outsiders by surprise. Cheers and shouts could be heard from afar, piquing their curiosity.

"What's going on over there?" Soudai looked at his two friends, as if he was hoping they'd know the answer. But instead of either of them, the reply to his question came from the very epicenter of the cheering crowds.

A powerful sound thundered across the crop fields, comparable to the sound of organ amplified by a multitude of high-performance concert speakers. It played a short set of chords that resonated loudly enough to be heard even from the Hakurei Shrine. Kyouichi could feel his stomach tingle as the sound waves overwhelmed him. And after that, an equally impressive, but rather mellow sound of violin followed the previous instrument, creating a beautiful, enchanting and a bit melancholic melody.

"It's started!" Soudai finally understood. "The Prismriver Ensemble has started their concert!"

"So… magnificent…" Kyouichi whispered in awe, his words drowned out in the melody. And when the sound of a trumpet filled the air, it was no doubt a signal that the three famous poltergeists began their performance.

"Come on, man! I don't want to miss this!" Soudai pulled Kyouichi by the sleeve.

He would follow him without hesitation, if it hadn't been for Midori, who still looked like she didn't completely overcome her drowsiness.

"Are you feeling better, Midori?" he leaned closer to her face. "Do you want to come with us to see the performance?"

She slowly raised her right hand and waved it in a gesture that signified agreement. "I… I'll stay here for just a moment. You… can go on without me."

"Are you sure?" Soudai raised his eyebrow in slight doubt.

"Yeah…" she nodded while holding her stomach. "I'll catch up with you… in a minute."

"If you say so…" the oldest of the three shrugged and reluctantly stepped back from her. "We probably won't be able to wrestle our way to the front rows, so when you get better, you can find us somewhere around the outer section of the crowd."

"Okay." Midori gave an affirmative nod, signaling her friends that it's alright if they go now.

* * *

After one last silent exchange of glances, the two males left her alone. She felt really miserable and her nausea was lifting only slowly. But her mood was not at the freezing point just because of the alcohol. She had a memory blackout, but she could still recall bits and pieces of the events that took place before Reisen's medicine somewhat brought her back to her senses. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to fully recall what happened, but while she was indulged in her thoughts, she heard a set of footsteps approaching the table she was sitting at. But she couldn't be bothered to turn around and see who it was. As the steps rustled in the grass louder, a pair of female voices brought a part of their conversation to her ears.

"…and it's bigger than last year's, isn't it?"

"We've already did what we came here for, sis. People are only grateful for a while before they forget." the slightly lower-pitched voice replied.

"But it's nice to be at the village once in a while. And this celebration takes place only once a year. Sometimes it doesn't take place at all…"

"Depending on your generosity, yes. Besides, doesn't the harvest usually come AFTER the changing of leaves?"

"Perhaps it does, but exceptions aren't unheard of. I provide only as much as people deserve… Oh, look, a vacant bench. Let's take a break here for a while."

"Oh?" the other voice sounded surprised by something. "I sense depression and melancholy. And I'm fairly sure it's not just me."

Midori felt as someone sat on the same bench, but she still didn't bother to turn her head. At least not until she was directly addressed.

"Young miss, pardon my rudeness, but has something happened to you?"

Slowly, Midori turned her neck to the side and sighted two short-haired blonde girls, probably around her age, sitting on the same bench. They looked alike if it hasn't been for their clothes. Judging from their conversation that she inadvertently overheard, the two were sisters. One of them was clad in a poofy-sleeved yellow blouse, complemented by a dark dress reaching about halfway up her chest, held in place by black shoulder straps. She also wore a pinkish apron with wheat patterns over her dress and her head was partially covered by a bright-red hat adorned by a cluster of blue grapes. For a moment, Midori wondered if they were real or manmade decoration, but what attracted her attention even more was the fact that the said girl had no footwear. No boots, shoes, sandals or even socks.

"Hello~! I'm talking to you." the other girl spoke up again louder, to make sure Midori paid attention to her.

Like her presumed sibling, her hair color and stature was nigh-identical. The only distinguishable differences were her yellow eyes as opposed to her sister's red eyes and her apparel. A bright-red dress, gradually flowing from her dark-red top and sleeves to her brighter-red center and orange bottom, which ended with leaf-shaped cut-outs. Her hair sported a red leaf-shaped decoration, and unlike her sibling, she wore white socks and black shoes. She was the one who spoke to Midori, but the female outsider wasn't much in a mood for conversation with a pair of strangers in weird dresses.

"That's not your business." she murmured grumpily. Although she wondered if her terrible mood was that obvious if a complete stranger took notice at first glance.

"It isn't… But I find it unusual for people to be depressed in this season and during a festive event, no less."

"Look, I don't know who you are, but if you know how I feel, then you should know that I'd prefer to be left alone."

"Depressed people are the most likely targets of youkai, you should know that."

"Well, would you look at that, Shizuha," the barefooted girl spoke to her sibling, "it seems there are still some people who don't recognize us."

"Hmph… Am I supposed to know everyone from the village?"

"Oh, but we aren't from the village, young lady." the one called Shizuha corrected her, showing the faintest smile Midori has ever seen.

"D-don't tell me that you're youkai…" the girl from the outside world slightly backed away from the two blonde sisters.

"Oh, no, don't worry. We're not… Seems I'm not that known even as one of the harvest gods…" said the other girl, seemingly addressing the words to herself.

"What the…?" Midori wasn't sure if the alcohol remedy really washed away her intoxication when she heard that. "Harvest… gods?"

"Yes~!" the girl with grapes on her hat chimed cheerfully and bowed in a courteous manner. "Minoriko…"

Her sister, whose name was already known, followed suit: "Shizuha." she spoke in her quiet voice that was nearly drowned out in the music of the Prismriver concert.

"We're the Aki sisters." Minoriko completed the information and smiled sweetly.

"Aki?"

"Yes. We control the season of autumn. Actually, only I am the harvest goddess. Older sis here paints the leaves and makes them fall. We love humans, but not in the gastronomical sense."

Midori could still hardly believe that she was actually talking with two deities, but if they really weren't, what reason would these two girls have to spread lies?

"I never… thought I'd see a real god."

"What are you talking about? Gensokyo is full of gods, just as it is full of youkai."

"Well, I guess I shouldn't be so surprised… ugh… sorry. Feeling a bit sick."

Even a simple look at the outsider could tell everyone that she wasn't exactly in her prime, and Shizuha especially felt the girl's negative thoughts coursing through her mind, enshrouding her with an aura of self-blame and regret.

"I know…" Shizuha walked up a little closer to her and nodded to herself understandingly.

Minoriko stood up and joined her sister's side as they took up Midori's view. "Hey, cheer up, okay?"

Midori sighed hopelessly. "I wish it was that easy… I've... I've done something really stupid today."

"All humans do such things every once in a while." the younger goddess said to comfort her troubled heart.

"But I don't know what to do now!" she lamented over her regrettable actions. She shook her head self-critically, avoiding direct eye contact with the two autumn goddesses. That's when she noticed another strange thing about Minoriko.

"Hey… wait a minute…"

"Yes?" Minoriko tilted her head quizzically.

"What's with your feet?"

"Oh, my feet? Never mind about those~!" the cheerful harvest goddess giggled while stretching and flexing her toes. The unusual thing about Minoriko wasn't obvious at first glance, but now, Midori clearly saw that the goddess of abundant harvests walked on two left feet.

"For now, just letting your troubles out is enough to get you started."

"But… we just met… and I barely know you."

"Sometimes, sharing your troubles with a stranger can bring you more emotional relief than you'd think." Shizuha opposed.

Midori hesitated, but when the two divine sisters wouldn't let their eyes off her, she conceded.

"Alright…" she breathed out resignedly. "I… I think I argued with someone…. I can't really remember it well, but… I think it was pretty bad."

The two goddesses exchanged their glances for a second, looking a little baffled, before Minoriko spoke to the girl.

"And… that's all?" she showed a sheepish grin.

"What do you mean, "that's all"?!" the outsider raised her voice, but covered her mouth immediately afterwards after she realized that she was just about to repeat the same mistake. "I… I'm sorry…"

"It's alright, young human girl." the harvest deity comforted her by placing her palm on her head.

"Midori."

"Pardon?"

"My name… It's Iwakami Midori… I'm sorry. I'm so rude I even forgot to introduce myself."

"Well, Midori…" Shizuha took the word, "It is a problem, but… one that can be easily resolved."

"Indeed." her younger sister continued, "All you have to do is to think of a good way to apologize and make up for it somehow."

"As if it was so easy."

"And isn't it? Just go see that person and say that you're sorry. An honest apology can work wonders. And if you bring some little present along, it's only going to increase your chances."

"There… may be more than one person who I caused trouble to." Midori added after a hesitant pause. "I just don't remember it… I don't even remember if I ever got drunk as badly as today."

"Oh, drunken revelry. That's more of your specialization, sis." Shizuha teasingly smirked at her younger sibling.

"I think you're confusing me with some other goddess, Shizuha. In any case, I'd first try apologizing to your friends, as they are the most likely to forgive you, and ask them about the details of what happened. That way you'll know who else you should apologize to. Now all it takes is your own will and courage."

"But… I'm… I'm worried that they'll hate me."

"It is your decision, Iwakami Midori." the goddess of turning leaves explained the options she had. "You can either leave things as they are, and leave everyone convinced that you don't care about them, or you can show some dignity and right your own wrongs. Take your time to think about it… And don't say I didn't warn you about those youkai. They can feel your sorrow just as much as I can, and to them, nothing smells tastier than a depressed human outside of village's walls."

"Well, maybe except an outsider." the younger goddess added after a second of thought.

Those words were enough to make Midori realize the potential danger that she was in, and served as a spur to motivate her into action. Her nausea was nearly all gone thanks to the medicine she took; now all that was left for her to do was to get some plasters for the wounds on her soul. And only she could bring herself to ease… by looking for her friends and starting to apologize.

"I… I think I get it quite clearly now." she slowly stood up from the bench and took a deep breath of the refreshing evening air into her lungs. "Thank you for talking to me… and for listening to me."

"No problem, Midori-san." smiled the easy-going Minoriko. "We wish you good luck."

"Once again, thank you, Aki sisters! If all goes well, I promise I'll visit shrines more often!" she bowed to them as she was about to leave.

"Do your best now!"

"Strange girl…" Shizuha muttered as she watched the young human trot away towards the thickest concentration of people, viewing the performance. "Does she even know we don't have any shrine?"

"What does it matter?" Minoriko asked, looking in the same direction as her sister. "Faith is what matters. Without it, a shrine is but a building."

"Hmm… True." Shizuha hummed and nodded her head. "Out of all 8 million gods, only about 100 000 of them have a shrine, and yet they don't complain."

"People love us and we love them in return. A faith in a god is a system of give and take. The ever-looping cycle of reciprocity…"

"You don't need to tell me that, you know."

"You're right." Minoriko laughed. "You're my older sister, so you surely know more than I do. Now, how about we take a look at those phantom musicians while we're here?"

Shizuha shrugged. "A bit too loud for my tastes, but… very well."

The two goddesses of autumn have joined the crowd of spectators shortly afterwards…

And so, the grand harvest feast was nearing its end. Midori managed to find her friends and apologized to them. She didn't even expect them to accept her apology, but she was joyous when they did. Even when this day was full of mood swings for all the outsiders, it ended on a rather optimistic note. One last month for them to spend in Gensokyo… The visions of homecoming have warmed up more than one outsider's heart. Kyouichi and Soudai had probably one last adventure left ahead of them. One that promised unforgettable memories, if everything would proceed as planned. And after that? Only to wait for the arrival of autumn, the day which will mark their return to the world they belong.


	60. Groundbreaking Event

The month of Nagatsuki began in Gensokyo, showing little difference in weather or temperature from its predecessor. Likewise, a morning at the Scarlet Devil Mansion looked always the same, whether it was a start of a new year at the beginning of spring, or the middle of autumn. Thick white mist rising from the lake enshrouded the whole island and the manor that was occupying its major part.

It was a quiet day at the mansion, especially the library, as its almost permanent occupant was still gone, doing important field research in Kazemura. Only the squads of fairy maids that were chaotically pretending to be cleaning the place up were breaking the otherwise perfect silence in the darkened interior of Gensokyo's largest library.

Fairies were never good at doing anything besides having fun, playing pranks and accidentally braking or dropping things, and yet, the mistress of the mansion still kept them employed so that at least she'd have a feeling like she had a lot of subordinates. The one doing most of the cleaning, cooking and other chores, was the chief maid – a human who received a new name from her mistress, Sakuya Izayoi. Every day was full of hard work for this silver-haired maid, but she had one very helpful assistant that helped her do all her tasks and allowed her to still find enough time to relax. The silver pocket watch, which enabled her to stop and resume time for as long as it was necessary. Some tasks could not be carried out while the time was at a complete standstill, such as cooking, but Sakuya was able to decide which objects or which areas in the mansion were "frozen" and which were not. Right now, it was once again her turn to check on the library and optionally scold a few fairy maids for not doing their work properly before proceeding with thoroughly cleaning everything up by herself. What would normally take at least half a day, took no time at all. But just because there were fewer residents at the mansion, it didn't mean there was less work. Even without Patchouli, the library still needed to be maintained. It was quite easily the largest room of the mansion, so it also required the most effort to keep clean.

"Ah… finally." the head maid exhaled and arched her back while stretching her arms to get some relief. "The hardest part of the cleaning duty is done."

When she took a while to rest up and to bask in the feeling of a job well done, she left the library and made haste to check on her mistress again. It was more or less a part of her routine to regularly check on Remilia in case she'd need something from her ever-loyal elegant servant. Especially during these days, when Remilia needed care the most.

Sakuya finally reached the door to her mistress's bedroom. She resumed the flow of time, and after a while of hesitation, she knocked on the door and spoke up: "Remilia-sama? Is everything alright?"

The reason why she asked that was the fact that the vampire was still in pitiable condition after the battle that she fought in Kazemura while enduring heavy rainfall. Vampires couldn't stand running water, but that did not matter to the older of the Scarlet sisters when one of her best friends was in grave danger. As a result, she could barely walk on her own, hold her cutlery firmly, or stay awake for longer than just a few hours a day.

"Sakuya…" a muffled moan came from behind the closed door. "Please, come in."

The maid obeyed and entered the room that very few people have ever been to. It was a typical aristocratic bedroom filled with luxury furniture. One wide bed with an ornamented canopy was placed opposite the door and a single child-size coffin without a lid rested on its sheets. Sakuya was already so used to this rather morbid sight, that she considered it a norm. As she closed the door behind her and slowly approached the bed, a slim pale hand crawled out of the coffin and grabbed the top of its right wall. A loud yawn in a childish voice resonated from inside the wooden vessel before a small figure clad in pinkish dress slowly rose up to a sitting position.

"Is there anything you need of me, my lady?" Sakuya asked, casting a concerned glance at the blue-haired vampire girl staring back at her with a pair of scarlet eyes.

Remilia yawned once more, spreading both her arms and wings. "Good morning, Sakuya." she greeted the maid belatedly.

"Good morning, mistress. The weather is nice as usual today. If you'd like, I can set up your table on the terrace."

"At least…" Remilia murmured, still apparently sleepy and dizzy, "Patchouli will have a nice weather while she's working over there…"

"It seems that way. But more importantly, are you feeling a little better today?"

"Better? How can you expect me to suddenly get better?" Remilia grumbled as she was clumsily trying to get out of her sleeping coffin. "There is something I'd like you to do for me."

"Of course." Sakuya immediately hopped to the side of her bed and helped her mistress climb out of the wooden container.

"Thank you, but that is not what I wanted."

"Anything you wish, my lady, I shall do my best to fulfill."

The vampire girl took a moment to gather her bearing before she returned her attention to the maid. "If the news from Kazemura is true, Patchouli is not going to return here anytime soon." the Scarlet Devil preambled. Sakuya knew how much she was always worried about her friend, but sometimes, she thought that her mistress was being a little more than just paranoid.

"The library does feel a bit lonely without her," Sakuya noted with a spacey glance in her eyes, "but we must give her as much time as it takes. The fairy… I mean the spirit incident," she quickly corrected herself, "can't be taken lightly."

"I know it sounds uncouth and selfish of me, but I miss her. Even Flandre is starting to grow more restless with each passing day without someone to study with her and divert her attention from destroying things in the basement."

Sakuya had a lot of sympathy for her mistress's concerns, as Flandre has kept her awake during the recent nights with disturbing sounds coming from her basement far more often than usual. "But asking Patchouli-sama to return at this time would be unreasonable." said Sakuya's rationale.

"I would love to play with Flan," Remilia sighed tiredly, "but in this condition… I sicken myself at how pathetic I am right now."

"Mistress, please…" Sakuya gazed at her almost pleadingly, "if you don't feel rested enough you shouldn't try to stand."

Ignoring her maid's well-meant advice completely, Remilia continued in her speech. "I'm sure…" she paused herself for a while, "Patchouli would like to come back too."

"Remilia-sama, rather than Patchouli-sama, I believe you should be more concerned about your own well-being. Instead of bluntly disobeying my advice, why don't you for once allow me to call Yagokoro-sensei to have a look at you? This has been going on for longer than just a week or two."

"No way in Nine Hells am I going to let that smug-ass know-it-all set foot inside my mansion and let her do check ups on me!" Remilia stood up from the bed, her fists clenched tightly in agitation.

"Mistress, you are acting against all reason." Sakuya had to step up on her persuasion tactics if she was ever hoping to get her mistress's attention. And if it meant questioning and directly opposing her ideas, then so be it.

Remilia chuckled weakly, which Sakuya took as a good sign that Remilia has calmed down a bit. "This is why I'm the mistress of this mansion and why you are a maid. Taught to obey and trained to serve, but thinking has never been your strong suit, has it, Sakuya?"

"I am sorry, my lady, for being rude, but your resisting attitude and your Scarlet pride are about the only things standing between you and your good health, so forgive me for not being in perfect agreement with you there."

"But perhaps that's what I like so much about you." the vampire changed her tone to a darker and more serious one. "You are not afraid to talk back to me. Not only that takes guts, but also shows me that you genuinely care…"

"Of course I'd care!" Sakuya put her hand over her chest. "Do you think it pleases me to see you like that for over a month, knowing that I can do something to help, but you'd never agree with?"

"It's useless, even if you called her." the Scarlet Devil sighed and slowly shuffled her feet towards the bedroom door. Sakuya stood there like in a daze, unable to make out whether Remilia wished for a supporting hand or not. With her grimly pale hand on the door handle, Remilia cast her glance to the side, making a direct eye contact with Sakuya.

"There is only one thing that can help me in my current predicament. Even you should know at least that much."

"Then… Then let me provide…"

"NO!" Remilia angrily cut her off before Sakuya could even formulate her thought. She opened the bedroom door and using the handle for support, she slowly walked out of the room with Sakuya in tandem.

"I need you to be in top form and battle-ready at all times. We cannot be sure when Kazemura will become a battlefield again. I cannot be with Patchouli, but you can."

"And leave you alone? Like this?" the maid arched her eyebrow questioningly.

"You are right. This isn't really a good idea either. But I have solved this dilemma."

Sakuya curiously tilted her head, wondering about the solution that her mistress has come up with.

"Please take me to my study, Sakuya." the vampire demanded.

"At once, my lady."

The maid gently took Remilia's hand into hers, snapped her fingers and they were both suddenly standing inside a small study, which Remilia rarely used.

"Thanks… Now please make some light breakfast and come back in about ten minutes."

Reluctantly, the time-controlling maid bowed, and despite her concerns, left Remilia alone in her room and hurried to prepare the breakfast.

When the maid seemingly disappeared in thin air, Remilia walked up to her desk, opened the top drawer and took out a sheet of paper, an envelope, an ink flask and a quill. She gazed into the ceiling while humming thoughtfully before putting her first words on the paper, but she quickly nodded as an idea came to her and started writing.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Sakuya suddenly appeared by her side with a serving tray in hand. "Your breakfast is ready, Remilia-sama. I also made your favorite red tea."

"Thank you." the vampire replied as she folded the letter into the envelope. She dripped some hot wax from the candle on the table onto the envelope, and out of another drawer she took a seal, bearing the insignia of the House Scarlet. She pressed the seal over the molten wax on the envelope and waited for a few seconds. After removing her hand, there was an imprinted symbol of two roses with intertwined stems on the letter's seal. With a look as serious as ever, she turned to Sakuya and requested: "Now, Sakuya, I want you to call Koakuma."

"What…?" the sudden request took the silver-haired servant slightly off-guard, but she obediently bowed, regardless. "As you say, mistress."

Two pops later, Sakuya disappeared and reappeared in the study with a bemused demon girl with dark red hair, clad in a simple black dress and a white shirt.

"Ah, Koa-chan." Remilia spoke up to her before Koakuma even processed the fact that she was no longer standing in the library. "There you are…"

"Wh-what happened? Huh? Remilia-sama? I didn't do anything bad, I swear!"

It was apparent that the young youkai didn't even know why she was summoned by the owner of the mansion, but Remilia didn't scold her. Instead, she took the sealed envelope from her desk and passed it to the little devil.

"You do miss Patchouli too, don't you?" she asked out of the blue.

"Huh? Patchouli-sama? I… I was told to watch over the library until she returns. Is she coming back soon?"

"I'm afraid not." Remilia swept away Koakuma's hopes. "However," she added, "I have some good news for you."

The crimson-haired succubus silently blinked at her, not even daring to guess what news Remilia had in mind.

"You… are going to see Patchouli."

"Excuse me?"

"The letter you're holding in your hand." Remilia specified and began to slowly savor the breakfast that Sakuya prepared, "I want you to deliver it to Patchouli. Personally."

Koakuma could feel her heartbeat increase in tempo as she heard what Remilia requested of her.

"But… but… That's not what Patchouli-sama wanted me to do."

"Patchouli needs you out there more than here in the library. Just do as I ask and stay with her. Sakuya can take care of the library just fine."

"I… understand." the little devil stuttered out as she nodded.

"You have never been to Kazemura before, have you?"

"No, but… I am bound to Patchouli-sama by a contract. I can track her down no matter where she is."

"So that's the solution to your dilemma." Sakuya smirked understandingly at both Koakuma and Remilia.

"Indeed. With that said, you may depart immediately." Remilia sent her off.

Without delay, Koakuma bowed to the mistress of the mansion, walked up to the window of the study and opened it. As cold morning breeze flowed into the room, Koakuma flapped her bat-like wings and took into the air, silently vanishing in the thick mist.

Sakuya watched the swirling milky vapors for a while before she realized that she was starting to feel a little cold and closed the window.

"Now that one problem has been dealt with, it's about time to think of a solution for your health condition."

"Sakuya…" Remilia addressed her as she took a sip of red tea. "You have already started working on it, even when you weren't quite aware of it."

Sakuya's facial expression was now like a mirror to Koakuma's from a while ago – baffled and questioning. "Would you please care to elaborate?"

"The visit from the Hakurei shrine maiden we've had recently… You do remember that, don't you?"

"Reimu? What about her?"

"She asked something from you, but you had a disagreement, so she resorted to force, but lost to you fair and square."

"Until you summoned me and told me to comply with her demands." Sakuya recalled the recent event. "So… was that all just a…?"

"Ufufufu~!" for the first time in a long while, Remilia giggled in her usual, mischievous chuckle, like she always did when scheming something. "So you see now… that I take every opportunity to reap some benefit."

"But waiting another month? Are you sure?"

"One must be patient for such an ingenious plan to succeed." the vampire smiled smugly and had another mouthful of tea.

"Ingenious?" Sakuya asked with doubt lingering in her voice. "What will you do when the shrine maiden discovers this?"

"That is of no consequence. I will already be at my full strength by that time. I don't care how she reacts. I want to solve the spirit incident too, but like this, I cannot even look at myself in the mirror. And not just because I wouldn't see any reflection…"

* * *

While Remilia explained the details of her plan to Sakuya, several tens of kilometers away from the mansion, in a valley fortified by steep mountains covered with pine trees, the core crew of Kazemura's expedition team was in for an unexpected visit.

"They recovered another stone tablet. It looks like it fell from one of those six obelisks." a short girl with short purple hair and a flower-shaped hair decoration popped her head into Patchouli's tent just at the moment when the sorceress was studying astronomic charts, which she considered highly relevant to the very purpose of the uncovered temple. Still panting from running, the young girl excitedly awaited Patchouli's reaction.

Patchouli quickly snapped out of her deep thoughts and focused all her attention at the barer of the news.

"Akyuu-san? Did you say another one? Perhaps this one might help us fill in some blanks in the whole puzzle." she rose from her chair, put on her violet mob cap with a crescent moon ornament and proceeded towards the tent's exit.

Akyuu, the young chronicler, was so excited about this find that she almost forgot to move aside so that Patchouli could leave the tent.

"Umm, excuse me."

"Oh, sorry, sorry." the chronicler quickly apologized and reversed out of Patchouli's way.

The blinding light of the morning sun temporarily robbed the librarian of her sight until her pupils adjusted. Before her, a vast pit crawling with dozens of youkai prospectors spanned for over a hundred meters in both width and length, all encircled by a symbolic, but very important shimenawa barrier. The pit's depth was now an impressive 10 meters and that still wasn't enough to uncover the access to the temple itself. Huge mounds of excess soil from the excavation were now forming a sort of barricade around the western part of the village. But now the human and youkai diggers in the quarry had to deal with a much harder task than removing the soft and supple soil. The bottom of the whole pit was covered in a layer of volcanic rock. For over thirty days, the workers have been tirelessly trying to breach the rock in order to gain access to the temple, but they have counted more broken pickaxes than centimeters of rock removed. That, however, didn't stop them from trying.

As Patchouli's eyes grew accustomed to the sunlight, she noticed two pairs of yama-bito prospectors carrying a heavy-looking rectangular stone slab from the dig site to the provisory crane, so it could be analyzed by the archeological team.

"This one looks bigger than the previous ones." Akyuu commented as she watched.

"It must have come from the base of one of those obelisks then." Patchouli deduced. "Hey! Careful while loading it onto the crane!" she shouted at the four slab carriers, but her voice was too weak to be heard across such a distance.

And while the workers were tying the tablet to the crane, Patchouli shot a sideways glance at Akyuu and asked: "By the way, wasn't Keine scheduled to arrive with someone to assist us today?"

"That's right." the 16 year old girl confirmed. "They should be here around noon." Her happy smile revealed that she was looking forward to their arrival.

"Heave-ho!" the voices of human and youkai laborers shouted in unison as they were pulling the rope of the crane's hoist in strokes to lift the heavy load and transport it safely to the hands of researchers.

"You seem to know this person who's going to help us decipher these glyphs." Patchouli still didn't let her scanning eyes off the chronicler.

"You could say that, ehehe~!" she giggled mischievously. Patchouli's stare was making her a little nervous.

"Well, not that it's any of my business, as long as we can move for…"

A sudden loud snap interrupted Patchouli's last word. A sound not dissimilar to a cracking tree branch was followed by frightened gasps and shouts of the quarry workers and concluded with a thunderous crash. Even Patchouli and Akyuu could feel the ground slightly shaking under their feet.

"...ward." Patchouli finished her word as she shifted her attention to the source of the noise.

"W-what did just happen?!" Akyuu instinctively grabbed onto Patchouli's gown. The mere thought of what could have happened was too scary for the librarian to even say it out loud.

She slowly detached the frightened chronicler from her clothing and activated her levitation spell.

"Patchouli-san?"

The sorceress hovered over to the edge of the pit. The missing crane arm was the first bad omen that her violet eyes registered. Looking down at the bottom, she found out where the crane arm went and what caused the small tremor.

"Is everyone alright down there~?" she called at the group of workers who have formed a small half-circle around the crane's wreck. They only lifted their shocked gazes at her, but provided no answer.

When Patchouli analyzed the crash site, it didn't appear that anyone got hurt. And what surprised her even more was the state of the stone slab.

"Oh, my… It's still intact. I guess when it survived the fall from that obelisk, it has to be quite durable."

"We're sorry about that, Patchouli-san." one of the workers responsible for the transport of archeological artifacts bowed apologetically. "The men said it wasn't too heavy for them to carry, but that crane was not strong enough to hold it."

"Fortunately, the only thing broken is the crane." Patchouli summed up with a relieved expression.

"I'll have the workers construct a stronger crane. In the meantime, we'll carry the tablet over to your tent manually via the access ramps. This will take a while, so please be patient."

"Don't worry about that. Just try to increase the safety of the workers a little. We're already busy enough with digging this pit. We don't need to dig graves too…"

"I'll try Patchouli-san." the yama-bito foreman bent his back once more and proceeded with issuing orders to all nearby quarry workers.

Having a large burden fall off from Patchouli's heart, she decided to float back up to her tent and probably have that breakfast that she skipped, because she was too immersed in her research. She slowly moved upwards, leaving the workers deal with the wreckage, and just as soon as she made it to the surface level, something large, black, white and red flitted before her eyes. It was so sudden that a collision was inevitable.

"Mukyu!"

"Uwaaa~!" the object that made contact with Patchouli let out a cry like a young girl and made the librarian quickly lose her altitude. Just a few meters before Patchouli was about to descend to the quarry pit's bottom, her fall decelerated and stopped. With the sound of her heartbeat resonating in her eardrums, the elemental wizard slowly opened her eyes and sighted a face she would not expect to see even in a crazy dream.

"K-Koakuma~?!"

"Patchouli-sama~!" the devil girl holding her tightly brightened up as she realized who she just hit and subsequently rescued. "I found you~!"

"What? When? How? Why?" Patchouli didn't even know what to ask first.

"I'm happy to see you too, Patchouli-sama~!" Koakuma cheerfully flapped the small pair of bat wings growing out of the sides of her head.

"It's not like I'm not glad to see you, but… what are you doing here? Did something happen at the mansion?"

Koakuma figured that before answering all of Patchouli's questions, it would first be a good idea to find some solid ground to stand on. Still clinging onto her mistress, she floated upwards and landed at the edge of the quarry pit where Patchouli originally planned to settle down, if it hadn't been for the surprise encounter.

After a safe landing, Koakuma drew a letter out of her pocket and handed it to her. Patchouli wordlessly took the envelope bearing a familiar seal. Unable to hold back her curiosity any longer, she tore open the envelope and unfolded the letter. Turning her back at the sun, she skimmed across its lines.

_Dear Patchouli,_

_I hope Koakuma made it safely to Kazemura and managed to find you and deliver this letter to you. While it saddens me that your work won't allow you to return back anytime soon, I am glad that you are putting your best efforts into resolving the spirit incident and finally have the chance to see the world beyond the walls of your... I mean my library. Did you get a little tan on that pale skin of yours? I bet it's now a bit darker than mine._

_Joking aside, I think you're probably wondering why Koakuma has suddenly showed up and delivered this message to you. First and foremost, sending a fairy maid to the source of vengeful spirits that have been possessing fairies is not a good idea. Secondly, it is because I cannot shake my worries about you while you're in that dangerous place, even when I trust your ability to look after yourself. Since I cannot be with you due to my current condition, I decided to send Koa-chan to keep you company and deliver you my best wishes. Please don't send her back and treat her like you would treat me. And don't blame yourself for what happened to me. I will get well soon so we can be together again. Until then, good luck with your research. Do your best, but don't push yourself too hard. Sakuya is taking good care of me, so let Koakuma look after you. Flandre is obviously getting bored quickly when you're not here. We are all looking forward to your return._

_P.S. I miss those "mukyuus" of yours…_

_From your best friend_

_Remilia_

A torrent of emotions has stormed across Patchouli's heart as she finished reading this short letter. In the corners of her eyes, a pair of colorless pearls appeared and glittered in the sun.

"Patchouli-san, are you alright?" Akyuu, who saw Patchouli's collision with the devil girl, trotted up to her as soon as she realized that she was once again standing on the surface level.

The librarian quickly wiped her tears with the sleeve of her gown and nodded in reply. "Yes… I'm okay."

"That's good to hear… Is that a letter?" Akyuu curiously tilted her head when she saw the folded piece of paper in Patchouli's hand.

Patchouli just closed her eyes and held the letter up to her chest, as if it was her most treasured object and smiled faintly. "Silly Remi…" she whispered.

Akyuu was too perplexed for words, as her only reaction was a blank stare with her little mouth ajar.

Trying to hold back her tears from overflowing, Patchouli took a deep breath and shifted her face to Koakuma, who was just as Akyuu, silently watching her with a puzzled expression.

"Koakuma." she addressed her familiar.

"Yes, Patchouli-sama?" the devil asked nervously.

"Welcome to the team."

Those words coupled with Patchouli's happy smile were more than enough to start a strong reaction inside the crimson-haired youkai's heart.

"R-really? I can stay with you? YAAAAAAY~!" Koakuma threw her arms around Patchouli and embraced her tightly. The usually unemotional youkai librarian of the Scarlet Devil Mansion now found it extremely difficult to defend herself from the urge to reciprocate the embrace, and so she did it…

Almost half a minute has passed before the two of them separated. And even if Akyuu didn't quite understand the situation, a smile adorned her face. Happiness was probably contagious.

"It was from Remilia-san, wasn't it?" Akyuu referred to the letter she saw in Patchouli's hand.

After a simple nod, Patchouli began explaining the situation to her teammate.

"I see, so she sent you your devil familiar to watch over you… She is nicer than I thought. Or at least nicer than what I wrote about her."

"She's the best friend I could ever hope to have."

"I'm glad for you, Patchouli-san."

"But no doubt you heard, Remilia is not doing well. Even a month after she was subjected to running water, she still hasn't regained her health. I'm starting to question what she is yet waiting for…"

"Waiting for?" Akyuu didn't follow Patchouli's words.

"I'm not sure myself, but I've already seen her once in a similar state before we moved to Gensokyo. Back then she recovered in a mere day; so naturally, I'm getting suspicious… and worried."

"Did she take some cure or something?"

"A cure?" Patchouli chuckled at the chronicler's silly question. "I thought you were more knowledgeable about youkai such as vampires. They don't need to take medicine. Even on the brink of their death, they can recover back to normal. And all they need for that is…"

* * *

"Reimu… Reimu! Can you hear me?" a woman's voice resonated in Reimu's dream. It was a bleak dream with Reimu standing in a place covered in fog so dense that she couldn't see her own hand if she stretched it out in front of her. The voice she heard sounded so close, yet so distant, and so terribly familiar, that it made her stir about in her futon.

"W-who's there?!" she shouted into the mist, even though she could guess the answer.

"Reimu…" the voice called her name again, sounding more clearly this time. "Listen. I don't have much time to talk. You should seal the gateway when you get the chance."

"Gateway? What are you talking about? Where are you?" Reimu tried chasing after the voice, but no matter how far she ran, she couldn't find anyone in the hellishly thick gray fog.

"Don't worry your pretty head about me. Just do as I ask… I'm sorry…. couldn't…. with you…" the voice suddenly became distorted by a sound that resembled the hissing of sea waves hitting the shore. Although there was no sea in Gensokyo, Reimu recalled hearing a similar sound when she landed on the Moon with Remilia's divine-guided and Hakkero propelled 3-stage rocket about 3 years ago. The Moon had seas, just like Earth, but unlike its older blue sister, the lunar seas were completely devoid of all life. However, the sound of their waves remained in Reimu's memories, which were now refreshed by the sound that was trying to silence the unseen messenger from her dream.

"Hey~! What's going on?!" Reimu tried to yell, but even her own voice was barely audible in the gradually intensifying hissing disturbance.

"Reimu!" the voice called after the shrine maiden once more, but its every following word was drowned out in the artificial white noise. It didn't sound like a rhythmical sound of sea waves anymore. It became continuous and unbearable. Reimu screamed, but she was mute. The tormenting hissing made her want to cover her ears. She wanted to get out… to wake up. The last thing she could remember was reaching her arm into the fog, hopelessly trying to touch the person who spoke to her…

She opened her eyes. She was lying on her back in her shrine's living quarters, in her yin-yang patterned futon, drenched in her own sweat, with her right arm reaching for something invisible above her. Her pulse was racing and her breathing was heavy, like after running hours on end. Still unsure whether she was still dreaming or already snapped back to reality, only one word, one name immediately came into her mind and out of her lips.

"Yukari…"

The shrine maiden reached for the medallion made of silver and gold, which she now wore on her neck and didn't put it away even when she slept of bathed. For a while she just stared at the amulet, thinking about her dream and the words she heard in hope of understanding their meaning and in attempt not to forget them. The voice unmistakably belonged to Yukari Yakumo, but what was it about?

"Did she say something about some gateway?" Reimu contemplated aloud while playing with the medallion in her palm. Ignoring the dream as a mere coincidence caused by her longing to see the youkai again was out of question for the dark-haired maiden. Perhaps if the dream was about Marisa or about any other person she knew, it could pass for an ordinary dream, but not with Yukari. Her boundary manipulation enabled her to enter other people's dreams in order to communicate with them, and dreams weren't the only things she could enter. The fact that she appeared in Reimu's recent dream was not coincidental and neither was the message she meant to convey. It was the first sign of Yukari after 10 long months, and while still questionable, Reimu refused to take it lightly.

"Seal the gateway… when I get the chance…" she whispered to herself. "What gateway? To the outside world? My… shrine?" the more she thought about it, the less sense it made to her.

However, even without understanding Yukari's extra-sensory message, Reimu was determined to figure out the reason for her disappearance and do whatever it takes to see her again. Even when the dream was more or less nightmarish, it filled Reimu's heart with hope. A spiritual boost that she needed so much to keep trying her best.

"Yukari. I will absolutely, ABSOLUTELY find you, wherever you are!" she declared while clutching onto the bimetallic amulet on her neck.

As she was putting on her daily red and white outfit, her mind was still focused on a part of her foggy dream. The part where Yukari's voice became distorted by the hissing…

"Was she apologizing? For what? Causing an incident? Or something else…?" she started to have doubts now. For so long she was convinced that Yukari was the one truly responsible for the outbreak of vengeful spirits and the mass spiriting away of outsiders, but now her hunch was telling a different story.

Finally, after tying up her red hair ribbon and putting on her decorative hair tubes on her side locks, she took all the necessary instruments that her job required. A gohei, a pair of sacred yin-yang orbs, a stack of blessed charms and a set of Spell Cards. Not caring about tidying her room up or even eating breakfast, she left her shrine, plotting her course for the antique shop, Kourindou.

* * *

At the same time, in the Human Village, a certain duo of outsiders was making preparations for the difficult journey that awaited them today. Or perhaps it was a certain trio?

"Heeey~! Wait up~!" a girl's call could be heard from the opposite side of the marketplace, which was already bustling with activity since morning.

Two young men, one of them tall and long-haired; the other one shorter with more robust build, turned their heads around and witnessed a young female hastily slaloming through the crowd of villagers.

"Is that Midori?" Soudai asked his taller friend who had a better view of the situation, but even he wasn't quite certain, as he suggested by a shrugging gesture.

"I said wait up, you two~!" the girl's voice called out again, apparently getting closer.

"Yup, I think it's her." Kyouichi commented, even though he still couldn't see her well.

Finally, the young short-haired girl emerged from the crowd and stopped before them.

"Phew." she exhaled as she wiped her forehead. "I was worried I'd be too late to catch you…"

"Hi, Midori." Soudai greeted her informally. "Did you want something from us? We were just about to head off to Kourindou."

"What do you mean, "did I want something from you"? I'm going there with you, of course!"

"Uhh, no, you're not." Kyouichi disagreed. "This isn't a sightseeing tour. And as much as I'd like to stay positive, we'll be exposed to mortal danger for the better part of our journey."

"But… Reimu is going to escort you, right?"

"We're not talking about youkai this time." Soudai reminded her.

"Indeed." Kyouichi seconded. "We'll be carrying a load of explosives that, if mishandled, well… you know what could happen. There really isn't any reason for you to come with us and risk your life."

"And is there a reason for you to do it?!" When Midori saw that her tactic to join her friends was being steamrolled by their arguments, she wanted to stop them from going.

"Why yes, we've already given our word to Reimu, so it would be stupid not to go now."

"I'd say it's more stupid to go there and risk your lives for her."

"If that's the case, then why do you want to go with us so badly?" Soudai's question effectively cornered Midori.

"That's… because…" she bit her tongue before confessing her intention to them. Even when she considered herself as their close friend, her pride prevented her from revealing the truth.

"That's a very valid reason there, Midori," Kyouichi started joking, "but I'm afraid we still won't let you come with us."

"We'll see about that!" declared the temperamental young girl and pointed her index finger at Kyouichi.

His reaction to that was a nonchalant shrug before showing his back to her and walking on towards the western gate with Soudai.

Midori angrily gritted her teeth and stubbornly followed them. The two young men pretended they didn't hear her hastened footsteps tailing them and just kept going. Midori followed, but only until her two friends have reached the gate, and the pair of guards checked their papers and let them through. Against all reason, Midori tried to hurry after them, but the militiamen stood in her way and refused to let her through without proper authorization.

"Heeey~! You can't just leave me behind!" she called after Soudai and Kyouichi.

Turning around, they could see she wasn't going to follow them any further. Her face was filled with anger and sadness, which bruised Kyouichi's heart, but he knew that staying in the village was the best thing for Midori in this situation.

"I'm sorry, Midori…" he whispered an apology which could not be heard, and with the same feeling of regret, he turned away and nodded to Soudai. "Alright, let's get this over with."

"I'm both hesitant and impatient to go…" Soudai expressed his strange feeling from the journey ahead, but walked on with the same brisk tempo as his younger friend.

"Damn!" Midori uttered in frustration as she watched her friends leaving the village and heading down the western road. She was still trying to come up with a plan to sneak out of the village and follow them, but not even she liked her own ideas. Kicking a small stone on the ground to relieve her frustration didn't make her feel much better. She wanted to go with them, but it's not like the guards would let her, even if Kyouichi and Soudai would agree with her.

She cast a longing stare at the distant hills on the east, where she estimated the Hakurei Shrine to be standing, and wished with all her heart that she could be there. And her reason? A little selfish, she figured the more she thought about it. But still, she was determined to go the distance… Once Midori set her mind onto something, she more often than not achieved her goal. Perhaps this simply wasn't the right time for her to act. And with that thought, which gave her at least some solace, she retraced her steps back to the village center. She decided to pleasantly waste her time with her favorite activity – browsing through the wares in all shops in the village.

* * *

Kyouichi and soudai didn't delay themselves on the farm for too long. They borrowed the hand cart, which they always used to make their delivery runs, and off they went to the antique shop called Kourindou. The road from the village to the forest was long, but at least the two outsiders had their cart empty, so their walk was a little easier and faster as opposed to a regular delivery. They didn't encounter anyone on the road, and they could only hope it would remain that way for the remainder of their journey.

When they finally arrived, it was just about noon. An old thermometer hanging outside on one of Kourindou's windows showed that the temperature has climbed up to nearly 30 degrees Celsius. But even without the thermometer, the outsiders knew it was scorching hot today. The backs of their kimonos were soaked with sweat, and the longer and harder part of the journey was just ahead of them.

"Hello?" Soudai called as soon as he and Kyouichi entered the shop.

"Ah, there they are." Marisa Kirisame cast her glance at the two outsiders who just showed up.

The shop's owner was casually sitting at the counter, and opposite of him, Marisa and Reimu were sitting on borrowed chairs and eating something that looked like instant ramen.

"Just in time." muttered the shrine maiden while loudly slurping the content of her plastic cup. "Have you brought a cart with you?"

"We have." Soudai replied and pointed his thumb backwards over his shoulder. "It's parked right outside."

"Good. Then you can start loading the clay." Reimu waved her hand, like a queen telling her servants that they can get to work.

The outsiders grimaced sourly at each other. They thought they could get at least a short rest after their trip to Kourindou, but it seemed that Reimu and Marisa didn't want to waste any time.

"So, where is it?" Kyouichi asked Rinnosuke.

The shopkeeper stood up from his chair. "Follow me."

He led them to the back of his shop, which, apart from storing excess supplies, served as his living quarters. There, he wordlessly guided them to the pile of metal crates neatly stacked in a pyramid-shaped pile.

"Is that everything?" Kyouichi tentatively asked when he saw the crate pile.

"Yes, that's all of them."

"And the detonators?"

"I've put them all in a separate crate, so the transport would be as safe as possible. I even removed the batteries on the detonators." the shopkeeper told the outsiders about all the safety measures he took beforehand.

Shrugging their shoulders, the two outsiders started loading their cart crate by crate. The total weight of the dangerous load was roughly equal to the weight of the supplies they usually delivered from the farms to Kourindou.

And while they were loading the explosives, Reimu and Marisa were watching them from the comfort of their chairs.

"That's a lot of boom clay, ze…" stated the witch as she came up with a slang name for the plastic explosive. "What would happen if it all exploded at once?"

Just her words alone made Kyouichi's hands shaky and his forehead sweatier than during hard field work.

"That's the last thing we want to happen, Marisa."

"I know. I'm just curious, that's all…" she flashed her teeth in a sheepish grin.

"Well…" Kyouichi tried to think of some easy-to-understand comparison. "If all of that stuff went off… It would detonate with the force of 0.00002 microYuukas…"

"Whoa!" the amazed magician exclaimed.

"Whoa, indeed…" the outsider affirmed.

Reimu, acting as indifferent as ever, just shrugged. "Yuuka's not that strong. I beat her several times before…"

"Maybe, but her raw power is pretty damn impressive. Besides, can you defeat an explosion in a Spell Card duel? Unlike the youkai you've dueled, if something would go wrong, the clay would not warn you that it's about to explode."

"If it's really as stable as these two gentlemen told me," Rinnosuke gestured at the outsiders, "then I believe the precautions I made will ensure your safety and prevent any unwanted explosions from happening. Of course, being targeted by a hungry youkai or those possessed fairies is an entirely different matter…"

"That's why we're going with them, of course." Marisa pointed out the obvious.

"We better move it, though." Reimu urged them as she stood up from her chair. "The trip to Kazemura on foot from this place is going to take long. If you two wish to return to Human Village today, we have little time to waste."

"We know, we know…" Soudai sighed. "But we've walked here all the way from the village and haven't even got a moment to rest. Say, Kyouichi…"

"Hm?"

"I'll load the last crate; you go buy something to drink." he tossed him a small satchel filled with a few coins.

Kyouichi caught the con satchel and emptied its content on top of his palm. He looked around the store to see what beverages were there for sale. Naturally, the first thing that came to his field of vision was the old vending machine near the entrance. He slowly approached it, when Rinnosuke's words halted him.

"It's empty."

"Huh? Empty?" Kyouichi turned around and saw the half-youkai male pointing his thumb at the shelf behind him. About 20 empty cans of various drinks were lined up next to each other. Obviously, they were too interesting for him to discard as trash.

"Wow. Quite a collection you've got there… And quite an addiction you've developed." Kyouichi chuckled after his second statement.

"What?" Rinnosuke gave him a defensive stare. "It's summer. It's hot. And those drinks are good, so…"

"Not that I blame you or anything." Kyouichi could understand and relate to his "addiction". "Do you happen to have any other outside world beverages?"

"Some bottles from the outside world can be found in the shelves over there." he pointed in the vague direction of the food section of his shop.

Hoping that these bottled drinks would still be drinkable, Kyouichi followed Rinnosuke's directions and entered an aisle with groceries from the outside world. Near the end of the aisle he saw several bottles of mineral water and some soda drinks. Without taking much time, he grabbed a few random bottles and was about to return to the counter, when he noticed something interesting.

To say that he was surprised would be an exaggeration, because both he and Soudai were more than accustomed to the fact that this store housed truly all sorts of merchandise from both Gensokyo and the outside world. He put down the bottles he was holding and walked up closer to the object that caught his attention.

"What's taking him so long?" Soudai tapped his foot impatiently against the wooden floor as he waited for his friend along with Reimu and Marisa. Rinnosuke was also packing a few things into his waist satchel and looked as though as he was ready to leave.

"Hey~! Ishimaru~! The exit is this way!" Soudai jokingly shouted at his friend on the other side of the shop.

Not a moment too soon, Kyouichi emerged from between the selves, dragging a nice-looking red mountain bike by his side.

"Look what I found!" he grinned at Soudai.

A while has passed without Soudai saying anything at all. He just stared at him with his deadpan expression and shrugged. "What do you want to do with that bike?"

"Use it to drag our cart, of course."

"And you're willing to buy it just for this one trip?"

Kyouichi negatively shook his head. "Not buy it. Just borrow it. Rinnosuke is coming along with us, isn't he?" he cast a glance at the owner of the shop, who nodded in response.

"That I am. But I don't usually borrow my goods. If you want to use that bicycle, buy it."

"Can't you make an exception? Just this once?" he tried to negotiate, but Rinnosuke wasn't in a mood for haggling.

"This isn't a library. Buy it or leave it. Don't boggle."

"Alright, how much does it cost?" muttered the outsider as he observed the bicycle more closely. As soon as he found the price tag, he shook his head once more. "45 000?! No way I can afford it!"

"Then please put it back where you found it." Rinnosuke demanded. But Kyouichi didn't move a muscle.

"No, I won't." he declared bluntly, to which the shopkeeper raised his brow.

"Excuse me?"

"I said I won't." Kyouichi repeated slower and louder, still not moving an inch backwards.

"You're about to commit a theft, and I'd strongly recommend against it."

"Now YOU listen to me, Kourin!" the outsider showed his rare intimidating side as he suddenly raised his voice and lashed out his index finger at the half-youkai. Perhaps he was a little afraid of Reimu, but not of Rinnosuke. Not in this situation… "We are the ones doing YOU a favor! We are the ones risking OUR lives just so that you could see some fireworks and so that Reimu could solve her own problem a bit sooner! We wouldn't even have to be here, if we didn't want to! Do we not deserve to make our journey a little easier?! It's not like you're going to lose anything. You can take that bicycle back to your shop once our business in Kazemura is done. And then you can hope to sell it to the next sucker who'll find any use for it… or even know what it is. And if you don't like my idea, then I hope you won't mind me going back to the village and let you guys blow yourselves up along with half of Kazemura for all I care!"

Rinnosuke wasn't the only one taken aback by Kyouichi's outburst. Soudai, although still bearing his calm expression, has obviously never seen his friend genuinely angry, unlike Midori, who was more impulsive by nature.

"Jeez, dude, calm down."

"I am freakin' calm!" he yelled in a tone that contradicted his statement. "Let's see what you do if I just do as I please!" he addressed those words to Rinnosuke and towed the bicycle towards the shop's exit despite the owner's warning.

Stunned, Rinnosuke cast a sideways glance at Reimu and Marisa in hope of getting some moral support from them.

"That awfully reminds me of how you two usually do your shopping here."

"Hey, don't look at me like that," Marisa defended herself, "I didn't tell anyone to follow my example."

"Sorry, Rinnosuke," Reimu resignedly shook her head, "I cannot classify this as a robbery attempt. We are solving an incident here, so borrowing your stuff would be considered confiscation. All for the best interest of order in Gensokyo, of course…"

The half-human shopkeeper thus found himself at a dead end. The only way out was to turn back. "You conspired against me, haven't you? Very well, have it your way, but the bicycle returns to this shop afterwards. In one piece…" he added, as if he expected the worst.

"Should something bad happen to it, you can put it on Soudai's tab." Kyouichi jested as he tapped his friend's shoulder.

"I think the one who borrowed it should be responsible." the older outsider probably didn't take it as a joke.

"I couldn't agree more." Rinnosuke seconded his reply. "Now I ask you all to step out already. I need to lock this place up."

"Like anyone would want to steal your junk, anyway..." Marisa muttered as she was leaving the shop with Reimu and the outsiders.

"Marisa…" Rinnosuke looked at the witch in a way that made it clear he wasn't in a mood for jokes or stupid remarks. "If it was anyone else in Gensokyo who'd tell me that, okay… But coming from you, that just loses all its seriousness."

"What? You think I'd steal anything from you?"

"Think?" the half-youkai chuckled. "It's what you and your Shinto-practicing friend are doing on almost daily basis in broad daylight."

He turned the key and a mechanical click gave him a signal that the door was locked.

"We're simply borrowing." Marisa justified her actions by giving them an innocent-sounding name.

"Hey, at least I pay sometimes…" Reimu said to her own defense.

"And I don't borrow what I don't necessarily need."

"We already are taking one of the most valuable things from Kourindou with us." Soudai referred to the cargo on the wooden cart.

"And using probably the second most expensive thing in Kourindou to speed up our journey." Kyouichi smirked at the mountain bike, which he was now trying to tie to the cart.

"Is that clay really so valuable in the outside world?" asked the blonde girl with genuine interest.

"Perhaps not THAT valuable, but it's really damn hard to get if you're an ordinary civilian." Soudai explained as he was helping Kyouichi with fastening the leather straps of the cart to the bicycle.

"And what if I'm an ordinary magician?"

"Then I'm sure you'd find your way to "borrow" it, if you know where to look."

The group was all set up for journey and the distant village awaited them. Since it was Kyouichi's idea to strap a bicycle to the cart, he got the "privilege" to pedal it. He rolled up his hakama up to his knees, so it wouldn't get in the way, and at a slow pace, he rode the bicycle along the road leading to the Hakurei Shrine – their first stop.

"Is pedaling more comfortable to you than dragging, Ishimaru?" Soudai couldn't spare him from the teasing question when he saw Kyouichi sweating from both the summer heat and the not-so-easy physical activity.

"Just wait until there will be a downhill sloping. Then I'll be the one laughing as I leave you in the dust."

But Rinnoskue was quick to object. "I wouldn't recommend getting too far ahead of us, Kyouichi-san. The whole point of us going together is to prevent you two from being attacked by a youkai."

"Just us two?" Soudai pointed his thumb at his chest and his index finger at Kyouichi. "So you, Marisa and Reimu can't get attacked by youkai?"

"Marisa and Reimu are more than able to defend themselves. As for myself, since I'm a half-youkai, my flesh is quite unappealing to the carnivorous youkai. Of course, they could still kill me for other reasons than hunger, but I know better than to put myself into such dangerous situations."

"Yeah, right!" chuckled Kyouichi, who found Rinnosuke's statement quite ironic. "And keeping over a hundred kilos of plastic explosives under your bed is playing it as safe as it gets…"

"It's not by my will that this stuff ended up in my shop, you know." Morichika defended himself.

"You had over 2 years to get rid of it…"

"I thought we already talked about it before, Ishimaru-san."

"Well, technically, we are getting rid of it now." said Marisa to silence their bickering.

* * *

Thirty minutes of walking, and for Kyouichi, pedaling. That's how long it took the group to reach the Hakurei Shrine. They had no real business there, but the road leading to Kazemura was accessible from the crossroad just in front of its stone staircase.

"Aren't you tired yet?" Soudai asked his friend when they reached the mentioned crossroad.

"Not yet." answered Kyouichi, refusing to give up on his more comfortable means of transport than walking.

After a short break, the group continued their journey, heading north along the dirt path that led through open fields and meadows and an occasional thicket of trees and bushes. As they marched on, Soudai drew a flute out of his pocket and began plying a tune to make the long journey a bit more enjoyable. Kyouichi surprisedly glanced at him, because he never knew Soudai could play any instruments.

"Where did you get that?"

Soudai paused his playing. "The flute? I bought it in the village. There's this cute little shop in the eastern alley."

"I had no idea you could play a flute."

"I learned it here, believe it or not. From some of the local farm hands like you and me… I became gradually interested until one day I bought myself a cheap flute and practiced with them."

There was nothing strange about the fact that it escaped Kyouichi's attention, since the two of them didn't always work together on the same task on the farms. In fact, quite the contrary.

After giving a brief explanation, Soudai resumed playing, but Kyouichi interrupted him once more.

"Hey, how about you played something a bit more brisk and cheerful? This melody is kind of slow and sad."

"Well, sorry. I only know how to play a few tunes, so my repertoire isn't very rich yet."

* * *

And so, Soudai kept playing those few melodies he learned all the way to the 3-way crossroad where the roads to the shrine, the lake and to Kazemura intersected. By that time he grew tired of playing just as well as his companions grew tired of walking. They took another break at the said crossroad and replenished their energy by eating their packed lunches. They were about half-way to the quarry village and their journey so far has been safe. But the more difficult part of the road was only ahead of them.

"How about I switched places with you now?" Soudai offered to man the bicycle and drag the cart, since he thought that Kyouichi's been hogging the more comfortable means of transport for too long.

"Fine by me." Kyouichi replied indifferently. He had enough of pedaling anyway. He also knew that the road beyond this point was only going to become gradually steeper, making it inconvenient for a bike to cross. Perhaps it wouldn't be a problem without any extra burden, but the cart and the terrain was about to give Soudai quite a workout before the group would reach its destination.

"Alright, everyone's rested?" Reimu threw a backward glance at her companions before they began marching again. "Let's get moving. Kazemura is still far away."

And as agreed, Kyouichi switched places with Soudai and just walked, while his older comrade became the motor of the bicycle and the cart.

Rinnosuke observed him with the same level of interest as he observed Kyouichi while he was riding it. "I'm guessing that riding a bicycle is considered a basic skill for the humans of the outside world."

"You're saying that as if you didn't know how to ride a bike, Rinnosuke-san." Soudai replied.

"I don't."

"Are you serious?"

"I never even saw one until recently. It always amazed me how riders can keep their stability on it with just two wheels." Rinnosuke expressed his admiration for something so mundane that people often mastered even in their childhood.

"If that amazes you, wait till you see a unicycle." joked Kyouichi.

"A unicycle? You mean bicycle's one-wheeled brother? I saw a man riding it once, but only in a newspaper picture from the outside world. The article below was promoting a circus troupe from abroad." the half-youkai explained.

"What's a circus?" Reimu asked.

Soudai chuckled at her question. "Heh, you never even heard of it, have you?"

"No. That's why I'm asking."

"Well, to put it simply: a huge circular tent, acrobats, animals that can do tricks, clowns, strongmen, jugglers, knife-throwers, fakirs, fire-eaters, sword-eaters, and sometimes people who are considered as "freaks of nature". Oh, and lots of spectators who watch their performance."

"Knife-throwers, huh?" Marisa was already envisioning Sakuya juggling her knives in front of a big audience and throwing them at the apples placed on heads of each of the Scarlet Devil Mansion residents. "What about magicians?"

"Yes, there are magicians too sometimes, but not quite like you, Marisa." Kyouichi answered her question.

"Not like me? Hmm... I see…" and a mental image of Alice and Patchouli putting on a magic show sprouted up in her mind. "What about shrine maidens then?"

That question made both outsiders burst out in laughter. "I'd really like to see one in a circus performance, haha~!" Soudai's imagination has gone wild as he tried to imagine what sort of performance a shrine maiden would do there.

"A circus is no place for a shrine maiden, I'm afraid." Rinnosuke, who had a bit more insight on the matter, explained the truth to her.

"Hmph… That's discrimination." Reimu pouted, but her mind still pondered the nature of other performers which she wasn't familiar with. "What are clowns, by the way?"

"Clowns? There's one good example over there…" Kyouichi jokingly pointed ahead at Soudai's back.

"I don't get it." Reimu confusedly stared at the young man riding a bicycle and dragging a cart behind it.

"Ha! If I'm a circus clown, then you're a circus shrine maiden." Soudai returned the blow to Kyouichi where it hurt.

"So my crossdressing incident is going to drag with my name for the rest of my life, huh?"

"You'll have it engraved on your headstone, no doubt." Kyouichi's senior kept on peeling his old wound.

"Over my dead body! Oh, wait…"

At least the mood of the two outsiders remained light-hearted for the remainder of the way to Kazemura. At least until they reached the village were their minds not concerned by the fact that they were transporting enough explosives to blow them back to the outside world. Or to the Netherworld, for that matter…

* * *

"Kyouichi~! Won't you switch places with me again~?" Soudai asked the same question as he asked a couple of hours ago, when the group was taking their lunch break. The long and slightly uphill drag of the heavy cart has robbed him of nearly all his strength.

"We should be there any minute now." Kyouichi informed him, giving him a hint that he was not going to do him a favor. "We'll just cross through this forest path and the first clearing we'll see will be our goal."

"And how long is this forest road?" the older outsider panted for air was he was reluctantly keeping the bicycle in motion.

"I don't know; I haven't measured it. But at our current pace, it shouldn't take us more than 10 to 15 minutes to reach Kazemura."

"I want to take a break~!" he yelped in protest, but proceeded onwards regardless.

The long trip was starting to wear even the two girls down and they couldn't wait for the moment when they could sit down again.

"I'm really not used to such long walks." Marisa commented as her feet were giving her an unpleasant ache.

Reimu was not excluded from the list of exhausted people and she wondered herself why she hasn't at least floated the whole time instead of walking. Of course, even floating required some effort, and Reimu was already beyond the point when flying still seemed like a good idea.

Rinnosuke was probably the only one who didn't complain. His youkai heritage probably helped him fight away the fatigue better than his human peers, or perhaps it simply wasn't in his nature to complain about things in the first place.

"I see light ahead! Tell me that's Kazemura ahead of us; please tell me it's Kazemura…" Soudai followed the light at the end of the forest path like a moth.

"That it is." Rinnosuke confirmed his assumptions.

"Woohooo~!"Asakura caught a new breath and hurried towards the goal like a racer on the home stretch.

"Heh. See? You weren't so tired after all!" Kyouichi called after him.

"Maybe he wasn't, but I sure am." sounded Marisa, who was now trying to ease the pain by stepping on with the sides of her feet instead of the soles.

Fortunately for her and for her tired friend, the small mining village was indeed just a few hundred meters away.

* * *

The thick pines have suddenly given way to the daylight and the quintet of four humans and one half-youkai was finally able to gaze upon the village of the winds. The quarry of Kazermura was now covering an area larger than the living district of the village itself. For Kyouichi this was his second visit, but the quarry has changed significantly since he had last been here.

"This… is Kazemura?" Soudai uttered a rhetorical question as he first gazed on this human/yama-bito settlement. From the expression on his face, one could easily deduce he was in a mental state somewhere between impressed and disappointed.

"At long last!" Marisa was glad that her painful walk has finally come to an end.

"Kazemura…" Kyouichi stopped to have a good look at the whole village from a panoramic view. It certainly didn't look the same as he remembered it. "You've changed."

"Changed?" Soudai puzzledly tilted his head. "Come to think of it, even Human Village has changed."

"Right. The wall..."

"I just want to sit down for now." Reimu expressed her desire as bluntly as she usually did.

"Ah, the fair village of Kazemura." Rinnosuke greeted the settlement with a slight bow. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"When have you last been here, Kourin?" Marisa eyed him quizzically.

After a thoughtful pause, Rinnosuke shrugged. "A couple of years ago. I never really had any reason to venture into this lonely part of Gensokyo since then. Until now..."

"And may I ask what was your reason for your last visit?" the blonde girl in black and white outfit became curious.

"Business…" the half-youkai gave her a brief cryptic answer.

"It might have been a lonely part of Gensokyo until recently, but it certainly doesn't look that way now." Kyouichi was just making a comparison between his memorized image of the quarry village and the scenery spreading in front of him right now. Many things made him think that he has visited some different place. The Kazemura that he was gazing at now was reminding him more of a war camp than a quarry village due to the substantial white wolf tengu presence. Even though he has never seen these subspecies of the tengu race before, their distinguishing red tokin hats were enough for him to figure who they were.

"What's with all the tengu soldiers?" he looked at Reimu, who surely had some insight about the situation in this village.

"Do I really need to explain?" she muttered and yawned. The tiresome walk from Kourindou to this place didn't turn her into an ideal conversation partner. "I thought it was pretty clear. Lots of fairies, big creepy ruins full of vengeful spirits, repeated fairy attacks on the village and the surrounding areas... Kazemura has now unofficially become the center of Gensokyo. Or its attention at least."

"And here we come, going to make even more noise." Soudai humorously commented on their plan to perform a series of test detonations of the explosives they have brought.

As the group was walking the last few meters of the dirt path before entering the village itself, Kyouichi's eyes drifted away to the second largest building and its wooden sign hanging over its renovated entrance.

"Ah, I remember this tavern… The Hearth, eh? I never even bothered to notice what it was called until now. And by the looks of it, it appears to have changed as well."

The Hearth, as the one and only tavern in the village was called, has undergone partial reconstruction, which was obvious from its facade and roof tiles.

"This became the village's final bastion during the last fairy attack." Marisa explained. "It changed, because those little bastards have made quite a mess here. They even started a fire in here. If it wasn't for that downpour that night, this tavern would probably become a pile of ash. Heh… now its name is all the more symbolic." she chuckled at the irony.

Kyouichi sighed heavily and opened the tavern door to step inside, only to be grabbed by the back of his shirt by the Hakurei shrine maiden.

"Hey, where do you think you're going? The quarry pit is that way." she pointed her thumb backwards.

With an incredulous face marked by exhaustion he turned around. "You can't be serious."

"That's my line. We haven't bothered trekking such a distance so you could go to a tavern. We have work to do."

"We just walked over 50 kilometers under the scorching summer sun. Weren't you whining about wanting to sit down just a second ago? Let's sit down here and have some refreshing drinks."

"I do want to sit down, but not here. We're going to Patchouli's tent."

"Patchouli-sama? She's here?"

"Of course, she's here! She's the one doing research of those creepy ruins. Now stop wasting time and follow me." Reimu commanded and marched towards the mentioned tent at the edge of the excavation site.

Marisa followed her without a word and so did Rinnosuke. Seeing as how the odds were against him, Kyouichi reluctantly turned away from the tavern and headed off towards the tent like everyone else. There were many tents surrounding the whole quarry pit, most of them bearing the hallmarks of the tengu defense force. Their shape very much resembled the tokin hats that every tengu in Gensokyo wore. The white flags flying on their tops depicted a single red aralia leaf – the same symbol the tengu soldiers had on their shields. Another group of tents were those of Kazemura's laborers. Reimu and her companions were just heading towards one of those many unmarked civilian tents. After poking her head inside, the shrine maiden let herself in. Marisa and Rinnosuke silently shrugged and followed her in.

"Can I leave all the... cargo just standing here?" asked Soudai as he was getting off the bicycle.

Since everyone was already inside the tent, he didn't get an answer. He left the bike and the cart standing in front of the tent and entered. He found himself in a crowded and dimly illuminated tent where Reimu was already having a talk with a purple-haired girl – Patchouli Knowledge. The center of the tent was reserved for a large stone slab marked with mysterious symbols of unknown meaning.

"Uh… hello." he greeted everyone inside and waited for what was going to happen.

"I see." Patchouli nodded understandingly and quickly eyed all of her visitors. "If you want, you can put your things here for the time being. I'll let my team know you're here."

"Good. Then we can start testing Rinnosuke's explosive clay." Reimu contently sat down to rest her tired feet. Others followed suit.

"Ahh… Now nobody is going to make me stand up any time soon." Soudai moaned as he was sitting down.

Patchouli left her tent and returned with two girls – Hieda no Akyuu and her own devil familiar only known as Koakuma. The crimson-haired youkai brought something that looked like a serving tray with several bowls.

"Koakuma, please serve our guests. They must be exhausted after walking all the way here."

"Yes." the devil girl nodded and passed a bowl of soup to each of the visitors.

"Oh, hi, Akyuu-chan." Kyouichi greeted the other shorter girl. She seemed to have noticed him only now.

"Kyouichi-san?" she widened her eyes out of surprise. "What are you doing here? And Asakura-san too…"

"Hasn't Reimu told you yet?"

"Not at all… Reimu-san?" she glanced over at the shrine maiden with a look of anticipation.

But Reimu was already eating the soup and didn't seem to have heard Akyuu's question.

"We're here to crack the rock encasing the ruins using Kourin's clay bomb from outside world, ze. It's gonna be a blast! Literally…" Marisa grinned as she replied in Reimu's stead. "Oh, thanks for the soup, Koa."

"Wait… what?!" the shocked little chronicler raised her eyebrows. "This isn't something that we have discussed. Reimu-san! What is the meaning of this?"

Now Akyuu's voice could not be ignored by the Hakurei shrine maiden. She swallowed the last spoonful of the soup and wiped her lips crudely with the back of her hand.

"When it involves a quick means to incident resolution, I don't really feel obliged to discuss it with anyone. I do what I have to do."

"I have no word in the matters of excavation or preservation of historical heritage of Kazemura, but I believe we should first get an approval for this action from the people in charge. Perhaps even the village elder."

"Patchouli is in charge of the excavation team. They have been trying to break through the rock for weeks. I think they'd agree with it."

"Yes, you THINK, Reimu-san, but using an explosive device from the outside world in a quarry pit full of workers… We'll probably need everyone to clear off to avoid possible danger."

"Then we'll let them know. Rinnosuke, Kyouichi, Soudai, prepare the clay. We're going down to the quarry."

It was really amazing how Reimu could completely shrug off any signs of tiredness when she was focused on solving an incident.

Kyouichi didn't really feel like he wanted to part with the comfort of his current seated position and gave Reimu the same look as Akyuu when she learned about the shrine maiden's plan. "What? Now?"

"No, in a month!" she retorted with bitter sarcasm. "Of course now!"

"But we just got here…"

"You want to be back in the village before sundown?" Reimu asked both Kyouichi and Soudai. After getting their confirmatory nods, she crossed her arms. "Then get up and don't talk back! I want that wrecked temple to be accessible in an hour. If you do that, Marisa here will kindly fly you back to the village."

"Huh?" Marisa turned her face around with a noodle dangling from her mouth. "Why me?"

"Because you have the broom. Now get to work, people!"

"I ought to start charging fares for my broom rides…" she muttered and finished the content of her bowl with a loud slurping sound.

"Come on, move it! We don't have all day!" Reimu spurred everyone to activity.

With utmost reluctance reflected on his facial expression, Kyouichi stood up and lazily walked out of the tent. "Sheesh… I almost feel like at work on the farm…"

"Tell me about it." Soudai felt the same way about the bossiness of the Hakurei shrine maiden.

* * *

"But I guess… umph… we haven't come here for sightseeing." Kyouichi huffed as he lifted one of the metal crates from the cart and put it on the ground. "We'll just take one for now."

"Okay, Reimu-san, which way down to the quarry?" Soudai turned to Reimu who just exited the tent along with Patchouli.

"Follow me." Patchouli took the lead and guided them towards the one of the pit's access ramps. "Unfortunately, our service crane has broken down recently, so we're going to have to carry everything manually until the workers finish building a new one." she added as she noticed Kyouichi lugging the heavy crate.

"WE? You mean the cheap labor force from the outside world…" he grumpily murmured under his nose.

"What's with all the rope around the whole pit?" Soudai observed the shimenawa barrier.

"That's for our safety. And it will be in our best interest not to destroy it by accident." answered Reimu.

"I think I finally understand why Reimu-san dragged you two here." Akyuu noted after she put two and two together. "Just be careful with handling that… clay of yours."

"That's like telling a soldier going into battle to be careful not to die…" Kyouichi was still paranoid and skeptical about testing an explosive, which he didn't even know how to handle.

"Remember, Kyou, we're just here for the supervision." Soudai reminded him. "Let Kourin here do the dangerous stuff." he said nonchalantly as he tapped the half-youkai's shoulder.

Rinnosuke's poker face perfectly managed to conceal his inner excitement combined with a healthy dose of fear.

Kyouichi ignored Soudai's remarks, as he was distracted by admiring the progress of the quarry workers as well as the uncovered ruins themselves. The six tall obelisks and the dominant temple tower were now stretching over ten meters in height from the bottom of the pit. "Impressive progress that they've made here…"

"The tempo of progress is not by far as impressive as it was a few weeks ago." said the youkai librarian. "All thanks to the uncommonly sturdy layer of rock and obsidian that divides us from reaching the lowermost part of the temple yard and from gaining access to the temple itself."

"What sort of temple is it anyway?" asked the outsider. "It looks like something from another country. Or another world…"

"We don't know yet. But we were able to decipher some of the symbols."

"Have you now?"

"Yes, that large stone slab you saw in my tent comes from one of those six obelisks. It contains what appears to be an ancient calendar and the names of several celestial bodies that the builders of this temple used to effectively pinpoint one's current position. Each of the obelisks contains different coordinates of places all over the world. I have no idea what these places represent, as none of them appear to correspond to any cities in the outside world. One of the coordinates even pointed me to a place somewhere in the middle of Pacific Ocean."

"A temple built by an advanced culture that nobody's heard of?" Kyouichi, as a promising student of anthropology would find such a discovery nearly unbelievable.

"Sounds highly improbable, doesn't it? But perhaps it isn't a coincidence that it was discovered here, in Gensokyo, where forgotten things and concepts thrive."

"Are you saying that it was spirited away here from outside? Just like your mansion?"

"I'm working with several theories and that is only one of them, yes. If you take your time to look at the history of "building relocations", you'll notice two types. One – precise relocation of a particular structure from the outside world, such as the Poltergeist Mansion, and two – landscape relocations, where a building was moved to Gensokyo with a part of its original surrounding landscape, such as our mansion or the Moriya Shrine. Of course, the largest-scale relocation that occurred in Gensokyo's post-barrier history was the relocation of Mount Yatsugatake, more commonly known as Youkai Mountain. It's almost hard to believe that the tallest mountain in Gensokyo hasn't been here longer than 125 years. If our temple indeed comes from the outside, then I'm guessing whoever worked on its relocation must have placed it here on purpose, intentionally in the middle of a quarry pit, where it would be only a matter of time before someone discovers it. And if that's the case, they didn't want the temple's presence to be obvious from the start. Perhaps they were waiting for something. If this theory is incorrect, then we're dealing with a civilization that once inhabited these lands. One interesting fact – the symbols on the ruins contain bits and pieces of pictograms and alphabetical systems of dozens of different world languages, mixed into one literary system with its unique syntax. From this I assume it may also be a civilization, which predates all other civilizations."

"Great. Any other theories?" Kyouichi still thirsted for insight.

"Last, but not least, there's a possibility that the building does not originate from any particular civilization, but rather a cult."

"A cult?"

"Yes. A small secluded group of highly skilled architects and intellectuals from different parts of the world, having highly… unorthodox beliefs. Many times in history it were such secret cults that have developed their own ways of communication with its members, which may be considered as the prototype of modern encryption."

Patchouli once again showed that her surname was not just a coincidence. But Reimu and her companions have not come here to learn about history. At least not from Patchouli's lecture. Today they were here to make a literal breakthrough. One that would hopefully help them end the vengeful spirit outbreak once and for all.

Once down at the bottom, Patchouli suggested an area in the pit that was the most suitable for testing the explosives. "We can conduct the experiment here." She stopped at a flat area with a narrow fissure, not deeper than 10 centimeters. The crack in the rocky bottom trailed off from the quarry's wall for about 5 meters towards the nearest obelisk.

Kyouichi could finally take a break and put the metal crate down on the ground, doing it as carefully and gently as he could.

"Kyou… It's C4, not nitroglycerin." Soudai poked fun at his friend's overly cautious approach.

"Then why don't you handle it? I'll watch you guys from a nice safe distance."

"Okay, you two," Reimu crossed her arms and nodded, "help Rinnosuke set up the first clay bomb, Akyuu and I will go and tell all the workers to clear out the quarry pit."

Looking around himself, Kyouichi could still see dozens of busy workers, scholars and tengu soldiers occupying almost every square meter of the pit's bottom.

"Honestly, you should have told everyone to evacuate the pit a bit sooner…" grumbled the outsider as he opened the lid of the crate. Rinnosuke put down his backpack and took out a smaller box.

Reimu and Akyuu have already left to warn everyone to leave the quarry; while Marisa took her broom to observe the obelisks of the ruins form all angles. Only the two humans, one half-youkai and a youkai sorceress remained in the testing area.

"Okay, so how much of this stuff should we use?" Kyouichi asked his teammates.

The explosives were all packed in small palm-size blocks, weighing about 300 grams.

"One charge, for starters?" Soudai likewise wasn't too certain about the amount to use for the test.

"That's a bit too much for just a test detonation. How about we used just half of it?"

Meanwhile, Rinnosuke unclosed the lid of his smaller box and revealed that it was filled with small pin-shaped metallic devices. "Know that these are all the triggering devices we have. If we want to use only half of a charge and get rid of all the explosives, we'd eventually have to mix that half with one full charge."

Kyouichi hummed and spent a moment, considering several options and scenarios. Then he shrugged and took the first charge out of the crate. "Very well, we'll use a full one then. He unpacked the aluminum and cardboard wrapper and started shaping the clay-like matter so it would fit into the fissure in the ground. Once done, he stood up from his crouching position, took a few steps backwards and beckoned at Rinnosuke. "Okay, your turn now."

"Alright, here goes…" he knelt down to the planted charge and inserted the triggering device into the clay. "Okay, that was easy. Now all we need to do is to…"

"STOOOOOOOP~!" a loud yell from behind interrupted his sentence and startled all the members of the group. A hulking yama-bito foreman was charging towards them, waving his arms in the air. Reimu hovered right behind him in an attempt to calm him down, but her voice was drowned out by his bellowing.

"Stop doing whatever you are doing!" he added once he reached the testing area.

"Oh, great…" Patchouli sighed with annoyance as the quarry foreman made his entrance.

"Who permitted you to perform dangerous experiments at this dig site?!"

"Um… Hakurei Reimu-san?" Soudai asked in an almost provoking, yet jesting manner.

The mentioned shrine maiden arrived just a few seconds after the yama-bito, still hoping to convince him. "This may help us uncover the ruins much faster."

"And possibly damage or destroy this magnificent structure?! Out of question!"

"Wait... Hold on…" Kyouichi interrupted the tall youkai and glanced over at Reimu. "You're trying to tell me you don't even have permission from the village?!"

"Phe…" she replied with a disdainful gesture. "We are here to resolve an incident and keeping Gensokyo safe from vengeful spirits takes precedence over preservation of historical heritage."

"Unless you show me the same words written on a paper signed by our elder, you're not going to do any of your "tests" in this quarry pit!"

"You make us drag our asses over 60 kilometers with a cart of explosives on a hot summer day, just so we could be stopped and yelled at by this guy?" Kyouichi continued staring accusingly at the miko while pointing his thumb backwards at the foreman.

Reimu opened her mouth to counter, but Kyouichi was already grinning wide and on his leave from the pit. "Well, if you somehow manage to convince him, you know where to find me…"

And off he went to the place where he wanted to go as soon as he entered the village.

"Hey, wait for me~!" Soudai snapped out of his reverie and followed him.

"Off to the Hearth, are they?" Marisa finally descended to the ground after she got bored of observing the symbols on the obelisks. "And I was looking forward to seeing some fireworks here…"

"Look, the temple has survived a volcanic eruption. The explosives we've brought here are only going to shatter the rock encasing it." Patchouli tried to reason with him.

"Patchouli-san…" the towering youkai lowered his voice when he spoke to her. It appeared he had some respect for the sorceress, as she was the one in charge of archeology team. "With all due respect, I cannot let you do this. Not without the proper authorization from the chief. He'd have my head if I was to let you do as you please."

"Then I'll go talk to him." the librarian decided.

"I doubt he'll agree with your idea, but if he does give you permission, who am I to oppose his decision?"

Patchouli didn't need any more time to think or words to hear. She floated out of the quarry and headed for the elder's house. Reimu and Marisa exchanged their wordless glances and decided to wait for Patchouli's return in the comfortable shade of her tent.

Akyuu and Rinnosuke followed suit and walked all the way back to the surface level. And just as they were on their way to rejoin Reimu and Marisa in the tent, they noticed a caravan wagon just arriving to the village, escorted by a handful of Ryuuken from Human Village.

Apart from a few merchants, two female figures have stepped out. A tall, long-haired woman and a short girl with light-red hair, not looking any older than Akyuu.

"So, they're finally here." Akyuu apparently recognized the pair of females, and so did Rinnosuke.

"Kamishirasawa-sensei… And the Motoori child… It doesn't look like they're here on a field trip."

"Indeed, they aren't." the smiling Akyuu confirmed with a nod. "I asked them to come here after all."

* * *

Soudai and Kyouichi have just finished their menu when Reimu Hakurei entered and headed straight towards the table where they were seated. "I hope you two aren't drunk yet. You've got some supervising to do."

"Don't worry, we only had some food and non-alcoholic drinks." Soudai reassured her.

"Wait, are you saying you got the elder's permission?" Kyouichi raised his brow.

"Yup. Patchouli took care of it. The quarry pit is being evacuated as we speak. You and Rinnosuke-san have the go signal from the elder."

"Patchouli-san is amazing…" Kyouichi had to admit.

Reimu waited for the two humans to pay for their menus and they left the tavern together.

"Okay, let's get this over with." Soudai sighed as he walked out of the establishment and gazed at the gaping hole in the ground surrounded by a rope barrier and dozens of tents.

"The other day you mentioned you would provide us with some sort of magical countermeasures." Kyouichi reminded Reimu.

"And I also mentioned how this area weakens all magic, haven't I?"

"What's your point?"

"The enchantments that I, Marisa and Patchouli can bestow upon you will not be very effective, so you ought to still be careful down there. Let's go to Patchy's tent first."

"Better than nothing." Soudai affirmed and followed Reimu's lead.

As soon as they entered the provisory housing of the elemental sorceress, they widened their eyes and parted their lips.

"Keine-sensei?!" Kyouichi uttered at the sight of his teacher.

"Oh, if it isn't my two problematic transfer students. Good afternoon." she greeted them calmly, although surprise was evident in her facial expression as well. "I never would have expected to see you here."

"That's our line!" Soudai butted in. Keine's presence in Kazemura and her encounter with the two outsiders was not a good sign. Keeping their plans of leaving Gensokyo in secrecy was now extremely hard.

"I'm a renowned historian, Asakura-san." she stated matter-of-factly. "Is my work in an archeological research team such a great surprise to you?"

After silencing both outsiders with her question, she asked another. "Now will you tell me what business you have in Kazemura?"

"We're here on Reimu's request." Kyouichi began explaining carefully.

"Is that right? Why would Reimu-san ask two young outsiders to come to a remote quarry village? I don't mean to doubt your knowledge about the history of the outside world, but I highly doubt you have sufficient knowledge about Gensokyo's history to be of any value to this team. Or is there another reason for your presence here?"

"You'll see that in a minute." Reimu saved to duo of outsiders from giving an explanation. "Let's not waste any time and start with the warding enchantments. Patchouli, Marisa, give me a hand here, will you?"

"Sure, sure…"

It wasn't long before the three girls have each cast a couple of their spells and incantations upon the outsiders as well as Rinnosuke.

"I think that's all we can do for you. The pit is clear of all workers and tengu guards. Go and finish what you started."

"Wait." a young red-eyed girl with her red hair tied into two side ponytails adorned by a pair of decorative bells halted their leave. "It would be better if we make recordings of all the symbols on all the monuments before the testing, just in case the explosion would damage or destroy them."

"I already recorded everything into my journal." Patchouli replied from her table as her eyes were skimming the pages of a thick book.

"In that case, you have our permission to go." the young girl addressed those words to the three males in the tent.

"And who might you be?" Kyouichi didn't grace her with a very nice greeting or glance. He has never seen this child before and he couldn't stop wondering what she was doing in the tent, acting like someone important.

"Oh, that's just Kosuzu-chan." Reimu waved her hand nonchalantly, as if the two of them have known each other for a long time.

"Ehh… yeah, I can see that." said Kyouichi after he noticed the girl's name written on the front part of her yellow apron, which she wore over her red and white checkered kimono. "And who is she?"

"Ah, sorry." the girl smiled sweetly and greeted the outsiders with a bow. "Yes, I'm Kosuzu. Motoori Kosuzu. I've come from Human Village after I got a letter from Hieda-san, requesting for assistance in decryption."

"Motoori?" Kyouichi repeated her surname and widened his eyes as the name seemed to have rung his bell. "Motoori, Motoori… Wait. The same Motoori who have recently established a book renting store in the village?"

The girl now smiled even sweeter. "Yes."

"The same Motoori who have replaced the Starlight Glyph with Suzunaan?" he asked her with a slightly bitter-sounding tone.

"The very same." Kosuzu confirmed and her smile faded away a little. "Is there a problem?"

"It's nothing." the outsider gave an avoidant reply, but in his stead, Akyuu took the liberty of giving the redhead a little insight.

"Ah, that's Ishimaru Kyouichi-san. He used to work as Shimizu-san's assistant in the Starlight Glyph bookstore."

Kosuzu's face brightened up with an expression of understanding. "Are you angry at my family for setting up shop in your former workplace?"

After a longer pause with no hint of emotions on his face, Kyouichi slowly shook his head. "No, I'm not. I ended my contract before the Glyph closed down. I would have lost my job even if I stayed."

"I see… And have you ever visited our shop?"

"I didn't. I have no reason to buy or rent books anymore. When Daisuke Shimizu closed down his shop and retired, I had no interest or reason to visit it again."

"Unfortunately, my parents employ me as a part-time clerk and assistant and are not looking for any more employees."

"That's alright… If we hadn't been working on the farms as our new-part time, I don't know how we'd make our plan to leave Gens…" he suddenly stopped himself, and upon realizing his slip, he covered his mouth with his palm. But it was already a bit too late.

"What plans? To leave what?" Keine Kamishirasawa has already caught the crucial part and refused to let Kyouichi leave the tent without getting an answer.

"She would have figured it out eventually anyway." Soudai sighed resignedly, prompting Kyouichi to spill the truth to their half-youkai teacher.

His older friend was right. It was no use trying to deny the truth any longer. In simple and plain Japanese, he and Soudai have revealed their secrets to Keine, and explained their true reason for coming to Kazemura.

"So you were working all this time to transport all your purchased supplies from the village to the Hakurei Shrine without drawing the attention of the militia?" she stared incredulously at her two "transfer students" after hearing out their story.

"That's right. And we have everything we need. But then I made another slip in front of Reimu-san, just as I made in front of you a while ago… That's how she learned about Rinnoskue's interesting inventory and saw it as a possible way to speed up the unearthing of this… temple. This is the one last favor that we need to do for her and then she'll let us go home. We'll depart by the end of this month. Unless you'll use this information to stop us, Keine-sensei…"

"Stop you? Why would I ever want to do that?" she failed to understand the reason for Kyouichi's worries as well as the fact why the outsiders have been keeping this information a secret from her this entire time. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"We were afraid, Keine-sensei." Soudai replied. "If you had the same opinion as our honored elder Fukukane about the potential dangers of leaving Gensokyo through the shrine's gateway, you could easily thwart our plans by reporting this to the Ryuuken."

"And we'd be stuck here indefinitely like prisoners." Kyouichi complemented his friend's explanation.

"Now I understand why your grades have gradually worsened."

"Hehe…" Soudai chuckled. "Grades… We never really cared much about those."

"It's interesting that out of all the transfer students, only you two have started noticeably slacking in your studies."

"I don't understand what my fellow classmates hope to achieve by having good grades either, Keine-sensei." Kyouichi jested about his other friends from the outside world. "It's not like their results here will be of any value when they return to their homes, their schools or their jobs."

"I guess I won't be able to convince you to change your ways regarding your education until the 1st of Kannazuki." the teacher giggled weakly. "In any case, you outsiders have my support. Your willingness to return home is admirable. May your road to Tokyo be safe."

"Thank you for understanding us, Keine-sensei."

"Let us first hope that our little experiment in the quarry pit will be safe." Soudai concluded the conversation. He turned around and together with Rinnosuke and Kyouichi they left Patchouli's tent and descended down to the bottom of the dig site.

* * *

Nobody but the three of them was there with them. Hundreds of curious heads of the local villagers and the tengu soldiers have watched them from the edge of the pit. The explosive charge was already placed and equipped with a triggering device. The final stage of the test required Rinnosuke to reactivate his jury-rigged detonator. To their surprise, the quarry workers have already built up some provisory protective barriers around the testing area. Wood, sand and gravel were the main materials used in their hasty construction. Kyouichi wasn't too sure if these barricades would be able to withstand the explosion, but at least someone was smart enough to set them up just in case. Both outsiders have already heard on multiple occasions that the whole area of Kazemura was dampening the effects of magic and quickly draining divine energy. Perhaps that was the part of the reason why Reimu was in such a hurry. Staying here for a prolonged period of time could rob her of her powers, which she'd have to wait for days to recover. Having a multitude of protective spells cast on them had at least a little positive psychological effect on the minds of the outsiders. The magic might have been weakened, but at least they were calmer and a calm mind is less likely to make a mistake.

"All set." Rinnosuke announced as soon as he plugged a 9 volt battery to the detonator and its button began glowing red. This was a cue for the outsiders to seek shelter at the opposite side of the pit. A half-circle pile of heavy crates loaded with excess soil and rocks was already waiting for them there.

Once all three of them were in the safety of the provisory bunker, Kyouichi gave Rinnosuke the go signal and the half-youkai pushed the button.

A distant, but loud boom has reached their ears, being an unfailing sign of the explosive's detonation. When they poked their heads out of the cover, the trio of self-appointed "demolition experts" could see a large cloud of smoke, dust and sand swirling at the opposite wall of the pit. Small rocks and gravel was still falling down after the blast has ejected them into the air and the crowd of curious onlookers was watching it all from above.

"Success!" Soudai shouted as he raised his arm victoriously.

"We can't really know that yet." Rinnosuke chilled him down. "We must see whether the explosion has managed to set some of that hard rocky layer loose. One of you, grab a pickaxe."

"Got it." Kyouichi took one that was lying on the ground. The quarry might have been cleared out by its staff, but some have not thought to take all their work equipment with them. Finding a digging tool barely took any effort.

By the time they reached the test zone, the dusty cloud has settled down a bit, making the epicenter of the blast visible. A few curious individuals have gathered the courage to float over to take a closer look. While some of the spectators were impressed by the explosion, others were disappointed by its "weak" force.

"That was it?" Marisa's voice preceded her circular descent on her flying broom. Naturally, Reimu tagged along with her. "I expected something more powerful, honestly…"

"Hey, as long as it gets the job done, I don't care." said the shrine maiden.

Even Patchouli gathered the courage to fly over down to the bottom, but as soon as she landed, the dusty environment made her start coughing.

"I'm not sure if this is the best place for you right now, Patchouli-san." Kyouichi warned her, but the sorceress refused to leave.

Armed with the pickaxe, the outsider slowly entered the blast zone. The barricades that surrounded it took some damage, but were still standing. However, repeated detonations would surely destroy them. But what interested Kyouichi more than damage done to the barricades was the effect of the explosion on the rocky bottom. The fissure became a small crater and several visible crack lines were spreading from its center.

"Hmm… not bad." Rinnosuke assessed the explosive's effect. "Try prying the rock around the crater."

Kyouichi promptly jammed the narrow end of the pickaxe into the crack and pulled the handle to set the mass of rock lose. With some effort, a large piece of rock was separated from the ground. "I say it did pretty well for a test explosion."

He tried to lever another piece of the rocky mass with his borrowed pickaxe. This time, both his and Soudai's strength was necessary to heave the flat boulder and flip it over, but they have shown to everyone that the explosives had the potential to ease the work in the quarry by several degrees.

"Let's pry that one over there too." Soudai pointed at one of the wider crack lines that stretched back to the wall of the pit.

Without thinking, Kyouichi plunged the blade of the pickaxe into the narrow fissure, and together with Soudai they began prying it. It was exhausting for both of them, but the crackling that the rock made was a sign that it was slowly being moved.

"Shouldn't we break it up a little first?"

"We almost have it lose, Kyouichi, just keep prying."

A couple of louder cracks later, Soudai was again tapping his friend's shoulder. "Uhh… Kyou?"

"Hm?" the long-haired outsider looked over his shoulder and saw Soudai pointing at a section of the quarry's wall. Small clouds of swirling dust appeared around the edges of a particularly large piece of rock and both humans could see as the crack lines were slowly getting wider before their eyes. The ground trembled lightly as the huge mass of rock was slowly beginning to shift from the wall. Definitely not a good omen for anyone standing nearby…

"Holy shit, man! Ruuuuuun!" Kyouichi shouted at his friend and everyone who was currently standing near the testing area. He didn't even make two steps away from the danger zone when the huge boulder from the quarry's wall came crumbling down with about as much noise as the explosion that preceded its fall. Kyouichi lost his balance and fell face-down on the ground, hearing as several smaller boulders missed his body by just several centimeters. He thought this would be his end, but by some miraculous turn of events none of the falling rocks has caused him any injury. With his heart racing from the adrenaline rush, he rose from the ground, shook his head like a dog to rid himself of at least some of the dust that covered him, and noticed that both Rinnosuke and Soudai emerged from the rubble pile unscathed. Reimu and Marisa were fast enough to float away from the landslide and so was Patchouli.

Nobody could believe that this dangerous situation would end without a casualty, except the elemental sorceress, whose face bore a suspiciously calm smile.

"Oh my god, I'm still alive…" Soudai was just processing this fact.

"Me too…" Kyouichi was still catching his breath.

"I was unharmed as well." Rinnosuke was looking all over his body, but the only harm he has sustained was to his clothing.

"How… is that even possible?" wondered Kyouichi when he finally found enough strength in his legs to stand upright.

"Earth ward." Patchouli's quiet murmur reached his ears. "It worked."

"Say what?" Soudai gazed at her like at an angel from heaven.

"In my tent." she reminded them. "I cast five different warding spells to protect you from the elements: earth, water, fire, wood and metal. I didn't bother casting the Moon and Sun wards, though. I'm glad the ward lasted at least up to this critical point. As you no doubt heard, this place doesn't allow for spells to last very long."

"Patchouli-sama is really amazing…" Kyouichi said for the second time today. "We owe you one."

"I think we better leave the unearthing to the professionals from now on." Soudai declared as he distanced himself from the wall out of caution.

"I believe I've learned how these explosives work." said the half-youkai Rinnosuke. "Apart from this minor… setback, I think we can declare the result of this test as a success."

"Let's break through this rock and let the sun shine on the whole temple then." Kyouichi remembered his part of the bargain with Reimu and was still determined to stay and supervise the handling of explosives for as long as it was necessary.

* * *

Not long after that, the quarry pit was bustling with workers once more. Rinnosuke, Kyouichi and Soudai were making sure that the explosives were being placed and armed properly and that nobody was nearby when they went off. The yama-bito diggers had no problems breaking the shattered rocks apart and moving them out of the pit, but it was clear to everyone that getting into the temple within one hour, as Reimu asked them to, was more impossible than Princess Kaguya's 5 requests.

"We are not going to return to Human Village today, are we?" Soudai asked Kyouichi during a short break.

"What?! Speak louder, I can't hear you!" Kyouihci's ears were becoming insensitive to the sound after over a dozen detonations in the quarry pit.

"I said, we're not returning to the village today!" the older one repeated louder.

"So it seems! There's still a lot of rock to clear! Those yama-bito don't want to risk detonating the charges too close to any of the obelisks or the tower!"

"Do we even have enough charges to do the job?!"

"I don't know! I have no idea how thick this rock layer is! If there's a softer layer right underneath it, there should be no problem!"

* * *

The sun has set as the day shifted to evening, and despite making significant progress, the quarry workers have still not managed to gain access into the ancient temple. Reimu wasn't very pleased by this outcome, but at least she was less bossy towards the two outsiders. It was a tiring day for everyone, but the thought that they had their goal within their grasp was motivating them to try even harder tomorrow. The outsiders first tried renting rooms in the Hearth tavern, but the establishment had no vacancy. Their only alternative was to settle down in the tent along with everyone else. Fortunately, Patchouli's tent provided enough room for everyone.

"The workers have finally uncovered the roof of the temple's great hall. At this pace, the temple should become accessible tomorrow." Rinnosuke informed the girls about the progress made today.

"Unless its interior is also flooded with the hardened rock mass." Patchouli noted skeptically.

"Damn…" Reimu quietly muttered a curse. Her impatience to get to the bottom of the spirit outbreak was evident even since the start of this day. "They better make it accessible tomorrow, or I'll plant one of those clay bombs on the roof and blast a hole into the temple myself."

"Patience is a virtue, Reimu-san." Patchouli tired to put her mind at ease, but the miko was still stubbornly grumpy for the remainder of the evening.

"Patchouli-sama," Koakuma entered the tent with a thin pile of papers in her hands, "I have finished transcribing the symbols from the recently uncovered lower parts of the obelisks."

The librarian nodded and asked her familiar to put them on her table. "Thank you. Now let's see… This appears it corresponds with the northern wall of the northwestern obelisk… And this one seems to follow the pattern of the southern central one…" she was already fully indulged in her research again.

"May I have a look at those, Patchouli-san?" the young girl Kosuzu suddenly appeared behind her back with begging eyes like those of a puppy.

"You can help me sort them accordingly."

It seemed that Kosuzu was probably the most excited person in the tent as she happily accepted a portion of the pictogram transcriptions from Patchouli. She gently ran her fingertip across the text on the paper, as if she hoped to understand it by touching it.

"Are you familiar with this language, by any chance?" Patchouli asked her.

"No… But we have many different books in our shop that contain similar characters. Some come from the outside world, but I'm not certain about any possible connection between the symbols and the ones in those books."

Patchouli instantly focused her attention at this young human child. "I'd very much like to see those books."

"Ehehe~." Kosuzu let out a sheepish giggle. "I just arrived to this village today. It would take a day or two for me to pick those books up and bring them here."

"Kosuzu-chan is a bibliophile who has read countless books." Akyuu revealed about her friend. "The Motoori family have been known to collect books for decades, specializing in outside-world literature."

"Yes, and our shop contains some rare pieces that are written in languages that nobody has seen before." Kosuzu completed the information.

"I'd really like to see those mentioned books, but I can't leave Kazemura when we're so close to our goal."

A reluctant sigh cut the following silence. "I'll pick it up for ya, Patchy…" Marisa unexpectedly volunteered herself for the task.

"You will?" Patchouli's amethyst eyes have shifted from Kosuzu to the blonde magician.

"Yeah, I will." she replied unconvincingly. "But right now… I need a good rest."

"Yes, we all do." Kyouichi agreed with her. "Once again, thank you for letting us lodge in your tent, Patchouli-san."

"You're welcome." muttered the violet-haired girl without showing much emotion.

"And for saving our lives." Soudai added and stretched himself on one of the bedrolls.

"Don't mention it." said Patchouli in her typical quiet monotone.

Most of the tent's occupants have lain down to sleep, but the lanterns inside remained lit, for Patchouli, Keine, Akyuu and Kosuzu continued in their diligent nightly research until early morning.

* * *

Like in a typical village, the morning came as soon as the first rays of sun have shone through the windows of the houses. Most of the hard-working human and youkai inhabitants were already on their feet and busy with work. The distinctive sound of pickaxe swings against a rocky surface has awakened the outsiders from their slumber.

"Aww, man…" Kyouichi groaned in utter displeasure. "Can't they keep the racket down for a few more hours?"

"That's your wake-up call…" Reimu was already up, sipping hot tea from a cup and eating some light breakfast.

The girls who were reading books and analyzing the transcriptions were all fast asleep.

"It's amazing how they can sleep so peacefully in this noisy environment." Soudai commented after yawning and stretching his arms. "It almost feels like back home." he recalled the nostalgic sounds of a busy street in Tokyo.

"If it's like that where you lived, then you should be used to getting up early." remarked the shrine maiden.

"Being used to it is one thing… *yawn* and liking it is another…" Kyouichi was slowly regaining his dulled senses.

After washing their faces in a barrel of water and having some breakfast that was served to the quarry workers for free, the outsiders along with Rinnosuke have moved down to the quarry to continue and hopefully to finish their job.

"We still have so many crates left." the half-youkai commented as he threw a glance at the cart, still loaded with over 10 crates of C4.

"At least we won't have to worry about running out anytime soon." Soudai looked on the brighter side.

* * *

And he was right. After 8 hours and 45 minutes of hard, noisy, dirty and dangerous work, the villagers of Kazemura could finally put down their pickaxes and raise their arms in a wild celebration. They haven't managed to reach the temple's entrance yet, but they succeeded in gaining access to the temple by uncovering several of its window openings.

"We did it!" echoed the loud cheers all over the village. "We've made history today!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk…" Keine Kamishirasawa watched the cheering villagers from the southern edge of the pit while shaking her head. "Don't they know that history is not created so simply?"

"Who cares about history? I only care about the present!" Reimu instantly floated down to the deepened bottom of the pit and demanded the curious crowd of diggers the move out of her way so she could enter the temple.

"Not so fast, red-white." Patchouli pulled her dress from behind. "The interior of this ancient building may not be the safest place to stick your head into. We should first check if it's stable enough."

"Then hurry!" the miko crossed her arms and gave Patchouli quite a mean stare.

With the way clear, Patchouli, as the leader of the archeological research expedition team, had the unique privilege to be the first person to enter the interior of this mysterious ancient structure. However, she did not dare to step or even float inside just yet. What caught her attention and raised her suspicion to maximum was the fact that the temple's interior was perfectly preserved and untouched by the outside elements.

"How is this possible?" she whispered a question to herself as she peeked inside through one of the windows.

"Patchouli-san, Patchouli-san~! Can I take a peek as well?" Akyuu just trotted down to the deepest section of the quarry where she met the librarian and the shrine maiden.

Patchouli silently stepped aside and allowed both her and Reimu to steal a glance at the darkened interior of the great hall. "Tell me if that's not the strangest thing you've ever seen…"

"Nah, that would be a sober Suika." Reimu replied humorously, but her curiosity and impatience have literally commanded her to look inside. "Hmm… I can't see much inside. It's too dark."

"Exactly!"

"Patchouli-sama…" Akyuu tentatively addressed the sorceress. "If this temple was buried by lava after a volcanic eruption... how come the lava didn't flood the interior through the doors and windows and fill it up with the same rock layer that we had to break through to get here?"

"Exactly!" Patchouli repeated herself. "That's what I'd like to know as well… Marisa would surely be curious to see this too."

However, Marisa was currently in Human Village, as she agreed to bring the books from Suzunaan that Patchouli was so curious about. She left Kazemura together with Kosuzu who would help her find the required books much faster.

"Marisa would first strip this place clean of any valuables." Reimu visualized her best friend's behavior if she was here.

Patchouli cast an illuminating spell into the dark hall, but the floating light orb fizzled out not even 10 seconds after it was cast.

"Amazing magic drain." she uttered with her mouth ajar. "Let's perform a magic scan."

Already prepared, Patchouli took out a small glass ball out of her handbag and observed the interior. "Hmm… nothing."

She shifted the globe to take a look at Reimu, but the magic detection artifact barely picked up any traces of supernatural energy around the shrine maiden's figure.

"What are you looking at?"

"Did you know that you've lost nearly all of your power?"

"What are you talking about?" the miko blinked twice in surprise.

"Try flying."

"We don't have time for your games! I just floated down to the pit a minute ago. Someone pass me a torch! I'm going in."

"I'm serious, Reimu!" Patchouli raised her voice, but the stubborn shrine maiden was already given a torch by one of the prospectors and she approached the temple's window.

The librarian decided to block her path with her body, which under normal circumstances would almost certainly result in angering the shrine maiden to the point of open attack.

"Out of my way, youkai!" she angrily pushed the short youkai girl aside, which, considering Patchouli's poor physical strength, really didn't take much effort.

"Mukyu!"

She was about to squeeze through the narrow opening and float into the darkness, when she came to a shocking revelation that she couldn't fly.

"What the?! Aaaaaaaaaaaaah~!" she slipped and just barely grabbed the edge of the window before she'd fall down to the hall's floor. She dropped her torch and saw it falling for something over 2 seconds before it hit the bottom. A fall from this height could end up ugly for anyone. Now, the desperate shrine maiden was hanging by the edge of the window and screaming for help.

Patchouli was the first to run to her aid, but her body was not built to be able to pull Reimu up.

"Uuuu~. Koakuma~! Heeelp~!" she called for her familiar, hoping that at least she would have enough magic left within her body to save Reimu from falling. The devil girl showed up simultaneously with a group of brave volunteers from the quarry, all of them rushing to Reimu's rescue. In a matter of a few seconds, the Hakurei shrine maiden was pulled out and her feet were once again standing on firm ground.

"W-why…? Why can't I fly?!" she stuttered out, not even mentioning a word of thanks to her rescuers or a word of apology to Patchouli, who wanted to prevent her from hurting herself.

"Because we must be getting closer to the source of whatever is draining magic and divine energy. We must proceed with extreme caution here."

"Hey, Reimu~!" Kyouichi just arrived to the scene after seeing the commotion around the temple's only access. "Are you alright?"

She only lifted her eyes briefly before she looked down at Patchouli again. "I never heard of vengeful spirits being able to siphon divine and magical powers."

"We're dealing with something more than just vengeful spirits and necromancy here. I've read countless magic tomes and every single kind of magic has potential to cast magic disrupting spells. These are generally mastered by only high-tier mages and are rarely ever cast by them, since doing so generally meant for the magician to temporarily lose their power. In battles and wars, magic disruption spells were either used at the beginning of a battle or as a last resort."

"But they wore out eventually, right?" asked Reimu.

"Yes. A few hours at best. But this… If it's a spell, then it must have lasted for millennia… Either that or it was cast recently."

"But Patchouli-san…" Akyuu raised her little hand. "The workers of this quarry have been complaining about being more tired after working here ever since the tips of the obelisks were discovered. And during the fairy attack when we took shelter in the tavern… wasn't Kanako-sama's and Suwako-sama's power drained a little too quickly?"

"Hmm… Indeed." the elemental sorceress hummed in deep thought. "The day when I temporarily lost my voice… We were all worn out rather easily… Although with the amount of fairies we had to deal with, I thought it wasn't anything unusual."

"So it could be that someone or something down there has been constantly keeping a magic disruption spell active all this time." deduced the young, but exceptionally clever little chronicler.

"Great. And we just breached the barrier of rock that has been providing us with at least a little protection from its effect." remarked the displeased shrine maiden. "How am I supposed to exorcise the spirits now?"

"Well, Reimu-san, the first step to that would be to get back behind the shimenawa barrier and wait for your powers to replenish naturally." Akyuu gave her a tongue-in-cheek advice.

And while the 8 times reincarnated chronicler took the whole situation with a grain of humor, Reimu certainly wasn't prepared for being robbed of nearly everything that made her a respected and recognized authority in Gensokyo. Suddenly she started feeling incredibly uncomfortable at the bottom of Kazemura's quarry.

"What would happen if the spirits decided to launch another fairy attack now?! We wouldn't be able to do anything to stop them!"

"That's what the tengu are here for." answered Akyuu.

"The tengu could get drained the same way we were just now. We're all vulnerable!"

"Perhaps so, but neither the fairies would be able to use their powers for too long." Patchouli replied calmly.

"Patchouli-sama~." Koakuma muttered groggily. "I feel a little strange."

"Magic powers and divine powers are being drained away, but youkai powers remain unaffected. Fighting the vengeful spirits here would be impossible. I'm not going to enter this temple without any means to protect myself." the purple-haired librarian declared firmly, despite being greatly tempted to explore the temple before everyone else.

"Hey, girls…" Kyouichi finally managed to weave his way through all the curious quarry workers who have made a circle around the area which led to the unearthed windows. "What's the matter? Aren't you going to explore the ruins?"

"You should really stay away from this place unless you want all your magic… Oh, wait… You don't have any. Well, I guess it's okay then." Reimu tried to warn him, but realized that outsiders such as Kyouichi and Soudai would probably be unaffected.

"You forgot how to fly?"

"All of us did, it seems." Patchouli replied instead of Reimu.

"And how to use spells and danmaku…" the miko complemented her. "Something inside the ruins is leeching our powers away."

"Mind if I…?" he gestured at the great hall's window, meaning if he could take a peek inside.

"You can look, but be extra cautious. You saw what happened to Reimu-san…"

"Ishimaru~!" Soudai's call from behind startled him. "Don't go in there~!"

"I'm not going inside. I just want to take a look."

"Oh… Okay." he shrugged and slowly descended to the dark opening. They both grabbed onto the wall and carefully poked their heads inside.

The faint light from Reimu's fallen torch gave them an idea that the actual floor of the great hall was still at least 12 meters below their level. A safe descent would only be possible with a rope or a really long ladder.

"Is it just me, or is the floor also covered with those odd pictograms?" Soudai tried to focus his eyes at the area that was at least faintly illuminated by the torch's flame.

"Wow…" Kyouichi was still at a loss for words for a moment. "This place looks like something straight out of a freakin' Indiana Jones movie…"

"Hehe, yeah. Or a Tomb Raider game."

After yet another while of silent gazing into the dark hall, Kyouichi finally turned away. "Come on, Soudai. Our work is done here."

"That it is… We've kept our end of the deal, Reimu-san. We've helped you gain access into the ruins, now you keep your part of the promise."

The shrine maiden let out an exasperated sigh. "Alright… You can return to Human Village as soon as Marisa gets here to pick you up…"

As the saying "Speak of the Devil" goes, the mentioned witch has just appeared above their heads circling down on her broom and looking for a place to land.

"And there she is." Patchouli noticed her first as she lifted her chin upwards.

The blonde wasn't alone on her broom. Kosuzu was seated behind her and a large cloth bag was tied to the broom's tail, most likely filled with the requested books from the collection of the Motoori family.

"Maybe someone should give her a warning not to stay here for too long." Reimu suggested.

"Yo, folks~!" she greeted everyone informally as she hopped down from her broom. "I've got all the books you asked for, Patchy~! Oh…" she suddenly paused herself as she noticed the uncovered window. "Oh my… They actually did it? You've gained access into the temple!"

"We did." Patchouli's reply was terse.

"So? What the hell are you all standing around for?! Let's plunder the place!"

Reimu showed her a halting gesture. "Hold it, Marisa. That place is not safe for magic users, gods and shrine maidens. Your plundering will have to wait at least until we figure out a way how to stop its magic disruption effect. No… You go and take these two guys home to Human Village. There's no need for them to stay here any longer." she pointed at Kyouichi and Soudai.

"What? Again?! I've just been in the blasted village an hour ago!" the witch obviously didn't like Reimu's suggestion.

"I second Reimu's suggestion." Patchouli joined the miko's attempt to convince her friend for another flight. "We have a more important mission for you."

"Oh? You call running errands for you "important missions"?"

"You may call it whatever you wish." The librarian shrugged. "The situation calls for the reassembly of the expedition team. Namely Horaisan Kaguya, Saigyouji Yuyuko, Komeiji Satori, and Himekaidou Hatate. Everyone else is optional…"

Marisa stood there like a pillar for a while, unable to find the right words for a witty retort.

And so, Kosuzu decided to negotiate with her as well. "I could let you have one of those books for free for your troubles."

Marisa instantly perked up, but she wasn't convinced so easily. "Just one? How about three?"

"How about none?" Kosuzu showed her negotiation skills by setting a clear limit to her generosity.

"Ugh… alright." she sighed almost as reluctantly as Reimu. "Just let me drop this bag off in your tent." she sat back on her broom and kicked its tail with her heel.

"Huh?" she blinked her eyes puzzledly as the broom seemed to show no reaction to her spurring. "What's wrong?" she tried to take off once more, but nothing happened.

"Oh, perfect… Now even she lost it." said Reimu with a hint of amusement.

"Come on! Fly!" the blonde girl still futilely attempted to wake her sleeping magic broom up, but it seemed the only thing it could be useful for now was sweeping. "Did this thing run out of juice or something?"

The two outsiders who were expecting to hitch a ride to Human Village on Marisa's broom were now getting a little worried about having no choice but to cross the long distance on foot again.

"This is not looking good."

"Crap, I don't want to walk! But I don't want to stay here either…"

Marisa put away her broom and was now trying to fly without its aid, but all she managed to do was jumping. "What the heck has happened to me?!"

"I think you weren't paying attention to what I was saying." said the librarian of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

And the witch wasn't paying attention even now, as she was desperately trying to fly, hopping on one place and flailing her arms like wings. "I wanna fly~! I wanna fly~!"

This image has managed to make Reimu snicker in amusement. For once her face showed an expression other than a frown or scowl today. "Looks like you two are really going to have to walk." she addressed the words to the outsiders, who could have already guessed this fact by now.

"We should really leave this quarry for now." Patchouli suggested wisely and slowly headed for the access ramp.

"I hope this is just a temporary thing." Marisa grudgingly picked up the broom and the heavy bag full of books and followed her fellow magic user out of the quarry.

"No choice but to agree here…" Reimu saw no meaning in staying down there either. Everyone slowly began leaving the dig site and so did the outsiders. Only the yama-bito and the human denizens of Kazemura have remained there, continuing their work until the sun would set.

* * *

"We must find a solution to deal with this problem." Reimu declared once she was again inside Patchouli's tent.

"That's why I want to reassemble our team." the sorceress replied. "Kaguya-san would surely be a valuable asset right now… Or Eirin-san."

"Why those two in particular?" wondered Marisa.

"Immortailty. They wouldn't have to risk anything, even if they'd lose their magic, the elixir would keep them alive no matter what would happen to them down there."

"I hate to interrupt your debate, ladies," Kyouichi interrupted them, "but how are we going to get safely to Human Village now? None of you are in condition to escort us."

"I'll go with you." Keine suddenly stood up from the table, looking as though as she was ready to head out any time.

"Keine-sensei?"

"I wasn't down in the pit with the rest of the team, so I have plenty of magic to keep your journey safe."

"Do you really mean it?" Soudai was also pleasantly surprised by his teacher's kind gesture.

"Of course I do. Just pack your things up and I'll go whenever you're ready."

"Thank you… Really." both outsiders bowed to her thankfully and started packing up.

They didn't take much with them in the first place, so it didn't even take them long to tell Keine-sensei that they were ready. They said their farewells to all the girls in the team and wished them good luck with their endeavors. And just when they were about to leave the tent, Reimu stood up to say her parting words to the outsiders.

"Travel safely."

"We shall try, Reimu."

"So… the first of Kannazuki, huh?" she asked them about the day when they planned to depart from Gensokyo. "That's just in a month…"

"Yes. That's the day. Please make sure your schedule is free, so that we could actually find you at your shrine when we sneak out of the village." Kyouichi asked of her.

"Heh." she cuckled softly. "I shall try… But I don't promise anything."

The outsider let out a chuckle as well. "Those are the words I use."

"Sakuya will get you out of the village and I will get you out of Gensokyo as we agreed."

"Thanks for everything."

Kyouichi looked well into Reimu's brown eyes for a longer while, as if he was trying to carve her face into his memory.

"Just doing my job…" she said her parting words with a little sad-looking smile. "Goodbye… Ishimaru Kyouichi and Asakura Soudai…"

"See you in a month, Reimu-san!" the older outsider attempted to sound more cheerful to brighten up the mood, but his heart also felt a strange aching sensation.

"Yes… See you in a month." the shrine maiden repeated and bowed her head lightly.

And so, the outsiders have turned their backs to the village of Kazemura, and under the protection of their teacher, while exposed to her lecturing speeches, they set out on the long journey back to the Human Village.

* * *

"Where did Asakura and Ishimaru disappear to?" Rinnosuke has just returned to the tent after he left the tavern and cast quizzical glances at everyone inside.

"You missed them by a couple of minutes, ze." Marisa waved her palm. "Keine decided to walk them all the way back to the village. I sure don't envy them…"

"Drat… I wanted them to take the bicycle back to my shop."

"Well, if you hurry up, you may still catch them, Kourin, hehe."

After figuring out that it was probably too late to chase after Keine and the two outsiders, Rinnosuke resignedly sat down on the ground and sighed. "If I at least knew how to ride that thing…"

And while Rinnosuke contemplated the magic required to ride a 2-wheeled vehicle, Reimu suddenly walked up to Patchouli's table and sat opposite of her. "Um… Patchouli…"

As expected, the sorceress was currently focused on the books that Marisa and Kosuzu have brought from Suzunaan, and it took her a while to notice her name being called.

"Yes?" she batted her violet eyes at the shrine maiden.

"I…" she started timidly and uncertainly.

"Hm?" Patchouli tilted her head to the side.

"I… wanted to…. Umm… Sorry…"

"Pardon?"

"I said I'm sorry! I'm sorry that I ignored your warning and pushed you out of my way when I wanted to get into the temple!" she blurted out in a manner that sounded almost as if she was scolding the youkai girl. After that, her cheeks gained a color not unlike her dress and the miko turned her gaze away from her.

Patchouli's stoic expression slowly, but certainly began to brighten up as she showed her rare, but beautiful smile. "It's alright Reimu-san… I have already forgiven you."


	61. Operation Exodus

Click, click, click… went the wheels of the mountain bicycle, slowly rolling down the rough and winding road from a village that no longer required the presence of the bike's owner. His role was clear and his destination set. He only focused on crossing that long road safely and…

"Ungh! Damn it!" cursed the half-youkai after he lost his balance and crashed with his bicycle. He wanted to try riding it, but after crossing just a couple of meters he now had to pick himself up from the ground.

"One more try…" he encouraged himself as he was once again hopping on the bike's seat. He crossed another couple of meters, and again the same balance problem sent him back to the dirty ground along with his means of transport.

"Crap!" Rinnosuke didn't even mind the pain from the fall as the fact that he was scratching the paintwork on the bicycle. The more he damaged it, the less money he could afford to sell it for, but his temptation to learn how to ride it was too great for him to care about money.

"I almost had it… Once more." And the bike was once again sent into motion. "Whoa… Whoa! Easy now… Keep the speed steady… Hold the handlebar firmly… Oh, no… a turn!"

The cruel gravity has punished Rinnosuke for his curiosity yet one more time and added another couple of scratches on the bike's paint.

"Ah, to hell with this!"

He dusted his clothes off and picked the bike up again, but this time he didn't try to ride it. "I'll walk to Kourindou on foot. I don't need any silly machines to get there…"

And just how Rinnosuke didn't expect that riding a bicycle would be such a problem for him, so did the outsiders know little about the problems that awaited them on their way out of Gensokyo.

* * *

During the Harvest Feast, Soudai Asskura was right about one thing. Thirty days would indeed pass by like nothing. Now it was already the 25th of Nagatsuki. Less than a week away from the day every member of the Transfer Students' Club dreamed about. The events in the Human Village during the last 25 days were not anything to write a newspaper article about, but the outsiders knew that in less than a week their names would most likely appear in a newspaper after the people in the village learn of their sudden disappearance.

"Are you sure about this, kid?" Naota asked Kyouichi who was paying him a visit. The young student from Tokyo was just sitting at the table asking Naota to sign a document, according to which Naota would regain the ownership of the renovated hunter's cabin after Kyouichi would be proclaimed as deceased.

"Of course I am. Didn't we agree on this before already? You bought that cabin with your money. It belongs to you."

"No, I meant whether you are sure you want to leave Gensokyo." the old man specified his previous question.

"As sure as I'll ever be… Now sign it already." Kyouichi offered him a quill.

After a spacey look at the paper and its text, Naota slowly took the quill, shrugged and with a light smile scribbled his surname on it.

"To tell you the truth, I'm going to miss you a bit. Both you and Midori and even that goofball friend of yours… But on the bright side, I'll know that all of you will be safely back at home, so it puts my mind at ease."

"You still have 6 days to decide whether you want to come with us or not."

"And I already told you that I don't want to go back to the outside world. I have nobody there who I'd be willing to return there for."

"As you wish." Kyouichi shrugged at his reply and stood up from the chair. "May you live for many more years, Naota."

"Hahaha." the retired carpenter chuckled bitterly. "I'd be glad if I didn't, but I don't feel like kickin' the bucket yet."

"Glad to hear it. Now if you excuse me, I still have a few people I'd like to see before I leave this place."

"Awww, and I thought you'd stay for at least a cup of sake with your old friend." Naota sighed and saw Kyouichi off.

"Maybe later, when I'll have all my business taken care of." the young outsider replied as he was crossing Naota's doorstep.

"I never thought that I'd be telling you my parting words so soon, but… Good luck, Kyouichi. May all the gods watch over you and your friends on your journey to the outside world."

Kyouchi never found it easy to find the right words in situations such as this one, so his usual reply would be something simple. Something terse. And yet, in all that terseness, he could probably convey his emotions better than a poet.

"I wish you well, Naota-san…" he said with one last stare into those aged eyes. "Farewell."

Naota didn't hurry to close the door. He just quietly stood there in the warm rays of the late-summer sun and watched Kyouichi's back as he was walking away from his house and turning to the central square of the village, carrying a heavy-looking leather bag.

* * *

"Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?" a tall man with his head shaved to bald greeted Kyouichi as he knocked on the door of the Hieda residence.

"We met just once. I know your daughter is in Kazemura now, but I've come to return all the books I've borrowed from her. Please tell her I did."

The man's eyes suddenly sparkled with understanding when he realized who has come to his house.

"Oh, you're that outsider who wanted to ask about previous outsiders getting out of Gensokyo, right?"

Kyouichi's wordless expression when he stared back at him swept away any necessity for an answer.

"Alright…" he took the heavy load off Kyouichi's hands and briefly counted the books inside. "I'll tell Akyuu that you've returned them once she comes back from her archeological research."

"Thank you. That will be all." Kyouichi was about to turn around and leave, but Hieda no Reiji's words halted his steps.

"You know, it's not very often that my daughter lends someone her entire compilation."

"I was against that idea as well when she first suggested it."

"Don't get me wrong. It's not really a bother to me, nor is it much a business of mine, but for Akyuu to trust a stranger so easily… She may be a Child of Miare, but to me she is still just a child. At least I'm glad her trust in you in particular was not misplaced. All 21 copies returned in the same condition… I hope you found answers to all your questions in those books, Ishimaru-san." Reiji patted the cover of one of the books.

It wasn't exactly the books where Kyouichi found his answer to his greatest problem, but they were an important milestone on his way to that answer nonetheless.

"They helped me a lot. Thank you." he bowed to the father of Hieda no Akyuu and ended his short visit of the village archive.

* * *

There were still many people he wanted to say proper goodbye to, but there wasn't much time left to visit them all. Some people would best be left without the knowledge about the outsider's plan, but Kyouichi at least wanted to see them, if not tell them farewell.

"Excuse me, is this place opened?" he tentatively asked as he entered a fairly new building in the village – the First Fairy Post Office. The unlocked doors and people inside provided a satisfactory answer to his question. The office had several employees, but only one of them currently occupied Kyouichi's interest.

"Welcome, welcome." a lively voice of the young office manager guided him to the right desk where he found a teenaged girl with crimson hair doing paperwork and being surrounded and assisted by a small group of fairies.

"Good afternoon, Kurohana-san." Kyouichi waved at her casually and spoke loudly through the chatter of the office's clients. "I don't have any real business here; I just wanted to talk to you."

"Is that you, Kyouichi-san?" Ai measured him up briefly before her eyes rolled down again to focus on the document she was filling in. "If it isn't related to my work, can it wait until the end of my shift?"

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but time is pushing me and I'm afraid I won't have another opportunity."

Ai wondered why Kyouichi was being so insistent and his demeanor so serious. With a slight reluctance apparent on her expression, she folded the half-filled document and passed it to her older employee.

"Can you please do these for me?"

"Of course, Kurohana-san…" a man in his forties, who was very well known to Kyouichi took Ai's share of work off her hands. Hikaru Nagahashi, the chief secretary of the Transfer Students' Club was employed in this very post office and he didn't seem the least bit surprised to see Kyouichi paying the office's owner a visit today. Only a fleeting exchange of glances between him and the club's president occurred before Ai apologized to her clients and sent them to the next office desk.

"So… Ishimaru-san. Long time no see, I guess. What urgent matter requires my immediate attention?"

"Moe wants to play~!" a pink-haired fairy suddenly floated up from behind her and perched herself on Ai's head.

"Not now, Moe-chan." Ai gently shooed her away by shaking her head lightly. And as much as the amicable fairy wanted to cling to her, she was forced to take flight again. Now her gaze was centered at the person standing at her mistress's desk.

"Ah~!" her pink-eyes brightened up after they identified that person as someone familiar. "It's you! From Eientei ward…"

"I see you're both healthy and doing well."

"Yes, thanks to Eirin-san's care my burns are all gone. Almost as if by magic. Mom was worried about me, and even told me I should release all my fairies after… the incident. But I managed to convince her. I re-opened the post office and used my saved-up reserve for repairs. But I don't accept deliveries to Kazemura or even to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The Hakurei Shrine is as far north as I allow my sweeties to fly. I'm worried about them just as my mom worries about me."

"I'm just glad you're okay and even running the post-office again."

"The repairs consumed most of our savings and with limited service radius the post office isn't as prosperous at the moment. But I don't mind. As long as I can continue my business and have my fairies with me, I am satisfied. But what about you, Kyouichi-san? You haven't come here just to have a look at me, have you?" her eyes were already scanning Kyouichi's face with a speck of suspicion.

"Actually, yes I have…"

Ai found his reply slightly confusing. "Excuse me? A-are you perhaps… interested… in me?"

It was understandable that she would not interpret Kyouichi's words correctly, so the outsider decided to share the information about his plan with her.

"I just wanted to see you before I go. In a few days I won't be in Gensokyo anymore. I'm sure Nagahashi-san here has mentioned this to you…"

"Oh… So it's about that." Ai slowly lowered her head as she understood the reason for Kyouichi's visit. "Nagahashi-san has only told me that some of the outsiders are planning to ask Reimu-san about letting them leave Gensokyo." she cast a glance in Hikaru's direction. "But he never really told me that it was going to be so soon…"

"In six days. That's the time of our trip to the outside world. But we want to do it in secrecy. Without drawing attention of the militia or anyone working in the village council."

"It'll be hard to keep a sudden disappearance of over a dozen people from the village a secret for long, I'm afraid."

"That doesn't matter, Ai. We only need a few hours at most. After that, I don't care if the whole village comes looking for us. We won't be in Gensokyo by that time anymore. That's why I've come to see you… To remember your face. To see if you're really okay… and to say goodbye."

"I… I don't know what to say to this. I guess "do what you feel is best for you" would sound about right, wouldn't it?"

"It's been a pleasure to meet you and to know you, Ai-chan." Kyouichi lightly bowed to her. "And you too, Moe."

"Moe doesn't really understand, but… if you must go, there's no helping it." said the fairy wistfully.

"I just hope Reimu keeps her word." Kyouichi thought to himself as he slowly turned away from Ai's desk. "Anyway, keep up the good work. And enjoy the rest of your shift, Nagahashi-san."

"Thanks. See you later, Ishimaru-san."

* * *

It wasn't easy for the outsiders to hide their intentions from public, so they had to keep working and attending their classes as though they were to stay here for the rest of their lives. Kyouichi and Soudai had the advantage that their shift usually began around noon, so they had plenty of time to spare before their job would require them to head to the farmlands.

During the last 6 days, he took care of all his business and said his farewells to everyone he wanted to, save a few people and youkai who didn't live in the village. But as it was typical for him, he left the hardest task for the last moment. He still didn't properly say goodbye to a bunch of important people – the Saitou family.

The eve of the 30th of Nagatsuki was here, but the family still didn't know about his departure from Gensokyo scheduled for tomorrow.

"I'd like to have more of your soup, Minako." Mizuto asked his wife to pass him the soup pot that was just out of his reach. The whole family was seated around the table, having supper, when Kyouichi finally swallowed his worries and broke the silence.

"Umm… Everyone, I have something important to tell you."

"Hm? What is it, Kyou-kun?" the kind-hearted mother of two children, Minako cast a surprised glance at him. "You don't like the soup?"

"No, it's delicious, but… I'm sorry." he sighed heavily as he lowered his head. He blamed himself for postponing his parting words up to this day, but he'd rather say a belated parting now than none at all. "I know I should have said this sooner, but… please don't be mad at me…" he struggled with words as he tried to sound coherent.

"What are you talking about? Did you do something bad?" asked Minako with a puzzled look.

"Almost… Tomorrow I'm about to do something that you may consider very sudden and rushed, but to me that's the best decision I made in a long while."

The Saitou family was slowly, but certainly starting to pick up on the hints of his words, but it was still quite a shock to them nonetheless.

"You'll do what?" Chitose almost forgot to swallow her soup as she gave Kyouichi the most baffled stare he ever saw on her.

"This has been planned for a long time, but please understand that telling this to you any sooner than now could threaten it all." the outsider told a half-truth to the deadpan faces of the Saitou family. "Tomorrow I'll be leaving Gensokyo. Everything is already prepared. I want to thank you for everything you have done for me… You're really like my family. May your kindness be rewarded one day. Even though I've been a burden and an extra hungry neck to feed, you didn't throw me out on the street and treated me like your own blood. Nothing I can give you now can compensate for it."

"Kyouichi…" Minako put down her spoon and her usual kind smile was replaced by a deep, thoughtful gaze. "I'm… I don't even know if I'm sad or happy about this sudden news. I would like to say that I understand, but…" a small droplet appeared in the corner of her eye.

"Minako," her husband interrupted, "you knew this day would come one day. You knew Kyouichi was doing his best to find a way to return home ever since we took him in. And now that day has finally come. It would be selfish of us to ask him to reconsider. Like an injured bird that has been nurtured back to full health, it needs to be released back into the wild. Kyouichi longs for his real home and real family. Who are we to ask him to stay here? We could never replace them in his heart."

One would almost not expect such words full of truth and wisdom to come out of a fisherman's mouth, but he was right in everything he said. Even though his words of reason failed to bring full comfort to Minako's sensitive heart, he at least made her accept Kyouichi's decision more easily than she would be able to by herself.

"I… know I shouldn't be crying at a moment like this…" she apologized as she wiped away her tears. "It's… a happy moment after all. I'm sure your real mother must have gone through much worse moments than I am now. But her sorrow is hopefully going to end tomorrow."

The outsider thought about his mom often. Every day more than a couple of times he envisioned his home and his mother's face. He tried not to think about how his disappearance from the outside world has made her suffer, but such thoughts are really hard to avoid for someone so homesick as he was. Minako's words, however, have managed to bring a ray of hope into those dark thoughts once more.

"So he won't return, big sis?" the youngest member of the family was still confused by the whole situation and hoped to get an understandable answer from his sister.

"Most likely not, Tadao. We'd best say our goodbye to him now while he's still here."

"In that case… Goodbye, Kyouichi. Um… even though we didn't talk much, I kind of got used to you living here."

Kyouichi knew that most of his time spent in the Saitou residence consisted of reading the chronicle in hope of finding any clues that could aid him in his trip home, and he now felt some slight regret for not being more outgoing towards the family that sheltered him for over 5 months.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, really."

"I can't say that was nice of you, but that's what your goal has been all the time." Chitose still eyed him accusingly, but at least she understood the situation.

"You should eat well today, Kyouichi." said Mizuto as he passed him the soup pot. "The first step of a great journey is usually the hardest one, so make sure you have enough strength for that."

Kyouichi gratefully accepted and refilled his bowl with another portion. "If there is one last thing I can ask of you, I'd like you to pretend that you don't know about my plan if someone from the militia would ask you about me."

"Don't worry. We'll act like we don't know… Oh, and make sure you don't forget your belongings that you brought here from the outside world." the fisherman reminded him.

* * *

Later that evening, Kyouichi was sitting on the futon in the guest room, packing his last things and mentally preparing himself for tomorrow's trip. He didn't really have many things from the outside world with him. Just his old pair of jeans, his apartment keys, a handkerchief, two worn sneakers and a cell phone, which many of his peers could consider old-fashioned. He also had his school handbag full of notebooks, but he left that in the wreck of the subway car where his first day in Gensokyo began. His backpack still had plenty of spare room inside, but that didn't bother Kyouichi at all. He'd rather travel lightly than having to carry a burden that would only slow him down.

The night fell and it was time for him to sleep, but his brain had a different opinion. Just like on his first night in this house, he couldn't rest for a minute. However, instead of insecurity, it was the excitement and impatience that kept him awake. It was almost hard to believe that he was just a few hours away from a journey that could be described as life-changing. He stayed up until his complete exhaustion, catching barely a few hours of sleep before he woke up again.

* * *

"Rise and shine, journeyman." Mizuto, woke him up at dawn, as he was about to head out to the fishing colony and this was the last opportunity to see him.

"Mmmhm... Mizuto-san… Is that you?" a sleepy voice came from the futon as its occupant squirmed about lightly.

"I know you're leaving around noon, but I need to go to work soon and I wanted to say my goodbye to you while I can."

Kyouichi quickly shook the tiredness away and sat up. "Is Minako-san up too?"

"Of course. She's just making breakfast, and as I can imagine, some boxed lunch for your trip too."

In the next instant the young outsider was on his feet and bowing respectfully to Mizuto. "Thanks for everything. I have saved up some cash and kept it safe for emergency cases. I want you to have it."

"Oh, no…" Mizuto immediately showed him his palm. "I don't want to take any money from you. Unless the currency in the outside world is different than ours, which I don't think is the case, I will not take your savings. But feel free to donate them at the shrine if they make your pocket too heavy, hehe." he gave a friendly tap on Kyouichi's shoulder and chuckled. "I really need to be going now. If you still feel tired, go back to your futon, otherwise you can say hi to Minako. Have a safe trip home, Kyouichi! Good luck."

"You too, Mizuto. And reel in a big one."

"Ha! I already did that a few times, but I know there are even bigger fish in the lake, just waiting to be caught. I really have to go… Bye, Kyou-kun. Bye, Minako!" he parted with his wife on the doorstep of his house and left in a hurry.

Kyouichi no longer felt like he could fall asleep and if he could, he was worried that he could oversleep his own exodus from Gensokyo. That's why right after Mizuto took his leave, he headed to the Kitchen where he found Minako humming a melody as she was preparing breakfast for her children.

"Morning, Minako-san."

"Oh, Kyouichi… Good morning. Please, have a seat. The breakfast will be ready soon and I even made a bento for you. I should imagine you have a long trip ahead of you and one bento will not be enough, but at least you won't have to worry about starving for one day."

Minako was apparently in a better mood than yesterday, almost as if Kyouichi never told her anything about leaving Gensokyo. The Saitou siblings joined Kyouichi at the kitchen table soon afterwards, ready for another day at school. They quietly ate their breakfast, exchanging only a few words related to their school and after-school activities. Oddly enough, they didn't even bring up the topic of Kyouichi's trip back home. Almost as if their parents told them to feign ignorance.

"I'll be having another evening magic practice session today." Chitose announced with a casual tone.

"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten. Maybe I'll even come to watch after I close the shop."

"Oh you don't really have to, mom… It's kind of embarrassing."

"Is it now? Are you ashamed for what you're practicing or are you ashamed for me as a parent?"

"No, mom. It's just… none of the club's members' parents come to watch their children practice. It would be a bit awkward."

"Maybe because Chitose doesn't want you to see her mess something up." Chitose's younger brother poked fun at her."

"Like you'd know! You don't watch me practicing either."

"Because our club activities have the same schedules."

"Children, I don't want to rush you, but your school begins in a few minutes. Take your bags and don't forget your lunches." Minako ended the conversation.

"Yes, mom." both siblings replied in unison as they stood up from the table and made the final preparations for another day at school.

Kyouichi could technically excuse himself from school today, but in order to maintain the act of living just another stereotypical day, he decided against it and planned to go to school along with the Saitou siblings.

* * *

The day at school went by just like any other. Although Kyouichi could notice the tension and nervousness in the behavior of his clubmates, nobody even mentioned anything about traveling anywhere. Not until the final class, when Keine-sensei herself has summoned the remnant of the Transfer Students' Club into her office. Thirteen people, both young and mature entered the small office like on the day when their club was officially admitted. This time, however, it was about to end.

"So, I heard that everything has already been prepared for your today's departure. If you wish, I can devour the part of history that you spent in Gesnokyo, so that nobody would even know any of you outsiders arrived here in the first place." the teacher suggested an interesting idea, but she was quick to add that due to the nature of their mass-spiriting away, which might be connected to another series of bizarre events transpiring in Gensokyo in the recent months, it would probably only worsen things.

"I think Reimu-san and the others responsible for incident resolution should remember us, so that they can piece the clues together and finally solve all of these recent problems." Kyouichi reasoned after declining Keine's offer.

"Alright… So your contact and escort out of the village is the Scarlet Devil Mansion's head maid?"

"Yeah, unless she changes her mind at the very last moment."

"We are supposed to meet her in the market square in about 20 minutes, so if you have anything else to tell us, Keine-sensei, please make it brief." Midori pleaded as she kept her eyes on the clock hanging over the office's door.

"I only wanted to say…" she paused and mustered a light, almost sad-looking smile. "That I'll miss you a little. I got so used to your presence among those children… It'll be again strange for me to begin tomorrow's lessons without you."

"You've taught us many great things, Keine-sensei, even in this age." Hikaru, as the oldest member of the club bowed one last time to pay homage to the teacher. "And I feel like I have still so much to learn… But I don't want to be a prisoner to this place."

"None of use do, Hikaru-san." Sayuri joined in. "Too bad I can't recommend Gensokyo as a tourist destination when I return to the travel agency."

"You should first all try to figure what excuses you'll say to your families when you return." Yuujin apparently also thought about re-integrating back into the normal society of the outside world. None of the outsiders could imagine the reactions on the faces of their families, colleagues, employers, teachers and friends when they suddenly return out of nowhere after over 5 months of complete absence, but at the same time it didn't matter to any of the transfer students. Just to get safely out of Gensokyo and into the nearest town. And all of that was supposed to take place on this great day.

"Well then." Keine stood up from her desk and gestured for the outsiders to follow her. "I don't want to delay your great trip. Come with me. I'll go with you to the market square until Izayoi-san comes to pick you up."

* * *

The band of outsiders silently obeyed and together with their half-youkai teacher they left her office and eventually the school premises. It wasn't a long walk from school to the marketplace and the outsiders still had some small time reserve. Nevertheless, they didn't want to delay themselves, or keep Sakuya waiting, so they arrived on the designated spot a few minutes earlier.

The marketplace was as crowded as ever. Nobody really paid any special mind to a group of people with backpacks, who looked like they were set up for camping.

"No sign of the maid yet." Soudai noted as he looked around, though in this crowd he'd be lucky if he was able to spot any familiar face.

"At least we have nice weather for our trip." said Midori as she stole a brief glance at the clear sky.

"Speaking of weather, have you seen the dragon's eyes?" Soudai butted in.

"Oh, you mean those weather-forecast gemstones?" Kyouichi asked as he looked over his shoulder at the iconic bronze statue of a dragon god.

"I've almost memorized which color means which weather, but I keep forgetting… What weather was represented by red color again?"

In contrast to the nonchalance of Soudai's tone, Kyouichi's eyes widened in surprise. "Did you say red?"

"Yeah. Look for yourself." he pointed his finger at the distant face of the statue. "What does it mean? An unusually hot day?"

Kyouichi moved his lips, but no words came out of his mouth. He remembered exactly what Minako told him when she first gave him a tour of the village.

"Hello~? Earth to Kyouichi: Are you there?" Soudai waved his palm in front of his eyes.

"Red means… that a serious incident is occurring."

"Yeah? That's hardly any news, is it?" Soudai took it lightly. "Weird stuff's been going on in this place ever since we got here. I just hope that it isn't some sort of Ryuuken alarm device detecting our mass departure."

Even though Soudai was right about unusual happenings being commonplace in Gensokyo, they apparently still didn't suffice to color the dragon's eyes red… until now.

"It's the first time I see them glowing red, though."

"Come on, man. Relax a bit, or you'll rub your nervousness onto me as well. We'll be out of here in a matter of minutes. No incidents have to bother us anymore once we're in the outside world, right?"

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Kyouichi shook his head lightly, as if he didn't want to accept what he was seeing.

"Nonsense, Ishimaru! We've taken every step and precaution so that our trip home would be successful. Don't tell me that a pair of some cheap jewels is going to throw you off."

Kyouichi breathed a sigh and finally turned his face away from the mesmerizing red glow of the gems. "You're right. We have to stay positive… This day is meant to be successful. The operation Exodus is a go."

"That's more like it. Now try to keep up that attitude all the way to Tokyo."

"I'll be much calmer once we're out of Gensokyo, believe me."

"Say…" Soudai diverted Kyouichi's thoughts again to something else. "What is Yamada-san carrying around that shovel for?"

"Shovel? What shove… oh." It took a little while for Kyouichi to notice that one member of their club was lugging a little extra weight on his shoulders. "Heh… I can't believe he actually took it."

"Is gold rush having a renaissance or something? Oh, wait… wasn't he that weird guy who suggested digging a tunnel under the Great Barrier in order to get out of Gensokyo during our club's first meeting?"

"Exactly." Kyouichi shook his head in utter disbelief. To think that someone would actually bother to take a digging tool with them, when the motto of the entire operation was to travel lightly was leaving the club's president in a state of bafflement. "Hey, Yamada! Why the hell did you bring a freakin' shovel with you?"

Yamada turned his plump face at him, looking as though as he didn't understand the point of Kyouichi's question. "Oh… That's uhh… a precaution. Just in case." he replied with a shrug and turned back to the clubmates he was chatting with.

"Precaution? For what?" Kyouichi still couldn't comprehend his motive. "In case we'd have to bury someone?"

"Let's hope that won't be the case."

* * *

After a few minutes of waiting, a young female's voice sounded from behind them: "So, are you all ready for this?"

Everyone turned around to see who it was. But a few members of the club already recognized the voice and could breathe a sigh of relief.

There she stood in all her elegance – the head maid of Remilia Scarlet, known as Sakuya Izayoi.

"Ah, there you are." Keine walked up to her without even the basic courtesy of greeting. "These thirteen people are all that's left of their club. I trust that you'll escort them all safely to Hakurei Shrine."

From the tense expression on her face, one could only assume that the two of them weren't on the best of terms with each other.

"Your worries are unfounded, half-beast." the maid replied rather rudely. "We'll be out of the village before you or anyone else even takes notice."

Now it was obvious that they didn't like each other very much, but as long as the maid would keep her word and do her job well, Keine had no reason to mistrust her. "Make it so. But if I catch wind that any of these people have come to harm before they reach the shrine, you're going to answer to me."

Ignoring Keine's threats entirely, Sakuya gave all the outsiders a brief glance and nodded to herself. "This should be as easy as putting sugar into tea. Alright, everyone!" she called loudly to get their attention. "Your request doesn't do me the slightest problem to accomplish, but…" she paused herself and put on an intimidating face, "you must do exactly what I say. Have I made myself understood?"

"Yes, Izayoi-san!" a nearly unanimous reply came from various members of the club.

"Good…" she pulled out her pocket watch and looked at it casually. "Don't get too shocked when you'll notice you're no longer here. Ten, nine, eight, seven..." the maid began counting down the time. Everyone was glaring at her, wondering what trick she'd pull out.

"…three, two, one." By the time she reached zero, Kyouichi and the rest of the club was already standing near the western road, just a few meters away from the Temple of Myouren.

* * *

"Whoa~!"

"What the…?!"

"What happened?"

Those were roughly the first reactions of most of the outsiders once Sakuya's countdown has ended. It took them a while to figure out their location based on their surroundings.

"Did she just teleport us? That's so cool~."

Little did most of those people know, that in order to get them from point A to point B, Sakuya had to slow the time below noticeable tempo and laboriously carry them all one by one out of the market square to the Buddhist temple. After nearly a minute of recovering from the time-leap shock, the outsiders were again assembled into an organized group led by Sakuya.

"I told you not to get startled… We're outside of the village. We'll travel the rest of the way on foot. Follow me." she commanded and didn't wait for any signs of agreement.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Yuujin halted the maid almost as soon as she turned away. "Why do we have to walk all the way to the shrine? Why didn't you teleport us right there?"

An exasperated sigh escaped the silver-haired girl's lips. "Because my ability doesn't allow me to travel such great distances." she uttered a half-truth, if only to silence him.

When she cast one last glance to the east where the village was, she could see a small bluish dot hovering above the roofs of the houses. Keine was keeping an eye on her and the humans she was escorting.

"Okay, let's stop wasting time and get moving. I should be on a lunch break now." the maid began marching and the outsiders followed her like a flock of ducklings would follow their mother.

"Looks like no Ryuuken are after us." Soudai always kept checking the situation behind him until the village was no longer in his sight. "Once we reach Kourindou crossroad, I say we're home free. The militia never patrols the road between the shrine and Kourindou."

"Maybe, but we'll still need to cross over 4 kilometers through the forest, so we need Sakuya-san's escort all the way." Kyouichi replied and fixed the loosening strap on his backpack. "Hey, Sakuya-san?"

"Hm?" the maid barely rolled her eye Kyouichi's way when he addressed her directly.

"Reimu-san has already returned from Kazemura, right?"

"I heard she has." she gave a terse answer as she continued marching forward.

"Heard? Haven't you been there too?"

"Not in a long while, I haven't. But from what I heard, I wouldn't want to be there anyway."

"Have they already uncovered the whole temple?" Soudai, who had a hand in blowing up the rocky layer entombing the whole structure wanted to know some details too.

"Who knows…?" Sakuya's shoulders have risen and lowered in an indifferent shrug. "That's not in the list of my problems right now."

And even though many of the outsiders wondered what WAS in her list of problems, nobody dared to ask her.

* * *

In a couple of minutes, they reached the mentioned crossroad on the edge of the Forest of Magic and the antique shop - Kourindou. Fortunately, it didn't seem to have any visitors in black and white uniforms, so the outsiders could calmly keep on marching towards their goal. After taking the turn to the east, the group entered the shade provided by the countless trees of Gensokyo's central forest. Sakuya was already starting to become fed up with the walk and with the incessant chatter of the humans who followed her so loyally. Away from the prying eyes of any possible spy and from the ears of any potential eavesdropper, there wasn't a better time and place for the maid to execute her long-planned action.

She suddenly stopped, made a 180-degree turn to face the outsiders and hovered upwards.

Everyone was staring at her like at an apparition and wondered what was going on.

"What's wrong? Is someone following us?" some of the club members confusedly flung their glances in all directions, looking for some nonexistent pursuers. Others kept their eyes on the floating maid. Kyouichi's first instinct was to reach for his magic detector. But he was soon about to find out that it wasn't necessary.

"Listen." she looked down and spoke to the group of outsiders. "I have personally nothing against any of you… I'm simply doing my job."

At this point, even the most confused of outsiders were slowly realizing the truth and direness of their current situation.

"Sakuya-san? What is the meaning of this?" Kyouichi demanded an answer.

"Don't tell me she's turning on us." Soudai uttered behind him.

"Hey, if you're not going to help us, fine! We can walk the rest of the way without you." Yuujin simply decided to march on, but when five knives suddenly buried their blades into the ground just centimeters away from his feet, he didn't feel so hasty anymore.

"Don't try to run." the maid calmly advised. "It's no use."

"Heh… It's no use… She's pure Dio Brando." Soudai seemed to be having fun from the whole situation.

"This isn't funny, you know." Midori hissed at him. "You want a knife in the forehead?"

And as the outsiders were bickering among themselves, Sakuya continued: "My mistress's condition requires her to feed, so I need one healthy human to take to the mansion. Any volunteers?"

When Kyouichi thought that he had already seen almost everything in Gensokyo and that barely anything could surprise him, Sakuya just proved him wrong. "You gotta be kidding me."

"How polite of her to ask for volunteers instead of kidnapping someone." Midori uttered a snarky remark. As polite as Sakuya might have acted, nobody of the thirteen outsiders really wanted to become a vampire's lunch. Out of sheer desperation, Kyouichi began wondering whether those amulets he once bought from Reimu would have any effect against a human target. Not that he would be able to reach Sakuya without becoming a human pin cushion first.

"If you don't pick a volunteer in ten seconds, I'm going to pick one myself." Sakuya gave the outsiders an option to choose within a short time limit.

"W-wait…" Midori tried to negotiate or at least distract the maid from counting. "Aren't you a human yourself? Why don't you feed your mistress with your own blood?"

"Smooth move, Midori." Soudai suppressed a chuckle. "That was really tactful of you."

But to Soudai's surprise, Sakuya didn't take any offense from that question. "That was my first suggestion to her, but she refused. She needs me for something else, apparently. You are the easiest prey I could find."

"Does that mean we're screwed now?" Soudai made a silly grimace behind Kyouichi's back.

"No, just one of us, thank goodness…" his weird sense of humor seemed to have rubbed off onto his friend. "Sakuya-san~! We have a volunteer right here!" he waved his hand and pointed at Soudai.

"You're the first one to raise your hand, Ishimaru, so why don't you go ahead and pay Scarlet-san a visit?" Soudai gave him a light push forward.

"I've already did once!" Kyouichi was wrestling with him. "You should see the mansion too!"

"Oh, one more thing…" Sakuya raised her finger. "My lady prefers blood type B…"

"Ha! See? Your lady wouldn't like my blood anyway!" Soudai crossed his arms in a triumphal stance as he pointed his nose upward and grinned widely.

This minor remark of Sakuya's has divided the outsiders into two groups.

"Lucky~!"

"Ha, I'm A!"

"I'm zero, thank God."

Such were the reactions of the majority of the club. But one third of outsiders uttered things such as: "This sucks…", "Oh, crap.", "Why me?" and "I'm AB. No, no, I'm A! Pure A!"

Kyouichi and Midori were both in that group, but like any smart person in their situation, they tried to deny it.

"It also might be worth mentioning that while you were not looking, or to be exact, not perceiving the flow of time, I took the liberty of checking your identification cards, so you won't fool me. Still… if any volunteer would like to sacrifice themselves for the team, I won't consider their blood type. I'm sure my lady wouldn't be picky in her current state either."

Even then nobody from the non-B blood type group was foolish enough to offer themselves. Sakuya's countdown was slowly coming to zero. Everyone held their breath and prayed that it wouldn't be them who Sakuya chooses.


	62. The Last Hurdle

As anyone could expect, nobody raised their hand even when the time ran out. Sakuya was already measuring up all the candidates with a knowing glance. All those who had blood type B were starting to sweat nervously as the maid hovered closer. This time, Kyouichi was cursing the fact that he was one of the tallest people of that group, which made him stand out a little.

"Hmmm…" Sakuya hummed as she circled around the group and considered the selection. "You... " she finally pointed a finger at someone. And who else would she point at than the unfortunate anthropology student, Ishimaru Kyouichi. The outsider even bent his knees a bit, so that he'd make himself look shorter. Apparently, it didn't help him anyway. And when other members stepped aside from him after Sakuya called him out, there was nowhere for him to hide.

"You were at our mansion once already, weren't you?" she asked a question she already knew the answer to.

Seeing that it had no sense standing in a half-crouching position anymore, Kyouichi straightened up. "I was, but I hoped it would be my last visit."

"Oh, really? Why? Didn't you like it in there?"

And as Kyouichi was about to give a reply, he felt someone's hand landing on his shoulder. It was Soudai, looking at him with sad eyes and nodding his head in acknowledgement. "We all appreciate what you've done for the club, prez. We'll make sure your sacrifice won't be forgotten."

Kyouichi couldn't discern whether his friend meant that seriously, or if it was just another one of his funny attempts at dramatizing the situation. In any case, he felt like Soudai was asking for a punch in the nose with that smug, mocking grin on his face. He gritted his teeth at him and turned away. For the sake of not hitting his friend in a sudden spike of anger, he decided not to pay him any attention and instead try to negotiate for a reasonable resolution of this situation with Sakuya.

"Izayoi-san, despite the fact that my blood type is B, I dare to doubt that I'm a suitable candidate for feeding your mistress."

"Oh? And why do you think so?" she rolled her disbelieving eyes as a cold smile settled on her lips. He could see that she's just prolonging the inevitable with idle conversation. Was she enjoying his fear?

"I haven't been living a very healthy lifestyle for the past several years. I didn't exercise, I ate a lot of unhealthy foods and have been fond of high-caloric sweetened beverages since early childhood. Although I may not look fat, my blood is most certainly high on cholesterol, caffeine and sugar."

As pathetic an attempt as it was, Kyouichi was grabbing every straw in order to steer away from having to revisit the mansion and die to feed a spoiled little vampire. Especially when he was so close to returning home.

"Ah, perfect. My lady does have a sweet tooth. I think I've chosen well…" she smiled and descended to the ground with a set of throwing knives still in her hands. "You're coming with me. The rest of you can go."

"But I don't wanna go~!" Kyouichi flailed his arms in protest. Sakuya was already grabbing his wrist and preparing to put him into stasis, when someone interrupted.

"I'll go!"

"Huh?"

"What?!"

"I'll go!" a girl's voice repeated its brave declaration. Kyouichi could hardly believe his senses. It would seem that Sakuya was taken aback as well. The girl stepped forward, facing the maid with a serious, fearless and determined look.

"Midori-san?" Kyouichi shook his head. "What are you doing?"

Midori Iwakami knew very well what she was doing, and she wouldn't let herself be stopped by any of her clubmates. She locked her brown eyes with the maid and stretched out her hand.

"No, wait, Midori! Stop! Let her take me." Kyouichi suddenly had a 180-degree change of mind when he saw her brave, but foolish act.

"No, I won't stop." she shook her head, smiling. "You and Soudai have helped me during the harvest feast when I got into an argument with Reimu-san… I still haven't got the chance to apologize to her, so… This will hopefully make up for all your troubles I've caused."

"No! Sakuya-san, don't listen to her! Take me, take me!" Kyouichi insisted, but the silver-haired girl was paying him no mind.

"Midori, don't be a fool!" Even Soudai had to agree with Kyouichi and tried to talk her out of it. "You can still apologize to Reimu when we get to the shrine! Maybe there'll still be some time left for her to save Ishimaru if we hurry."

"Not if I can help it." Sakuya took her pocket watch by the chain and let is spin around as it dangled from her palm. "So…Midori Iwakami, was it?" she double-checked the girl's identity.

Midori nodded.

"Are you really willing to trade yourself for him?"

"I think I've made myself clear enough."

"Ah, what a brave young girl you are." Sakuya nodded admiringly. "I'd even spare you if I had any choice, but my mistress's well-being is my priority. And I will make no compromise in this matter." She then turned her face to the rest of the cowering outsiders and shouted loudly: "I hope you're all thankful for what Iwakami-san has done for you this day! Go! Run to the Hakurei Shrine if you want. Go ahead and tell the shrine maiden what happened. She won't be able to arrive sooner than my lady feeds upon this young girl's blood."

She then took Midori's hand.

"No! Wait! Sakuya!" Kyouichi shouted in protest.

A loud popping sound echoed throughout the forest and the maid was gone along with Midori, leaving the outsiders alone in a dangerous youkai-filled forest.

"Midori! No! Damn it!" Kyouichi fell down on his knees and bashed the ground in anger with his bare palm. "Shit! Why wouldn't she listen to me?"

"Dude, we have to hurry." Soudai tried to bring him back to normal.

"It should have been me… Why did Midori do such a thing?"

"Ishimaru? Ishimaru, we have to go. Now."

"This is just terrific, isn't it?!" Yuujin shouted his question loudly. "Our own escort was a traitor all along! What's next? The Hakurei shrine maiden is going to sacrifice us to her bloodthirsty shrine god?!"

"Even if, I'd still risk it." Soudai replied as he dragged his friend on towards the shrine. "We should hurry. I really don't like being in forest full of youkai. "We have to make it to the shrine. It's not a long way from here, come on, people, move it!"

And the whole group of remaining outsiders moved. It was the only way. Returning to the village was out of the question and they also doubted that Rinnosuke would be able to help them in this situation.

"What a silly girl… that Midori." Kyouichi still kept mumbling as he tried to keep up with the hastened pace of his peers.

"Yeah, that's hardly any news, is it now? Don't worry; we're not leaving this place without her." Soudai tried to feed him with some hope, even if it was false.

"Maybe not you, but I'm going home, even if you all stay behind!" Yuujin couldn't take it any longer. He felt like every second he wasted in Gensokyo could kill him. Not that he was too far from the truth.

"Ueda-san, would like to go solo on us?" Hikaru gave him a questioning glance. "Well then, feel free to."

"You think I'm screwing around?! I'm not going to wait for the miko to go on some rescue mission, which is likely to end up in failure anyway! I'm sorry for Iwakami, but I don't want her sacrifice to go to waste."

"I'd be sharing your sentiments if it was you who Sakuya took away." Soudai muttered under his breath.

* * *

And as the group was getting closer to the shrine, Sakuya was getting closer to her mistress's mansion with Midori. She no longer needed to halt the time. The girl who she more or less kidnapped with her consent was firmly in her grip as they flew over the Misty Lake's surface.

"Prepare for landing. We're almost there." Sakuya informed her hostage and began her descent.

Midori took her first flight experience pretty well. She was both scared and excited at the same time. But more than the landing, she was concerned about her future and whether she'd actually ever walk out of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and not just enter it for the first and the last time. But since she already offered herself so eagerly, it was probably too late for her to reconsider it. She probably wasn't as worried as her friends were, but she was still worried nonetheless.

"Um… Sakuya-san?"

"What is it?"

"How… How much does your lady usually drink when… you know… when she feeds on people?"

"Oh, she's just a light eater. You'll sate her hunger, I'm sure. Brace yourself, we're touching down."

"Can't you fly a bit slower? Yaaaaah~! Unf!"

A little rough, but the landing was safe and Midori didn't hurt herself. They both landed in the courtyard encircled by the black iron bar fence.

"No need to greet the gate guard, just keep walking." Sakuya instructed and led the way towards the mansion's door. Midori didn't have a choice. She kept walking towards the ominous wooden door. "S-so… you said I've got enough blood to satisfy your mistress…"

"I did." the maid nodded. "You're a 16-year old and your body proportions are adequate, so you should provide an ample portion of blood for my lady to get better."

Midori swallowed her saliva as she stopped before the large door. "But will there be any blood left in me?"

* * *

Sakuya didn't really feel obliged to answer that question. She just led her upstairs to Remilia's bedroom. After a quiet knock on the door, she announced her arrival. "My lady, I've brought what you requested."

"Come in." a barely-audible reply came from behind the closed door. Sakuya let herself in and dragged Midori along.

"This girl came willingly. Her blood type is B." the maid gave her mistress a short report of her task.

Midori saw the blue-haired girl slowly rising from her coffin, looking dizzily at her.

"Huh? Came… willingly?" she uttered weakly as she was crawling out. Midori even thought that in this state, she'd be able to even defend herself from her. However, there was still her maid and Midori knew she wouldn't stand much of a chance against her.

Remilia was already standing on the ground and shuffling her feet towards Midori. "So… You came willingly?" she asked her as if she didn't believe what Sakuya just told her.

"I… I did it… for… for my friends." Midori stuttered out as the fear of what was about to come was finally catching up with her.

Remilia was now standing right in front of her and looking into the girl's eyes with a piercing red gaze. "My… that's… mighty kind and brave of you." Remilia nodded admiringly.

"I saw you." Remilia recalled as she scanned her victim's face. "Yes… You were at the shrine festival."

"I was." Midori confirmed and swallowed her saliva. "J-just make it quick, please. I don't want to suffer for too long."

A very weak chuckle came from the vampire. "Forgive me, but… remind me what your name was."

"Iwakami Midori, if you must know."

Remilia slowly shaped her lips into a smile and revealed her fangs. "Midori…" she drew her shaky hand to the girl's face and stroked her cheek "It's not very often that I have such a cooperating victim… Sakuya, let's set up a dining table."

"Understood."

* * *

"Reimu~!" Kyouichi called for the shrine maiden when the group has reached the stone stairs leading to her shrine yard. "Reimu, Reimu! Are you there?!"

He ran up the stairs and almost tripped while doing so, but that didn't stop him from hurrying. The shrine yard was empty, so Kyouichi ran towards the main building and kept calling.

After a moment the shrine's sliding door opened and a girl's head with a red hair ribbon popped out to see who's making such a ruckus.

"Oh, you're here already? Good. We're almost prepared for the passage ritual."

"They're here?" Another black-haired head popped out from the doorway above Reimu's. "My camera is already loaded with film, we can start."

Kyouichi had no time to wonder what Aya was doing there. He kept calling the shrine maiden's name as he ran towards the door.

"My, someone can't wait to leave this place." the tengu grinned as she took the first few shots. Soon after, the rest of the outsiders showed up after climbing the stairs to the shrine yard.

"Reimu~! Something terrible happened!"

"Huh? What's wrong? And… where's Sakuya?"

"That's the problem! She took one of us away to the Scarlet Devil Mansion to feed her to Remilia!" the panicked outsider explained with wild gesticulation.

"Oh~! Even better!" Aya chimed as she took more pictures and took some notes into her notepad. "And I thought that just sending so many outsiders back to the outside world was going to make an interesting article already."

"Wait… are you saying that Sakuya took someone from your group to the mansion?" Reimu took her time to catch on.

"Exactly!" Soudai took the word out of Kyouichi's mouth. "You have to do something! There's nothing we could do. Sakuya just teleported away from us. If you hurry, you may still be able to save her life."

"And who's missing?"

"Iwakami-san. The maid was just about to take Ishimaru, but then Iwakami offered herself. She has the same blood type that the vampire prefers, so Sakuya took her instead."

"Oh, someone's life is in danger? You should do something about it, Reimu-san." a third voice and a third head popped up from the doorway, this time appearing under Reimu's head. It was Hieda no Akyuu, the savant compiling the chronicle of Gensokyo. Whatever reason brought her here on this day form the excavation site in Kazemura was a mystery.

"I disagree!" Ueda Yuujin immediately showed his disagreement. "She sacrificed herself willingly, because she wanted us to be able to safely make it to the outside world. I say we honor her memory and do that as quickly as possible. Hakurei-san, we're ready for the ritual. Take us to the outside world now!"

"I understand that you and your problems need to be addressed," Reimu rolled her eyes at him, "but I decide how I resolve incidents here. And I say that Iwakami's life may yet be saved."

"That maid can control time. I doubt she'd leave any of it for any rescue attempts. She even said it herself." Yuujin kept arguing. "Even if you go now, I doubt you'll make it."

"Nobody ever achieved anything without trying!" Reimu's last reply to him was followed by her immediate take-off and flight towards the Misty Lake. Needless to say that a certain number of outsiders wasn't very happy about her decision.

"Heeeey~! Come back! You hear me~!? Get back here! Take us to the outside world! Don't go!"

* * *

And not a second later another girl took flight to follow Reimu. Aya had no problem catching up with her and once she did, she gave the shrine maiden a suggestion. "That human wasn't kidding. It'd be almost impossible for you to catch Sakuya. I'm assuming she and her hostage is already in the mansion."

"And why are you telling me this? You don't want me to save that girl? I know I might be too late, but it'd be much worse if I didn't do anything at all."

"Ah, yes." Aya nodded after taking a deep breath. "You're right. You might not make it in time… on your own, that is…"

"Wait… where are you getting at?" Reimu turned her head briefly to see Aya's face. And she saw the tengu grinning suspiciously.

"Hold tightly~!" and before Reimu could even think of a reaction, Aya flew over her grabbed her by the waist and accelerated to a speed that changed a 15 – minute flight to a 5 – second one.

"Ayaaaaaa~~~!" Reimu could barely even hear her own voice through the wind howling in her ears and also due to the fact that the crow tengu was jetting through the sky several times faster than the speed of sound. "Stooooop~!" And by the time she said it, Aya indeed stopped.

"Close your eyes, Reimu!" Aya warned her as she was almost at her destination.

"What?!"

Reimu quickly realized why Aya asked her to do so. In her haste she forgot to calculate that she needed a couple of extra hundreds of meters to slow her flight down. Now, despite her breaking efforts, she was still darting towards the mansion by the force of her own momentum. At least she could still maneuver her heading to one of the mansion's many windows.

After a loud slam followed by the clinking and ringing of broken glass, Aya and Reimu made it… relatively safely inside the Scarlet Devil Mansion's dining hall. They were both quite stunned after the crash-landing, which wasn't really good, as every second wasted could mean the difference between their success and failure.

* * *

"Aya… you idiot…" Reimu grumbled as she came to her senses. Apart from the window, they also managed to damage a few pieces of furniture and break a few porcelain vases.

"Hey, at least I helped to cushion our fall…" the tengu muttered from beneath her. "Now if you'd be so kind as to get off me…"

"Well, well, well… For a second there I thought Kirisame-san has confused our library with the dining hall and entered through the wrong window." A young female's voice startled the two intruders. "But it's just you…"

"That's Remilia! Reimu, get up! Stop her before she hurts that human girl!" Aya was urging the shrine maiden to stand up.

"Well, I suppose I should have seen it coming eventually. Sakuya…"

In that very instant, Remilia's loyal servant appeared in the dining hall. "Yes?"

"Prepare the dishes for two more guests." Remilia issued an order that made Reimu question how hard she hit herself in the head during that rough landing. Even Aya wasn't sure if she heard her right.

Sakuya didn't seem to have any doubts about her lady's sanity. She disappeared and reappeared with a serving tray laden with dinner plates. Reimu finally managed to stand up and dust off her clothes. "Iwakami-san?"

There, sitting at the large table on a chair for honored guests she saw the girl from the outside world alive and well. She had a bandaged neck and was just enjoying dinner together with the mistress of the mansion. Until she got startled by the sudden intrusion, of course.

"Oh, Hakurei-san!" Midori put her spoon down, stood up and bowed to her. "I'm sorry… Last time… I've caused you some trouble. And I know that being drunk doesn't give me any excuse, but… I just wanted to do something good for a change, so… I offered myself to provide some blood for Scarlet-san."

"Are… are you alright?" Reimu approached the girl to get a better look. It didn't seem like she was under any mind-control spell.

"Oh, I'm fine. At first I was a little worried, but… it turned out that Remilia-sama is not that much of a big eater. I only feel a little dizzy."

"That's why you should eat it all up, so you'd have enough strength for the journey that awaits you." Remilia gestured at all the dishes that Sakuya prepared for her. "Come, Reimu… and you too, miss tengu…" she made an inviting gesture at the two vacant chairs. "You look a bit shook-up as well. You should eat something too. Chicken soup, beef steaks, salad… take your pick. Oh, and Sakuya, a bottle of our best wine for the guests. You can clean up the mess they made later."

An affirmative nod, and the maid was gone and back in a flash, pouring wine into four glasses.

Reimu still struggled to process what was happening, as she apparently had no reason to draw her amulets or Spell Cards.

"Well, Remilia-san…" Aya tentatively approached the table. "You certainly look a lot better than the last time."

"Yes, all thanks to this girl." she glanced over at Midori and smiled. "And to Sakuya, of course. "If you want to punish me, Reimu, feel free to, but I'll be offended if you refuse having dinner with me."

Reimu and Aya finally seated themselves at the table, alternating their looks between Midori and Remilia, occasionally trailing off to Sakuya. Remilia found their bewilderment quite amusing. "What's wrong? You think I poisoned your meals or something?"

"I… uh… I'm not even sure what to say."

"Thanks for the meal" would be a good start. Or perhaps we better have a toast first." Remilia was already raising her wine glass. "Cheers!"

"Uh, sure… cheers!" Aya finally shook her suspicion off and jingled her glass against Remilia's. "What's the occasion?"

"I don't need any special occasion to enjoy a quality meal and wine. But I think celebrating a recovery back to good health is as good reason to open a bottle as any."

"Indeed. As they say: "You don't know what you've got till it's gone." That includes one's health too." Aya nodded agreeingly.

"Reimu-san? What about all the people who went with me? Did they all make it to the shrine?" Midori inquired as she finished the soup and started attacking the beef steak.

"Twelve people arrived at the shrine." Aya was not only a faster flyer, but also beat Reimu to answering a question directed at her. "That makes thirteen with you, Iwakami-san. Is that everyone?"

Midori exhaled with relief. "Good… So they made it. But… who's watching over them now?"

"Uh… Hieda-san?" Aya smiled sheepishly as she never thought that the outsiders are all gathered in the shrine yard, vulnerable to a potential youkai attack.

"Ah… maybe I should have just gone to the mansion myself." Reimu bit her lower lip thoughtfully. "

* * *

"So what are you doing here?" Kyouichi put this question to the chronicler as he was taking some rest on the shrine's porch after the long walk. "I thought you were still in Kazemura."

"Nobody was yet brave enough to enter the temple itself with that magic disruption field in effect. Or perhaps there are more than a few brave enough to do it, but you wouldn't believe how much negotiation is going on in there to decide who has the right to enter as first - the Kazemurans, the tengu or the archeologists from Patchouli-san's team. So all that's been done in the past month was that the pit was deepened by several meters. And they still haven't reached the temple's entrance level. It's an impressively tall building for its age. Of course, Patchouli-san remained to study the newly unearthed symbols on the obelisks, but I haven't forgotten…"

"About what?"

"About this day, of course. Just like Shameimaru-san, I've come to record how a large… erm… well, relatively large group of outsiders gets taken back across the barrier. I'm sorry for what happened to Iwakami-san. I hope Reimu-san managed to save her."

* * *

"Oi! Reimu~! I hope you haven't started without me!" Marisa's unmistakable voice startled the outsiders when the witch suddenly descended from above. After touching the ground and flicking the hem of her pointy hat, she cast her glances all over the shrine yard in a futile search for her friend. "Uh… Reimu?"

"She's not here." Akyuu saved her the trouble of further looking for the shrine maiden.

"What? Don't tell me she's already taken the first batch of outsiders back to their world."

"Marisa!" Kyouichi jumped back on his feet and ran to her. "Marisa, you have to fly to the mansion! One of our friends got taken away by Sakuya. Reimu and Aya already went on ahead, but I'm still worried… What if they won't be able to save her? Please…"

Marisa's face looked both puzzled and amused as she was met with this unexpected news. "Heeeh? Wasn't she supposed to watch over you so you'd make it safely to the shrine?"

"You're asking almost the same thing as Reimu-san has." Soudai stepped closer. "It looked like that at first, but it was a cold calculation on her or her mistress's part. Long story short – she took Iwakami-san to the mansion for the vampire to feed upon."

To everyone's surprise, Marisa didn't look the least bit disturbed by this. "Well, what did you expect? Vampires need to feed too, you know…"

"But that wasn't supposed to happen!" Kyouichi was still blaming himself for Midori's fate. "Marisa, just… you have to bring her back, you hear?!"

The magician only waved her hand in a dismissive, phlegmatic motion. "Meh… If you say Reimu went in there with Aya, I'm sure they'll be back with your friend rescued in a mo…"

"Ayayayayaya~!"

"…ment." Marisa finished her word as she lifted her gaze to see the source of the call that came out of nowhere.

"…eight, ten, twelve…" the dark-haired girl who just arrived at the shrine quickly counted the outsiders gathered in the shrine yard. "Good. Nobody was eaten while we were away… Oh, hello, Kirisame-san."

"Aya? Hey, where's Reimu and that girl that supposedly got taken away?"

"Oh, they're uh… they're still battling." Aya gave her a tongue-in-cheek reply. "But she was worried that while she was there, this bunch might be an easy target for stray hungry youkai, so I came here to check."

"Huh? Aren't you going to help her?" Kyouichi incredulously stared at the hovering tengu. "Midori's life is at stake!"

Aya did her best to suppress the giggle that was knocking on her lips from inside. "Yeah… at steak… I mean at stake, hehe." Her behavior was almost as suspiciously indifferent and calm as Marisa's. "Well, now that Marisa's here, I suppose I don't need to stay here and baby-sit. I'll go back to the mansion then, 'cause… you know… Reimu doesn't look like she can handle this one alone." And in the next instant she turned around and disappeared just as quickly as she arrived, leaving a small crowd of confused and worried outsiders in the shrine yard.

* * *

"Uhff… I can't handle this one alone~." Reimu exhaled heavily as she stared down at her plate where nearly a half of the massive beef steak still lay untouched due to insufficient room in the shrine maiden's stomach. Her hands have already surrendered their grip on the expensive silver cutlery that settled down on the porcelain surface with a noisy clink. "I'm stuffed…"

"What's the matter, Reimu? You're already full? You barely ate half of it." Remilia disappointedly shook her head. "It'll be such a waste to throw it out."

"Hey… do you want to finish it?" Reimu turned her head slowly to center her view to Midori.

"Sorry, I've also had more than enough."

"I'm baaaaaaack~!" the crow tengu's announcement of return came from the hole in the broken window. "Did you miss me?" Aya teasingly asked as she fluttered into the dining hall and landed precisely on her reserved chair.

"Ayaaaa~. I need you to help me with this…" the miko pushed her plate across the table towards the youkai journalist.

"The Hakurei shrine maiden's in a pinch, eh?"

"I suppose I can relate to her." said Remilia. "I too didn't have quite as big an appetite after not eating for so long. Reimu's stomach is not adjusted to eating such portions."

"Are you really, sure about that, Reimu?" Aya was toying around with the shrine-maiden's mind, "Because I'm really going to finish it in your stead without giving you the right of compensation."

"You could always ask Remilia-sama to pack it for you, so you could eat it later." Midori gave her a suggestion that honestly didn't occur to Gensokyo's keeper of order. "Every good restaurant should provide such a service."

And those were probably the crucial words that tugged the sensitive strings of Remilia's pride, because her reaction was almost immediate.

"Hm? You heard that, Sakuya? Why don't you pack Reimu-san's meal? Like hell I'm going to lose to some outside-world restaurant."

And the perfect and elegant maid obliged without a second thought. She disappeared and reappeared by Reimu's side with a paper bag in her hand, making an offering gesture.

"You know… reheated meal never tastes quite as good as freshly cooked, but it's certainly better than wasting food. Or feeding some greedy tengu…" Remilia noted as she was rising from her table with one energetic flap of her wings. It was apparent that she was in an excellent physical condition as well as mood. "I shall await you in Kazemura once you take care of your business with the humans from the outside world." She addressed the words to both Aya and Reimu.

With reluctance, the shrine maiden pushed herself away from the table and rose from her seat, having only now processed what Remilia told her.

"What? You're going there again? In spite of what happened to you there?"

"Of course! What did you think this was all about? I couldn't aid in the incident for over a month, because I was bedridden, and honoring an old contract, I do not prey on native humans from the village, so I was waiting for an opportunity to recover with the "help" of one of those outsiders. Now that I'm fine, I have to finish what I started. Don't forget to bring that trinket of yours."

"My lady, I have to object…" Sakuya also shared some of Reimu's sentiments about Remilia's stubborn will to return to the quarry village. "That place is not safe for anyone anymore; human, youkai or even god. That place is the reason you ended up bedridden."

"No, Sakuya. That was because of being exposed to running water. The place itself has nothing to do with that." her mistress corrected her instantly.

"But you've read Patchouli-sama's letters… And heard Reimu's and Aya's first-hand testimonies. Kazemura's temple is a divine and magic power sink."

"Ah, but normal humans are unaffected and youkai abilities equally so." the reporter threw in a quick reminder.

"See? As long as the weather remains clear and as long as no fairies will force me to save Patchouli's life, I don't see a problem."

"Yeah, but some problems are nasty and you rarely see them until you face them."

"I'm aware of unpredictable circumstances, Shameimaru. But I clearly know this – idleness breeds decay. We can't be inactive about this, you know it."

With a sigh Reimu nodded. "I know… But I'm not sure Aya told you about the situation in the village."

"Oh, you mean all the politics about who has the right to enter the temple? Well, that's Lord Tenma for you." Aya let out a weak chuckle. "Now that he provided the villagers with protection, he now believes that they owe him one and that the White Wolves have the deserved privilege to go inside and do whatever he ordered them to do. Not even Patchouli's word can change anything about it, so she was forced to negotiate, which hasn't been very successful so far."

"Then we'll fight for that privilege if need be!" Remilia rammed her right fist into her open left palm.

"I have to say that I don't really quite agree with Tenma's politics, but… going up against my own kind… I wouldn't dare to do that."

"We'll figure something out." Reimu added a grain of her optimism into the conversation. "Well then… Thanks for the meal. Midori, Aya, it's time to leave."

"Alright." Remilia too didn't feel like delaying her guests. "Sakuya, please escort the guests to the gate."

"Yes, my lady." Sakuya bowed and silently led the guests out of the dining room and all the way to the mansion's foyer and main entrance. "I don't suppose you're going to carry her back after kidnapping her." Reimu let out a semi-sarcastic remark directed at Sakuya.

"I only do what my mistress tells me and she sort of forgot to order me to actually bring the girl back."

"Hey, don't sweat it. I can carry her to the shrine in no time." Aya voluntarily picked Midori up, which startled the girl to say the least.

"Oh, no, not again!"

Reimu wasn't quite happy about Aya's action either, but what other means of transport could she think of? "Alright, but don't fly as fast as you got us here."

"Ehehe~. I'll try my best."

Reimu took flight and Aya ascended slowly with Midori in her arms. "If you start feeling sick, just tell me and I'll land. I wouldn't want to see your lunch on my blouse."

"I'll just second what Reimu-san said. Don't fly too fast."

* * *

And off they went, leaving the Scarlet Island behind and closing the distance to the Hakurei Shrine.

"Hey, what did I tell you about flying slower?" Reimu reprimanded Aya, like a policewoman would a speeding driver.

"Yeah, yeah… Slower, slower…" the tengu let out an exasperated sigh followed by a loud yawn. The speed she had to maintain was utterly sluggish for her tastes. "I think I'm going to fall asleep here…" and as she muttered that, she nearly let go of Midori in mid-flight.

"Yaaaah~! Are you trying to kill me?!"

"Oh, sorry, sorry!" Aya immediately grabbed her tighter and began ascending again after losing some altitude. "Blame the speed limit. It's too damn slow. Jeez… I've seen dead snails flying faster than this."

"Dead snails fly in Gensokyo?"

"Uh… yeah… when you throw them." replied the tengu jokingly.

"I just don't want you to ram into my shrine with her like you did with me, hence the speed limit." Reimu still felt the pain from the impact of Aya's crash landing.

"That's because I was in an extreme hurry. But now, we're having just a leisure flight."

"So fly at a leisure velocity then."

"You mean this? That's just a tad faster than standing still. I'll fly at MY leisure velocity."

And before Reimu or Midori could formulate an argument, Aya leaned slightly forward and accelerated to a speed that could rival that of Marisa's broom. "See? Much better. And we'll be at the shrine much sooner. Don't fall behind, Reimu~!"

"Aya~!" Reimu shouted after the crow tengu who was gradually leaving her further and further behind. Aya didn't appear to even notice the shrine maiden calling her name. She just wanted to be at her destination without having to delay herself.

* * *

"And down we go~." Aya mentally prepared Midori for the inevitable landing once the shrine yard was just a few hundreds of meters away.

"Oh, good, good, just gently set me down. I've had enough flying for today." exhaled the female outsider with a mix of relief and anxiety.

"That's Midori!" Soudai recognized the person Aya was carrying before she landed. All the outsiders centered their attention at the arriving girls.

"Midori!" Kyouichi called at her as he shielded his eyes from the sunlight to have a better view. "You saved her!"

"Ehehe, it was nothing, really." Aya released the girl after she made a smooth landing. A polar opposite of how she managed to "land" in the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"Are you alright?" both of her closest friends ran to meet her. Noticing the bandage around her neck, they both believed Midori's condition was more serious than it actually was.

"It's not as bad as it looks, really. Think of it as if I went to donate blood to a hospital."

"Oh, god… we were so worried." a huge rock fell off Kyouichi's chest when he could see that Midori was alive and well. The whole group of outsiders created a small circle around her to welcome her back among them. It was not long after that when Kyouichi realized something.

"Hey, where's Reimu?"

Aya didn't need to answer that, as the answer to Kyouichi's question arrived just a few seconds afterwards. "Damn it, Aya. Why can't you listen to reason for once?"

"He-hey~, Reimu!" the tengu welcomed her with a gleeful smile while waving her hand. "What took you so long?" she added a teasing question as the miko was descending to the ground.

Reimu sighed, as if she just won a tough battle and had no willpower to think of any witty remarks. "Just… do your job and I'll do mine."

"That I will." Aya made a mock salute gesture as she produced a camera out of her blouse's pocket. "Okay, folks, this is a memorable moment, so I want to make a group photo of the whole bunch of you before you all leave Gensokyo~."

She immediately began giving the outsiders directions on how to arrange themselves, so that they'd all fit into the photo. "Alright, the tallest people in the back, the shorter ones, move to the front. That' it. Great, great. Now you there, move a bit more to the left. And you to the center…"

More than a handful of pictures of the outsiders were taken from various angles and in various poses. The emphasis was on Midori's happy reunion with her friends after she was, quote: "Rescued from the clutches of an evil bloodthirsty vampire by the valiant and selfless effort of the brave tengu reporter with a slight assistance from the Hakurei shrine maiden." Aya said that her readers love to see drama and happy endings, so she believed her next issue of Bunbunmaru was going to sell like hotcakes. Just bend the truth here and there and make some things up, and the perfect article was born. That has always been Aya's way of writing and publishing, and even though her articles often looked like farfetched sensations, there were still people willing to invest their money to read them… or use them as kindling.

And just as Aya was busy with taking shots, interviewing and taking notes, so was Akyuu devoting herself to her work of recording this event and likewise interviewing the outsiders about their experience during their whole stay in this isolated realm of magic, youkai and gods.

Meanwhile, Reimu disappeared inside her shrine to finalize the preparations for the ritual of passage.

* * *

"So, tell us, how do you feel about finally being able to leave Gensokyo?" Kyouichi received the question when it was his turn for Aya's and Akyuu's short interview.

Kyouichi closed his eyes as he inhaled the early autumn air. Recalling all the events that occurred to him since the 28th of May until today would take more than a few minutes. Only brief flashbacks from those events were now running through his head.

"It's an amazing mixture of feelings that I'm not sure I'll be able to describe well. It's been quite a roller-coaster… uh… sorry, you probably don't even know what that is."

"Do give it a try and describe them anyway." Aya encouraged him as she playfully flipped the pen between her fingers.

"It's the feeling that you get when you accomplish something great. Something that took a lot of time and effort. Something you've dreamed about for a long time, but didn't quite know how to achieve it. And then there's this feeling that's like making you all nervous and curious about what awaits you when you return home after such a long time. That tingling in your stomach… and it's making your heart race. That's the sort of feeling I have from this trip that's yet ahead of us."

"U-huh…" Aya scribbled something into her notepad, just as Akyuu wrote into her scroll. "And what about your stay in Gensokyo? Are you going to take home good or bad memories of this little world?"

"My fond memories of this place will surely last a lifetime. Something like that is just impossible to forget. I'm pretty sure all of my friends here will tell you the same. There've been times when I felt like my life had no meaning. That by ending up here, I was sentenced to a life-long imprisonment, never to see my family and home again. And there were moments that I wish I could forget, but I guess those bad moments will only serve to enhance my memories about Gensokyo."

"You've surely met a lot of people and youkai while you were here." Aya went on with the questions. "No doubt some of them ended up being your friends. How do you feel about parting your ways with them?"

"Of course, there's this… I don't even know if I should call it regret or sadness. I guess a little bit of both. Yesterday I said my farewell to the family that took me in. I didn't tell them about this planned trip until yesterday. It wasn't easy for me. And probably neither for them… They're not the only people I'm going to miss. Even now I'm saying my farewells to you and to Marisa… and Akyuu-chan… Part of me doesn't want to go, but… life is about decisions. You can't have it all. You just need to know what you really want. And sacrifices are sometimes necessary." As he spoke, he could feel his voice tremble slightly, because he knew he wasn't going to see those faces ever again. But he has already decided firmly. The situation very much reminded him a period of his life when his parents divorced and he had to move to Tokyo – away from his friends, into a new unknown city, into a new unknown school, having to cope with the fact that he was not going to see his childhood friends as often as he'd like. But such is life. And even though the choice wasn't really up to him, that experience taught him how to cope with the inevitable factor of life – change. But even that experience wasn't making his feelings about leaving Gensokyo and all the friends he made there any more relaxed.

"Life indeed is about priorities. And to give up on one thing to get another has been its natural attribute ever since it began. I can understand that leaving friends behind isn't easy, but every person here probably has the same priority as you do, Ishimaru-san. Which brings me to my next question: I heard that your group originally consisted of more members than it has now. Have you been able to learn the reasons why some of your fellow outsiders would decide to make this place their permanent home?"

The question proved to be a bit tough for Kyouichi. "Sorry. I only have vague information about that."

"Rumors have it that some didn't have very good lives in the outside world." Midori interjected. "Starting a new life here seemed like redemption to them. Others say that some of the outsiders have found the love of their life here, but that's all just unconfirmed hearsay."

"Maybe some of them were criminals hiding from the law." Soudai added extra speculation fuel into the interview. "You never know what kinds of people ride subway trains these days."

"Somehow, I doubt that's the case, but…" Midori remained silent, as she had to acknowledge that Soudai's statement was based on quite a bit of truth.

"I don't suppose you found the love of your life during your stay in Gensokyo, right?" the tengu mustered a brief grin.

"I was trying to consciously avoid that, so that I wouldn't end up like the minority that left our club. Though I have to admit, it wasn't easy."

"So there was someone who made your heart sway... at least for a moment?"

"More than one person, yes." the outsider nodded as he chuckled.

"Wow, more than one?" Aya widened her smirk at the reaction. "Heard that, Reimu? Maybe you still have a chance, hahaha… Just kidding. You're on your leave anyway. I only have one last question for you."

"Alright. Shoot."

"If you had the choice to revisit Gensokyo at any time in the future, would you?"

"Ha. That of course depends on whether I'd still be able to return home after that visit."

"Let's say that yes."

"Hmm…" Kyouichi tilted his head slightly to the side and put on a semi-thoughtful, semi-comical grimace. "Sure. If that was possible, why not?"

"Heh, I guess we didn't leave such a bad impression then." Aya giggled and she closed her notepad. "And that concludes our little interview. Thank you for your time~."

"No problem." the outsider copied her smile. "But now I have one question for you, Aya."

"Oh? Ask away then… Unless it's related to my three sizes, that is…"

Kyouichi just leaned closer to her and asked: "Is that wine I smell from your breath?"

The tengu reporter's cheeks quickly gained a rich pinkish hue and she started giggling almost uncontrollably. "Ahahahaha~! Well, yes, it is. Sorry. It's not usually my habit to carry around a toothbrush in case I get a sudden unexpected invitation. But I'll make sure to properly brush my teeth as soon as I get home."

"Oh, I don't really mind. It just surprises me that you're still seriously doing interviews for your newspaper after drinking alcohol."

"Oh, please~." Aya waved her palm. "To us tengu, having a few glasses is like to you humans tasting a few drops. I assure you as I stand here that my senses aren't dulled by it the slightest."

"Hey, Aya, how many fingers am I showing you?" Marisa played along, and out of jest she showed Aya an indecent gesture.

In split-second her middle finger was caught by Aya's lightning-quick hand and she bent it into a quite uncomfortable position for the blonde witch.

"Yaaaaaaaaaah, let go, let go~!"

"Hm? You're not showing me any fingers… Oh, but you do have a lovely mezzo-soprano voice. You should join a choir, Kirisame-san. Or perhaps a band."

Aya finally released Marisa's finger from her grasp. It let out a silent crack as the witch shut her fist and returned it to its natural position.

"Well, then, outsiders… Are you ready to cross the border~?" Aya asked the whole group loud enough so that even Reimu inside her shrine would be able to hear it.

A unanimous "Yes!" echoed throughout the shrine yard.

"Then let's see if Reimu's done with all the necessary preparations." She approached the shrine's sliding door, but before she put her hand on its indentation, Reimu opened it from the inside. She stepped out onto the porch and gave a silent nod as a signal that everything was ready for the ritual.

The whole group of outsiders began to shift towards the shrine's entrance. That's when Reimu showed them her palm to halt them.

"Due to how large your group is, due to how much equipment you need to take with you, and due to the limited capacity of my living quarters, I'm going to have to send you across the border in two smaller groups, so… those of you who can't wait to get out of this place as soon as possible, follow me inside."

Several outsiders didn't hesitate to step forth to be a part of that first group. Kyouichi, Soudai, Midori and a handful of others weren't that much in a hurry.

"What's the point of rushing?" shrugged Soudai as he watched some of his clubmates enter the shrine in a hasty fashion. "They still need to wait for us anyway."

"Someone has to be in the first group too, you know." Midori made her point.

"True, but look at them – pouring in like people trying to squeeze into the morning bus. Guess they couldn't take living in the Ryuuken barracks anymore."

"That… admittedly is a good reason to skip the queue and hurry out of here." Midori who had an unpleasant experience in the barracks acknowledged with bitter contempt.

Once the first group was inside, Akyuu, Aya and Marisa wanted to enter as well, so that they could watch the whole thing, but Reimu's following words wiped their hopes away.

"Hey? What are you three coming in for? Do you also want to go to the outside world?"

"Heh, I wouldn't mind getting another look. Even though it looks kind of boring." replied Marisa.

"I for one don't feel the need to cross the border," said Aya, "I only want to capture and record your ritual of passage as you take those humans across."

"Yes, me too." Akyuu seconded Aya's intention.

"In that case, I have to disappoint you." Reimu frowned at them as she crossed her arms. "In order for the ritual to be successful, all the shrine's doors need to be closed and everyone inside the room is required to have their eyes closed during the whole ritual.

"Oh, but I can snap pictures even with my eyes closed." objected Aya. "Watch." She stretched out her arm backwards, closed her eyes and took a blind shot of the group of outsiders standing behind her. After a moment a fresh photograph came out of her camera slot, depicting the sky, some treetops and the upper right corner of the shrine's torii. In other words, she completely missed her mark.

"Eh… I may need to practice that skill a little more." she stuck her tongue out as she crumpled up the bad photo.

"That's a pity." sighed Akyuu, who looked much more disappointed than the crow tengu.

"Well, that's how the ritual works. Don't give me that look, I didn't make it up."

"Oh, well, might as well take this time to chat with the other folks a bit while you send the first batch to the outside world." shrugged Marisa and seated herself on the edge of Reimu's porch. "Uhhh… not as warm as in summer anymore…" she commented the surface's cool temperature.

"Even though I already interviewed them all… But I guess I still haven't said proper farewell to them." Aya mused aloud.

Meanwhile Reimu closed the door of her shrine so that she could begin with her ritual.

* * *

The remaining six outsiders gathered around Aya, Akyuu and Marisa. Some merely said their parting words formally with bowing or adding a handshake, others took more time to say goodbye to people whom they could consider friends.

"Once again, thanks for the interview and for your time. May you travel safely to Tokyo or wherever you all live. It's been nice meeting you." said Aya as she was saying goodbye to Kyouichi.

"Likewise. It's been a pleasure… and a bit of pain too, to meet and know you." chuckled the outsider as he recalled some of his most memorable mishaps. "May your newspaper career be full of success and prosperity."

"Ha! Thanks. I should give you some credit for putting up with my passion for journalism… even at your own expense."

"Don't worry. Enough time has passed already for me to consider the memory of that one incident as nothing but a laughing matter now."

"That's good to hear… Watch yourself out there." and with those words from Aya, Kyouichi proceeded to Marisa.

"So this is it, huh? You're really finally going to go… Man, it feels like yesterday when you walked up those stairs and stared silently at us for a moment until Reimu finally noticed you were there. And when we had that hanami. And when I first took you for a ride on my broom. And when I saw you lying in Eientei. And when there was that big tanabata festival… I'll try not to forget about you and your friends. You were quite the funny bunch sometimes. Now you're all so serious… Come on! Let me see you smile. That's more like it." the witch also flashed her teeth to them in return, although it might have been a little forced. "Good luck to ya all, ze~! Hey, maybe we can still meet one day in the afterlife or something."

"You're the coolest witch I've ever met, really."

"How many witches have you met already?" Soudai teasingly asked from behind.

"Uh… one?"

"Yeah, I thought so."

"Still, I'll remember Marisa in this confident pose as she sits cross-legged on her broom, holding the smoking Mini-Hakkero with one hand and adjusting her hat with the other. Oh, and to mirror your earlier comment, you too were quite hilarious at times. May you accomplish your pursuits… whatever they are and may you finally be able to cook an edible tamagoyaki." after saying that semi-sarcastic comment, Kyouichi earned a gentle kick in his knee from the witch.

"Stop making fun of it already."

"Heh, sorry, sorry…" he bowed apologetically as he suppressed his chuckling.

And finally, Kyouichi stepped up to the chronicler Akyuu.

"Akyuu-chan…" he spoke her name and couldn't think of what to say in the following second.

"Kyouichi-san…" Akyuu in return spoke his name and paused herself to take a good look at his face.

They have already told their parting words to each other in Kazemura, as Kyouichi didn't expect her to be here at the shrine on this day, that's why he felt like saying anything would be just wasting words. But in the end he did say at least a few.

"I guess I don't need to worry about you forgetting about us. And with all the experiences that I've lived through here, I can safely declare that you won't need to worry about me forgetting about you. After all, it's partially thanks to your guidance and your books that we're all standing here, with our goal in our reach."

"It's moments like this that give meaning to my work of recording Gensokyo's history as well as present. And even though I'm not sure how my chronicle helped you exactly, I thank you for your kind words." she smiled as sweetly as ever. Kyouichi couldn't help himself but to give her one last parting hug. He could feel her small arms lightly coiling around him as Akyuu reciprocated the gesture.

"You've made it this far… now go and cross that last mile."

The outsider nodded and released the embrace. "We'll give it our best, right?" he looked at all the remaining outsiders who were there with him.

"Of course we will. If we survived half a year in Gensokyo, some mountain hike to the nearest town will be a piece of cake!" Soudai was brimming with confidence and optimism.

"I'll get home even if I'll have to crawl all the way!" Midori's minor blood loss wasn't making her any less fired-up for the trip.

"Then we must wait for a bit longer while Reimu takes the first group across the border and comes back for us." said Kyouichi and impatiently watched the sliding door, anticipating that it could open up any second.

* * *

But seconds turned into minutes and Kyouichi's impatience, which manifested itself in his urge to walk back and forth from one side of the shrine yard to the other seemed to have rubbed off onto his friends as well.

"Well, Reimu-san certainly is taking her time." even the ever-calm and carefree Sayuri was beginning to point out to the obvious fact.

"She sure is." Soudai nodded agreeingly, kicking a small rock that he found on the paved floor away out of boredom. "Shouldn't we take a peek inside?"

"Eh… I don't think that's a good idea." Marisa recommended against it. "Reimu said that the shrine's doors need to be shut. I'm not sure if it only applies to the shrine she's traveling from, but we better not risk it and end up "locking her out" in the outside world."

"It's already been at least fifteen minutes, though." Midori roughly estimated the time that elapsed since Reimu closed the shrine's door. "Was the ritual so lengthy when Reimu-san took you to the outside world the first time?" she asked Kyouichi.

"Well… we did stay in the outside world and chatted for a while before we decided to return back, but no. The ritual itself wasn't longer than five minutes."

"Hmph…" the young girl shrugged. "We'll give her a few more minutes then. But if the door still won't open, then we'll take a look. And if we won't see anyone inside, we'll just close it again."

"Alright then." Marisa could agree with the plan, as it would only present minimal potential interference with Reimu's ritual of passage. "I don't know what she's doing out there so long. Instructing everyone not to wander off or giving them a tour of her decrepit shrine?"

"Maybe she's negotiating for some extra donations for going through all the trouble." speculated Aya. Even she considered the while during which Reimu hasn't shown herself as unusually long for a simple there-and-back trip.

"It's true that we have raised some funds reserved to pay for Reimu's service, but… Such a simple one-way transaction shouldn't take longer than a few seconds and a few thankful words." Kyouichi explained, though the strangest part about it, that completely dismissed Aya's speculation had dawned on him just now. "Wait… Nagahashi-san was the one responsible for the club's finances. And it was he who should have ultimately paid Reimu once she takes us across. And he's here with us." he beckoned at the quiet, balding man standing just a few meters away.

"Hmmm… then what could be taking her so long?"

After several more minutes have passed with nothing noteworthy happening, the outsiders couldn't stand it anymore.

"Unless anybody has any serious objections, I'm going to open the door right now. This isn't normal…" Midori announced as she approached the door.

"Hold on…" Aya halted her in the last second. She herself was moving towards the shrine's entrance and it appeared as though she wanted to be the one to open the door, but she stopped just a few centimeters away.

"Hm? What's wrong?" Midori blinked puzzledly.

Aya silently brushed a strand of hair from the side of her head, revealing her pointy ear, which she drew closer to the closed door. "I swear I heard something."

"Heard what?" Marisa's curiosity was piqued immediately.

Instead of telling, Aya just made a "come closer" hand gesture. Everyone gathered around the door, trying to catch even the slightest hint of sound that Aya claimed to have heard from inside. And indeed, they could hear something…

"Those are…"

"Voices." Midori was about to identify the sound, when the tengu beat her to it. "One male and the other sounds like Reimu…"

Although their words were impossible to discern, it really was as Aya said. Reimu's voice echoed from within the shrine's walls, being intermitted by a male voice. Judging by their tone, it seemed as though they were having some sort of dispute.

"She's already back, ze!" Marisa exclaimed.

"But why isn't she alone?" wondered Akyuu.

"I don't know. Let's bust in and scold her for taking so long!" said the witch.

And she did exactly as she intended. With one swift swipe of her hand, the door slid open, revealing a group of seven outsiders and Reimu standing in a circle made out of incense sticks on stands. Nobody inside even seemed to notice that the shrine door was open.

"I didn't say it was YOU specifically!" Reimu pointed her finger at one of the outsiders – Yuujin Ueda. "All that I'm asking is which one of you had their eyes open during the ritual!"

"Look, we didn't come here all the way to hear your stupid excuses!" the angry engine driver barked back at her. "You figure out a way to take us back home or you're not going to see a single yen from us!" All hints pointed towards the likelihood that Reimu and the outsiders never actually left the shrine at all.

"Hey, hey, hey! What's going on here?!" Marisa let her presence be known to the occupants of the shrine. "Why haven't you taken those people back to the outside world yet?"

"That is EXACTLY my question to miss shrine maiden here!" bellowed Ueda whilst pointing at Reimu's face. "We've been sitting here for nearly half an hour, doing exactly what she instructed us to, and she still fails to do that one thing that we asked of her!"

"What went wrong, Reimu?" Marisa shifted her gaze to the girl in red and white.

The brunette just shook her head while shrugging. "I think one of them had to have their eyes open… That's the only explanation that I can give."

"And we all told you a hundred times that none of us had our eyes open." Ueda opposed her, though he could only speak for himself at best. "Don't blame us for your incompetence."

"Maybe something else is wrong then." wondered Aya. "Like too many people, or there's an object in that circle that prevents you from crossing."

"I…" Reimu paused hesitatingly. "I can't really explain it, but… I could sense the barrier's rapid growth in strength in the past few days. Even though the barrier should normally grow in strength for at least another 25 years, as its new cycle began 5 years ago, the speed and amount at which the barrier's power was increasing is not natural."

"Are you kidding me?!" Yuujin's voice was now bordering loud speech and shouting. "Are you trying to tell us that now we have to wait for 25 years for the barrier to start weakening again?!"

"N-no! I didn't say that. I was just expla…"

"Then do something about it!" the frustrated outsider interrupted Reimu's sentence and marched out of the shrine. "Unbelievable…" Kyouichi could hear him grumbling as he walked past him.

Reimu too could hardly believe that she was unable to perform a ritual that she had done hundreds of times before with no great difficulty. At first it didn't occur to her that the rapid growth in barrier's power could be so severe as to possibly prevent her from using the gateway to the outside world, but now she suspected more than ever that was indeed the case.

Something had to be done. She wanted to help the outsiders, so she wanted to try out a few more things to figure the exact nature of the problem. The first thing that came to her mind was that this was the first time she was trying to transport so many people at once.

"Okay, everyone, out of the shrine. I have to try crossing the border by myself."

And although the first group of outsiders that were still standing in her circle didn't like to hear it, they had no choice but to oblige. One by one they left the shrine's living quarters.

"I-if it's of any help," Soudai tentatively raised his hand before Reimu closed the door after the last person, "We could see the dragon statue's eyes glowing red before we left the village. I don't think I saw them sporting that color yesterday."

Reimu's deadpan face stared at him without expression for well over 5 seconds. She too experienced several occasions when the gemstones were glowing in that ominous hue, and not a single time was that a good sign. Although by the time the dragon's eyes were red, the nature of an incident was already fully manifesting itself in a way which everyone in Gensokyo could notice. But this time, neither Reimu, nor anyone else was able to notice anything strange in the past few days besides the rapid, but gradual growth in the Great Hakurei Border's power.

"What could be causing this?" Marisa asked a question that was most likely also echoing in Reimu's head. "Is Yukari fooling around again?"

"I don't know. At this point I really don't know…" replied the shrine maiden. "I'll try to figure out if I can get across alone. Give me a couple of more minutes." and once again she shut the sliding door.

* * *

Just as the barrier's power, the tension among the outsiders was rising rapidly.

"Damn it! I knew Ishimaru's plan couldn't be trusted." Ueda was loudly expressing his dissatisfaction.

"The plan wasn't bad." Midori tried to defend her friend. "What happened couldn't be foreseen."

"But the miko just told us that she felt something odd for the past several days! Why didn't she tell us anything?"

"Calm down, Ueda-san." Kyouichi tried to defuse the situation before it escalated into a quarrel. "Reimu is doing her best to find a way to help us. At least wait those few minutes calmly until she comes out."

"Don't you tell me what to do! This is also YOUR fault! We already had all of the necessities for our trip ready at least a month in advance! But you insisted that we wait and leave this place on the first of Kannazuki! If we went as soon as we were ready, this wouldn't happen!"

Kyouichi's hope for success still didn't die out, but Yuujin certainly wasn't helping him keep it alive. If anything, he only managed to invoke a growing sense of guilt in him. He couldn't argue with him. He had a point and now Kyouichi began to question why he insisted on postponing the trip up to this day.

"Please, Reimu. Please… find out what's going on." he prayed in his mind for the shrine maiden's success. "Please do something to pass through the border…"

Once Yuujin felt like taking a break from blaming all those around him, Midori came to Kyouichi's side. He just sat there on the porch, staring into the ground, murmuring something to himself as if he was reciting a prayer.

"Kyouichi… Don't listen to him. There's no way on Earth you could have predicted this situation."

"But… he's right."

"Hey, don't give up so fast when there is still hope." she tried to cheer him up. "Reimu's going to fix the problem, you hear me?"

As if taking the cue, Reimu opened the shrine's door after spending something over ten minutes inside in solitude.

* * *

Every outsider was on their feet when she showed up. Kyouichi could feel his knees trembling with nervousness and anticipation.

"Well…?" Marisa couldn't take Reimu's silent blank stare any longer and prompted her to speak.

The shrine maiden took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. She didn't want to be the one to tell them the truth, but she had to. "I can't…"

"What?"

"I can't get across. The barrier prevents me from passing to the outside world completely."

"This is bad…" Soudai stated the obvious through the mixture of hissing, murmur and whispers of his displeased clubmates.

"Damn it…" Kyouichi cursed as a feeling of hopelessness began to take over him. "What the hell are we going to do now?"

"Didn't I freakin' tell you so?!" Yuujin called out from the top of his lungs. "We're not going anywhere, people! We're stuck here! Stranded! We apologize for the inconvenience, but your flight home has just been delayed… PERMANENTLY!" he appeared as though as he was going mad. Some outsiders even wondered whether he wasn't even secretly hoping for this outcome, just to prove that he was right. Nobody really had the courage to tell him to shut up.

And while he lamented, others began to ask themselves what to do in this unpredicted situation. But nobody really knew the right answer.

"All that planning! All that work!" Yuujin's laments kept echoing in the shrine yard. "For nothing! I hate Gensokyo!"

And he likely wasn't the only one with these thoughts in mind.

"We have no, choice, it seems." Aya spoke to Reimu. "We have to find out what's making the barrier completely impassible and fix the problem."

"Unfortunately, I heard no reports about the impassibility of the barrier when it was at its peak of power during its 60 year cycle." Akyuu frowned as her knowledge of history couldn't help with the problem's resolution.

"I bet my Mini-Hakkero that this all ties to that weird temple in Kazemura somehow. We have to go there and find out." Marisa suggested as she picked up her broom, ready to take flight immediately.

"But… what about us?" Kyouichi demanded a reasonable answer, because right now, he was at a loss.

"I can't help but to agree with Aya and Marisa here." answered Reimu. "I'm really, really sorry… I assure you that I'll solve this incident and take you all to the outside world. But… it's not going to be today."

"Great. So we just take all our stuff and go back home?"

"For the time being… that's probably the only choice you have. Keep your equipment here. I'll let you all know when we'll have the problem resolved, so… please be a little more patient."

"I don't think you've noticed this, Hakurei-san, but our patience has just run out!" Yuujin exclaimed. "I can't wait another minute, let alone days or weeks or however long this incident is going to take you to resolve!"

"Like Reimu said:" sounded Aya, "At this point, the question whether or not you'll be able to leave Gensokyo is not a matter of your or our will. Now please wait for the nearest Ryuuken patrol from Misty Lake or Kazemura to pass around and let them escort you back to Human Village. That's the only advice we can offer at this moment."

"So… Shall we go then?" Marisa beckoned Akyuu to board her flying broom as a passenger, so that they could return to the quarry of Kazemura.

"The situation is pretty urgent." the chronicler noted as she sat astride on the broom. "We'll do our best to help, so please wish us good luck." she directed those words at the outsiders.

"I'm ready to go." Reimu closed and locked the shrine.

"Then let's not waste any more time." Aya kicked off the ground into a levitating position. "Remilia is probably already waiting for us."

Marisa and Reimu both took off at the same time and followed Aya's lead in a V-shaped formation.

The outsiders were on their own once again and their mood was just as one could expect from people put into a similar situation. Kyouichi took a particularly heavy burden of guilt upon himself. He was so desperate to get home that he was willing to accept any crazy idea that had a chance of getting him across the border greater than zero. And one such idea just crossed his mind.

"Say, Yamada-san…" he called at one of the club members. "Do you still have that shovel?"

As much as he hated to accept the fact, his long-planned exodus from Gensokyo has shipwrecked in its final stage. Even though he could already see himself home, he was ultimately stopped by the last hurdle.


	63. Departure Delayed

"I know you don't want to, but we have to go back." Soudai was trying to convince his friend to stand up from the shrine's porch and make him snap out of his sulky mood. "Reimu's not coming back. There's nothing for us to do here, Ishimaru, we have to return to the village."

"We should have gone sooner…" Kyouichi muttered, barely showing any sings of perceiving what Soudai was trying to communicate to him.

"Damn right, we should have! And guess who we have to thank for that!" Yuujin's anger in this situation was perhaps justified, but it still annoyed a lot of people he was displaying it to.

"You shut up!" Soudai left his respect for elders at home as he snapped back at him. "Hey, just ignore the cretin; he's the one who elected you for club's president, so it's partially his fault as well."

"That's really some comfort talk, Soudai." Midori stepped up to them. The look at the sullen Kyouichi wasn't doing her much good either. "Come on… Get up."

"I see a Ryuuken patrol coming from the lake!" Hikaru, who has taken the scouting role announced to the whole club. At those words Kyouichi stood up like an animated puppet. Despite his miserable mood, he didn't want to be the reason the club's return to the safety of the Human Village would be delayed. As he wordlessly walked towards the torii, Soudai quickly blocked his path with his palm raised in a "halt" gesture.

"Wait a second."

"What is it, Soudai?"

"I know I said that we should get going and all, but... Do we really want to hand ourselves over to the Ryuuken? After all those months we've been trying to avoid their suspicion?"

"Would you rather risk the trip back to the village without anyone guarding us?"

Asakura ran his hand through his thick short hair as he considered Kyouichi's point. "Well, after our today's experience with Izayoi-san, yeah, I'm kind of willing to give it a try. Besides, if the Ryuuken find out that we were planning to leave Gensokyo today, they're going to tighten the village security so much that we're going to need a miracle to get to the shrine next time."

"Next time?! What next time? There is no next time! Don't you get it? We're stuck here!" It seemed as though Yuujin's behavior was starting to rub off onto Kyouichi.

"Until Reimu solves this incident! Were you not listening?" Soudai waved his palm in front of his friend's eyes to make sure he's still there with him.

"And when is that going to be, huh? In a month? A year? Besides… how are all 13 of us going to sneak back into the village undetected? No time-stopping maids are going to assist us now."

"That's one thing I'm glad for."

"I don't know what you're speculating about now, Asakura." said Midori. "We'll deal with the new problems as they come. We should stay focused on the here and now, don't you think?"

"I know, but…" and before he could finish his thought, he heard the sound of Kyouichi's sandals knocking as he was descending the stone stairs and waving both of his arms to get the attention of the approaching militiamen.

"Alright." Soudai shrugged resignedly. "You win." And as he breathed a sigh, he followed Kyouichi and the other club members down the stairs to the wooden signpost in the middle of the crossroad. Within a couple of minutes the pair of guards have reached the mentioned crossroad and met the outsiders. They weren't anyone Kyouichi would recognize, which was probably for the better.

"What are you lot doing here?" one of them asked. "I didn't know about any recent festival taking place at that shrine."

"Wait a minute…" the second Ryuuken stepped closer to take a better look. "Weren't these the people that Fukukane sent us photos of?"

"Oh, yeah! Those outsiders!" his colleague seemed to recall something. "Who let you past the gates?"

"We only want to get safely back to the village." Hikaru spoke in everyone's name.

"Alright, let's go, but you're all going straight to our headquarters until we get an explanation from you. This has to be filed."

The Ryuuken kept on marching southwards without any delay, and the band of outsiders walked closely behind them. Everyone was quiet the whole way. Even Yuujin got bored of cursing the whole world and just mulled over how he'd spend another undefined period of time in a place he never wished to visit.

* * *

When they finally got to the Ryuuken office in the center of the village, they were all thoroughly interrogated about how and why they escaped from the village. Every outsider was aware that this would have consequences that would only bring them problems in the future, but they had no choice but to fess up the truth. They weren't interrogated as a group, though. They called each of the outsiders one by one into a room with only one table, where a group of high-ranking militia officials was seated to ask questions and to file a report. To Kyouichi this whole situation seemed ridiculous. As if the outsiders have committed some severe crime, when all they wanted was to get home. They had no lawyers to help them and their lack of knowledge of Human Village's law system made any hopes of being able to defend themselves legally nearly impossible. Kyouichi's turn to answer their questions was here. A pair of guards stepped out from the room: "Ishimaru Kyouichi." They read the name on the list of outsiders they received. The young outsider wanted to get this farce over with as soon as possible. Standing up from his chair, he walked up to the guards and entered through the door, which the two armed men have closed and locked behind him.

"Ah, Ishimaru-san." a voice too familiar to be mistaken for anyone else's addressed him as he entered. To Kyouichi's great surprise, it wasn't just the Ryuuken elite who was interested in getting the first-hand information, but the village elder himself. Kyouichi found it hard to believe that the planned and failed escape of the outsiders has managed to cause such a stir.

"Fukukane-san? What are you doing here?"

"No, no, no, Ishimaru-san. We'll be the only ones in this room who's going to ask questions. Your only concern is to give us the answers. Preferably truthful." It wasn't the same nice and smiling elder Fukukane that Kyouichi remembered. His stern face and his cold tone were leaving the outsider with an unpleasant feeling in his stomach.

"I doubt I'll tell you anything that my associates haven't told you already." he decided to act confident to mask his insecurity.

"That's what we are hoping for, actually. The reason why we're questioning you individually, is to make sure all of your testimonies match, thus increasing the likelihood of their truthfulness." The elder's lips shaped a weak smile as he adjusted his position on the chair and interlocked his fingers where he rested his chin. "So, Ishimaru-san… When you first came to my office half a year ago, I took you for a decent and polite, law-abiding young man, worthy of becoming a Human Village citizen. Who would have thought that you'd turn out to be such a rebellious delinquent?"

"Delinquent? As if I had broken the law."

"As a matter of fact, you have. You've disobeyed an elder's regulation, which is the same as violating the law. But you can relax. That doesn't make you a criminal yet." he then looked into a document that he had on the table and glanced back at Kyouichi. "According to this file, you're in the position of a president of a club at the Kamishirasawa Academy. The inconspicuous name "Transfer Students' Club" doesn't reveal much about the club's activities, but the member list almost perfectly matches the list of all the people being interrogated here today. That leads me to believe you were the one who organized this rather foolish endeavor."

"Is it really so wrong if we wanted to go home?"

"I said we'll be the ones asking questions here, Ishimaru-san." the elder emphasized with a louder voice and a frown. "But if you're asking that, I assume you're not denying that you were the one who forged the plan of escape."

"Fukukane-san, please… we haven't done anything wrong! You can't keep people in the village against their will."

"Silence!" Toshimi Fukukane slammed his fist against the table. Kyouichi had never seen the man so angry.

That's when one of the Ryuuken cleared his throat to calm the situation down. "Come on, Fukukane, is it really necessary? Why don't you just let us do our job and lead the interrogation?"

The man looked a few years younger than the elder, his graying black hair was styled like that of the samurai – forehead shaved up to the apex of the scalp and the hair done up in a bun. If Kyouichi unimagined his face, the man's stature reminded him a bit of his former employer, Daisuke Shimizu - a bit plump and not too tall. His uniform was almost like any other Ryuuken's, but the decorative patterns were much richer and exquisite. Instead of golden stripes on the shoulders to indicate the rank, he had a pattern that looked like a star or a lotus flower. None of the other men had the same pattern on their uniforms. Judging by the informal tone, in which he spoke with Fukukane, Kyouichi assumed him to be the very leader of the whole militia and his authority was almost as big as that of the elder himself.

"As you wish, Ogata, but I'm still curious to hear what this youth has to say." the elder sighed and allowed the man question Kyouichi in his stead.

"So, Ishimaru-san," the elite Ryuuken glanced at the file and smiled, "I believe this is the first time we met, and as an outsider, it wouldn't surprise me if you've never heard of me before. I am Noburu Ogata."

"Uh, nice to meet you, Ogata-san." Kyouichi bowed.

"That's Grandmaster Ogata to you." the village elder brought Kyouichi out of his ignorance.

"Grandmaster?"

"Please, Fukukane. There's no need flaunt our titles here. But yes, I'm in charge of the Ryuuken militia." Noburu replied and waved his hand, as if it was no big deal. He certainly didn't look like a grandmaster with that laid-back attitude of his.

"Sorry for being rude, but I only wanted to know why Elder Fukukane was so insistent about making us stay in the village. And why were all those walls built anyway?"

The Ryuuken leader smirked and shifted his gaze at the village elder. "Well, Elder, why don't you explain the reason for the fortification construction to a curious citizen?"

"Am I the one being interrogated here? The reason for the walls is to make the Human Village a safer place."

"Safer from what exactly?" Kyouichi raised his eyebrows. "From youkai who can easily FLY over them? Or was it to keep us outsiders rounded up?"

"Is that what it seemed like to you? Because you've got it all wrong, Ishimaru-san." Fukukane shook his head denyingly. "The walls prevent little children from wandering off into the wilderness, they help keep the trade under control and protect the villagers from attacks of wild animals. They were rebuilt based on a petition from the villagers themselves."

"That's all good, but the regulations you put in effect to prevent anyone who doesn't have any business outside the village from leaving the place made a lot of people feel imprisoned." the outsider argued.

"Strange, because you're the first one to complain about it."

"We only wanted to get home. We weren't putting anyone else in danger, but ourselves. Besides, the outside world isn't as dangerous as you think it is."

"I… can understand and respect that." Grandmaster Ogata nodded agreeingly. "But while you did so, you managed to make us realize the huge flaws in our security. I can already tell you that many Ryuuken will lose their jobs because of this, or at least be demoted. To allow one person to sneak out undetected is one thing. But thirteen… I'd be very curious to know how you did that. We already interrogated your club members, but we'd like to hear it from you as well."

"And they probably told you that we had an accomplice."

"Go on." Noburu prompted him to continue.

"A certain Izayoi Sakuya from the Scarlet Devil Mansion."

"Yes, Izayoi… How ingenious. A time and space manipulator. With her abilities, she could commit a robbery and murder in broad daylight in the village square and nobody would notice until she'd be long gone." the Ryuuken leader noted as he scribbled something into the interrogation report. "So she helped you out of the village, but there was some unexpected turn of events, am I right?"

"Yes, she took Midori Iwakami, one girl from our group, because her vampire mistress needed to be fed fresh blood." Kyouichi explained.

"M-hm… and Iwakami-san told us that the shrine maiden came to her rescue. What can you tell us about that?"

"I can't tell you anything. I wasn't there to see what happened. We ran to the Hakurei shrine as soon as Sakuya was gone with Midori and asked Reimu to help us, so she went to save Midori."

"I see… And now for the biggest question of the day – what made you people return back to Human Village when you were so close to returning to the outside world?"

"The Great Barrier stopped us. Not even Reimu could get out to the outside world anymore. Right after that she went to Kazemura, thinking it has something to do with the temple they discovered there. And that's about all there is to our story."

"Hm… that village sure is a newspaper headline stealer these days."

"Sir, we already have a crew of 20 men stationed there." another Ryuuken informed him.

"See, Fukukane? We have much bigger problems to worry about than some bunch of outsiders outsmarting our gate guards." the grandmaster chuckled.

"But they broke the regulation, regardless. Justice demands some retribution." said the elder resolutely.

"Very well… according to the currently-effective law, the penalty for breaking an elder's regulation is a monetary fine of 5000 yen. You can either pay it right now, or it'll be deducted from your next salary." the Ryuuken leader announced to Kyouichi. "I don't think there's any need to call in the rest of the outsiders for interrogation. I believe 5 matching testimonies are enough to pronounce them as truthful, and now that we know how they snuck out, we can dismiss them and call it a day."

"And you're just going to leave it like that?" the elder turned his bewildered face at the grandmaster. "How are you going to fix that security problem?"

"There's not much we can do when someone like Izayoi-san decides to use her powers, I'm afraid. Considering how we never had any problems with her in the past, we shouldn't let this little abuse of her power to alarm us."

"Are you listening to yourself, Ogata?! That woman kidnapped a civilian to extract blood for her vampire mistress, and you're telling me she isn't our concern?! Don't make me begin to regret my decision for naming you into your current position."

"I hate to interrupt," Kyouichi reminded the two that he was still in the room, "but even though that wasn't very nice of her, I somehow agree with Grandmaster Ogata. Sakuya-san didn't intend to kill anyone. You already questioned Midori, right? If she told you what she told me, then the Scarlet Devil Mansion really isn't that fearsome as they say. And here…" he reached into his pocket and put some of his last savings on the table. The money that he originally meant to give to Reimu after she would have taken him across the barrier. "Five thousand. Can I go now?"

"If it was only up to me, I'd say yes." the grandmaster shrugged and cast a glance at Fukukane who refusingly shook his head.

"Not so fast." the elder delayed his leave. "I don't want you to get into contact with Izayoi ever again. Let this fine you just paid be a warning to you. Next time you violate a regulation, the law gives me the authority to exact greater sanctions. And repeated violation equals a criminal act."

"I'll keep that in mind, Fukukane-san, but… I still don't understand why you'd want to have everyone in the village under such strict control all of a sudden."

"Isn't it obvious? I do it for your safety! The walls, the regulations, the annoying gate guards… It's all for the good of the people. Especially people like yourself – outsiders. Human Village has never had this many outsiders living here since the erection of the Great Hakurei Border. We have to protect you somehow."

"Reimu showed me the letter you've sent to her back in Satsuki. The one where you explained that Human Village's economy would crumble with outsiders flowing in at such a rate." Kyouichi could see the elder's face turning a little paler as he mentioned it. "To me it sounded more like you wanted to get rid of us. Why suddenly so much effort to protect a mostly un-educated group of people with zero magical potential? We're more of a liability than an asset to this village."

"Well, that's simple. Even if you don't understand politics, it should be pretty clear to you that if something bad should happen to any of you, it'd be me who'd ultimately take the blame. Definitely not good for reputation. That's why I kindly ask you not to take these regulations lightly, even if they're constricting and annoying. Especially in these times when another big incident is on the horizon."

"I only want to know one thing, Fukukane-san."

"Heh, haven't I already answered enough of your questions?" the elder frowned, but let the outsider ask regardless.

"This one is the only one that matters to me now."

"Speak."

"When Reimu manages to return the barrier to its original state, will you allow her to send us across?"

"Only under the condition that you'll be properly escorted out of the village by either Hakurei Reimu or a squad of militiamen."

"So you will?" Kyouichi again felt a faint speck of hope. Perhaps he misjudged Elder Fukukane's intentions after all.

"It all depends on how well the shrine maiden handles this incident now."

"Wow… thank you!" a sincere thankful bow was how the outsider expressed himself.

"Be off, young man." Grandmaster Ogata gave the outsider permission to leave the room. "And try not to get on the Elder's bad side. He's a good man, but he can be unpleasant when angered."

"Uh… yes, I noticed." Kyouichi felt great relief when he was standing up from the chair. "We'll try not to get into trouble with the law." And then he left.

The leader of militia scribbled an autograph on the last report and put it into a folder. "So Sakuya-san lent them a hand. And I was already looking forward to firing some of our… less competent personnel. But now I can't really blame anyone, can I?"

"You try to figure out a way to prevent such things from happening again." said Fukukane.

Ogata replied with an amused chuckle. "Sure… we could recruit Izayoi-san into the militia. That'd help us a lot."

"I was being serious."

"Of course, you were, Toshi-kun…" the grandmaster turned to his colleagues. "Coffee, anyone?"

* * *

About the same time when Kyouichi was being interrogated, Reimu met up with the girls from the Scarlet Devil Mansion in the archeologist's tent. Even when she was nearing the village of Kazemura, she, Aya and Marisa could see that the only access into the temple was barricaded, guarded and no quarry workers were allowed to go near it.

"Ah, Reimu's here." Remilia let Patchouli know of the girls' arrival.

"I'll make some more tea then." Sakuya got to work right away.

Remilia even brought her favorite chair and a few luxuries from her mansion, so the tent looked more like her little palace than Patchouli's workspace.

"You girls weren't exaggerating when you said the atmosphere here was tense. It looks like a tengu colony now."

"Indeed." Aya confirmed. "I wonder if Momiji-san was relocated from the mountain to watch over this village."

"I'm back, Patchouli-san~." Akyuu ran to the librarian's table to greet her.

"Good afternoon." she welcomed everyone with a half-hearted greeting. Mostly because she still had her eyes focused on a book about Egyptian hieroglyphs.

"Egyptians?" Marisa's curiosity was instantly piqued by the book's cover. "Why are you reading that? Don't tell me they sailed all the way to Japan just so they could build a pyramid."

"I'm not saying that." the bookworm muttered back. "But you wouldn't believe how the symbols on the ruins here bear some similarities to the Egyptian hieroglyphs too."

"Eh? You're kidding me, aren't you? Give me that book~." the magician reached for the tome, but Patchouli pulled it away out of her reach.

"No."

"Come on! Just a peek." Marisa retried her attempt.

"I said no!"

"Don't make me use force~."

"Mukyuu~."

It was only a matter of time before they'd end up on the ground and so they did. "See what you did?" Marisa stood up and dusted her dress off.

"I did?!" Patchouli's flustered face was glaring at her like a rattlesnake that was poked by a stick.

"Girls? Girls!" Remilia stepped into their childish display of stubbornness. "Let's work on how to get into the temple already. We need a plan. Patchy, figured out anything yet?"

"Negotiating with the Kazemura elder and the commander of the Tengu seem to be the most reasonable option."

"Most peaceful maybe, but reasonable?" the vampire showed her a doubting smirk. "How many times have you already tried negotiating with them?"

Patchouli paused and gazed upwards as she tried to recall. "Three. But they were all unofficial. However, tomorrow the first official negotiation will be held in the Kazemura's village hall."

"Does this random pile of houses even have a village hall?" Marisa raised her eyebrow.

"How ignorant." Patchouli pouted as she stood up from the ground and picked up her book. "That's the place I've been to almost as much as this tent. If it wasn't for my effort, the yama-bito would still be breaking their pickaxes over the upper layer of the hardened magmatic rock. But I managed to get the elder's permission to use outside-world explosives. I even got an invitation to take part in this negotiation, so I hope they'll listen to reason. I've got some convincing arguments that should open those stubborn tengu eyes."

"Hey~!" Aya called out in protest. "Who are you calling stubborn? I hope it's the White Wolves."

"Even though I believe it to be an utter waste of time, I'll let you go to your little tea party with the tengu and yamba-bito. I already have my own plan thought through…" in the dimly lighted interior of the tent, the white or Remilia's teeth when she grinned gave some of the girls chills when they looked at her.

"Please, don't do anything stupid, Remi." Patchouli requested, and Reimu couldn't agree more with her plea.

"Yeah, what she said. You've already reached your troublemaking quota for this month."

"I'm not making trouble. I'm solving an incident here."

* * *

While relieved that he got out of the Ryuuken headquarters with only a monetary fine, Kyouichi's mood still remained as sullen as when he was leaving the Hakurei Shrine. His friends from the club felt the same way, so he didn't even blame them for not waiting for him when his interrogation was over. Just like him, they too needed to take their time and not be bothered by anyone. The hardest part of the day for him was perhaps not facing the fact that he couldn't get out of Gensokyo, but the necessity to explain the situation to the Saitou family, who by now most likely believed him to be in the outside world. Kyouichi wouldn't believe how hard it could be to knock on a door.

"Just a minute~." That was Minako's voice that answered the knocking and Kyouichi could hear her footsteps drawing closer to the main door, which slid open after a moment.

"Gods! Kyouichi… What are you still doing here? I thought you went home. Did you forget something?"

After taking a breath, the outsider shook his head. "No, Minako-san. I returned…"

"But why…?"

"I don't know why. But the shrine maiden couldn't take us across the border." He then lifted a pleading gaze up to Minako's eyes. "I know you'll probably say no, but… could I still stay here with you a little longer?"

"Of course you can. Why would I say no? Come in." she beckoned him. "I have to go back to work soon, but I made dinner, so help yourself if you're hungry."

"What will Mizuto say, though?"

"The same thing I'm telling you now, no doubt. Now don't stand there and hurry up inside."

With a feeling of awkward reluctance looming over his head Kyouichi Ishimaru entered the Saitou house once again. Only this time he didn't feel all that welcome. He knew that Minako would surely never tell him directly, but he felt as though as his unplanned return was once again preventing this family from living its normal life.

"I'm sorry about your predicament, Kyouichi. I hope Reimu-san fixes the problem soon."

Even this remark of Minako's made the outsider believe that she was just politely telling him not to overstay his welcome.

"Yeah, the sooner I get out of here the better…" he muttered in a spaced-out state.

"Excuse me?" Minako turned her head to Kyouichi, as she didn't catch his words very clearly.

"I hope Reimu solves the problem soon too."

"Well, even if she doesn't, you'll always have a place to go." she comforted him as they entered the kitchen. "Ah, look at the time! My lunch break is almost up. The kids are still at school and Mizuto returns home tomorrow evening, so if you don't want to sit and mope alone in an empty house, there's a spare key on that shelf."

She left the kitchen in haste to grab her bag. "I didn't yet have the time to clutter up the guest room, so everything is left as when you left this morning. Or if you need someone to talk to, why don't you come with me to the shop?"

"I appreciate your concern, Minako-san, but I think I'll be better off alone for a while."

"Suit yourself~. See you in the evening then. Bye now~." she offered Kyouichi one more smile before she left him alone in the house.

At first he thought that time spent in loneliness and silence would bring him comfort, but it turned out to bring the exactly opposite effect. He could hear the voices of his friends blaming him for not planning the departure sooner. The ticking of the clock hanging over the kitchen's door was only enhancing these self-depreciating thoughts and unsettling Kyouichi to the point where he couldn't bear it anymore. He rose from the table, walked to the shelf where Minako pointed earlier and took the spare key for the house. Anywhere would be better than here right now. He left his fully loaded backpack inside, no need to lug it around the village when he was stuck here for an unknown period of time. He left and locked the door, heading down the street towards the fireplace, further past the intersection to the market square, all the way to the house of Naota Tanisake. He knew that the old carpenter was likely to be at home at this time of day, but when he knocked on its oaken door, the one to answer was not the house's owner.

"Oh, hello, Kyouichi." Midori welcomed him at the doorstep. She seemed only mildly surprised by her friend's visit. "Come in."

"Hey, stop acting like you own the place." Kyouichi scolded her. "I'm here to see the old man, is he in?"

"Sure. Hold on…" she turned her head and called: "Tanisake-san~! You have a visitor~!"

A little while later, the old carpenter showed up in the hallway. "Hey, kid, don't just stand there. Let him in, Midori."

"I did, but he insisted I called you first." the girl pouted as she stepped aside to allow Kyouichi to step inside. And while Kyouichi was putting his sandals away, Naota disappeared into the kitchen, from where both young outsiders could hear the characteristic sound of cork being pulled from a bottle followed by the sound of pouring liquid.

"Well, looks like Tanisake-san is fixing us some depression remedy. But that's not going to solve anything, is it?"

The two of them entered the kitchen and visually confirmed what they heard. The old man really did open a sake bottle and filled three glasses. When Midori and Kyouichi entered, he didn't even say anything.

"So… Midori already told you what happened, didn't she?"

"I heard the story." Naota confirmed by a nod. "Drink up. And no excuses."

Kyouichi and Midori looked at each other, and in order not to upset or insult their host, they each picked a glass and together with Naota drank it all up without talking back.

"Ahhh…. You know," the old man started as he sat on the chair, "Your situation is probably even worse than mine. At least I was kept in the blissful ignorance that there is no way out of Gensokyo, and I was just slowly coping with it as I lived here. But you…" he closed his eyes and shook his head, as if he disagreed with or disapproved of the reality, "You believed there was a way and you had your hopes crushed."

"Hey, Tenisake-san. We're not giving up yet." Midori proved the old man wrong by demonstrating that she still had more than ample dose of hope left in her heart. "We have done our part and we did the best we could. Now it's time for Reimu-san to play hers."

"Hope for the best and expect the worst. That's what my dad always used to tell me." said the old carpenter as he refilled everyone's glasses. "That way you can only end up pleasantly surprised. I'd be an ass if I discouraged you from your goal or if I told you not to trust that orphaned miko, but the way I see it… things aren't looking very well."

"Naota, please…" Kyouichi said before he decided to let the content of the glass flow into him again. "I don't know how long this will take and what I'm asking of you might come as rude, but that renovated cabin… can I use it?"

"I've already torn that contract of ours into pieces and burned it in the fireplace as soon as Midori told me what happened, so according to the rest of the official papers, that building is now yours to use. Oh, hold on a second…" he reached inside his breast pocket and presented an iron key. "You don't want to bug the Saitous, huh?"

"Yes, you're right."

"Take good care of it then." said the old man as he handed the key to Kyouichi. "You're going to have to move all the furniture into it yourself, though, and you might take some of the stuff we originally found there back into the cabin as well."

"What stuff?"

"From all of Fumiaki's junk I managed to sell quite a lot of old and otherwise useless wares in a yard sale. But nobody was interested in buying his collection of curiosities or his hunting gear, including the crossbow."

"Does that old hunk of wood even work?" Midori asked him with doubt.

"Oh yeah, it still does. I already tried it out."

"Really?" the girl's expression switched from doubting to a surprised one.

"Maybe you can find some use for it, kid. Perhaps as a means of defense against a youkai or something…" Naota suggested. "It doesn't look like much, but that thing packs a mighty punch. Shot a bolt right through a barrel full of sand."

"But Keine-sensei told us physical attacks don't work very well against youkai." Midori recalled some of the basic knowledge from the Youkai Typology classes.

"A good hit can buy you precious time to get away or at least try it."

"Maybe you should have the bolts blessed at a shrine or something." the female outsider suggested.

"Or maybe you'll just follow Fumiaki's way of life and hunt some boar with it." Naota chuckled and downed another glass. "Just hope you don't end up like him too."

"Thanks for everything, Naota, really." Kyouichi pocketed the key and drank the sake as well.

"Heck, you helped me renovate it, so I can't say you don't deserve it. Just that roof could have been better." the old master craftsman smirked at Kyouichi in a provoking way.

"Both me and Soudai never even helped build a roof before, so how could you expect us to do an equally good job as you?"

"Well, it's you who's going to live in there from now on, so if you'll be woken up by cold water dripping on your forehead after a rainy night, then you'll realize how important it is to do things properly."

"I'll just improvise somehow. That's what I always do."

* * *

And so, after asking Soudai, Daniel and a handful of other friends to lend him a hand, Kyouichi managed to furnish the renovated hunter's cabin on that very day. It wasn't anything special; just the necessary pieces of furniture have been brought in. The Saitous were reluctant about the idea of him living separately at first. The young Ishimaru had to be extra stubborn to convince them that it'd be for the benefit of both parties.

"You know you can still come here and stay here at any time, Kyouichi-kun." Minako Saitou showed her welcoming smile. "Mizuto's going to be surprised when he comes home, but I think he'll handle it well. We'll be sure to drop by for a visit every now and then."

Kyouichi reciprocated the smile and bowed. "Sorry if I'm being repetitive, but thanks for everything, Minako-san. You too, Chitose and Tadao." He bowed once more to Minako's children, who watched him from behind their mom with mixed feelings.

"I'll be still waking you up on my way to school." Chitose declared.

"Yeah, me too." her brother seconded.

"At least allow us to accompany you to your new home." Minako asked Kyouichi to wait while she put her sandals on. The children followed suit.

"Are they your friends?" she cast a glance at the small group of people waiting for Kyouichi on the street.

"Yes, that's Soudai and the blonde guy's Daniel. They helped me move all the stuff inside, so I owe them one.

"Unbelievable, even the guards let me through the gate when I asked them nicely." Daniel mentioned what seemed strange to him. "It's as if the Ryuuken had a change in management or something."

"It wouldn't help us much if you only could help us carry the heavy stuff only to the gate." Soudai remarked and stretched his arms. "Maan, I'm beat. I'll be expecting some compensation for this. Preferably a cold and refreshing one." He directed those words at Kyouichi, who didn't seem to object, judging by his facial expression.

"Sure, I'll treat you for a few beers after I'll show Minako-san and the kids that I won't be living in a cave."

"Come now, we never said anything like that." Mrs. Saitou said to her defense. And so they went to the cabin that needed so much work to become what it was now. Daniel was right; the Ryuuken at the gate were merely standing there, not pestering anyone about their business outside the gate, unless they were coming in and out with heavy loads of goods either in carts or in bags. Kyouichi wondered whether the village elder or the Ryuuken grandmaster hasn't applied any new regulations after today's interrogation of the outsiders. Either way, it felt much more comfortable to pass through the gates of Human Village now.

"Wow, has this cute little hut been standing here this whole time?" Minako found the building's current state almost impossible to associate with the dilapidated old shack it used to be.

"You even have a little garden." Chitose liked the small flower patch near the entrance, separated into two parts by a stone pavement.

"But that roof…" Tadao couldn't help, but to notice the imperfections that were caused by Kyouichi's and Soudai's handiwork.

"Hey, it's not our fault the men responsible for renovation suddenly took off on us to erect the walls." Soudai went on the defensive.

"Since the walls are already finished, why don't you ask them again?" Minako suggested, to which Kyouichi only waved his palm dismissively.

"Don't bother. It'll serve its purpose just fine. You'll see…" and after he inserted the key into the lock and turned it, he swung open the door to reveal the newly-furnished interior. "Well? What do you think?" He stepped inside to allow his companions a full view of the cozy little room that had everything it needed to make it an inviting and comfortable home. Well… almost everything.

"And the toilet?" Minako asked as she turned her head everywhere around, only to find something missing.

"Oh. There's a latrine outside behind the hut." Kyouichi pointed through one of the windows looking out to the back yard.

"Ugh… I figured there just had to be some downside to it." she sympathetically patted Kyouichi's shoulder. "You're probably not going to like winter."

"But toilet aside, I could get used to living here." Daniel nodded as he took a one last look at the arrangement of the furniture. "It's got a fireplace, a stove, a water heater…"

"And you can store the food down in that hollow space I accidentally found the other day." Soudai complemented him.

"I must say I almost envy you a little." Minako admitted. "Naota-san may be old, but the craftsmanship is top-notch as always. Have you thanked him for letting you use this house?"

"Of course I did. But I'm not sure if that's going to be enough."

"I'm sure he had his reason for doing so. And if I were in his place, I'd do the same." said the tailor.

"It's a little cramped in here, but at least you won't have to share with anyone else." Chitose summarized the room as she took a seat in an old, but comfortable armchair in front of the fireplace.

"Ah, I just figured I'm almost out of firewood." Kyouichi suddenly realized the lack of an important commodity. "Is there anyone who sells it in the village?"

"Yes, you can either buy it from the woodcutters or you can gather it yourself." Minako replied.

"Not even if the wood was overpriced as hell!" Soudai was certainly quick to show his disagreeing reaction to the idea when he recalled why he had to spend over a week in Eientei's care. "Let the woodcutters risk their lives. I know better than that… And you, Ishimaru, should too."

"The days are still warm, but the nights can be pretty chilly in this valley." Minako gave a friendly warning. "You'd do well to stock up. But anyhow… a lovely little cabin you have to spend the time in until Reimu solves the incident. By the way, do you know how to cook?"

"Enough to save myself from starvation." Kyouichi replied.

"You might also consider buying coal, as it has a greater heat output and burns longer. However coal is a pricy commodity here. Only the wealthy families can afford to use it throughout the whole winter."

"Mom, don't talk as if the outsiders would have to wait here till winter." Chitose's face popped up from behind the back of the armchair. "Reimu-san is awesome at solving incidents. She'll fix the barrier problem in no time."

"You're right." Minako nodded. "Sorry. I didn't mean it that way."

"And if not her, maybe even some youkai will take initiative." her son added.

"Eeeeh? Why would a youkai need to take the initiative? Reimu-sama will have the incident resolved before any youkai can realize there is something wrong, you'll see." the young girl took a defensive stance whenever anyone would dare to doubt Reimu's competence in front of her.

"You're totally obsessed with her, big sis. She's your idol and role model."

"I'm not obsessed. But it's true that she's my idol. Of course someone like her wouldn't need help in solving a minor little problem like that."

Tadao had a slightly different opinion about the shrine maiden, though. "Unlike you, Chitose, I sometimes read dad's newspaper. And recently it said that Reimu's having trouble finding the culprit."

"Eeeh? Tengu crap!" his older sister dismissed his argument with one wave of her palm.

"Watch the language, young lady." her mother stepped in to reprimand her, making little Chitose redden in her face.

"Ah, sorry, mom."

"I think it's just about time to go. Sorry for the bother, Kyouichi."

"No, it's okay. Come again any time."

"Very well," Minako smiled and looked at her two children. "Let's go, kids."

"Yes~." Both siblings chirped together as they trotted to their mother.

Kyouichi's friends stayed a while longer, but as the hour grew late and all the guests went home, it was time for Kyouichi to spend the first night in his new home. There was just barely enough firewood in the basket to last until morning and just enough tinder to light it.

As the warm, inviting fire crackled in the fireplace and Kyouichi rested his tired body on the old armchair in front of it, he gradually became aware of how quiet it was in the cabin. Just then he began to realize the true meaning of the word "solitude". For the first time this so-far unknown feeling struck him with such a force. He never felt that way even with his mother's regular business trips to many Japanese cities. The friends he had made here haven't abandoned him yet, but Kyouichi felt so distant from everybody that it seemed as though he began to walk the path of the hermit. And the biggest reason for that was his today's failure to return home. None of his friends told it to him straight in the face, but he had no idea what they all thought of him now. What if they blamed him just as much as Yuujin? A question to which only a mind-reader would know an answer. But even without a third eye, Kyouichi was still certain of one thing. That none of his friends could blame him more than he blamed himself right now. His intentions were good and his plan made the most sense, but as the old saying goes: "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

"Should I have planned this exodus to take place sooner, or should I have gone home when I first had the chance to?"

It was no use dwelling on what was and what should have been. He needed to refocus his attention as well as his best effort on the present.

"What do I need to do now?" he asked aloud. "Is waiting really the best and the only thing I can do?"

With his mind unable to come up with an answer, Kyouichi opened the window ajar and settled himself on an old, creaky bed.

"Back to school again tomorrow, huh?"

He really wasn't in the mood for more lessons, for his underage classmates or for Keine-sensei. And most of all, showing up in front of all those outsiders whose hopes he disappointed on this day made him uncomfortable like a bed of nails. But even though his brain would still want to continue its work of self-depreciation, his body was so tired that he drifted off into sleep before the sun had set.

* * *

With daylight gradually creeping away from Gensokyo, the usually quiet mining settlement of Kazermura was still bustling with activity. This was mostly thanks to the strong presence of the tengu watchmen, who were occupying the village ever since the last major fairy attack. As the prospectors were slowly leaving the quarry pit, only the militant folk of both youkai races remained stationed at the temple, making sure no trespassers would sneak in, and of course, that neither of the parties involved in the negotiations would violate the agreement. It was apparent that neither of the sides trusted one another. Perhaps all this dispute needed was an unbiased mediator such as Patchouli, or simply a third party to take advantage of the tense atmosphere between the tengu and the yama-bito.

"I'm gonna get something to eat." Marisa told Reimu, who was resting at the edge of the quarry pit with her legs dangling in the air. "Want me to bring you something?"

"No, thanks. I'm not hungry right now." Reimu would probably not notice even if she was hungry. Only the thoughts of what lies within the temple were keeping her mind preoccupied.

"You look rather spaced-out." the witch couldn't help but to notice. "You sure you don't want anything?"

"Don't make me repeat myself, Marisa. I said I'm fine." the usual, slightly grumpy reply made Marisa breathe a relieved sigh. It was still the "good old" Reimu speaking and not some malevolent spirit possessing her body.

"Okay~. Suit yourself, but don't say I didn't ask you."

The blonde turned away and headed off for the Hearth tavern. Almost as soon as she disappeared from Reimu's sight, someone else has come to pester her.

"It's almost time…" a young girl's voice sounded from behind her. "I don't even need a parasol in this time of the day."

"What do you want, Remilia?" the shrine maiden didn't even need to look behind her to identify the speaker.

"That's my question to you." Remilia returned the question to its sender. "Does idle sitting here all day and waiting satisfy you, or you'd rather already know what's inside that temple?"

"I'm just giving Patchouli a chance to negotiate for our cause. If that fails, I'll take the necessary measures to get inside."

"I'm giving her a chance too." the vampire replied as she took a seat next to Reimu. "But why waste a good day when an opportunity is already parading itself right now here in front of us?"

"Beating the guards at the temple? A child's play, but when they alarm everyone, we'll have about 200 angry youkai after us. Not to mention that we'd lose all our magic once we'd make it inside."

Remilia's reaction to Reimu's musings was a slowly widening smile turning into a grin.

"Why are you grinning like that?"

"I'm just pleasantly surprised and amused that you actually considered my suggestion without calling me names and doubting my sanity."

At those words Reimu's face took on a hue close to that of her hair ribbon.

"Of course it's a stupid idea to break into the temple now!" the shrine maiden's attitude took a 180 degree turn in an instant. "If I break the status quo now, then it'll make me look like the culprit. But if I'll have no other choice…" she left the sentence unfinished.

"How badly do you want to have this incident resolved, Reimu?" the vampire girl turned her unusually serious face at the miko.

"As soon and as simply as possible, but I also want to keep my face as Gensokyo's peacekeeper while I'm at it."

"Then we're on the same boat."

"Really?" Reimu rolled her eyes.

"Really." Remilia nodded. "We just see things slightly differently."

"And how do you see them?"

"I can see that Patchouli's negotiation most likely isn't going to end much in our favor."

"Is that what your fate-vision eyes really see?" Reimu posed her question in a tone of mistrust. "Or are you just trying to manipulate me into doing what you want?"

"Both, actually." the Scarlet Devil answered bluntly without shame.

"Hmph." an amused chuckle from Reimu was followed by pointing out Remilia's minor self-contradiction. "I thought you said you were giving her a chance."

"The fate of her negotiation is not set in stone, so anything may happen. I'm simply saying what the most possible outcome is."

"And you're still giving her a chance? Did you even tell her about your fortune-telling observation?"

At that question Remilia quickly placed her palm on Reimu's shoulder and silently pressed her index finger against her own lips to hush the shrine maiden. "Keep it down, or she'll hear us." she whispered and pointed at the purple tent, which stood just a couple of meters behind them.

"So you didn't tell her…" Reimu muttered her deduction based on Remilia's response. "Isn't she your best friend?"

"She is. And that's part of the reason why I haven't told her about it. If I did, she'd be demoralized and she wouldn't try her best." the vampire explained.

"I see… And the other part of the reason?"

"Well… That is…" Remilia hesitated a bit in her reply. "Because I want to use her presence at tomorrow's negotiation as a diversion and to buy us some more time to explore the temple. She's got quite the lengthy speech prepared last time I checked."

"I'm not sure I quite get it." The shrine maiden scratched her head. "I thought you were planning something today. And how exactly is Patchouli going to buy us time?"

"I only intend to confirm one theory today…" she gave a cryptic answer. "As for the importance of Patchouli's presence at tomorrow's little summit, I already asked Sakuya to do a little snooping around, and she managed to learn something interesting… Right, Sakuya?"

"That is indeed correct, my lady." A third female voice responded out of the blue.

"Whoa!" Reimu almost jumped up from surprise. She quickly turned her head to look behind. There, dressed in her daily uniform, as if she had been present there the whole time, stood the elegant silver-haired maid of the Scarlet Devil. "When did she get here?" Reimu blurted out, before she made a brief thoughtful pause. "Actually… never mind." she quickly gave up on her demand for an answer as soon as she recalled the girl's ability.

Remilia then gestured at Reimu and said: "Reimu here would like to know the details of your investigation."

"Calmly skip the details. I just want to hear the results." the brunette maiden asked Sakuya to cut to the chase.

"As you wish." Sakuya shrugged and cleared her throat. "Tomorrow's negotiations for the privilege to have an access into the temple will be held in the afternoon in Kazemura's village hall."

"Is that it? Everyone knows that already!" the miko hissed in slight annoyance.

"Let her talk, Reimu. This sounds like it's going to be interesting, ze." Marisa managed to return from the tavern just in time to catch Sakuya's debriefing. In Reimu's spaced-out state, it was no wonder that she didn't notice the witch's footsteps and that her sudden return managed to startle her almost as much as Sakuya did a moment ago.

Sakuya cast a sidelong glance Marisa's way and hesitated to speak until Remilia gave her a mute gesture that it was okay.

"Maybe it's better if she hears this too."

"Oh, that sounds like you girls are having some secret meeting to plan a heist or something."

"Not that far from the truth, to be honest." said the vampire. "Continue, Sakuya…"

"Yes." the maid bowed and carried on. "I snuck into the tengu command tent and copied their guard plan."

Marisa began to grin and her eyes glittered with excitement. "Who would have said it about her…?"

"And in that plan, it is said that during the negotiations the security around the hall will be intensified."

"Which means less guards in the quarry pit?" Reimu was beginning to put two and two together.

"Exactly." Remilia nodded. "As you can see right now, there are pair of mixed guards at each end of the pit – North, South, East and West." she explained as she pointed at the distant pairs of figures that held vigil over everything that was going on in and around the excavation site.

"Precisely an hour ago, the tengu have already sent fresh replacements for the quarry gurads, but not the yama-bito. Since there's less of them than the tengu guards, they switch their sentries every 2 hours, which will be…" she glanced at Sakuya who held her silver watch ready in her palm.

"Now."

And just as she said, the four couples of youkai guards have been replaced. Remilia nodded in self-satisfaction.

"As it is now, nobody can enter or leave the quarry without their knowledge and permission. Nothing can pass undetected through the sharp sight of the White Wolves. Even with Sakuya's power, once we'd get over that shimenawa fence, her power would quickly drain, leaving us without a means to infiltrate the ruins. However," she raised her index finger, "Sakuya hasn't mentioned the most interesting part of her findings."

"Oh, and that would be…?" Marisa perked up.

"Well, as you probably all know, the summit will be held among 4 representatives of each of the involved parties: the tengu, the yama-bito, the Human Village and us – the archeological research expedition."

"So a "leader" of each side, huh?"

"Not quite." the maid corrected Marisa's assumption. "The yamabito chieftain doesn't live in this village, so the village elder of Kazemura is going to represent them. The same goes for the tengu. According to one message I found in the White Wolf commander's tent, the tengu military doesn't have the authority to negotiate, but at the same time, the affair doesn't require Lord Tenma's presence. That's why he's sending a diplomatic envoy to negotiate in his name. But the Human Village will indeed be represented by the current elder."

"So where's the interesting part?" Reimu asked.

"Why, the tengu emissary, of course." Remilia responded instead of the maid.

"What's so special about him?" the miko wondered.

"The way all of these canine tengu are going to act when he arrives."

"Are they going to dance around him in a circle?" Marisa's attempt to sound funny was met with poker faces of all 3 other girls.

"You almost guessed correctly." said Sakuya. "As I said, he's going to negotiate in Lord Tenma's name. As such, he's going to have the same authority as Lord Tenma himself for the duration of the meeting. Now, that by itself would probably not even be worth mentioning, if it wasn't for one particular custom the White Wolf tengu practice whenever their lord, general or someone of the ruling tengu elite shows up."

"They're all going to ceremoniously line themselves up to form a sort of triumphal alley with their swords raised." Remilia completed the information.

"Wait, all of them?" the shrine maiden wasn't quite inclined to believe that.

"Yes, that includes every single White Wolf tengu stationed in this village." Sakuya confirmed. "But this customary greeting rarely lasts longer than a minute."

"That's right." the maid's mistress nodded. "And in that short time we must sneak past the tired yama-bito guards, enter the quarry and get into the temple before the tengu return to their posts."

"Do my ears deceive me?" Marisa felt like now was the right time for a series of rhetorical questions. "Am I dreaming? You girls were planning to get inside the temple? Without even telling Gensokyo's number one thief about it?! I'm very disappointed by your selfishness…" She might have seemed upset, but her radiating grin wasn't planning to leave her face any time soon.

"So you're finally openly admitting that you're a thief?" Reimu started taking cheap shots at Marisa's shameless confession.

"Hey, if it's for the right cause, it's not really a crime, is it?"

"Try telling that to the temple guards." The shrine maiden scoffed at Marisa's attitude before deciding to point out a gaping flaw in Remilia's plan.

"And while it's nice that you've come up with a way to get inside undetected, it seems you totally forgot that we'll eventually need to get out of there. And I highly doubt that one minute is going to be enough for us to get in, explore the temple, stop the vengeful spirits and get out of there before the tengu return to their stations."

"Who cares about that?!" the little vampire again showed the more childish side of her character, but maybe it was due to her extreme confidence that she decided to throw all caution after the infiltration to the wind. "Once we uproot the spirit problem and solve this incident, it won't matter anymore. We will have done our work and whatever they decide to do with or in that temple afterwards doesn't interest me. They can turn it into a museum, or a fortress, or a theater for all I care… And if any of those fools will feel like I deserve a punishment for trespassing, they're welcome to try taking me on."

"That's… really cute and all," Marisa spoke up, "but how exactly are you going to fight the vengeful spirits or whoever is controlling them if you won't be able to use magic or divine powers?"

"That would interest me as well." Reimu seconded Marisa's concern. "Maybe we should simply wait for Eirin or Kaguya, or both of them to get here and have them go in first. It's not like anything can happen to them that would have any lasting effect on their health, even if there's something dangerous inside."

"Maybe not physical health, but… can't they still become possessed?" the ordinary magician wondered.

"Not sure… So far we've only ever seen the spirits possessing fairies." Reimu muttered and stood up from the rocky plate she was sitting on.

"Has anyone even called for them." asked Remilia. "Not that we have the time to wait for them."

Judging by the facial expressions of other girls, she quickly figured that the immortal Lunarian exiles most likely didn't even know about the current situation in Kazemura. Then a question crossed Marisa's mind. One that was already answered in that part of the conversation which she missed.

"B-but… hold on a second, girls… Why are we even planning a stealthy break-in? And before the negotiations? What about Patchy?"

As Remilia was about to open her mouth to go over the reason for such a bold plan, a familiar voice interrupted her and quite startled the rest of the band.

"What about me?" a certain violet-haired and not-too-tall youkai magician caught the group by surprise.

"Errr… umm…nothing, nothing!" the vampire unconvincingly denied that her conversation with the gathered girls had anything to do with Patchouli. "A-anyway… what brings you here?" she made a desperate attempt to change the subject by asking her a nonchalant question.

"I just wanted to get some fresh air and the last sunrays when I heard my name. What were you talking about?"

"Oh, we were just talkin' about… mnfmm~!" Remilia's palm gagged the blonde's mouth just in time.

"Yeah, about going to the tavern and having some sake." Remilia tried to make a save.

"Mnmmmfmm~!"

"Yes, and then Marisa asked if you'd be joining us too. Hehe… How foolish… Doesn't she know that you're not fond of alcohol?"

Patchouli's almost famous unamused expression was adorning her face even at that moment.

"But you don't drink sake either." the sorceress pointed out.

"B-but I do… once in a while." a few droplets of sweat appeared on Remilia's forehead.

"Hmmmm…"

"It's true… I did have some during the Tanabata festival too." Even though Remilia did sound fairly convincing now, it was almost impossible to hide her strange behavior, especially from her best friend who has known her for many decades.

"Suspicious…"

"Well, suit yourself if you don't want to go." Remilia stood up, grabbed Reimu by the sleeve and started dragging her off to the tavern. "Let's go already…"

And for that brief moment when the vampire's hand was no longer preventing Marisa from talking, the witch began to question her destination.

"Eh? But I've just been in the Hearth a couple of mi… mnfmnm~!" only to be silenced again.

"Of course you were, Marisa. You were the one who invited us all and ordered us a round in advance."

And that was the last little lie that Patchouli heard before her friend had dragged the reluctant girls away into the mentioned establishment. Patchouli could only stand there and wonder what Remilia's charade was all about. She hummed thoughtfully and walked back into her tent to finish up her preparations for tomorrow's important meeting.

* * *

"Back so soon, Patchouli-sama?" her devil familiar lifted her gaze from a book she was tasked to copy.

"Welcome back." Akyuu also preferred her "armchair" work, which was apparent from the sheer amount of time she had spent in the tent, studying the glyphs.

As the sorceress rested herself on her chair, Koakuma suddenly asked her: "Was it as you said, Patchouli-sama?"

"Yes, it seems to be that way…" Patchouli showed a fleeting smile and nodded.

Akyuu felt a little left out as she listened to their conversation without any context.

"That is a little mean, isn't it?" the little devil gave Patchouli a pitying look.

"No. I don't really think of it that way."

"But what are you going to do now, Patchouli-sama?"

"The same thing I originally intended to do." the librarian replied as she put her reading glasses on. "I'll participate in tomorrow's negotiations, even if Remi strongly believes that I'll fail. Let's do our best for tomorrow, Koakuma."

"Yes, Patchouli-sama~!" the little devil cheerfully flopped both pairs of her wings, ready to stay up all night if it meant any help to her mistress. As it turned out in the end, Patchouli was not as dense as Remilia thought of her.


	64. Into the Darkness

It wasn't easy getting used to waking up without an alarm clock or someone else to wake him up. Thank goodness for his house's convenient location near the farm and the early-rising roosters that served as living alarm clocks to all those who could hear their morning calls.

Kyouichi rose from his bed, realizing just now that he slept through the night with his kimono on. The growling in his stomach reminded him that he now had to prepare his own breakfast, aside from the everyday morning hygiene and making preparations for school.

"It's surely going to be a shock for Keine-sensei when she sees us in the classroom this morning…" he amused his still sleepy mind with that thought. Rising early with the sun was never one of Kyouichi's favorite things to do, but due to falling asleep so early yesterday, he had plenty of rest to manage even such an inhuman feat.

The flames in the fireplace have long since died out, so he didn't even have to waste water to put them out when he was finally leaving his new house.

When he entered the village through the western gate, he found nothing suspicious about the busy marketplace atmosphere to notice the lack of children heading to school. It was only after he got to the building itself, when he realized something that made him stop at the entrance door… and bang his head against it repeatedly.

"It's weekend~!"

* * *

Waking up to the noise of pickaxes hitting rock isn't anything pleasant, even to those who are used to it, but for the team of girls with such big plans for today, sleeping in was absolutely unthinkable. As soon as the prospectors began working in the quarry, Patchouli and her companions got up and started preparing for the day. A day that promised to be quite eventful to say the least.

"Where did I put my notes again?" Patchouli muttered as she hastily scurried through an unorganized pile of documents on her table.

"I have them right here, Patchouli-sama." Koakuma waved her hand, holding the notepad, which her mistress was looking for.

"Thank you." the sorceress grabbed it and raced through her own notes. All the points she wanted to make during the negotiation were there, so losing the notepad would be quite troublesome for her.

"So, what are you girls going to do while I'm in the village hall?"

"Oh, don't worry about us." Marisa replied. "We'll surely find a way to keep ourselves entertained." Her reassuring thumbs-up seemed more like an oath to commit at least several acts of mischief, if not crime.

"I just hope it isn't going to be anything foolish…" Patchouli sighed. "Like trying to break into the temple before the negotiations are over."

All other girls' faces turned suddenly at her, bearing expressions of surprise and nervousness.

"O-of course not!" Marisa immediately tried to deny it, even though it was mainly Remilia who Patchouli was looking at. "What even gave you such an impression?"

"I'm just giving you a warning; that's all."

"You can relax, Patchy. There will be no trouble while you're away." said Remilia with a fake expression of honesty. "Not from us at least."

"Good. Keep it that way." said the sorceress as she took her notepad and her bag. "Now if you excuse me, I must be off."

"But it's only morning." Marisa wondered why Patchouli was in such a hurry.

"Better be there earlier than to be late." Replied Patchouli and left her tent. All the girls breathed a sigh of relief.

"Phew…" the ordinary magician wiped the sweat from her forehead. "For a second there I thought she actually suspected us from planning what we've planned." And she said it so loudly too, not even caring about the fact that Patchouli's own devil familiar was there with them. And the little devil, mischievous and cunning as she was, just quietly sat there, pretending to be minding her own business and not listening to what the other girls were talking about. But she knew about their "secret" plans more than well and she was ready to spy on them as soon as they'd leave the tent.

"So what shall we do to pass the time?" Reimu asked.

Marisa seemed to have it very clear. "While the cat's away…" she trailed off and took the book about hieroglyphs from Patchouli's table. Reimu and Remilia just shook their heads in bewilderment.

"You're a hopeless case." said the vampire. "Even at a time like this…"

"I'm just borrowing it for a sec."

"That's what you say every time to Patchy."

"Hmph." The witch turned away and began to skim through the pages. "What do you know?" You're almost never in the library."

"Patchouli told me all about you… We have more important things to do now, so stop fooling around."

After a while of silently ignoring the vampire and flipping through the pages, Marisa shut the book. "Alright, alright… Look, I'm putting it back where it was." She slowly put the book on the table as she promised. "See?"

Reimu found this situation very much to her amusement. "Where is Aya and her camera when you need her?"

"Patchouli will never believe me if I tell her about this…" even the Scarlet Devil doubted that Marisa was capable of such a thing.

"So if I can kick a bad habit, you too can simply stop drinking people's blood." the witch grinned and patted Remilia's shoulder as she walked away from the table.

"Deciding not to steal one thing now, but later doesn't equate dropping a bad habit." the shrine maiden retorted.

"And being a vampire is not a bad habit that you can kick." Remilia fought back as well. "That is if I even wanted to."

"Okay, so let's go outside and double-check if everything is the way it should be." Reimu took charge and moved the tent's curtain away when she almost bumped into another person.

"Ayayaya~! Has Patchouli-san left already?" It was the crow tengu reporter, most likely trying to catch the librarian for a short interview, but Reimu quickly and bluntly turned her down.

"Yes, she has and you should too."

"Who's there?" Marisa's voice sounded from behind Reimu before her fair-haired head poked out from the tent. "Oh, it's Aya. We mentioned you a few seconds ago."

"Aw, shoot!" Aya snapped her fingers in slight frustration. "So Patchouli went on ahead? I was really hoping I could ask her a few questions before she'd go…"

"Why don't you just go after her?" asked the miko.

"Because they're not going to let anyone else inside. Not even the press. Censorship of the worst degree, if you ask me…Well, if I can't hear what's being said there, I'll at least take a few pictures." she declared confidently. Of course, Aya had no clue what these girls had in plan for today, and none of them believed there was a reason to tell her about it.

"Good luck." Reimu uttered with a complete lack of emotion. She just wanted the nosy tengu out of the scene, so that she and her team could carry one with their secret mission.

"Ha! You underestimate me. I don't need good luck for that. But should I be lucky, I'll even get a chance to eavesdrop on the whole negotiation."

"Good for you then, but I really don't care." the shrine maiden couldn't wait for Aya to finally take off and mind her own business. But what she managed to do by her stern and indifferent reply was the exact opposite of her intention. She made the tengu even more talkative.

"Oh, come on. Don't tell me you aren't at least a little bit curious about what they're going to discuss on that meeting and why they'd want to keep it a secret from general public."

"Maybe they just find the likes of you annoying." Reimu brushed her off with her typical harsh frankness. "Not that we wouldn't be interested, but we got our own things to attend to, so we'd best leave you do your trade."

"Oh? And where are you off to then?"

"We're going to do some patrolling and keep a lookout for any large flocks of fairies." Reimu made up a cover story. "Now why don't you go and play paparazzi and let us do our work?"

She was on the verge of threatening Aya with a danmaku duel if she refused to leave in 10 seconds, but she was worried that the tengu might actually accept the challenge, thus prolonging her stay even further.

"Oh… pushy, aren't we? You know, all this time I get the feeling like you just want me to disappear." Aya giggled sheepishly.

"Really? How ever did you reach that conclusion?" Reimu asked with searing sarcasm in her tone.

"Well… for instance I don't see a reason why you'd mind my presence if you were going to do something as mundane as patrolling." Aya explained as she played with her pen. "Unless you girls were up to something, hm~?" she flipped the pen in her palm and pointed its tip at Reimu. A moment at which a nervous liar would start to sweat and stutter, but Remilia managed to save it gloriously with an ironic question: "Like what? Breaking into that temple in broad daylight?"

A suggestion too ridiculous to be taken seriously, or so Remilia and her companions hoped.

"I don't know." shrugged Aya. "Maybe…"

"Don't make me laugh."

"We're just wasting time here." said the shrine maiden and beckoned the other girls to follow her. "Marisa and I will take the western part and you two will check the eastern side." she gave instructions to Remilia and Sakuya.

"Wait, what about…?" and before Aya could finish the question, the four girls already took off, each pair headed the opposite direction to fool the tengu reporter.

"Patrolling, huh?" she smirked as she let out a light chuckle. "There's more than enough White Wolves for that. And they have much sharper senses than those four… Are the girls really that paranoid?"

As she watched them shrinking into tiny black dots on the horizon and questioned their action, her gaze trailed off, or to be precise, returned back to the ground and the archeological team's tent. "Anybody home?"

But of all the tent's usual occupants, only one red-haired demon girl, busy with sorting Patchouli's books was inside. She didn't even seem to notice the intruder as she hummed a quiet melody with her back turned on the tent's entrance.

"Oh, you're with Patchouli-san, right?" Aya spoke up to her without restraint, despite being unable to recall the girl's name.

"Hm?" the devil turned her head to face the tengu and quirked her brow.

"Shameimaru Aya. A reporter for the Bunbunmaru Newspaper." she briefly introduced herself and stated her intention. "I wanted to do an interview with Patchouli, but I missed her and…"

"I know who you are." Patchouli's familiar interrupted. "Why are you re-introducing yourself?"

"You do?" Aya blinked in surprise. "I just wasn't sure if the two of us talked in person before…"

"We didn't, but I did see you visit the mansion quite a few times. Besides, as a librarian's assistant, I also take care of the library's newspaper archive. As a reporter you're already well-known around Gensokyo to need an introduction."

"Ahahaha~. You flatter me, but… you'd be surprised. Not that many youkai and humans read newspapers. And out of those who do, not all of them read MY newspaper."

Although Aya doubted she'd get any interesting information out of the little devil, her inner gossiper dictated her to interview her anyway.

"So if Patchouli's already gone and there's no one else here besides you, would you mind answering a couple of questions, Miss… uhh…"

"Koakuma." the demon girl rolled her crimson eyes out of slight frustration that Aya didn't know her name.

"Pardon me." the tengu bowed apologetically. "I know I've heard it several times already, but it just dropped out of my memory." she shaped a sheepish smile with her lips.

Koakuma sighed and waved her palm, as well as the little wing on her head. "It's okay. I'm used to that. But I hoped a reporter like you would be a little better informed." she muttered as her gaze dropped to her feet.

"I'm usually good at remembering names and faces. It's just that I only remember those who make good article material."

"So you think I'm boring?"

"No, I didn't say that…" Aya replied, but Koakuma didn't give her much time to finish the sentence.

"Nobody cares about the servants…"

"That's not true. I did make interviews with a lot of servants."

"I know, I know… I'm just an insignificant little youkai who lives in the library. I can't compare myself to Patchouli-sama or her vampire friend. At least you didn't think I was a fairy maid."

"Frankly, I don't see that much of a difference." Aya gave a stinging reply. "And what kind of name is "Koakuma" anyway? That's more of a description of what you are, rather than a proper name."

Although Aya's way of interviewing and even leading a general conversation could often offend those she spoke with, this particular remark about the devil girl's name left Koakuma unfazed. She even showed a sly, albeit fleeting grin.

"I am called many names. Koakuma is just one of them. That's what Patchouli-sama called me ever since I was summoned by her."

"Ah, I see now…" Aya nodded understandingly. "So you're contract-bound to be called Koakuma…"

"Eh… not really."

"So what can I call you then?"

"Koakuma."

"Guh…" Aya was struck by the devil girl's wit. "I expected to hear your name from before you became Patchouli's familiar."

"Like I said, I am called many names. Which one do you want to hear?"

"Your first one."

Koakuma stood in silence for a moment, just blinking puzzledly at what Aya asked of her. "You do know… that I am a devil, right?"

"Are you testing me or something?" the tengu responded with a question.

"I should be the one asking that. You of all youkai should know that a devil never reveals her true name. If someone knows it, they could use it against that devil."

"That's… true." the journalist admitted as she fidgeted a little. "So does that mean Patchouli knows your true name if she was able to summon you?"

"Eh… not really." Koakuma shook her head lightly. "I just answered her summoning spell. There's a contract between us, but I keep my true name to myself."

"So that's how it is."

"That's why she and everyone else calls me Koakuma~."

"Yes, I get it now." smiled the crow tengu and scribbled a few notes. "But that makes me wonder…"

"About what?"

"Well, it just occurred to me, but you probably aren't the best of friends with the satori race, since they could find out about your real name."

Aya didn't even know how spot-on she was with her assumption until she got a clear resentful reply from the little devil's mouth. And even the moment before Koakuma spoke any words, one could easily notice her sudden change in body language, as her non-human appendages began to tremble, her eyes narrowed and her breathing intensified. She still kept her warm, but forced smile.

"There are few things the devils loathe as much as angels and celestials. They may still be the undisputed number one, but satori are a close second on any devil's hate list."

A few droplets of sweat formed on Aya's face as the little devil finished explaining. Who would think that this cute demon girl who worked as a librarian's assistant could hate someone?

"But you're an imp, aren't you?"

"Yes, an imp. And imps are a sub-species of devils. I never really met a satori before, but I know I wouldn't want to."

The crow tengu was amused by Koakuma's prejudice, as her weak chuckle suggested.

"Lucky you then. Because there were two satori in this village a month ago when the last fairy attack took place. You could say they worked as a part of our expedition."

The little demon dropped a book. "W-wh-what?! Two satori were here? I-in this tent?" she stuttered as she began casting her paranoid gaze in all directions, as if expecting to be ambushed. "You're joking, right~?"

"I'm not. It's true. Ask Patchouli if you don't believe me."

"Why would she work with those… things?" Koakuma wondered as she struggled to even imagine it. Aya appeared to be enjoying the imp's insecurity a bit too much.

"Not only that, but she also made quite a speech to Kazemura's villagers about how satori are wrongfully hated and discriminated. And judging by the applause that followed, I'm guessing she managed to convince a sizable amount of locals."

Even though Koakuma wasn't unaware that the crow tengu in general liked making up stories, if they couldn't find one to write about, something kept telling her that Aya wasn't lying. But her words, or to be precise, Patchouli's words have left her torn between her racial aversion and her unquestionable trust towards her mistress.

As she stood there immersed in her own thoughts, Aya took advantage of Koakuma's confusion and stated her true reason for the interview.

"I'm sorry. I've really gone off the track, but I only wanted to break the ice."

Koakuma blinked twice, as if she had just snapped back to reality.

"My main reason for interviewing you was spurred by my hope of getting any details about Patchouli's intentions. Especially if the negotiations won't turn in her favor." stated the reporter with a very serious expression.

"I don't know." the imp girl shrugged her wings. "But whoever wins the negotiation will then have to take responsibility for resolving the spirit incident."

"I know that, but doesn't Patchouli-san have some sort of backup plan? Some ace in the hole in case something goes wrong? I just… giving up just doesn't seem like her style."

Koakuma slowly shook her head. "I… am not Patchouli-sama. If she fails… then probably Reimu-san will take things in her own hands."

"I know you're not Patchouli." Aya frowned. "But you are her familiar. Hasn't she told you anything about her intentions?"

The little devil gave a mute, expressionless answer.

"I knew it…" the reporter sighed resignedly. "I was just wasting my time here, interviewing an unimportant servant."

With a feeling of disappointment, Aya slowly turned her back on Koakuma and was about to walk out of the tent, but the imp halted her.

"Not so fast, Shameimaru-san."

"Ayayaya~?"

"So you think I'm a boring, weak and uninformed underling, not even worthy of an article?" Koakuma asked with a sly simile blooming on her lips. Aya felt like taking her last sentence back as she recognized a slightly immature, but true devilish grin. The little imp knew more than she was willing to let on.

"That smile…" Aya flashed her own brand of "big scoop grin" and her pointy ears twitched a little with anticipation. "You know something after all, don't you?"

"Weeeeeell~…"

* * *

"Phew… that was a close one." Marisa breathed out after she and her three companions distanced themselves far enough from the village to avoid Aya's suspicion. For a couple of minutes they pretended to be patrolling, but now they were well out of sight of anyone in Kazemura. They found no possessed fairies in their half-hearted search, but they found a little clearing where they settled down to discuss their next step.

"So now we wait." Reimu sighed as she rested her back against a tree.

"Are we really going to sit here for several hours?" Remilia's question was letting everyone know that she had a slightly different idea than to sit and wait at such an uncomfortable place.

"Only for a while, ze. We have to keep the village in our sight after all. We'll just wait till Aya loses suspicion."

"Since we're already here, we might as well do some actual patrolling." Reimu mused aloud. "The last thing I'd wish for is having our plan thwarted by another fairy invasion."

"The last time we were here, it seemed as though they specifically waited for all of us to gather in Kazemura to attack us." Sakuya recalled with her finger on her chin in a bit spaced-out expression.

"Hey, that would actually not be so bad if they attacked the village now." said the ordinary magician, making the other girls raise their eyebrows. "If anything, it'd at least create a diversion for us to sneak into the temple without a problem."

"And you'd be perfectly okay with fairies laying waste to Kazemura while you'd be looting the temple?" asked Reimu with a disapproving scowl.

"Sure, I would." Reimu got a response quicker then she expected. "We'd just have to beat the mastermind inside and all the fairies would come back to their senses and scatter."

A moment of deadpan silence came about, as none of the girls could find the right words to convey their impressions of Marisa's idea of incident resolution.

"See? My ingenious plan made ya' all speechless. But alas, I can't make the fairies attack the village…" the blonde let out a disappointed sigh.

"No, like I said; that's the last thing I'd want at this moment." Reimu repeated her earlier statement.

"Then let's make a sweep of the area and then return to the village." Remilia seemed to agree with the shrine maiden's idea, but for her own reason. She really wasn't as concerned about the safety of Kazemura as she was concerned about her personal comfort. Standing idly on a meadow in a sunny day, with no place to sit down without getting her dress dirty was an unbearable thought. She liked getting things done fast and efficiently, just like Reimu, so making a preventive sweep was a hundred times more attractive to her than just waiting.

"I hope Aya's busying herself with something else than watching the sky right now." the shrine maiden uttered wishfully before she stood up and prepared herself for take-off.

"So just like that time when we were tranquilizing fairies… We'll split up, and if either of us sees something suspicious, we'll fire a signal danmaku."

"Roger~." Marisa saluted. "If I see any suspicious groups of fairies, I'll fire a signal shot."

"And I don't mean a signal Master Spark like you did during the harvest feast." Reimu wagged her finger warningly. "By the way, we'll split up to pairs, seeing that Remilia needs her parasol and she's too spoiled to carry it herself…"

"Hey!" the vampire in question found Reimu's remark mildly offensive, and it stung her even more when she heard her own maid suppressing a chuckle behind her back.

"Let's go, Marisa." Reimu asked her friend to follow and kicked off the ground.

"Right behind you." the blonde saddled her broom and jetted after the miko.

Remilia and Sakuya watched them in a brief moment of silence when the silver-haired girl opened the pink parasol and gestured to her mistress to move under its shade. But her kind gesture was met with a frown from the little vampire.

"Give me that parasol!" Remilia swiped the parasol out of Sakuya's hand.

"My lady…?" the time-manipulator blinked in puzzlement.

"I'll show her "too spoiled to carry it herself"." The Scarlet Devil grumbled agitatedly as she took off into the sky.

"Mistress…" Sakuya just stood there for a moment with a sheepish smile, giggling at her mistress's endearingly childish moments such as this one.

* * *

As Gensokyo's most notorious pair of youkai exterminators swept the area for any suspicious signs, they spotted several smaller flocks of fairies scurrying out of the treetops. None of the mentioned flocks were large enough to pose a threat, though, and none of the fairies showed any signs of spiritual possession or mind control.

"They look pretty normal to me…" stated Marisa as one small fairy group fluttered past her and Reimu. The miko could only silently agree. Those little winged female humanoid incarnations of natural phenomena didn't even shoot a single danmaku pellet. Reimu and Marisa had no reason for violence.

The situation was the same on Remilia's and Sakuya's side as well. And even if the Scarlet Devil showed some hostility, the fairies she encountered just scattered and fled rather than mounting a counterattack.

"These fairies don't appear to be possessed, my lady."

"I was only making sure they weren't just faking it." the vampire replied with absolutely no regret after she blasted several of them into fairy dust.

Both pairs of girls continued their sweep in a half-circle trajectory around the pine forest surrounding Kazemura until they eventually met once again over the village.

"There's Aya." Marisa pointed at the black and white-clad figure skulking around the village hall in search of the best vantage point. "We better land while she's not looking up."

After the four girls touched the ground they decided that the best place to wait for the arrival of the tengu envoy would be none other than the Hearth.

"They better have some red tea…" Remilia muttered as she entered the tavern.

The Hearth was as busy as ever, but the first thing one would notice upon entering would not be the chatter of the yama-bito patrons, but the noisy girly voice that could belong to only one oni in Gensokyo.

"Come on~! Ain't nobody gonna challenge me in arm-wrestling? Is this tavern full of weaklings, or what?"

Obviously, none of the patrons were stupid enough to let themselves be provoked and accept a challenge from an oni, even if she was a little girl. It was no wonder that her table, and for that matter, the tables adjacent to hers were vacant. As soon as she saw who entered the establishment, she almost toppled a few pieces of furniture in her cheerful dash towards Reimu.

"Reimu, Reimu, Reimu!"

"Oh great… what's she doing here?" Reimu's mood dropped by a few degrees as soon as she noticed Suika trotting towards her. "Ungh~!" The charging oni girl threw herself at Reimu, and of course, knocked her off her feet.

"Hey, listen, listen! Nobody wants to compete with me. Not in arm-wrestling, not in drinking, not even in rock-paper-scissors. Can you believe it?"

"Ugh…" Reimu winced both out of pain and due to the foul smell of Suika's breath. "I can't imagine why…"

"Oi, Suika!" Marisa greeted her. "What are you doing in these parts? Is the Heaven's sake no good for you anymore?"

"Not really. I just happened to read the last issue of the newspaper. I wanna know what's inside that temple. Besides, Kazemura has the best beer in Gensokyo…" the oni pointed at the empty beer glass resting on the table where she was sitting.

"Could you please get off me? You're embarrassing a shrine maiden." Reimu tried to push her aside. Futilely. "And furthermore, you reek."

"But I was bored~." Suika said as an excuse for knocking Reimu down. "I know that today's the day when the temple will be entered for the first time, but when you wait for something with such anticipation, every hour passes so slowly~. And after winning a couple of bets, nobody wants to play with me anymore."

Finally Suika rose from the floor, allowing Reimu to stand up as well. "Have you no shame scamming the locals with your impossible challenges?"

"I needed to buy all that beer with something. Oh, I know. I'll treat you all for a few rounds, what do you say?" the oni's eyes brightened up at the idea of spending the otherwise boring afternoon with Reimu and her company.

"No. We're not here to drink." Reimu resolutely refused the offer, making Suika's smile fade.

"Awww~. Why not? You're not going to be the ones taking part in the negotiations anyway."

"That… is correct." Sakuya nodded agreeingly. "However, we've got business to do, so we need to remain sober."

"Oh, business, huh? What kind of business?" Suika asked curiously as she led the girls to the vacant table. Nobody was hurrying to answer her, though.

"Can't tell me? You know… the more you try to keep something a secret, the more curious those around you you're going to make."

"Village security mostly." Reimu uttered the same old half-truth as she did to Aya. "Patrolling the area, making sure everything's okay…"

"Wow, Reimu… you suck at lying." the oni stated bluntly. "Plus, if you were saying the truth, it wouldn't take you that long to answer."

"Damn… I knew coming here was a bad idea." the miko quietly cursed her decision to walk into this tavern.

"I don't know..." Marisa shrugged. "What's the harm if we tell her? Maybe she'll even side with us."

"Side with you?" Suika repeated with amusement. "Sounds to me like you're up to something not-so-legal."

"Well, yeah. We want to be the first ones to get into the temple." Marisa fessed up the truth, and with a face of a poker player to boot.

"You're not telling this to anyone, okay?" Reimu leaned towards her threateningly. "Otherwise I'll spike your sake with roasted soybeans when you won't be looking."

Whether it was due to the threat or simply because she was Reimu's friend, the ginger-haired oni nodded in compliance. "You got my word."

It was a well-known fact that oni didn't tell lies, so Reimu was most satisfied with that answer.

"How are you gonna to do it? No, wait…" Suika corrected herself. "When are you gonna do it?"

"In a few hours." said Remilia. "At the precise moment when the tengu delegate arrives. Waiter, one red tea, please!" she shouted at the bartender, who only raised his eyebrow before returning to cleaning the glass he was holding.

"There is no waiter here." Suika giggled. "You have to order everything at the counter and carry it to your table. Didn't you notice when you were here last time?"

"Some tavern this is…" grumbled the vampire dissatisfiedly. "Anyway, we can't get into that temple while there are tons of tengu standing guard. That's why we have to wait for the right moment."

"Oh, you want to get inside unnoticed." Suika nodded understandingly.

"As if that wasn't obvious from the start!" Reimu planted her palm on her forehead.

"Are you ready for what's down there, though?" the oni finally asked a question that was very relevant, and to which none of the girls could give a truthful answer.

"An anti-magic field. Or even a siphon." Marisa speculated. "And a divine-power siphon of even greater effect."

"Well… I can imagine you don't really believe that bookworm of yours is going to tip the results of the negotiations in your favor, but why would you want to go into that dangerous place totally unprepared, willing to throw all your powers out of the window?"

"Most of our powers." Remilia corrected her. "But otherwise, you are right. We'll just have to risk it."

"Nonsense!" the little oni squeaked out. "If I were you, I'd recruit an immortal into my team. Not a fairy, though."

"We've already thought about that." the vampire waved her hand dismissively. "It's going to take ages and tons of patience to convince those two Lunarians to get here. Besides, what makes you think I even want them here? We just don't have enough time."

"I… wasn't talking about those two." Suika shook her head, now that she recalled that two immortal Lunarians resided in a mansion far to the south.

"Huh? Then who?"

"An immortal who lives nearby. A friend of Yukari's, a veteran from the first Genso-Lunar war and a guru of brewing booze out of everything."

"You mean that snake alchemist?" Reimu tilted her head. She did vaguely remember him helping the girls out in the last fairy attack. "What was his name again?"

"Yup, him." Suika gave a confirmatory nod. "Xeng-Yao. If you want, I could fetch him and be back in the village within an hour."

"You'd do that?" Reimu blinked in disbelief.

"Sure~! Just say the word."

"Word." Remilia spoke in Reimu's stead. One could see she wasn't enjoying the oni's company very much.

"Fine. Go get that alchemist." the miko finally decided. "And if you meet Aya, don't tell her anything, okay? Or better yet, avoid her entirely, if you can't tell a lie."

"Okay, I'll go as a cloud then." said Suika and already stood up from the chair. "You'll be staying here, right?"

"Unless the tengu envoy comes sooner than expected, yes." Reimu reassured her, and so the little oni nodded and took her leave.

"I bet a lot of these folks will gather around the village hall to hear the results first-hand." Marisa mused as she took a look around herself.

"That's neither going help us, nor hinder us." Reimu shrugged her shoulders, questioning why Marisa even brought it up.

"Just saying…"

In the meantime, Remilia, firmly decided that she'd show everyone that she's not spoiled. She stood up form the chair, walked up to the counter and climbed up the tall stool with some minor difficulties. Finally the bartender noticed her.

"Can I get you anything, young lady?"

"I'd like some red tea, please." she asked with an unnaturally calm tone, as she was still irritated that the bartender ignored her the first time.

"You're in great luck, you know that?" the human smiled and put some fresh water on the stove to boil.

"Why?"

"We usually don't serve red tea, you see. In fact, we never have, and probably won't be after we run out."

"So where do you have red tea from then?"

"Ah, about that… a few months ago, there was this young lady merchant stopping by in the village and offered me a bagful of it. She said she had too much of the stuff to know what to do with." explained the balding barkeep. "So I bought it from her."

"A lady merchant?" Remilia wondered who that might have been. "What did she look like?"

"Hm.. about this tall." he stretched out his palm. "She had short black hair, plain clothes, nothing too eye-catching. She said she won that tea in a tournament or something."

And then Remilia realized that the mysterious merchant the bartender was talking about was most likely the winner of the danmaku tournament held at Reimu's shrine in summer. Each of the participants committed some prize for the winner to have, and Remilia's contribution was a rich supply of red tea.

"Nue…"

"Beg your pardon?"

"Heh…" Remilia found this both insulting and amusing at the same time. Her facial expression was likewise ambiguous. "I'll be ordering my own red tea… in a Kazemuran tavern. I knew there was something odd about its fate strings…"

After a few minutes the water in the kettle boiled and Remilia was served her own red tea. Many thoughts ran through her head as she took the cup and carried it back to the table. One of the most resonating thoughts was: "What was Nue Houjuu doing here?" The more she stared at the rippling surface of her favorite beverage, the stronger her suspicion grew.

"Is something wrong, my lady?" Sakuya was unsurprisingly the first to notice the spaced-out expression on the face of her mistress.

"You got a fly in your tea or something?" Marisa made a poor guess to justify Remilia's weird stare.

"This tea…" the vampire spoke after a pause.

"Oh, so they serve your favorite blend here too?" the maid smiled fleetingly.

"No. This is my red tea… from my mansion."

"What do you mean?" Sakuya blinked cluelessly.

"Did you know that Nue Houjuu was here?"

"She was here… I think that time when we were catching fairies for Eirin." Marisa hummed as she reminisced. "But what does that have to do with your red tea?"

"I meant more recently." Remilia clarified. "Do you remember Tanabata?" she aimed the question at the Hakurei shrine maiden.

"Tanabata? What about it?" Reimu's memories of that day were apparently quite hazy.

"I offered a sack full of my finest red tea as a prize for the winner of the tournament's main event."

"Yeah, I remember that."

"Do you also remember who the winner was?"

"Uh… I didn't really watch it to the end." Reimu confessed with a hint of guilt in her voice.

"Nue!" Marisa replied instead. "Pesky youkai made me lose before the semi-finals."

"Well…" Remilia elegantly sat down, stirred her tea and raised her gaze to resume her eye contact with the girls. "It would seem that our tournament champ visited Kazemura recently."

This statement made the girls stare at Remilia in silent confusion.

"The barkeep just told me he got his last and only shipment of red tea from some merchant girl from Human Village, who also told him that she happened to win the tea in a certain tournament."

"Pffff~!" Marisa failed to hold back a chuckle. "Nue sold the tea!"

"Exactly." Remilia rolled her eyes. "But that's not what bothers me."

"Then what?" Reimu asked.

"It's that she was here… I don't recall Patchouli recruiting her, or any of the Myouren Temple residents into the archeological expedition team."

"So what if she was here?" shrugged the ordinary magician.

"I have a strong feeling that she still is. And she's spying for the Myouren Temple."

"Aren't you just a bit too paranoid?" Reimu wasn't in a mood for Remilia's conspiracy theories. "Why would the Temple of Myouren be interested in the temple of Kazemura? They are our allies in this incident."

"I think they want exactly the same thing we do - to solve the spirit incident. Except, they want to beat us to it."

If Reimu's face looked confused a moment ago, it was nothing in comparison to her current grimace. "Eeeeeh~?! Why would they want to do that?"

"You're the shrine maiden. Think a little." the vampire frowned at Reimu's lack of understanding. "If they successfully manage to quell the spirit incident, it'll bring them more followers, more faith, and thus, more power. And all that at the expense of your shrine and the Moriya Shrine, if they solve it before everyone else. Don't tell me you've never thought of that possibility, Reimu."

Even though it seemed far-fetched at first, Reimu was slowly beginning to realize that Remilia had a point. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that someone attempted to upset Gensokyo's religious balance, but could the Hakurei maiden really trust the words of her former enemy?

"Didn't you also try to solve this incident by yourself?" the miko locked her dark eyes with Remilia's. "Your motive is still not quite clear to me, you know… Why are you even helping me?"

"What do you mean "why"?" Remilia shot back an incensed question. "My mansion was attacked by possessed fairies. Repeatedly! I had every right to take appropriate steps. I didn't quite expect that such a minor annoyance was only the beginning of a full-blown incident, though. As soon as it became clear, I realized that cooperation would be more comfortable and effective way of its resolution, even though nothing would bring me greater satisfaction than serving the culprit the dish of revenge with my own hands…"

"Well said…" Marisa nodded with acknowledgement. "But even if what you say about Nue is true, what do you want to do about it? The tengu envoy will be here any hour, so wasting our time with some wild-goose chase could rob us of our only chance to infiltrate the temple unseen."

"We'll proceed with our infiltration as planned. If she's really here, we'll surely run into her…" Remilia replied and started to enjoy her red tea in slow sips until Suika returned from her errand.

* * *

"I'm hoooome~!" echoed the high-pitched voice of Suika Ibuki as she kicked the tavern door open and barged in as if she owned the place.

"About time you returned." Reimu looked at the oni in a mildly scolding way. "So… Did you bring the alchemist?"

"In a manner of speaking…" Suika stepped inside, allowing the taller figure standing behind her to enter the tavern as well. The light thumping of boots walking over the wooden floor mixed with silent hissing as the person approached the table where the girls were sitting.

"Ah, Kung-Pao-san…" Marisa extended her greeting to the half-snake, messing up his name in the process.

"That's Xeng-Yao." he rolled his yellow eyes as he corrected her.

"Yeah, that's what I said. It's nice to have you with us again."

"Like I got a choice." the alchemist grumbled and shifted his gaze at Suika. "This oni just barged into my lab and took me away; can you believe it?"

"Tee-hee~…" Suika let out an innocent giggle and put on an equally innocent-looking expression.

"So that's what they call "spirited away by oni", huh?" asked the grinning magician.

"But sssince she's one of Yukari-sama's closest friends, I sssupose I can overlook that… Ssso anyway, what are you children up to?"

"Hey, who are you calling a child?" Remilia immediately took offense from the way Xeng addressed the girls, even though it was she, who next to Suika looked the youngest.

"Come on… I bet I'm older than all four of you together." the alchemist responded without a hint of doubt.

"Even older than all four of us plus Suika?" Marisa raised an eyebrow.

Suika only shaped a broad grin. "I love bets!"

"I still think my age is greater…" As a Hourai immortal, Xeng-Yao had quite the confidence in winning this bet.

"You'll buy me a drink if you lose, though." Suika stated her victory conditions.

"Fine."

"Okay, so let's hear your age first, Xeng-Yao-san."

"Well, if memory ssstill servesss, then it should be 1873."

"Oooh… that's… admittedly older than I am, but… you did say you were older than all 5 of us, so…" Suika looked at the other girls in hope that their sum total of ages would be enough to trump that of the immortal half-snake.

"Well, they say a lady should never reveal her real age, but a bet is a bet and an oni can't lie, so… I'm precisely 1311."

"Really?" Marisa looked slightly surprised, but not by the oni's age. Her surprise stemmed from the fact that Suika, and even Xeng, for that matter, knew exactly how old they were.

"I'm just surprised, because long-lived youkai usually don't bother counting their birthdays… especially those who lived in the underground. How can one even keep track of time down there?"

"Hey, seasons in the underground change the same way they do on the surface, you know…" Suika pouted.

"Ah, right… I forgot."

"As for me, even though my age doesn't mean anything, ssince I can't die, it'sss still short enough, so it doesn't yet take me hours to just sssay the number. Of courssse, if I'll be that old, I won't bother with counting anymore."

"Well, in any case, we're losing the bet and I'm losing my drink~!" Suika flailed her little arms. "Help me out, girls!"

"I'm 508." Remilia said in a rather quiet voice.

"So that makes us 1819 years old… Hmm… still not enough."

"Sakuya is 21, right?" the vampire gave her maid a questioning glance. Not even she was certain about that, but Sakuya silently nodded.

"And here I thought she wasss Lunarian. Mussst be the hair…" Xeng breathed a slightly relieved sigh.

"It does look a bit like Eirin's but no. She's a human." Remilia denied Sakuya's possible extraterrestrial origin.

"Hmm… true. I highly doubt that such a thing as a Lunarian maid even exisssts. They've got their rabbits to do all the menial tasksss for them."

"I just turned 19 this summer." Reimu shrugged. She didn't seem to care about who would win this silly bet, but she played along anyway.

"1859. Aargh~!" Suika's last hope was the blonde magician, who yet had to reveal her age.

"I'm almost as old as Reimu." said Marisa. "Although a few months younger, so I guess still 18…"

"1877! Ha! We won!" the little oni rejoiced as she hugged the shrine maiden. "Only by a 4 year difference, but a bet is a bet, so… you know what to do, Xeng-san."

"Yeah, yeah…" the old alchemist grumbled, but instead of standing up and buying Suika a drink at the bar, he put his backpack on the table and pulled a peculiar-looking bottle out of it. As if he was prepared for it all along, he also pulled out a shot glass and filled it with the bottle's content.

"Hey, what are you doing? You were supposed to order me a beer~." Suika objected, but Xeng tried to persuade her that what he had to offer is something far better.

"Oh, but you never specified what drink you wanted, ssso you can't really complain." he passed her the shot glass with the smile of a winner on his face.

Suika just disappointedly stared at the shot glass. Even her horns seemed to have drooped a little. "Such a spoonful… There's not even enough for a sample."

"Do give it a try." the alchemist insisted. "It'sss one of my own recipesss."

Suika tentatively took the tiny glass in her fingers and took the smallest sip just to figure out the drink's taste. A second afterwards, her face reddened and as she exhaled, a bright flame spouted out of her mouth, igniting the wooden chandelier hanging over the table, as well as the tip of Marisa's hat. The girls barely managed to duck and cover to avoid the scorching fire.

"Whooo~! That surprised me." Suika admitted. "I like it."

"Yeah, you're not the only one surprised." Reimu mumbled as she crawled back up from under the table.

"Aaaah~! No! Not again!" Marisa just now noticed the small flame dancing on top of her hat.

As the bartender saw the flames, he briefly disappeared under the bar to resurface a second later with the sound of loud humming and something that looked like a water hose in his hands. And as he pulled the lever on the hose's side, a strong stream of water gushed out, making short work of the fire. Of course, the girls were not exactly happy about being soaked.

"Aaaah, running water~!" Remilia took cover under the table again.

"What the hell is that?!" Marisa, who was a bit too late to avoid the water current blinked at the bartender.

"Ah, this? It's a kappa-made motor-powered fire extinguisher." the owner of the tavern smiled as he presented the device. "After the last fairy attack when this place almost burned down and was saved only by the rain, I thought having one of those would be a wise investment. And it looks like I was right. Sorry about your clothes, though."

"Damn… Suika, this is all your fault." the witch cast an accusing gaze at the horned youkai. But instead of feeling guilt, Suika's attention was fully occupied by Xeng's bottle. "I don't know what it was, but it was really good. Can I have one more?"

"You'd have to win another bet to deserve it. Or you could buy it."

"Ehehe… I'm sort of running low on money, but I'll take another bet any time."

"I'll passss." Xeng-Yao hissed as he shook his head. "Anyway, now that we've wasssted enough time with these silly gamesss, would somebody finally tell me why was I abducted in the middle of my work?"

"Ah, about that…" Reimu was about to give him the basic briefing, but the sudden commotion that has started in the tavern drowned out her voice.

"The tengu ambassador's here!"

"Oh, right. Here they come."

"So the negotiations can begin now… Time to gather around the village hall."

Those were some of the reactions of the tavern's patrons that Reimu's ears managed to distinguish from the jumbled cacophony of voices.

"Damn… they're already here." she muttered a curse as she hurried to the exit. "There's no time. I'll have to explain everything to you as we go."

"What's all the fuss about?" Xeng-Yao apparently didn't pay much attention to most of the daily events in Gensokyo, since it appeared he had no idea what was going on in Kazemura ever since his last visit.

"Damn… I'm all soaked…" Marisa's main concern was obviously not the stress from her decision to take part in a plan that could go wrong in so many ways, but the fact that her entire dress was uncomfortably wet, heavy and cold.

Remilia and Suika were luckier, although even they didn't appear to be in a state of perfect mental calmness either. The great tengu envoy was here and they haven't even briefed one of their key team members about what they were planning.

"Something tells me this won't be a very smooth operation…" Remilia muttered quietly as she left the tavern after everyone else.

* * *

Time was running short. Reimu could already see the small squadron of approaching humanoid figures coming from the west. Every White Wolf tengu stationed in the village was on high alert and hurried to create two long line formations in front of the village hall.

"Looks like Sakuya's information was right." Marisa hummed as she noticed the tengu leaving heir regular stations to form the two mentioned lines. At least for a brief moment she forgot about her wet clothes.

"Yes, yes, leave your posts and gather at the hall like good obedient puppies." the vampire commented the organized chaos that has erupted in the Kazemura's tengu outpost.

"Alright, youkai." Reimu spoke to Xeng. "The plan is to get into that temple without getting spotted by anyone. You'll go ahead, since you're immortal and you'll warn us from any dangers or possible traps that might be in there."

"Whoa, really?" Xeng looked almost pleasantly surprised. At least now his immortality and immunity to physical pain could be put to good use. "We're going to sssneak in? What are we looking for inside that temple?"

"The source of the spirit incident." the miko replied briefly as she kept leading the way in a hastened pace towards the quarry pit. But as she was about to float down and descend to the bottom, she noticed that the excavation site was not entirely evacuated. "Ah… damn it! What are all those tengu still doing there?"

The envoy and his bodyguards have already landed in front of the village hall, yet the White Wolves that were stationed to guard the pit and the access to the temple itself were still standing guard at their designated posts.

"Well, this could complicate things a bit." Remilia was staring to see that her prediction was coming to life. "I hate it when I'm right sometimes…"

"Why aren't they leaving their places? You said they'd all gather to greet the envoy! You said they're oath-bound to do so!" Reimu's panic has caused her to raise her voice as she accused Remilia and her maid of being unreliable.

"Well… Who should have known there'd be that many oath-breakers?" Remilia shrugged.

"Your espionage skills suck! How are we supposed to get inside now?" the shrine maiden yelled at her, but Remilia just stoically watched her goal that was just several tens of meters away.

"Sheesh… one minor unforeseen obstacle and you're already helpless, Reimu. So what? We'll just have to use the Plan B."

"We don't have any Plan B!"

"Then we'll just make one up on the fly." the little vampire brainstormed while taking a good look around. Her sight suddenly centered on Suika, who seemed like a perfect candidate for the plan she had just come up with. "Ah, yes… That will do…" she smiled contently as she walked towards the oni.

"Hm? What?"

"The envoy already passed halfway towards the hall! We're running out of time!" Reimu let everyone know that their mission was drawing to a failure with each passing second.

"What Marisa said on that meadow gave me an idea. We'll use a diversion. You can make miniatures of yourself, right?"

"Uhh… yeah…" Suika was starting to see what was on Remilia's mind.

"Well then… what are you waiting for? Let's make them think the possessed fairies are back for revenge."

"Eh? But I don't look like a fairy… and besides, the tengu's eyesight is too sharp to confuse me…"

"Don't worry about the little things! Just do your stuff!" Remilia hushed her protests and gave her an encouraging tap on the shoulder.

Suika briefly considered the plan, but she didn't have any better ideas either. "Alright then… I'll give it a try."

Suika took off into the sky and disappeared behind the trees. After all, no magician would want the audience to see how they made their trick. In the meantime, the robed envoy was just meters away from the village hall and the elder was already preparing to greet him. To Reimu this all seemed like complete and utter failure of Remilia's plan, but the vampire hasn't folded her hand yet. The burden of success or failure now rested entirely on Suika and her actions.

"It's over… the envoy is inside the village hall. The White Wolves are already breaking the formation and returning to their posts." Reimu's gaze fell downward as she sighed resignedly.

But the miko, and pretty much the whole village of Kazemura was in for quite the surprise.

"Look!" Marisa pointed at the eastern horizon. "I see Suika's mini clones! Time to start mass hysteria, girls~." She chuckled mischievously as she took off into the air and began flying through the village, screaming: "Fairies~! Fairies incoming from the east! They're launching another attack! Everyone, get ready for battle!"

It didn't take long before the White Wolf tengu began turning their heads to the east. Suika did her best to make as many miniatures of herself as she could. The swarm of mini-Suikas didn't look as massive as the fairy swarms that attacked the village, but the oni managed to divide herself into at least a few hundred little beings. While not as intimidating at first glance, even those few hundreds could be a threat if they could sever the shimenawa rope barrier… and if they were actual possessed fairies.

"Another swarm's coming from the east!" the tengu commander drew his sword and pretty much all the White Wolves followed suit. "Sound the alarm!"

In less than a minute, the entire mining village was engulfed in chaos. The alarm bells echoed from every corner and all the occupants of the village – tengu, yama-bito and human alike were rushing out of their dwellings to see what was happening.

"We mustn't let them into the quarry!" the leader of the White Wolves shouted. "Everyone, scramble and engage them head-on! Protect the spirit ward and the village hall at all costs!"

Now that an official order from the commander was issued, not a single tengu soldier remained on the ground. They rallied together and charged the approaching "fairy swarm" without wasting any time.

Suika's distraction, as well as Marisa's alarm calls seemed to work perfectly to create an opening that the girls were waiting for.

"Wonderful…" Remilia smiled contentedly at how the situation developed. "Girls, we now have unrestrained access to the temple. It's time to cross the spirit ward."

But Marisa put a hand on her shoulder. "Um… did that one White Wolf tengu fall asleep?" She pointed at the small figure dressed in the red, white and black uniform, who in spite of all the chaos in the village and even a direct order from her superior, still stood vigilant right at the only access into the uncovered temple.

* * *

"Ah… that's not good." Even Remilia's smile faded when she noticed that rogue guard. "What's wrong with her? Is she deaf? She got an order to engage the fairies, so why the hell is she still standing there?!"

"Looks like the tengu have thought of everything." said Reimu. "So much for our "perfect" plan…"

"Um… isn't she standing there simply because she can't take off?" Sakuya suddenly reminded all the girls that the solitary tengu guard was standing right in the middle of a powerful anti-magic field.

"Oh… right. But she's still a problem."

And as if the girls didn't have enough problems, another tengu noticed their little gathering at the edge of the quarry pit.

"Ayayayaya~! Another fairy attack and you girls are just calmly standing here?" the reporter crow tengu, Aya Shameimaru landed right in the middle of their little circle. "By the way, nice of you to notice the fairies while they were still far from the village, Marisa… What's wrong?" she noticed that all four of the girls were staring daggers at her. Only Xeng-Yao's glance was neutral.

"We'd just get into their way…" Reimu waved her hand as she gave her an excuse why she was just idly standing and not fighting the fairies.

But then Aya said something that made everyone a little nervous. "You know… White Wolves are generally known for their sharp senses. Especially sight and smell. So… I wonder how long it's going to take them to find out that they're going up against a swarm of oni…"

"And the jig is up…" Reimu has completely given up on the idea of entering the temple undetected. If even Aya knew that the fairy attack was a ruse, there was simply no way the girls would set a foot inside the temple without being chased by a company of tengu soldiers.

"Good. Can I go home now?" the immortal alchemist wondered if his presence in the village was still necessary.

"What's the matter, Reimu?" Aya smiled sweetly at the shrine maiden. "You look so sad. Don't worry. Aya's here to help you out~."

"W-what?"

"Eh?" even Marisa was shocked by Aya's words.

"Lucky for you, I found out about your plan before the whole thing started."

Reimu blinked at her confusedly. "Y-you did? How?"

"From a well-informed source." the crow tengu widened her smile and looked at Patchouli's tent that stood nearby. "You can come out now… I think…"

A moment later, Koakuma's shy face popped out from behind the tent. It seemed she was hiding and watching the whole thing.

"Koakuma!" Remilia gasped. "You told the tengu about our plan! Did Patchouli sign you up for this? No… there's no way she could have known about it."

"I think you should thank that little devil." said Aya as she beckoned Koakuma to come out of her hiding and join the girls. "If she didn't tell me about your plan, I wouldn't be able to help you overcome your last remaining obstacle…" she slowly walked to the edge of the pit to take a look at the lone guard. "Well, if it isn't Momiji." Her excellent sight was able to identify the White Wolf tengu even from such a distance.

"Inubashiri? Then… perhaps we could convince her to let us through?" Marisa really wondered how Aya planned to help them here.

"No, I'm afraid not. We're not exactly on the best terms with each other… I wonder why the commander chose her to guard the temple while all the other soldiers are fighting off the oni… I mean the "fairy" menace. But it's strange… I would have sworn I saw her among the other White Wolves that went after the fake fairies. Must one of those déjà vu moments…"

"Then how are you going to "help" us?"

"We'll need to make it look like an accident." Aya hummed as she rubbed her chin.

"Make WHAT look like an accident?" the witch expected a little more specific answer.

That's when she noticed Aya wrapping her fingers around the handle of her leaf-shaped fan.

"Wait, are you really going to…?"

"Forgive me, Momiji." the crow tengu apologized before she gently waved the wrist of the hand that held the fan. She thus created a concentrated blast of strong wind that was sent right at the unsuspecting White Wolf tengu girl.

In the following second the girls witnessed as Momiji suddenly flailed her arms in an attempt to maintain balance, but failing and falling through the temple's window inside.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaah~!"

"Oh my! Someone fell into the temple!" Aya pretended that she just noticed the event and wanted to help out. "We need to do something!"

"Damn…" Marisa cringed when she thought about how deep and painful Momiji's fall had to be. "I don't think she's going to like you much more after this."

"She doesn't even know what hit her." Aya reassured her and floated over the shimenawa rope fence into the quarry pit.

"Well, it's now or never." Remilia shrugged and followed suit. Reimu, Marisa and Sakuya caught up to her shortly afterwards.

* * *

Everyone and especially Reimu could feel as their magic is rapidly seeping away once they entered the dangerous zone over the excavation site. By the time they made it to the window where Momiji fell trough, they couldn't even keep themselves afloat. As a non-flyer, Xeng-Yao just took a dive right from the edge of the pit; fell over 10 meters and with an unpleasant crackling sound of breaking bones, landed flat on the rocky bottom. He didn't mind it, though, as the Hourai Elixir regenerated his body and he was able to stand up within seconds.

"Momiji, it's me, Aya! Are you alright?" Aya poked her head into the temple's window, but besides pitch-black darkness, she couldn't see a thing. Only a weak moan could be heard from somewhere below.

"Hnnn… Aya?"

"Yeah! Are you hurt?"

"N-no. I'm fine… But I can't fly out of here!"

"Don't worry, Momiji, we'll get you out!" the crow tengu reassured her.

In the meantime, Koakuma made it to the temple with a coil of rope in one hand and a pack of torches in the other.

"Okay. Tie that rope around that stone obelisk."

Koakuma nodded and without hesitation began fixing one end of the rope around the mentioned obelisk, so that the girls could safely and painlessly descend as well as get out of the temple once their job is done.

"Done!" the little devil showed an "ok" gesture.

"Alright… let's go. One by one, but don't take all day." Reimu tightly grabbed the rope and slowly approached the dark window backwards.

"It's going to be hard for you to descend without a light, Reimu." Aya halted her.

"But I can't hold a torch. I need both my hands to hold the rope."

"Don't worry. Momiji's going to help you." said Aya just as Koakuma passed her one lit torch. "Momiji! We're dropping a torch down there, so try not to get hit in the head!"

"Okay!" echoed Momiji's reply from the darkness.

True to her word, Aya let the burning torch fall to the bottom. The weak light it provided was still enough for her to see that Momiji was alright and without a scratch, just a little freaked-out. Reimu looked over her shoulder and slowly began her descent. That's when Momiji objected.

"Hey! Why are you going down here? I don't need your help! I can climb up by myself!"

"Hush, puppy!" the descending shrine maiden silenced her. "We have an important job to do here."

"So my fall wasn't an accident?" It was obvious from the wolf tengu's voice that she wasn't very pleased about it.

"Sorry about that, Momi~." Aya apologized from above before she quickly and deftly climbed the rope down after Reimu. "It was for a good cause. You endured your fall bravely and hey, there's not a scratch on you, so why should you even complain, right?"

"Shameimaru… Aya." Momiji had a bitter expression on her face as her lips let out the crow tengu's name.

"This thing is even bigger than the Vampire Incident… if you can still remember that one. If Lord Tenma was to win the negotiation, he certainly wouldn't want any non-tengu even setting a foot near the temple, and the threat of the vengeful spirits would never be averted. Only now we have an opportunity to explore this place before any of the involved parties claims the right to enter it."

"You doubt Lord Tenma's competence?" Momiji's right sword-wielding arm jerked a bit as she almost subconsciously pointed the blade's tip at Aya. "I should have you all arrested."

"I know how you feel about this, but… there's seven of us and only one of you. Your fellow White Wolves are busy dealing with a false alarm and you can't even fly, let alone use danmaku, so… I'd say you don't have a choice."

Sakuya was the third girl to make it down to the dark hall, ready to watch over her lady's safe descent.

"If you slip, I'm ready to catch you, my lady!"

She soon found out that her worries were completely unnecessary, as the vampire made it down in the most impressive fashion that made even Reimu nod in acknowledgement. She hopped down and halfway during her fall, she flapped her bat wings once, which was enough to slow her fall down to make a soft landing.

"You can still fly?" Marisa was impressed too.

"Only magic and divine energies are drained by this place. I can still use my youkai abilities and my wings, though."

To confirm her claim, the little devil familiar copied Remilia's way of descent and glided down in a spiral motion. Lastly, the immortal snake youkai, completely uncaring about his personal safety simply dropped down and crashed in what looked like a very painful fall, but it was of no consequence, like all injuries ever since he drank the forbidden medicine.

The party was now complete, with Momiji unwillingly becoming its eighth member.

"Trust us," Marisa patted Momiji's shoulder, "we're only shortening the inevitable. See… what would happen if Tenma was to win the negotiations? He'd try to send his best people to try and solve the incident, who'd be unable to figure out what to do, so he'd call in the shrine maiden." she pointed at Reimu. "And that shrine maiden would bring a bunch of friends along to get the job done quicker, so… in a sense, we're saving everyone a lot of time." A silly grin at the end of her justification only intensified the scowl on Momiji's face.

"And you all believe you know what you're going to do down here…"

"Sure. Find the culprit, beat them up, loot some treasures and go home." the witch shrugged as she explained her incident-solving modus operandi.

"That's nothing that Lord Tenma and the tengu couldn't take care of…" the wolf tengu girl apparently disagreed with them, but as she looked around herself, she understood that she alone would not be able to stop them. "I'm outnumbered, so I can't detain you physically, but if you'll go any further into the temple, I'm going to climb up that rope and report your trespass to the others."

"And that is exactly why you're coming with us." Remilia announced with a smug smile. "Koakuma and I are the only ones who can fly here, so now that you've revealed your intention to us, I know exactly what I need to do. Koakuma, fly up there and pull the rope all the way up, so that nobody who doesn't have wings could get out of here."

"Okay~." the devil girl chirped happily as she took off to carry out the task. She really felt special now that she was one of the two only persons present whose flying ability was unaffected.

Momiji gritted her teeth angrily as she watched her only hope and leverage of preventing the trespassers from venturing even further disappear from her view. Koakuma flew back in to report that she had accomplished her mission.

"Well done, Koa. Everyone, grab a torch and let Xeng-san lead the way."

"You're not getting out of this unpunished." Momiji warned the girls as she touched Remilia with the tip of her finger, at which the vampire gasped in shock.

"My lady, are you alright?" Sakuya tilted her head, not sure what made her lady react that way.

"And you're not… Momiji Inubashiri." said the vampire once she saw and felt the fate string knot.

"What?!"

"Come again?"

"Eeeeeh?!"

"Say what?"

Everyone reacted in a similar way except for Momiji herself. She just stood there for a moment, only blinking her eyes a few times before she broke the silence with an amused giggle and raising her hands in surrender. "Ahahaha~! You got me, you got me~."

Not a second later, her entire body became a disfigured blur that reshaped itself back, this time revealing the girl's true form. Short black hair instead of white, a black dress with a short skirt, a pair of matching thigh-highs, a long trident instead of her sword and the shield reformed into a snake that coiled around her arm. A pair of asymmetrical blue and red wings protruded from behind her.

"Nue!" Marisa blurted out.

"You know, I got a potion that doesss something like that." Xeng remarked as he observed the transformation with mild amazement.

"I knew I saw Momiji flying towards the Suika swarm a moment ago! That was no déjà vu." Aya finally realized that her senses were still as good as ever, only she didn't put enough trust in them this time.

"You saw through my disguise, but… let me ask. Was it a convincing acting?" Nue wanted to know what others thought.

"Fate strings never lie." Remilia traced an intangible, invisible line leading to the shapeshifter. "So… you sold my precious red tea to the tavern keeper? If you didn't want it, you shouldn't have accepted it in the first place you know."

While Remilia was conversing with Nue in an almost friendly manner, Reimu immediately assaulted her with questions.

"What were you doing here, posing as one of the tengu? Are you a spy for Byakuren?"

"No, Hijiri doesn't really know about it." replied the nue with a denying headshake.

"So why are you here then?" Reimu repeated her first question.

"I… can't tell you that."

"What was that?" the miko stepped a little closer in an intimidating way and began to softly tap her purification rod against her palm. "A youkai is going to talk back to me? Maybe I should simply make you tell me the truth."

Few youkai in Gensokyo would remain calm and cocky when the Hakurei maiden threatened them, but this nue only scoffed at her. Reimu's blood was slowly but certainly reaching the boiling point in face of such arrogance.

"You are really asking for it!"

"You're in no position to interrogate me, let alone make any threats." Nue grinned as she reminded Reimu that she was deep in the zone of no magic and no divine powers. "Down here you're just an ordinary teenage girl."

Reimu realized that she had to change her tactics in order to get an answer out of Nue in this situation. "Then maybe you'd like us to tell Byakuren about your shady activities."

Surprisingly enough, this threat worked like a charm.

"N-no. Please… don't tell Hijiri about this!" the shapeshifter's dark-red eyes blinked pleadingly.

"Hmmm~. I'll think about it. But only if you tell us what you were trying to accomplish here!"

"Well…" Nue bashfully tapped her index fingers against each other as she hesitated to answer.

"Well…?"

"There is this youkai in the outside world… We've been good friends for as long as I can remember."

"What? There's a youkai still living in the outside world?" the miko raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Fool! There are still thousands of youkai, not just living, but thriving in the outside world even now. Did you really believe the entire world's youkai population is living in Gensokyo like sheep in a corral? We live all over the world."

"So you're telling me you wanted to slip through the barrier to meet that friend of yours? As if I'd allow that to happen!"

"Precisely. I knew that using the most well-known gateway to the outside world was out of the question. I had to look for an alternative…"

"Alternative? You mean… this temple…?"

"Yes. Didn't you know? This temple right here houses a portal. And not just any portal. It's supposedly a portal that enables one to instantly travel from here to any other temple, torii and even mirror in the outside world. Provided the mirror is large enough for one to fit through, of course."

"And you know this from where?"

"The tengu already have more information about this building than you. All thanks to the unique talent of one girl who once worked as a part of your wonderful archeological expedition team."

"What?" Reimu wasn't the only one who gasped from this surprising news.

"D-don't look at me like that~!" Koakuma waved her palms in the air. "I didn't know anything. Honest~!"

"It wasn't her, indeed." Nue confirmed Koakuma's innocence in this matter. "It was Hatate Himekaidou and her deep analytic spirit photography that gave the tengu faction the informational upper hand. At least until a few days ago."

"Hatate?!" Aya couldn't believe her own pointy ears. "She's here?!"

"Oh, yes." Nue nodded. "In one of the tents. But not working as a freelance newspaper editor this time. She's here on an assignment that was given to her by the great Tenma himself. An honor she couldn't refuse."

"Well I'll be… Hatate was hired by Lord Tenma. I don't think I can stomach that… Not that I'm jealous, but by the fact that someone thinks she and her questionable information gathering methods are good for something."

"Apparently, all that I've told you about the temple and its portal, she was able to learn just from spirit photography alone."

"So how did you know about Hatate and her mission?"

"I'm not foolish enough to dive head-first into an unexplored temple, especially after what Hijiri said about the vengeful spirits and how scary they are. But the tengu who have occupied this village all seemed so calm and confident, and they didn't even mind guarding that same post where I was standing, so… I decided to find out what they know first. After all, a tengu has more secrets than aralia has leaves, or so the saying goes. That probably answers your question why I was masquerading as a tengu guard."

"I guess so, but why Momiji of all White Wolves?" Aya inquired.

"Because, Himekaidou-san's mission is a secret one. No one is supposed to know she's here. She never leaves her tent and only a few select White Wolves are assigned to permanently guard the tent."

"Heh, even now she's a shut-in." Aya giggled amusedly.

"The person who I copied just happened to be one of them, so I had to learn her behavior, her way of speech, her accent and all the minute character quirks, so that I could convincingly act my part and get to all the information. One small mistake and her camera could reveal my true form. So… did I play her well, Shameimaru-san?"

"Uh… yeah." Aya embarrassedly scratched the back of her neck. "You really got me fooled; just… your voice was a bit different."

"Ah, the voice. Unfortunately, I can't disguise that."

"Voice imitations aside, I want to ask one thing. Since the White Wolves aren't afraid to guard the temple, does that mean it's safe?"

"From what I learned, yes. At least for now. According to her analysis, the temple doesn't have any graveyard; only an underground crypt deeper in the catacombs and that is too small to be the source of so many vengeful spirits. And from her latest photos, she detected no spectral presence in the entire complex."

"Then where did all the spirits come from? That portal?" Marisa furrowed her brow.

"That seems like the only logical answer. Perhaps they're souls from the outside world. The only thing that's a bit annoying is the anti-magic bubble that we're in. Well, for some reason youkai abilities are unhindered, so I don't really mind."

"Did Hatate figure out its source?"

Nue shrugged, as she had no clue. "She wasn't able to pinpoint any concrete object. Maybe it's because of that portal I told you about."

"Where is that portal?" Reimu wanted to see the thing with her own eyes.

"How should I know? I'm down here for the first time and it's not like I was able to peek into Himekaidou's photos and notes for too long. We'll just have to find it ourselves, unless…"

"Unless what?"

"Ah, never mind." Nue waved her hand, hoping that her little tongue-slip would go unnoticed. "Anyway, I told you everything I learned from my time in Himekaidou's tent. Now promise me you won't tell Hijiri that I was here."

"Why are you so afraid to let Byakuren know that you wanted to see an old friend?" Reimu couldn't understand. "Not that I'm going to let you through that portal, if it indeed exists."

"True. She IS a nue and she could have made the whole thing up just to mislead us." Marisa pointed out as she gave the shapeshifter a mistrustful glance.

"Yeah, a pity we don't have Satori-san with us this time." said Aya, making Koakuma shudder lightly.

"Please don't say the S-word in my presence. Especially in a scary place like this~."

"Fine." Nue pouted, offended by everyone's suspicion. "Don't believe me. Like I care. I just don't want you to rat me out to Hijiri, since… well… it's a long story. But you'll find out one day."

"Trying to get to the outside world will only get you into trouble." Reimu gave her a warning, but Nue's confident smile didn't fade.

"Maybe."

"Maybe it'll even get you into trouble with me, or Marisa."

"Or that other miko." added Remilia. "Or even that half-phantom samurai wannabe."

"Maybe." Nue repeated. She was determined to go after her goal and no amount of warnings, threats or other obstacles would stop her.

"You just don't listen, do you?"

"Only when I want to~." the nue replied playfully.

"Okay, now how about we went looking for that portal? You know… jusssst a suggestion." Xeng-Yao impatiently tapped his foot against the stone floor of the dark hall.

"Good idea." Marisa grabbed a torch and lit it against Reimu's. The other girls followed suit and soon there was enough light in the hall to reveal the same strange symbols that decorated the outer obelisks to be engraved all over its walls.

"This is going to be a pain for Patchy to translate…" Remilia almost felt pity for her friend.

"True, but that's not what we're here for anyway, so let's just find that portal." Aya suggested.

Besides the thick stone pillars that supported the ceiling, there wasn't much inside the large hall. There were no desks, but there were various small statues, ceremonial water basins and one main altar assembled in a symmetrical fashion. The main gate, which appeared to be made of wood, seemed to be unharmed, even though the whole temple was buried under a mass of rock, which was at one point a searing molten mass. One could only wonder what sorcery protected the temple from certain doom and preserved it in an almost pristine condition for all those millennia.

"Creepy statues." Marisa noted as she walked past one of them.

"Better not touch them." Reimu advised her.

"Wouldn't touch them with a 10-foot pole."

"I don't see any known religious symbols." Remilia scanned the altar, the pillars as well as the ceiling.

The air inside was damp and heavy, but the group continued on towards the altar, where they saw the only passage leading deeper into the temple's bowels.

"Over there." Aya pointed forward.

Passing through the arched passage the girls and one male youkai found themselves in a narrow corridor that sloped slightly downwards. They needed to walk behind each other in a line in order to get through. And as they walked in wordless silence, listening to every little sound that could herald danger, Aya couldn't help but to notice the loud, slow and deep breathing coming from the person walking behind her.

"Um… Reimu? Could you please stop? It's very unnerving."

"Eh?" the shrine maiden quizzically looked back at her. "What am I doing?"

"Why are you breathing so loud? Are you feeling sick? Should we go back to the hall?"

But Reimu still had no clue what was Aya talking about. "I'm breathing normally. What's your problem?"

"That's my line. Everyone, hush down for a moment."

The whole group stood still in complete silence. Now that loud breathing could be heard by everyone, even Reimu herself. And what startled the shrine maiden the most was the fact that the sound was coming from her.

"Aya's right." Marisa confirmed. "You are breathing a little loud."

"W-what's that?!" Reimu's eyes widened in shock as she asked with a shaky voice. "A vengeful spirit? No way!"

That's when Remilia realized something. "Hold on a second."

"Have I been possessed? Now that my divine powers are disabled… I… I…" poor girl was on the verge of fainting; only Remilia's idea prevented that scenario.

"Patchy's medallion. You took it with you, right?"

"Eh? Y-yeah." Reimu blinked as she slid her free hand underneath her vest to get a hold of that round amulet that she wore all the time. She wore it long enough to consider it just another part of her clothing, sometimes even forgetting that she had it, like now.

Upon closer observation, Reimu realized that the breathing sounds were coming directly from the amulet.

"It's the medallion!" she called out as she pulled it from under her top and held it in her palm. Only one person who had any connection to the trinket came to mind. "It's Yukari! I just know it!"

That indeed sounded like a possibility to all the group members who had any knowledge about the bimetallic amulet.

"Holy cow, Reimu, you're right!" Marisa parted her lips in amazement.

"And by the sound of it, she's… sleeping?" Remilia tilted her head.

"That's Yukarin, alright." the witch now had no doubts about the source of the breathing. "So she HAD something to do with this incident after all. We must be getting close, now that we're within the medallion's operation radius."

Reimu immediately tried to establish communication with the long-absent youkai by yelling at the medallion. "Yukari! Hey! Yukari, can you hear me? It's Reimu!"

To her disappointment, however, the only reaction she got from the other side was a few incomprehensible murmurs, like those of a sleep-talking person.

"Give me that amulet." Remilia demanded suddenly as she extended her open palm.

"What?" Reimu refused to part with it, as the vampire's demand was rather sudden and unclear.

"Give me the amulet, Reimu." she repeated. "If we're close enough, I may be able to track its fate string all the way to where Yukari is right now."

Now Reimu didn't hesitate to surrender her medallion to Remilia for a while as she didn't sound like she wanted to betray her. The shrine maiden has long since forgotten that the original owner of the amulet was in fact from the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"Here."

"Thanks." Remilia clenched the amulet tightly in both hands, as it was too large for her to hold in one palm. After a quick glance, her scarlet eyes glittered with hope and a faint smile appeared on her face. "I see a promising line… It leads further down the corridor. Let's see where it leads."

"Alright then. Xeng-san, lead on." Reimu asked the immortal, who served as a trap bait and always walked first to check for anything that could threaten the other team members.

"As you sssay, Reimu-san."

* * *

After a while, they reached the end of the narrow tunnel and found themselves inside a strange, not-too-large round room with its ceiling even higher from the ground than it was in the main hall. A small ray of sunlight was shining in through a small opening somewhere near the top and reflecting from what appeared to be a mirror placed horizontally in the middle of the room on top of a pedestal, facing the ceiling. Another passage was at the opposite end of the room, but this time it led down in a steeper angle and the sloping floor was replaced with stairs.

"And what room is this, I wonder." Sakuya quizzically eyed the interior from top to bottom.

"I believe we are now right under, or should I say at the bottom of that tower-like extension that was among the first things along with the obelisks to be unearthed." Aya quickly identified the location.

"Doesn't look like one was supposed to climb up to the top of the tower…" said Marisa. "There are no stairs or even a ladder. Unless the folks who built it knew how to fly, that is. And what's with that mirror over here?"

"It reflects the sunlight from the top." the crow tengu stated the obvious, but then she noticed something that her eyes missed the first time they looked at it. "And the mirror is leaned… in that direction. I can only guess what purpose it served. I also wonder whether the pedestal is leaned from the ravages of time or intentionally."

"We can try to solve that mystery later." Reimu returned everyone's focus back to what they were following. "Where does the fate string lead now, Remilia?"

"Further down." the bat-winged girl replied as she bobbed her head towards the descending stairway.

"Then let's go." Reimu urged the team to move on.

After an agreeing nod from Xeng, the team resumed its slow descent into the deepest parts of the temple. Remilia kept her eyes on the medallion as she walked and listened to the continuing sounds of someone's sleep breathing. Occasionally the sounds would be interrupted by some muttering. This time, the team was even able to hear some words.

"Mnmnfm. Ran's tails are so nice and fluffy~." The voice was definitely female, and to all those who ever encountered the boundary youkai, an unmistakable sign that it belonged to her.

"I don't know if she really can't hear us through that amulet, or if she's just so fast asleep that nothing will wake her up." Remilia wondered as she kept walking down the stairs.

The spiraling staircase leading down was relatively short. There wasn't anything unusual about it save for one iron half-circle frame that jutted out of the wall and looked like a candle stand, but had a thin groove along its entire length, as if it was meant to hold something. Xeng eyed it with a healthy dose of suspicion as he walked around it, but it didn't seem to trigger any trap even when he tried touching it.

"What is that?" Reimu asked.

"I don't know. I didn't build thissss place."

"I don't know either." said Nue. "But I think we're about to enter the crypt. It should be directly under the main hall."

As Xeng continued forward and already saw the end of the staircase, a sudden loud mechanical noise startled him for a second.

"Kyaaaah~!" Koakuma let out a shocked scream and clung to the nearest person, which was Sakuya.

"Xeng-san, are you alright?" the maid, like all the other girls witnessed as a multitude of spears sprung out of the wall and impaled the half-snake in more than one spot.

"Oh, look, there are ssstill active trapsss around here." he stated with stoic calmness. "I felt that last step was a little loose as I ssstepped on it. Probably that triggered the spear trap."

"A-aren't you hurt?" Aya asked with a trembling voice, even though she knew about Xeng-Yao's immortality. "Hurry, girls, we should get him out of there!"

"Hurt? Ahahaha! That'sss a good one." he laughed as she coughed up some blood. "Nah, I'm fine, really. I jussst can't move right now and am blocking your path along with these spearsss."

"Stand aside, I'll break them apart." Remilia offered her vampiric strength to help him out, but the alchemist kindly refused.

"No need for that, young lady." With his one free hand, he reached down to his belt, where he had a set of various potion flasks strapped for immediate use. He took one of those flasks and with the help of his teeth, removed the cork. "I'd recommend you to ssstand back. Thisss acid smellsss very nasssty."

"Acid?" asked Marisa.

"Yessss. A very potent one." Xeng nodded as he spilled a small amount of the liquid over the spear poles. With a loud hiss and a tear-inducing white vapor, the acid immediately began eating away the iron, corroding it within seconds.

"Pew~! That's gross." Remilia pinned her nose with her fingers, which made the rest of the girls follow suit with a different grimace of displeasure.

In just a few moments, all the spears that were pinning the immortal down were now severed, but still lodged in his body. One by one he removed them simply by pulling them out. "It's a pity that Hourai Elixir doesn't work on your clothes too…"

"I could have just broken the spears and pulled them out of you. It'd be much faster and definitely less noxious."

"Sssorry. But I'm used to handling my problems by myself."

"Weren't you just trying to use every situation to advertise your products?" asked Marisa, when the air became at least breathable.

"That'sss… part of the reason." Xeng smiled sheepishly as he pulled the last spear out of his gut. His wound closed up in the next moment. "But isn't it wonderful?"

"What is?"

"The presence of trapsss in a temple. That meansss a high chance of something valuable being kept inssside the crypt."

"Maybe they just didn't want anyone desecrating the tomb." Sakuya shrugged.

"Wherever there are traps, there's got to be treasure, I tell you." Xeng-Yao insisted.

And wherever there's treasure, there's got to be...

"What's that light over there?" Aya saw a flickering orange light at the end of the dark passageway ahead. It looked like regular torchlight, but even that was enough to unsettle her.

"There's someone down here besides us!"

"Ehehehe~." Nue tried her best to make her giggle sound innocent, but nobody would buy it this time.

"You know something? Tell us!" Reimu hissed at Nue, as she tried to keep her voice down, but sound intimidating at the same time.

"Why don't you go and see for yourself?" smiled the shape-shifting girl. "It's obviously someone who's better at avoiding traps."

Reimu contemplated the thought of whacking the nue with her wand to knock some sense into her, but something distracted her from her musings.

"I'll go on ahead then." Xeng volunteered to scout ahead and find out whose torch light was illuminating the chamber at the end of the tunnel. It was probably for the better, since when he was halfway through, the floor suddenly opened up under his feet, and the half-snake disappeared from everyone's sight. "Whoaaaa~!"

"Another trap." Remilia stated in an unamused tone.

"You told us this place would be safe." Marisa looked accusingly at Nue.

"Yes, from the vengeful spirits, but not form the traps."

"You could have at least mentioned them. Or was getting rid of us a part of your plan?"

"I thought they'd be disarmed already." Nue tried to excuse herself, but at this point she couldn't possibly become any more suspicious in everyone's eyes. She didn't mind that the slightest, though. She walked over to the edge of the pitfall where Xeng-Yao fell. The alchemist waved at her from the bottom, which was, unsurprisingly fitted with spikes and littered with a few skeletons of previous unwelcome visitors. Again the group had to wait while he freed himself from this entrapment. With Koakuma's aid he was pulled back from the death pit and could continue heading on through the passage.

* * *

No unpleasant surprises awaited him at the end of the tunnel as he entered a large chamber. It was no smaller than the main hall above. He found himself standing on top of some sort of balcony, from where two sets of stairs led down to the bottom along the walls. Soon after he made it there, the rest of the team caught up to him and gazed upon the chamber's interior with no small amount of amazement. The source of the light, as it turned out, was not a single torch, but a whole set of them, already placed along walls, pillars and directly below the balcony. Nobody saw anyone, though.

"Just look at the size of this place." Reimu couldn't even see the end of the hall with the light provided by the torches. "Remilia, are we going the right way?"

"We are." the Scarlet Devil nodded. "Further down the stairs, but then we must turn back, facing this balcony."

"Okay, slowly and carefully down the stairs, everyone."

After choosing one side to descend to the bottom, the group continued on, noticing that there were three levels at which one could leave the stairs and continue along the ledges, much like in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's library. The walls were not lined with books, though, but with stone panels, each bearing different symbols. Even though the whole hall wasn't well lit, one could estimate their number to be in hundreds, if not thousands.

"Are these all graves?" Marisa wondered about the panels as she climbed down the stairs along with the rest of the team.

"That would be the most logical thing to be in a crypt, yes." Nue sarcastically flattered her observation.

"Didn't you say the crypt's too small to be the origin of so many spirits?" Reimu reminded her.

The shapeshifter tilted her head to the side as she sized the whole room up and shook her head afterwards. "There may be a lot of graves here at first glance, but definitely not a hundred thousand. That was about the size of the fairy swarm we had to deal with back then…"

"Ever considered the option of multiple bodies being buried in one grave?" Aya asked with a smirk.

"That's a possibility, I admit. But I'm sure the one down there will be able to tell you more about this crypt." Nue gestured at the end of the staircase, where the team was headed.

"I can hardly wait to meet them." Reimu prepared herself for whatever could await her at the crypt's bottom level.

Once there, everyone's attention was drawn to the huge arch that spanned form both sides of the crypt all the way up to the balcony where the girls descended from. No symbols on the wall itself, just blank stone. And standing in front of that huge arch was a small shadowy figure wielding a strange pair of sticks, tapping them against the stone and listening to the sounds they made. Only now the figure turned around after sensing someone else's presence.

"Kyaaaaah~! How did you all get down here? Oh… Nue is that you?" a girly voice came from the mysterious figure's lips and she slowly stepped into the light of the torches.

A short girl with a pair of mouse ears and a tail appeared, casting puzzled glances at everyone present.

"Yeah, Nazrin. It's me." Nue breathed a sigh of guilt.

"You were supposed to watch the entrance and make sure nobody would fund us!" the mouse girl chided the shapeshifter.

"Sorry." Nue lowered her head. "I wouldn't be able to stop them anyway. They all came down here in hope of solving the spirit incident."

"Did the negotiations already end so quickly?" Nazrin blinked surprisedly.

"No. They've only begun." Aya informed her calmly, yet her face still showed a decent level of confusion as to what she and Nue intended to do down here. "May I ask what business YOU have in this temple?"

"I second that question." the shrine maiden stepped up to her.

"Looking for treasure, of course~!" Nazrin beamed at her and excitedly pointed at the wall of the arch behind her. "See? This is it!"

"The treasure?"

"No~. It's the portal to other realms~! Although, right now, it's closed and I don't know what opens it."

"What about the crypt?" Marisa was curious about something else. "Are there any valuables in the graves?"

"From a simple thief to a grave-robber. That's some development there, Marisa." Reimu jested at her friend's question.

"No, strangely enough." Nazrin's answer surprised the witch. "It seemed like there were some artifacts buried along with the dead, but now, all the treasures from this temple are gone. My dowsing rods keep constantly pointing at this arch here. As if there was something behind it, but…" she paused to knock on the wall with the mentioned rods again, which didn't have any effect besides making some noise. "There's nothing behind it. It's a solid wall. No cavities. No secret tunnel. A dead end."

"Reimu." Remilia lifted her eyes from the medallion.

"What is it?"

"The fate string. It leads and disappears right into that wall."

"Eh? Fate string? Do you have some new dowsing device there?" Nazrin blinked at them cluelessly.

"So it is true… The portal exists."

"As much as it pains me to admit it, Hatate does deserve some credit for figuring it out without even stepping inside." said Aya.

"Hey, don't I also deserve some credit for figuring it out from her?" Nue flashed a smile full of mischief.

"Indeed you do." Aya praisingly tapped her shoulder. "Say... do you want to start working for Bunbunmaru Newspaper?"

"I'll pass." the youkai of the unknown form turned down Aya's offer in a heartbeat.

"Girls!" Reimu agitatedly stomped her foot on the ground to get attention. "Cut this nonsense! We need to find out how to open this portal."

"Is that really the best idea?" Sakuya wondered.

"It is." Nue nodded affirmatively. "I want to see my good old Mamizou again."

"Not on my watch!" Reimu re-declared her staunch promise not to allow any youkai leave Gensokyo as they please.

"But you want to see your own youkai friend too, am I not correct?" Nue's lips still formed that same confident smile. "This portal will be opened, either by you or by me and Nazrin. It's only a matter of time."

"Unless the mastermind behind the incident beats us to it." Marisa made a very good point. None of the girls could dare to guess when the portal would re-open to bring a host of evil spirits into Gensokyo yet once more. Nor could anybody know where the portal would take them, if they managed to open it. But Reimu realized the truth in Nue's words. The fate string showed Yukari passed through the portal and she was willing to go to any length to follow her there.


	65. Seven Years Bad Luck

"I don't think we're going to figure out how to open it today." Marisa proclaimed skeptically. Reimu would very much like to disagree with her, but the portal wasn't opening up no matter how long she kept staring at it.

"So we are to simply go back to our tent after all the trouble of coming down here?!" Remilia raised her voice at the witch. "I'm staying right here."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't plan to camp here." the magician's only hope was the idea that Nazrin and Nue might have a clue how to unseal the dormant portal. "Nazrin, are there any more rooms in this temple?"

"None that I'd know of." replied the mouse youkai. "I wish I knew how to read those weird letters. Maybe then I'd know what to do to activate this portal…"

"And much to our dismay, the only one who can decipher that gibberish is Patchy." Remilia now regretted that her old friend wasn't there. "Sure, it would take her some time, but she could definitely translate at least the text on that arch."

"If my ideas and opinions mean anything to you," Aya tentatively raised her hand as she spoke, "I have a gut feeling that we should first try to figure out the purpose of that mirror tower in order to learn the mystery of the portal."

"Yeah, that strange tower made me scratch my head too." Nazrin admitted. "But I was too focused on this portal wall to study the tower more closely."

"Just curious, but how long have you been here?" asked the journalist.

"A few hours? I don't know." the girl's shrug hinted that she didn't keep an exact track of time when she was immersed in her treasure hunting. "Is the sun still up?"

"And how did you manage to get inside ahead of us?"

"I used my mouse form to slip in~." Nazrin wagged her tail lightly. "For some reason youkai abilities work even here."

"Yes, we know that." Aya gave her a nod. "Whoever's behind this incident and this portal wants to make sure no gods or shrine maidens interfere with their plan. Little do they know that more than one youkai is eager to stop them."

"So our enemy is a youkai, huh? That's something we suspected from the very beginning." said Marisa.

"It would only make sense." the crow tengu elaborated. "Disable everyone's powers while keeping your own. That's quite a scary ability… If you ask me, my suspicion towards Yakumo-san keeps growing more and more."

"That makes two of us." Remilia shared Aya's idea at least partially. "She's always up to something…"

That's when Reimu recalled her dream where she heard Yukari's voice. "That dream…"

"Ah, that's right!" Marisa caught on quickly. "Reimu had this weird dream the other day, in which Yukari spoke to her. What was that she said again?"

Reimu had that expression on her face as when an idea clicked inside her head.

"It was kind of distorted, but the one part I did make out was her asking me to seal the gateway when I get the chance… Maybe this is the gateway she was talking about."

"Well, doesn't that make your job easier?" Marisa chuckled after a sarcastic remark. "The gateway's already sealed shut."

"All those vengeful spirits had to come from somewhere, though." Reimu was certain that their origin was the very stone wall she was gazing at. "Maybe we're here at the wrong time…"

"Aww~." Nue's disappointment from not being able to cross the barrier even from this location was as obvious as Reimu's frustration. "I thought I'd finally see her again."

"I'm sorry, Nue." Nazrin bowed in apology. "I'm at wit's end here. Maybe we should take a better look at the mirror tower after all." she hummed as she was seriously beginning to consider Aya's suggestion.

"What if we won't solve its mystery in time? The negotiations won't last forever. I'd say we have a couple of hours at best." Nue looked worriedly at the mouse youkai.

"We have to give it a try."

"Besides…" Aya interjected as she proudly turned her nose slightly upwards. "You have me on your team. My tengu intellect will surely figure out this puzzle long before the negotiating parties leave the village hall."

"Don't get too full of yourself or you might explode." Remilia scornfully muttered at Aya's bold declaration.

"Like you're the one to talk." Reimu told the vampire, even though she slightly agreed with her. It was usually the Scarlet Devil who had the tendency to think and speak highly of herself. Now that Aya dared to compete, though, Reimu even started hoping that she'll know what to do to get the portal open.

"Back to the mirror tower we go." the shrine maiden gestured to others to follow her lead. It was obviously no use staring at the wall and hoping that the portal would open up on its own. Nobody from the whole group had any objections to doing a little backtracking.

Before they made it to the mentioned tower, however, they stopped on the stairwell to observe that strange iron half-circle frame-like contraption.

* * *

"Anyone got any ideas what this might be?" Marisa directed her question at no one in particular.

"The ugliest candle stand I've ever seen." replied Remilia semi-seriously. Her maid didn't seem to share the sentiment, though.

"Not that it would be impossible to place some candles on each end, but... I doubt that's the original purpose of this odd wall attachment."

"Why not? I mean, this staircase is all dark... What else would anyone need here but a candle or a torch fixture?" Remilia steadfastly defended her own theory.

"True, this whole place is all pitch-dark." Marisa admitted. "But how would you place a torch on this thing? And what's that groove in the middle for?" she wondered as she ran her finger against it.

"There are other ways to spread light besides candles and torches, you know…" remarked the crow tengu.

"Oh, you mean those mushroom-like glowing glass thingies from the outside world?" Marisa's face brightened up. "I saw them in Kourindou… What were they called again?"

"No, Marisa," Aya interrupted the witch's train of thought. "I didn't mean light bulbs. And they look more like pears to me…"

"Oh, that's right!" Marisa snapped her fingers once Aya reminded her the correct term. "Light bulbs… I thought they were called Edisons or something… Hey, how come Aya knows about them?"

"Aya knows about them," the crow tengu referred to herself in third person, "because the kappa have replicated that technology from some outside-world devices that got through the border. They, as well as us, the tengu, have been using them for quite some time already…"

"Eh? I didn't even know… So the tengu village is fully electrified?"

"You didn't know?" Aya looked at her in mild puzzlement.

"How could I have known?! You tengu never let anyone in your village. I haven't even seen a picture of it in your newspaper."

"Ah, that's because we're not allowed to take and publish photos of our village. Daitengu's regulations."

"I see… So where do you get your electricity from?"

"From the same source that powers the kappan industry. The mountain's nuclear reactor, of course."

"Oh, right... the "unyuu" crow…" the witch recalled as she humorously named the one powering the mentioned reactor.

"Raven, but we've digressed."

Indeed, the topic that Marisa started to discuss was far from being helpful in this current situation, so Reimu returned it back on track.

"So, what other form of making light you had in mind?"

"I said "spreading", not "making"." Aya corrected her.

Reimu looked puzzled for a second and wondered why Aya was splitting hairs over one word, but then it clicked in her head.

"Spreading… Like with mirrors or something?"

Aya's gentle clapping indicated that Reimu had guessed correctly. "Indeed. Mirrors."

"Oooh~. Look at the big brain on Reimu."Marisa applauded her friend's wit.

"A round mirror set in this frame could reflect the light from the tower and shine it all the way into the crypt." Aya elaborated. "I'd bet my camera that the missing object from this frame is nothing other than a mirror."

Although Aya's theory seemed quite plausible, it still raised one question, and Nue was the first to ask it:

"So, where are we going to get a mirror from?"

"I haven't found any mirrors in the temple besides the one in the tower." Nazrin shrugged.

"And we're probably going to need it right where it is anyway." the reporter added.

"Well, I do have some pa-qua mirrors in the shrine…" Reimu muttered the possible options she had to offer, but Remilia cut her off quickly.

"Save your breath, Reimu. I have hundreds if not thousands of mirrors of all shapes and sizes in my mansion. I'm sure one of them would fit."

"But mistress…" Sakuya again had to object. "That'd be too troublesome. Why don't we just look for one in this village?"

"In this dump? I'd be surprised to find a single mirror here."

"Oh, I know!" Marisa suddenly snapped her fingers. "My dad can help us out. He specializes in magic optics. I bet he could make us a perfectly-fitting replica of the original mirror."

"Really?" Reimu had her misgivings, especially on account of Marisa's "good ideas", but this time, the magician's suggestion seemed like the most reasonable one so far.

"Yeah…" Marisa nodded in response with a bright smile, which faded as soon as she realized that it meant they'd have to leave the ruins anyway. "Uhhh… oh… Don't worry, Reimu, we'll figure out what to tell to the tengu once we get out of here."

Reimu who put herself in charge of this little infiltration operation had no choice but to trust Marisa and her idea. As she breathed a sigh, she gave the witch an affirmative nod of approval. "Let's do it."

* * *

And so, Marisa made a wax copy of the mirror frame, so that her father would know the exact size and shape of the mirror he's supposed to make. With the fragile model in hands, the witch and the rest of the group proceeded through the narrow corridor back to the main hall of the temple. But something was not right.

"Sssh, keep it down!" Aya hushed the chattering girls. Her pointed ears caught the sound of someone's voice. And not just one.

"What's wrong?" Marisa asked her.

Aya didn't reply. She just continued along the corridor without a word. Marisa got her answer soon enough. Even before she got out of the tunnel, the bright flickering light of torches and echoing chatter of both male and female voices were a clear sign that more visitors have entered the temple.

"Who goes there?!" a male voice shouted as soon as the first girl emerged from the passageway. The sound of dozens of blades being drawn from their sheathes followed immediately after the question.

"Ah… I guess the negotiations are over then." Marisa commented nonchalantly. Truly, the main hall was occupied by over 30 White Wolves, but much to the girls' surprise, they were not the only ones to make the descent. Human peacekeeping forces – the Ryuuken and the yama-bito scholars were a part of that crowd as well. Aya quickly noticed the figures of Patchouli, Suika and Hatate among the others.

"Shameimaru? What are you doing down here?" the voice that apparently belonged to the commander of the White Wolf tengu asked the reporter.

"Umm… gathering information?" she replied sheepishly while scratching her head.

"And I'm resolving an incident." Reimu spoke as she came out of the shadows.

"The Hakurei shrine maiden is here too?" the commander blinked in surprise, which was further increased as 6 more people stepped out of the tunnel one after another. "What was the point of those stupid negotiations if half of Gensokyo has already been here before us?"

Remilia was truly surprised to see Patchouli, as she was certain that the negotiations would not turn out in her favor. "Patchy? That's… unexpected."

The quiet librarian didn't show the slightest hints of surprise at Remilia's presence, though. Remilia did exactly what Patchouli thought she would do. More surprising to her was to see Nue and Nazrin of the Myouren Temple.

"S-so…" the vampire stuttered, "I'm guessing the negotiations went well?"

"An agreement has been reached, that access to this temple should not be limited to a single party in order to speed-up the research necessary to resolve the evil spirit crisis."

"So… does that mean I'm not going to be punished?" asked Aya.

"That depends on the significance of the information you've managed to gather, Shameimaru." said the White Wolf leader.

"Aww, don't be so harsh on her, mister." Suika tried to ease up the atmosphere, at which the tengu warrior lowered the tip of his sword.

"Y-you should consider it an honor to have the trust of the oni, Shameimaru!" he uttered. "She tricked us all for your sake."

It was obvious that all the tengu still revered the oni race as their former masters, so Suika's fairy attack prank not only went unpunished, but it was considered as a gesture of great honor for those who could sneak into the temple thanks to her distraction.

"I appreciate it, of course." Aya bowed to the little oni, "Right now we're on our way to Human Village. Feel free to explore this temple. All the traps have already been disabled… probably."

"You've been in the portal chamber then?" Hatate asked the group, even though she could easily guess the answer.

"It's a crypt." said Aya. "However, the alleged portal is sealed. But worry not! We're already working on a way to open it."

That last sentence caused the commander of the White Wolves to do a double take. "Wait, you're going to WHAT?!"

"I thought the White Wolves had a keener sense of hearing."

"My hearing is as keen as the blade of my sword. I simply don't understand the reasoning behind your intention. If that portal in the crypt is the true source of the vengeful spirit invasion, then it's in our best interest to keep it sealed."

That's when Reimu stepped in to offer an explanation. "The portal itself is not the source. It's merely a gate. Whatever place it connects to is the source of the spirits. Despite it being closed, I believe the mastermind behind this incident is able to open and close the portal from the other side at will. We all saw what happened here during the last fairy raid. If the spirits emerged from this temple once, they can do it again and in greater number. Leaving the portal alone won't help us here. The only way to resolve this problem is to stop the mastermind, and for that we need to find out how to activate that portal."

"Then destroy the portal, I say, and leave this "mastermind" trapped on the other side!" argued the tengu. The atmosphere in the main hall became tense after his suggestion. Whispers and murmurs flooded the entire dark hall. Some seconded his idea, others opposed it. Then the shrine maiden spoke again.

"I've resolved a few similar incidents before. The Makai Incident, the Flower Viewing Incident, the Subterranean Incident… All of them had one thing in common. A number of troublemaking entities suddenly infested an area that was never known as their natural habitat. This was caused by a sudden opening of a passage, or portal, in this case, which led me to the true source and mastermind behind the said incident. Sometimes the ones at fault weren't even aware that they were causing an incident, but that's not the issue right now. I just wanted to say that not even a single time was there a need to destroy the "portal". I will, however, keep that idea in mind as a last resort."

"The Flower View incident wasn't caused by a "portal", though…" Aya inserted a hushed remark, to which nobody paid any attention.

"Despite your previous experience, Hakurei-san," continued the leader of the White Wolves, "such reckless, irresponsible thinking is a gamble with the safety of Gensokyo. Gensokyo demands this portal to be destroyed. Here and now."

At that moment Aya loudly cleared her throat. "Pardon me, but may I ask who gave you the authority to speak for whole Gensokyo?"

"Nobody." the commanding officer replied. "But neither did anyone give you the authority to act for whole Gensokyo." he made a hand gesture towards Aya and all the members of Patchouli's archeological expedition team, including Nue and Nazrin, who had no part in Reimu's goal to resolve the incident.

"Are you questioning my competence?" asked the Hakurei maiden as she took a step towards the tengu.

"I don't know; should I be?" the White Wolf did the same, closing the distance between him and Reimu to less than one step. Their eyes gazed intensely at each other in a moment of tense silence. As if a fierce danmaku duel was about to begin. However, nothing of that sort happened. Perhaps thanks to Patchouli's suggestion that broke the brief silence: "So the interior is all covered with the same symbols as the outer obelisks… I'd like to see if there's anything written in that portal chamber."

"Be my guest." Reimu gave her an approval, as if the temple was a part of the Hakurei clan's property. "It's right down below us. There's only one way to get there, so you can't miss it. And like Aya said, all the booby-traps should be disarmed. Just watch out for that pitfall…"

Patchouli responded by a silent, but honest bow of gratitude as she started approaching the narrow passage behind the altar.

"H-hey, wait~!" Remilia suddenly stretched out her arm as her friend walked past her. "No way I'm letting you waltz into that dangerous place alone! I almost lost you once… I... I'm gonna keep a close eye on you."

"I don't mind." the librarian shrugged. "Even though there's no immediate danger from the spirits. However, the process of deciphering the text on the portal will be long and greatly uninteresting to the likes of you."

"I'm going with you anyway." Remilia declared stubbornly and clenched Patchouli's wrist in a strong grip.

The sorceress blinked as she observed her wrist with an expressionless gaze. "This is only going to make my work harder…"

"But I believe in you, Patchy~!" said the little vampire with a wide smile across her face. No further objections were heard from the lavender-haired girl as Remilia briskly led her down into the crypt.

"Somebody ought to keep an eye on them." Reimu muttered the same thing that the tengu commander was about to suggest. With a single hand gesture he sent several White Wolves to follow Remilia and Patchouli and to secure the portal chamber.

"From this day until the incident is resolved, Kazemura will form a forward outpost of Lord Tenma's armed forces. Also, seeing in what a hurry our envoy left for the mountain, I'd even dare to say that this village can expect our venerable lord's personal visit in the nearest days."

This news seemed to have surprised Hatate by no small amount. "Lord Tenma? Here? I thought he didn't consider this matter important enough to demand his presence."

"If he doesn't consider this important enough, then I can't imagine what issues he must be dealing with right now." Aya remarked with a slightly sarcastic tone.

"That was only the case for the negotiations, hence the envoy. I'm fairly certain that in the light of the latest information, he'll arrive to personally inspect the situation."

"He could have come much sooner, though." Aya muttered.

"Perhaps he could have," the White Wolf commander admitted, "but it's not my place to judge Lord Tenma's decisions, and neither is yours, Shameimaru."

"Don't know how his presence here would help us anyway…" Marisa whispered to Aya.

"He's wise and old enough to actually know something about this ancient temple or those who built it. He also has the exclusive access to some of the most ancient tomes and documents dating back to times when youkai roamed the world freely."

When Marisa heard this interesting bit of information, a sly grin appeared on her face. "That's some news… Maybe I should give Patchy a rest and pay a visit to your master, Aya."

The reporter chuckled at her bold idea. "Good luck with that."

The witch was already envisioning her infiltration to what was possibly the most well-guarded place in Gensokyo, when a question popped up in her head. "Hey, wait a minute. If those documents you speak of are such a secret, how do you know about them?"

"Their existence is no secret." Aya cleared it up. "Their content, on the other hand, is for the eyes of the tengu royalty only."

"That sounds kind of shady."

"A tengu has more secrets than an aralia tree has leaves." Aya re-quoted an old Gensokyan saying.

"Where have I heard that one before?" the blonde asked as her eyes trailed off to Nue, who said the same thing just a while earlier. The shapeshifter found the witch's glance uncomfortable, as was hinted by her fidgeting wings. But then again, she was never very fond of excessive attention directed towards her, unless she was winning danmaku tournaments at local shrine summer festivals.

"Are you two done gossiping?" Reimu cut the conversation short to remind everyone what needed to be done. "We have to go to the village to make a mirror fitting that frame."

"We? You wanna come with me, Reimu?" Marisa tilted her head in slight confusion.

"Well, if you can do it by yourself, then there's no reason for me to tag along. Just try to make it back today, alright?"

"Uhh… sure. I'll take off as soon as my magic returns to me." said the witch and gave the frame's wax replica to Koakuma. "You can still fly, right? Good. I just need you to take it out of the temple and put it on the ground somewhere. But do it carefully!"

The imp looked reluctant at first, but nodded and did what Marisa asked. With her both hands free now, the ordinary magician could grab onto the rope hanging from the window and start climbing up towards daylight.

"I guess there's no use standing around, waiting in this dark, musty, uninviting place." said the Hakurei shrine maiden and followed Marisa out. The rest of her group also climbed out of the temple one by one. Sakuya hesitated between staying with her mistress and Patchouli and leaving the temple along with the other girls. After a brief pause and thought she figured that Remilia doesn't require her maid's constant presence. Needless to say, the time-manipulator didn't like that place any more than Reimu. She ascended up the rope with even greater speed and elegance than Aya did.

"Hey, wait for meee~! Ehehehe~!"even Suika had little desire to remain down there.

The whole group short of Remilia and Patchouli has gathered at the temple's provisory entrance, but they certainly didn't stay long to enjoy the warm afternoon sun. With hastened steps, they all hurried to leave the quarry pit to escape the influence of the power-draining field surrounding the entire temple complex. Even if no swarms of possessed fairies were threatening the peace of this day, at least Marisa needed her magic restored in order to make the trip to Human Village and back.

It took a few hours for the girls to fully regain their powers.

* * *

"Hey, I think I can fly again!" Marisa called out after she tried sitting on the broom and didn't fall down on her butt after lifting both of her feet off the ground.

"Good." said Reimu. "We'll be waiting for you here in Patchouli's tent. You better make it back with that mirror before sundown. I'm already sick and tired of waiting."

"Alright, alright… I get it. You're not the only one who'd like this incident to be resolved as soon as possible. I'll fly at full speed, but… " the witch paused herself in the middle of the sentence.

"But…?"

"Well… I have no idea how long it will take my dad to make the mirror."

"The sooner you go, the sooner he can start working on it."

"Hehe. True. Okay, Reimu. I'll be back in a moment! Probably…" the witch waved at Reimu and kicked herself off the ground. A moment after that, Suika poked her horned head out of the tent. "Heey~! Marisa~! Wait~!" she called after the departing witch, but she had already travelled too far to hear the oni.

"What did you want from her?" Reimu asked.

"I wanted her to buy some sweets for me while she's in the village~." Suika pouted in disappointment.

Her childishly honest reply made Reimu breathe a sigh. "We have more pressing concerns than that right now."

"But lack of sweets IS a pressing concern~!"

Nevertheless, Marisa was already gone, so Suika's concern, no matter how pressing, had to wait for its resolution a little longer.

* * *

Marisa's flight to the village was fast and unhindered. The weather provided optimal wind conditions, so she was able to arrive at her destination in less than half an hour. For a distance so long, that was considered very fast. Still, she didn't want to waste any more time in Human Village than necessary. Hopping off her broom just outside of Kirisame-ya, she marched straight towards the door and swung it open without even bothering to knock.

"Hi, dad! Listen, I got a favor to ask and little time to spare…" she started explaining before she even noticed that there were several customers in the shop. All of them briefly glanced at her before they resumed browsing the merchandise.

"Marisa?" the light-haired man on the other side of the counter opened his mouth at this unexpected visit.

"Yes, it is I, your only child… as far as I know anyway… I could use your services, and like I said, I'm in a hurry. Or at least Reimu is."

"Ah… not that I wouldn't be pleased by your visit, but there are people who came here before you, so…"

"Yeah, tell them to wait then. This is quite urgent." Marisa rudely interrupted him, and with a rude request, no less.

Her father sighed and bowed apologetically to his customers. He waved at Marisa to follow him to the storeroom in the back, so they could talk in private.

* * *

"I see your ways haven't changed at all, Marisa."

"Hey, this is my old home, is it not? I can come and go as I please, right?"

"Well, yes, of course you can, and I love you, but if you'll be rude to my customers, I'm going to lose my business."

"Oh, yeah, about the customers… Aren't you worried to leave them like that in the shop without anyone to watch over your stuff?" Marisa quickly changed the subject. Most likely to avoid her father's lecturing.

"Have you already forgotten what your own father's field of expertise is? Magic optics. Some of my proud inventions are even used by our militia. And some are used as anti-theft countermeasures in my shop. No items leave without me knowing about it."

"Of course I haven't forgotten about what you specialize in. In fact, that's why I've come here today." Carefully, Marisa put her wax mirror frame on a table. Her father observed the object curiously, both with his naked eyes, as well as his magic detector. Of course, he didn't find anything unusual about it, which is probably why he looked so confused.

"What is this?"

"A wax copy." Marisa gave a teasingly short answer.

"I can see that, but what exactly is it a copy of?"

"Can't you tell? It's a mirror frame."

"A half-circle frame, huh? And I suppose you need a new mirror to fit it with."

"That's the idea, yes." his daughter nodded. "Will it take long? I hope not, because Reimu's gonna give me an earful again."

"Reimu? So you broke one of her mirrors or something?"

"Uh… not exactly. You see, we found this strange iron fixture in the temple in Kazemura and Aya said that it probably held a mirror once, but since there was no sign of the mirror anywhere, I got an idea that you might help us make a new one…" Marisa explained so fast that her bewildered father was barely able to keep up.

"Wait, Marisa, slow down." he held his open palm up in a halting gesture. "You found that frame where again?"

"Kazemura's temple." she repeated.

"The one everyone keeps talking about?"

"Why, yes. What other temples are there in that teeny-tiny little village besides that one?"

"I thought it was off-limits until the yama-bito and the tengu wouldn't come to an agreement on who should claim the right to explore it first."

"Yes, well… allow me to bring you the news before any newspaper: They have come to an agreement. Just a while ago. Now the temple is merely an "enter-at-your-own-risk zone". Just like any other place in Gensokyo. And yes, it was off-limits until then, but that didn't stop some shady characters from sneaking in."

"You're talking about yourself, aren't you?" Kirisame-san smirked at his child.

"Hehe, not this time, ze. Although we did slip in before the temple was officially open, we weren't even the first ones to explore it."

"I knew it. You did break in after all."

"It's not like I was the only one." Marisa retorted, trying to make her trespass sound less severe.

"That habit of yours, which you share with Reimu - to dive head-first into any incident, regardless of possible danger, doesn't usually bother me. However, word is that this incident is different than the ones before."

"Dad, EVERY incident in the recorded history of Gensokyo was different than the one before it." the young witch made a good point. Her answer seemed to have dispersed some of her father's worries.

"I guess you're right. But that still doesn't mean you should be reckless. I mean it. It's not your job to resolve these incidents; that's what the shrine maiden is for."

"I know it's not my job, but it's too much fun for me to pass up and leave only for Reimu to enjoy."

"Just keep in mind that not every thrill is worth the risk."

"Are you kidding? It's totally worth it, ze!"

Kirisame-san let out a sigh of resignation. "Where did I go wrong as a parent?"

"When you married that woman…" Marisa shamelessly pointed out her dad's decision, which she never approved of. "But that has nothing to do with the fact that I love danmaku fights, does it? Which is another point I wanted to get across. With the Spell Card system, there's nothing dangerous to worry about. In the end, all incidents are just a game."

"Is starting forest fires and attacking settlements a part of the Spell Card system too? Do you think that's just a game too?"

"That's merely a way to provoke a Spell Card duel. And it's not even as severe as when that celestial wrecked Reimu's shrine and threatened to destroy all Gensokyo with earthquakes just to start a danmaku battle with someone."

"That… is also true." Marisa's father admitted. "Hmm… Perhaps I do worry too much."

"Though I can't say I blame Reimu for running out of patience. This incident has been dragging on for over half a year and only now we've confirmed where the spirits came from. We'll need a mirror in order to open the portal in that temple and go to whatever place it leads to."

"Ah, right. The mirror." Kirisame-san almost forgot why Marisa paid him a visit today. "So you're saying there's a hidden portal within that temple that gets activated by a system of mirrors?"

"Well… I don't know." Marisa shrugged. "At least that's what Aya thinks."

"Fascinating…" As a magician and craftsman, Kirisame-san naturally became interested in the intricate workings of an ancient system that used light and mirrors to trigger a magical device.

"Whatever… Are you going to make that mirror or what?"

"It's not that I couldn't," he replied after taking a closer look at the wax frame that Marisa brought him. "but there's only so much about the original mirror I can tell from its frame."

"What do you mean?"

"All I can learn from it is the mirror's diameter and how thick it was, but that's about it. I have no idea what kind of mirror it was. Was it flat or parabolic? And if parabolic, was it convex or concave? Or perhaps it was polygonal. Was it made from standard or magical materials? Was it enchanted or engraved?"

Marisa honestly didn't expect her simple errand to be that complicated. All of those questions have caught her completely unprepared and clueless.

"W-well… How about just and ordinary flat mirror?"

"Are you sure, Marisa? All those little details I mentioned could mean the difference between your progress in resolving this incident and stagnation. Especially when the said mirror is used for a process as complex as opening a portal."

"I… I don't know. We haven't found even as much as a single shard of the original thing. Just make me a regular mirror that fits the frame's size. That should do the trick."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Well, then we'll keep trying out all the variations that you suggested until we get it right."

"That sounds so… inefficient."

"You have a better idea then?"

Kirisame-san hummed as he considered what would be the best thing to do. "Maybe if I saw the original frame, or even better, the portal itself, and had an idea how many mirrors in total were used to open it, I'd be able to figure out the mirror's exact properties."

"O-ho!" Marisa exclaimed. "So you say you'd like to join our archeological expedition team? That'd actually be awesome!"

"Archeological expedition?"

"Yeah. A small group of researchers and those who are better danmaku fighters than thinkers." she gave a brief description.

"U-huh. You don't even need to tell me which subgroup you belong to."

"Ehehe…"

"Okay, and who does the research part? Who's the one in charge?"

"Patchouli was the one who assembled the team. I guess you could say she's in charge, even though it seems like everyone does what they think is best anyway."

"Oh, Patchouli Knowledge, huh? The one you had a crush on?"

"Wha…? D-dad!" a reddish hue quickly engulfed Marisa's flustered face.

"Or was that your neighbor in the Forest of Magic, Alice? I've lost track…" Marisa's father added more fuel to the fire.

The witch's cheeks now resembled a pair of ripe tomatoes. "Cut it out already!"

"What? I have nothing against your way of life, or your love interests, or sexuality. This is your life, so you must find your own happiness. And who better knows what's the best for you than you, right?"

"Let's just… get back on topic."

"Alright… so you girls are researching the temple and you wanted me to join your all-girl team? Isn't that against the rules?" Kirisame-san didn't shake his joking mood even when the conversation got back on track.

"Well, we're not really an all-girl team, since we already had Kourin with us, and now we have this Chinese youkai alchemist, who turned out to be an expert at disarming traps."

"Your offer sounds tempting, but as you can see, I have a lot of customers and I can't simply close my shop whenever I like."

"The hell are you talking about?! Your shop is right inside your house, so you can do whatever you like at your own home."

"While that's true, closing the shop and sending my customers away just like that would not be good for my business. But I should be able to meet you in Kazemura tomorrow."

"Better than never, I guess, but… Should I fly back to Reimu empty-handed?"

"Fine, I'll cut you out a normal mirror to try out for now." the father finally agreed to oblige his daughter's request. "Don't blame me if it won't work, though."

"Don't worry, dad. I'll just call bullshit on Aya's mirror theory and thus, effectively avoid being scolded by Reimu." the blonde showed a thumbs-up with a wide grin.

Kirisame-san just closed his eyes and shook his head. "…Saying "that's my Marisa" never felt so… painful."

The crafting process didn't take him long, as one would expect of a master of his craft. But his face was filled with anything but reassurance as he handed the finished product to his daughter. He had great doubts whether this plain piece would suffice to open the ancient portal, but he still wanted to help. He even handed Marisa a cloth bag, so that she'd be able to safely transport its fragile content on her broom.

"Thanks, dad! I'll make sure to pass on the good word." Marisa smiled as she tied the bag on her broom's tail.

"I wish I could help you more, but this will have to do for now."

"Help more? You've just helped us resolve an incident."

"Don't you think it's a bit premature to utter such statements?"

"Aww, come on, dad. I'm trying to give you some credit here. You know, make your job sound more important than it is…"

The man's smile turned into a crooked grimace. "Ugh… That last sentence just rubbed me the wrong way. Go. Fly back to Kazemura before I change my mind and charge you full price for that mirror."

Perhaps Marisa had no intention to offend her father's profession, but she was well aware that her choice of words wasn't always the best. She owed many a danmaku battle to her knack for unintentionally evoking anger with her words.

"Y-yes, I better get going… Ehehe~… See ya!"

* * *

Marisa left the shop, slaloming past the customers until she reached the main door. She mounted her trusty bamboo broom and took flight. This time she moved a little slower, as she didn't want to lose her precious cargo.

"I still have plenty of time left anyway…" she spoke to herself as she could see that the sun was still fairly high over the horizon. "Ha! I bet even Reimu will be surprised to see me back so soon."

* * *

Several minutes have passed since she took off from Human Village and she was just passing over the Hakurei Shrine. The brightly glittering surface of Misty Lake slightly blinded her eyes, but otherwise the visibility was more than optimal. She had a good view of nearly every known part of Gensokyo. Flakes of yellow dotted the green sea of leaves on the trees below her. Autumn was on its way to Gensokyo, but still a little shy of showing its full beauty. Marisa took a deep breath in and sighed, knowing that she still had the longer part of the flight ahead of her. She decided to keep her bored mind busy by thinking about what she'd like for dinner. Her distance from Kazemura was gradually shortening until she could see the familiar-looking hills that surrounded the village like a natural system of fortifications.

"Hmm… maybe I'll just have some grilled pork after all... And chase it down with some of that fine local ale. Mmm… Yeah, that sounds like a plan, ze!"

Right after saying that, her heart skipped a beat from the sudden shockwave that hit her only a split second before a thundering echo reached her ears.

"What the…?!" the witch slowed her flight and threw her confused gaze back over her shoulder, in the direction where she heard the booming sound coming from. "Was that a thunder?"

Needless to say that the bang made every little hair on her body stand, and the fact that the "thunder" occurred on a day with a mostly clear sky only added to the surprise factor.

"Out of the freakin' blue…"

After failing to notice anything suspicious in the sky, Marisa slowly started scanning the horizon. And that's when she saw it. Smoke. It was rising from near the lake. And since there was only one building near the lake, Marisa quickly realized that what she heard was no thunder, but an explosion. And the Scarlet Devil Mansion was its epicenter. Around the rising pillar of smoke, she could see tiny black dots of falling debris, which were most likely the roof tiles of the said mansion.

"Holy crap! The mansion exploded!"

She watched the scene of the disaster for a decent while as her mind struggled to decide what action to take. She knew that she was supposed to go straight to Kazemura without taking any detours, but this situation was too serious to ignore.

"Remilia's not gonna like this…" Of that she was certain. However, her certainty was not as evident when it came to deciding whether she should hurry to Kazemura, deliver the mirror, and inform everyone of what happened, or investigate the cause of the explosion on her own. If this was another fairy attack, she would face them without any help. But if this was just the first explosion of many, Marisa was possibly the only person who could save the mansion from sustaining even more damage. The combined sense of duty and curiosity got the better of her.

"Ah, to hell with it! I'm gonna check it out."

And so she did. As she drew closer, she could make out a gaping hole in the roof. She also noticed the absence of the youkai gate guard in front of the main gate. "If even she isn't there, sleeping, this really has to be serious…"

Marisa was fairly familiar with the mansion's layout, as she was a frequent, if often times uninvited visitor.

"The hole is right above the library. Lots of smoke, but no visible fire. Okay, time to make the usual Marisa entry!" she declared as she tightened her grip around the broom's handle and braced herself for impact. The broom accelerated like a rocket and its pilot aimed it right at one of the library's stained windows.

After feeling a brief resistance and hearing the sound of shattering glass, the witch opened her eyes and found herself in the smoke-filled library, where all hell seemed to have broken lose.

She pulled her neckerchief up to cover her mouth and nose at least a little from the suffocating smoke. She couldn't see far, but she could hear noises coming from all directions. Flying danmaku, falling bookshelves, crumbling wood, fluttering of many wings, echoes of distant voices and a child's laughter. Still no signs of a fire, though.

"Hellooo~! Can anyone hear me~?!" she yelled into the chaos that surrounded her. And she received her answer faster than she expected. She heard loud creaking and as she threw a glance upwards, she noticed one of the tall bookshelves was about to collapse right on top of her.

"Whoa!"

Marisa kicked her broom into maximum speed just in time to descend low enough to avoid being swatted. Fortunately, the falling bookshelf hit the opposite one and stopped. The witch still had to dodge all the falling books, though. And some of the titles were quite heavy indeed. She quickly got out of the danger zone, but upon looking up, she saw that the shelf that had collapsed has blocked the very window that she used to enter. Something quick zipped past her shoulder and was gone before the magician could follow it with her eyes.

"What was that?"

Another shadow flew across her field of vision. It was small and flew erratically, and apparently it wasn't the only one of its kind. Once one of those shadows launched a short barrage of danmaku at her, Marisa could already guess that they were fairies. The visibility was too poor to tell whether they were the mansion's resident fairy maids or some wild ones. Marisa didn't care whether their aggression was triggered due to their alarmed state or due to being possessed, she simply responded in kind and began shooting them down, all the while following the voices that she could hear in the further end of the library.

She already flew a fair distance, but she could still see no flames that would be the cause of the smoke, however, she could hear that she was getting closer to the voices. She couldn't make out any words, it was more like battle cries or when someone was exerting some extremely laborious physical activity.

"Hey, Meiling, how many have you got?" the childish voice asked.

For a moment the battle cries ceased to give a reply. "Fifty! I think."

"I got seventy-four! Ha! You're dead in the water! And there's another one~!"

Before Marisa realized what was going on, a hailstorm of danmaku started pouring down on her from above.

"Damn it!" she made almost every known dodging maneuver in the book just to get out of that one, and another wave was already flying her way. What else could poor Marisa do to avoid it, than darting off behind the cover of another enormous bookshelf?

"You can run, but you can't hide~!" declared the author of the previous danmaku salvo before her silhouette appeared again above Marisa. "Forbidden Barrage "Starbow Break"!"

The library's ceiling became flooded by a host of large shining orbs of all colors of the visible light spectrum. They stood in perfect stasis for only a second before they started raining down.

"Hey, I remember this." Marisa thought to herself, just barely grazing past a cluster of those rainbow orbs. "To be honest, I think "Four of a Kind" was harder…"

Even though the barrage appeared impossible to dodge, the witch was already familiar with it and its slightly predictable nature. By making only minimal movements, she focused on squeezing herself into the gaps between the orbs, which were just large enough for a single person.

"Hey, cut it out already, I'm not a fairy!" she yelled at her assailant and shot a few of her own magic missiles back. The bombardment stopped. All the orbs disappeared with a loud popping sound and the shadowy silhouette began to descend.

"Oh, it's Marisa~!" Now, with a clearer view of her target, Flandre Scarlet realized her mistake, but didn't really feel any need to apologize. "Why are you dressed like a bandit?"

"Oh, this?" Marisa pulled her neckerchief back down. "I thought it'd help me breathe easier in the smoke, but it's no good."

"Meiling, we got a third player!" Flandre called out at the other resident of the mansion. "But we are both too far in the lead for you to catch up, Marisa!"

"Just what the hell is going on here?" asked the confused witch. "You and Meiling should both get out of here!"

"Why? This is so fun~!" the little vampire tilted her head.

"Do you want to suffocate?"

"Suffocate? Me?" Flandre giggled as she waved her palm. Only on fried garlic fumes, maybe."

"Then you really ought to put out that fire before your whole mansion burns down!" said Marisa in an urgent tone.

But the younger Scarlet sister only blinked back at her in puzzlement. "What fire?"

"All that smoke has to come from somewhere! You should know after you blew up a part of this mansion!"

"Oh!" it appeared as though Flandre recalled only now that something as insignificant as an explosion occurred inside the mansion. "That wasn't me!" she staunchly declared, but immediately bit her lip and averted her gaze, muttering: "Well… maybe a little…"

"Look, we should meet up with Meiling, you can tell me what happened along the way."

"Okay."

Marisa had an idea where Meiling was as her danmaku and battle cries were still filling the library's interior. As the witch drew closer, Flandre tried to explain what led to all the chaos.

"Fairies started playing danmaku in the library, so I wanted to join them. Then Meiling came, so she probably wanted to play too… And… and then… I tried to "kyuu" one of them, but she flew away, so I "kyuued" one of the bookshelves instead, and one of Patchouli-sensei's books fell down and opened, and it went "booom" and… there was all this smoke. But I don't mind. Makes the danmaku game more interesting. I didn't even know Patchouli-sensei had such books. And I wonder why she never teaches me about them… Just the boring stuff all the time…"

Marisa only nodded, pretending to have an idea what Flandre was talking about, but she figured that the only person in the mansion she could get a sensible answer from about what happened was the gate guard. And the gate guard was apparently busy fighting back against the fairies.

"Hyaaah~!" a rainbow flash appeared and a loud slam was heard. "Seventy-one…"

"Oh, no! I got distracted by talking to you and now Meiling's gonna take the lead~!" Flandre hurried towards Meiling to start picking off all the fairies around her, just to steal her "opponent's" scoring opportunities.

"Yo!" the witch informally greeted the mansion's gatekeeper once she was close enough to see and hear her clearly. "I heard you had a fairy problem…" she said as she demonstratively dispatched a few of the little youkai with well-aimed shots.

"Did you come to steal books while the mistress is away and we are busy? I won't allow it." the orange-haired youkai eyed her with suspicion.

"At ease, kung-fu girl. I've come to help after hearing the explosion."

"Then you've come a little late. Hyaaah~!" Meiling punched the last fairy and sent her flying to a wall. After the impact, the little youkai vanished in a cloud of fairy dust. "I think that was the last of them…"

"In that case, I still won!" Flandre happily swung her wings up and down.

"But if mistress gets the news of this… I might as well pack my things and leave."

"Whoa, don't jump to conclusions, Meiling." Marisa tried to calm her down. "I'm sure she'd understand that you tried to do your best, but… it'd help a lot if you could tell me what happened here. Maybe I'll even come up with some excuses you could use to soften up Remilia."

"Hmm… I'll tell you what I saw, but we should move someplace with fresher air first."

"I was just thinking the same thing."

* * *

They met in the mansion's foyer after a while. Marisa listened to Meiling's version of the story as she sat on the stairs.

"…and that's about all I can tell you about it."

"So you're saying the attacking fairies weren't the fairy maids, but after their attack, the fairy maids joined them?" Marisa raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, it's a lot like what happened earlier this spring, only in a much smaller scale. I was able to handle the situation along with Sakuya-san, so barring a few broken windows and vases, the mansion was more or less unharmed."

"This doesn't make any sense. We built a shimenawa rope fence around the whole quarry pit, so the spirits should no longer be able to cross it and possess fairies."

"They must have been the remnant of the swarms attacking Kazemura then."

"True. We sure as hell didn't get them all, but damn… they sure like targeting the mansion."

"Indeed. Makes one wonder what draws the spirits to this place. Or the one controlling them."

Marisa hummed. "Maybe that's a question for your mistress. Or Patchouli."

"I'm a mere gate guard. I spend most of my time outside, so even the fairy maids know more of the lives of Remilia-sama and Patchouli-sama than I. I mostly gossip with Sakuya-san, but I doubt that even she knows everything about them. If any of them have a hobby of collecting ancient artifacts, that could make earthbound spirits angry, then I'm afraid I know nothing of it."

"I'll ask them when I return to Kazemura… Which, reminds me that I really should go. I have to deliver this mirror to… huh?" As Marisa took the cloth bag into her hands, she immediately felt something was not right. The clinking and rattling sounds coming from inside were definitely not a good omen. "Oh, crap…"

"What's wrong, Marisa?" Flandre peeked from behind the witch's shoulder to have a look.

Marisa quietly unwrapped the bag and with a sad expression in her face, revealed a pile of mirror shards. "I made my trip for nothing…"

"Ooh, shiny~." Flandre, clueless of what the shards originally formed, found their glitter mesmerizing.

"Was that mirror important to you?" asked Meiling.

"I must have smashed it when I crashed through the window… Damn. This mirror should have led us to resolving the incident. Sure, dad promised to stop by in Kazemura tomorrow, but… it still feels bad to return to Reimu with a pile of shards in a bag."

"I know how it feels." Meiling put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Ah, damn… look at me. Crying over some stupid broken mirror. It can't even begin to compare to the damage to this mansion…" even though Marisa wasn't actually crying, she realized that her situation was still hundreds of times better than that of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's residents. "What are you going to do, Meiling? Flan?"

"I'm gonna draw some pictures~!" the little vampire didn't need much time to think about it, and even a situation such as this didn't seem to bother her.

A faint smile stretched across Meiling's lips. "I'll stay here, until Remilia-sama's return, of course. I'll look after her sister and keep guarding what's left of the mansion. Only she can authorize its repairs."

"Then I should go and tell her as soon as possible, so that she can give the permission and start repairs right away." Marisa stood up and sat on her broom. She then threw a quick glance at the bag of mirror shards and began wrapping it up again. "Who knows… they say that shards bring luck. Maybe they'll negate my seven years of bad luck that I should get for breaking a mirror."

She retied the bag to the tail of the broom and seemed to be ready to leave.

"Say hi to nee-chan for me~!" Flandre began waving her hands at the witch before she even took off.

"I suppose I should open the main door." said Meiling and proceeded to do so. "We don't need you breaking another window, do we?"

"Heh, I'll save that for when Remilia restores her mansion to its full glory."


	66. The Benefit of Failure

Marisa's return to Kazemura didn't bring much joy to her friends. Not only she didn't bring any sweets from Human Village, as Suika hoped she would, but she also had the audacity to come back with a completely shattered, useless mirror. On top of it all, her clothes reeked as if she used them to clean a chimney. The unpleasant odor quickly filled up the entire tent.

"Shards?! So after wasting two hours of time you dare to return with a bunch of shards?!" Reimu blew her gasket when the witch reluctantly unwrapped her cloth bag.

"Believe it or not, that's not the worst thing that happened."

The puzzled, but still infuriated shrine maiden shook her head in disbelief. "What could possibly be worse than your failure at running an easy errand, that even a kid wouldn't have messed up?!"

Instead of answering directly, Marisa asked: "Where's Remilia?"

"Don't try changing the subject!" Reimu barked out at her. "Take responsibility for your actions, damn it!"

Sakuya, who was much calmer at the moment, found Marisa's question mildly unsettling, so she decided to answer it. "My lady is still down in that temple with Patchouli-sama. I hope they're okay..."

"They better be okay, because what I'm about to tell them is not for the faint of heart."

"What about us?" asked the maid. "Shouldn't we also know what happened?"

"I'm pretty sure you could hear it even from here."

The girls in the tent exchanged their clueless glances for a moment. Marisa gave them a moment to guess, but when nobody was sure what she was talking about, she sighed and asked: "You're telling me you didn't hear that massive bang about half an hour ago?"

"Well... yes. I think so. I thought it was the yama-bito quarry workers firing another one of those outside-world explosives." the maid replied.

It was no wonder none of the girls thought nothing of the explosion, since all the mountains surrounding Kazemura made the sound seem like it was coming from all directions.

"Well, Sakuya, I hate to tell you this, but the echoes have played a trick on your ears. It was an explosion, alright, but it came from the mansion, not the quarry."

"O-our… mansion?" Sakuya's voice trembled as her eyes widened. Marisa gave her two silent nods.

"I must inform Remilia-sama at once!" she took a step towards the tent's exit, but the blonde halted her.

"No. I'll go and tell her. After all, I was there…"

"W-wait… you were there? What about the young mistress Flandre? Is she alright?"

"Heh!" Marisa let out an amused chuckle. "Flan? She may be a child, but trust me, she's the last person you need to worry about. Oh, and before you ask, Meiling is fine too. The mansion, on the other hand… Well… Let's just say the next time Remilia decides to have an indoor pool party in the library, all she has to do is to wait for the next rainfall. Now, if you excuse me, I'm off to break the news to your mistress. And ask her some questions…"

Moments after Marisa left the tent, the youkai alchemist, Xeng-Yao, slowly stood up, approached the unwrapped bag of mirror shards and thoughtfully combed his short beard with his fingers. "Hmmm…"

* * *

When the witch reentered the ancient temple, she could instantly notice that the place was much brighter inside than before, thanks to the large number of torches and lanterns that were placed there by all the curious and intrepid explorers. Even now the temple was crowded by the tengu soldiers and scholars of several races. They barely even noticed the witch when she walked past them and headed for the crypt. All those people and youkai made it much harder to navigate through the temple's narrow corridors. As she again walked by the iron half-circle frame on the staircase connecting the temple's two levels, she was once again reminded of the mirror that she broke. It felt like listening to Reimu's scolding all over again. Ironically, Marisa felt a slight relief only when she made it all the way down into the gigantic crypt. Even the lower level of the temple was crowded, which was no surprise after the temple's opening to the public became official. However, Patchouli demanded that the scholars, savants, archeologists and all other researchers would take turns at the portal arch, so that they wouldn't be getting into each other's way. After their turn was up, they would share their findings with the others.

Apparently, the one-week girl, as Patchouli was sometimes referred to, was waiting to get another turn to examine the portal wall from as close a distance as she wanted. To make the waiting, and generally, the whole research work more comfortable, some pieces of furniture, such as chairs and desks, have been brought all the way down there. Patchouli was just sitting on one of those chairs, and as expected, hunched over a mess of scrolls, journals and books. Remilia was there with her, but her determination not to leave Patchouli's side was starting to waver, as her expression implied. She was bored and didn't show any interest in the heated discussions that Patchouli was having with other intellectuals. Most likely because she couldn't understand them. She was sitting there with only the tips of her toes touching the ground as she kept knocking the heels of her shoes against each other and drawing some random doodles on a blank page like a schoolgirl waiting for the bell to ring. And it seemed as though that bell would be Marisa.

"How's it goin' down there?" the witch greeted them from the top of the arch.

"Marisa? Hey, look, Patchy, Marisa's back!"

The purple-haired girl instantly turned her head up, and to Marisa's slight surprise, even stood up. Both girls were looking back at the magician with anticipation. Marisa almost felt sorry for having to bring them the unpleasant news about the most recent fairy attack on their mansion, but she knew that not telling them anything would have been much crueler of her.

"Did you bring the mirror?" the young vampire asked impatiently before Marisa even made it halfway down the stairs. She didn't give any response.

"I said, 'Did you bring the mirror to place into that frame?' " Remilia repeated her question louder and made it slightly more specific.

Marisa's face was serious, as it wasn't very often. She swallowed and shifted her eyes from one girl to the other.

"Remilia, Patchouli, listen… There has been another fairy attack."

"What? Another? When? Where?" Remila showered her with a burst of one-word questions.

"Less than an hour ago… On your mansion."

With herself, Patchouli, Sakuya and Koakuma all in Kazemura, Remilia was well-aware that the security of the entire mansion hinged on Meiling and Flandre. And Flandre was more likely to worsen the security than improve it. Still, as this wasn't the first fairy attack on the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Remilia appeared calm enough in face of the news.

"Can you tell me anything more about it?"

"As a first-hand witness, I can." Marisa nodded. "There weren't too many fairies, but… there was an explosion. A big one. Both your sister and your gate guard are okay, but that explosion caused some serious structural damage to the mansion. Flan says it was one of your books that fell down and opened, Patchy… Not sure if she's telling the truth or trying to avoid the blame, but the fact is that there's now a huge gaping hole in your mansion. And it wouldn't surprise me if the place was still filled with smoke."

Remilia shifted her gaze to Patchouli. "Do you have any explosive books in the library?"

"W-well… there are some… slightly more dangerous books, but they're all secured by a strap lock, much like Margatroid-san's own grimoire, so they shouldn't open up even after accidentally falling from the shelf."

"Unless something would damage or… destroy the said strap lock, right?" Remilia asked her friend, stressing the word "destroy" for some reason.

"That's extremely unlikely." the librarian argued. "They're all specially enchanted to withstand even the harshest of physical and magical damage. The lock opens only upon saying the correct password."

Remilia slightly rolled her eyes, but still smiled as she put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Patchy, with all due respect, you've lived with us long enough to know full-well what my "gifted" little sister is capable of."

"Well, excuse me, Remi, but nothing in the world is completely Flandre-proof!"

"Exactly. So if there was a battle in the library, it's not that hard to envision Flan popping one of those strap locks by mistake."

"No kidding!" Marisa seconded. "She mistook me for a fairy and nearly shot me down!"

"So, how bad is it?" Remilia asked the blonde witch. "Which parts of the mansion are damaged?"

"The library took the worst of it, obviously… I don't envy anyone who's gonna do the cleanup. The explosion appeared like a one-directional blast, like Master Spark, so basically anything that was above the library, including the roof, was blown sky-high. The hole is about 5 meters wide."

"Oh." Remilia breathed what seemed like a sigh of relief. "Just that? Nothing more?"

Marisa was shocked by her reaction nearly as much as she was shocked by the explosion itself. "Nothing more?! Haha! Are you kidding? You expected more? Hahaha! I'm sorry to disappoint, but that's all the damage I was able to notice."

"Well if that's all there is to it, then it shouldn't take too long to repair. But… it will also mean that I'll have to return and leave you by yourself, Patchy."

Even as a thousand thoughts raced through Patchouli's head, her expression barely made any change. According to Marisa's report, her library had just turned into a battle zone, and yet the youkai magician strongly felt that her presence here was much more necessary than at the mansion. She understood why Remilia had to return, though. Someone had to organize and oversee the repairs that their home so direly needed. That's why Patchouli's response was a nod.

"Do you know where the mansion's blueprints are kept?" she asked her vampire friend.

"in your study's desk, bottom drawer, right?"

Another nod was given by Patchouli. "Also, if Sakuya's coming with you, ask her to do her best at cleaning the library up. She doesn't have to sort the books. Koakuma and I will handle that when our job here is done. Just rid the library of the debris and put any fallen books back into the shelves that are still standing."

"Okay…" Remilia's tone and smirk weren't very effective at reassuring Patchouli that her requests will be fulfilled as number one priority. And as old friends usually like to tease each other, the vampire added: " Though I can't say which is going to take longer: the mansion's repairs or you figuring out how to open the portal."

"What happened to your "I believe in you, Patchy!" from a while ago?" wondered the sorceress.

"Well, I can clearly see that this research is going to take you longer than a day or two…"

"Research of such magnitude is rarely a matter of a couple of days." Patchouli sounded slightly agitated by Remilia's impatience, but in the next second, an almost suspicious smile brightened up her face. "However, I've still managed to learn something… groundbreaking in spite of the short time that I've spent observing the temple's interior."

Remilia's eyes widened from surprise. "And you didn't feel the slightest bit obliged to tell your childhood friend about it?"

"I wasn't sure until I've read through the reports of other scholars exploring the temple. They've all confirmed one of my initial theories, or at least made it plausible to the point of near certainty. The truth is still a little hard to believe…"

"Aw, geez, Patchy, stop teasing me so much! Let's hear it already!" Remilia impatiently hopped up and down.

"Yeah, tell us what you've learned, Patchy!" Marisa mockingly mimicked Remilia's childish gesture of impatience.

Patchouli slowly took her reading glasses off and took a deep breath. "The temple that we're standing in… is with a 95% probability… an Atlantean temple."

"…"

"…"

Both Marisa and Remilia exchanged their mute glances with each other before turning their faces back to Patchouli.

"What's Atlantia?" the vampire finally broke the silence. "It sounds somehow familiar, though."

"Um… it's Atlantis, not Atlantia…" Patchouli corrected her.

"You really ought to try reading more books. Like me." Marisa grinned. " Besides the romance novels, I mean. You might learn something."

"Oh yeah? Then please, enlighten me, Marisa-sensei." Remilia prompted the witch with a sarcastic tone. "What is Atlantis?"

The blonde witch widened her grin. "An ocean in the outside world, of course."

Patchouli's slowly rising hand grabbed the top of her light-purple mob cap, and in equally slow motion, she pulled the mob cap down to cover up her face.

"Hm? What's wrong, Patchy?" Marisa quirked her brow.

Patchouli thought that perhaps this gesture would be more polite than saying "I'm surrounded by idiots!", so she kept her grimacing face hidden as she struggled to hold back a chuckle. But even that ended up being misunderstood.

"Oh, no! It must be this heavy, damp air. She's having trouble breathing!" Remilia diagnosed Patchouli's condition without hesitation. "Hang in there, Patchy! We'll get you out of here for some fresh air!"

Muffled chuckles, giggles and snickering was starting to come out from under the mob cap.

"Is she laughing?" Marisa slightly tilted her head.

"Patchouli? Laughing? Impossible. She wouldn't laugh even when you'd tickle her." claimed Remilia, but the laughter was gradually becoming louder.

"It certainly sounds like she's laughing…"

Finally, Patchouli's giggle fit subsided and the youkai magician showed her face again, cheeks reddened and a genuine smile stretched across her lips. A rare sight to see even for those who spent a lot of time around her.

"Sorry… but Marisa blurting that out with such a straight face… I just couldn't help it…"

"N-no. You don't need to apologize…" Remilia, who found Patchouli's expression of amusement heart-melting, shook her head.

"Oh… Did I mess up again?" Marisa asked. "I would have sworn that…"

"It's okay." Patchouli interrupted her. "To be fair, you weren't that far from the truth. The Atlantic Ocean in the outside world, as well as Atlantis, both share the etymological base, most likely derived from the name of titan Atlas. Although, the alleged first king of Atlantis was also named Atlas."

"Yeah, that's very interesting, but what exactly is it?"

"A mythical city state of a powerful and very advanced civilization for its time. They were described as a naval superpower. Supposedly the Atlanteans were also very skilled metallurgists, capable of working a metal called orichalcum, which was said to be second in value only to gold, and which they had abundant natural deposits of. I think that's what those statues in the main hall are made of. Many still believe that Atlantis was the cradle of all other civilizations that inhabit the world, and the symbols that are written all over this temple only strengthen that theory. That's why I found similarities between these symbols and hieroglyphs, runes, the alphabets, Chinese characters and Arabic script… According to the legend, the whole city, which was situated on an island in that ocean, disappeared under the surface in a cataclysmic event during just one night. The whole island sank just like that, as far as the legend goes. Nobody really knows the cause."

"A legendary city? So, you think a whole city lies buried under Kazemura?" asked the blonde.

"I don't know. And I'm afraid I have no other way of knowing as long as this anti-magic field is in place. Though I could try running some deep-earth readings around the village… The Atlantic Ocean is basically on the opposite side of the world from Japan, so it's still a big question how the temple from the sunken city ended up here."

"Probably the same way as your mansion, heh…" Marisa let out a chuckle.

"Hmmm… things that are forgotten and thought of as only existing in legends have a habit of appearing in Gensokyo, true… But that wasn't quite the case of the Scarlet Devil Mansion."

Remilia hasn't seen her friend this excited since moving to Gensokyo, but she felt the need to remind her that she was here to resolve an incident.

"Patchy, please stay focused just on figuring out how to open the portal. You can do your deep-earth readings later."

"But… they're not even that time-consuming…" the bookworm mumbled with a pout.

"Whatever…" Remilia breathed a sigh. "I need to go back to the mansion. I doubt I'd be able to help you with the research anyway. I'm more familiar with the Norse mythology than… whichever mythology is Atlantis a part of… Greek?"

"Partially… It was mentioned in Plato's works: Timaeus and Critias. But I'd say that the myth of Atlantis is a category in and of itself."

"Ah, that's right," Marisa snapped her fingers, "you like Norse myths, Remilia…"

"Well… it's not that I like them in particular… I'm just more familiar with them."

"Riiight…" the witch smiled wryly. "Spear the Gungnir, Laevateinn… Hmm, seems like both Scarlets are into it. Coincidence?"

"About that…" Patchouli spoke hesitantly.

"You don't have to tell her everything, Patchy." Remilia interjected with a reddish tint in her cheeks.

"But now I'm curious~." pleaded Marisa. "Don't worry, Remilia. When you'll go back to your mansion, Patchy will tell me anyway."

"Hmph… it's not like I'm keeping it a secret or anything." the vampire crossed her arms and averted her gaze. "When Reimu came up with the Spell Card System, I was struggling with giving my cards some interesting and cool-sounding names, so I asked Patchy to help me out. She gave me a bunch of books for inspiration… Of course, reading through them all would have been too much of a hassle, so I grabbed the one with most pictures in it and skimmed through it until I came across a name most suitable for my mighty spear attack."

"Ah, I see now." Marisa nodded understandingly. "So you're actually NOT familiar with Norse mythology; you just skimmed through the book as you looked for inspiration."

"Actually…" Patchouli continued in Remilia's stead. "After reading about the Spear of Odin, the book piqued Remi's curiosity, and she eventually read it all."

"And Flandre?"

"As you can imagine, whatever the older sister is doing, the younger one wants to try out as well."

"Yeah, that's how she named her card Laevateinn. But Flan took most of her card-naming inspiration from Agatha Christie's detective novels."

"Oh… so she doesn't own the actual mythical artifact…?"

"Of course not." Patchouli replied.

"But I've never seen a staff like that before."

"What she has is an alchemical stirring rod. It's a bit too heavy an unwieldy for me, so I use a wooden one and let Flandre keep the old one, as it became her favorite toy."

"If it was just that, she wouldn't be able to turn it into a huge flaming sword, would she?"

Patchouli gently tilted her head and raised one eyebrow, as if she couldn't believe Marisa just asked that. "Ahem… Do I really need to explain the basic principles of danmaku to you?"

At that moment, Marisa burst into laughter. "Ahahahaha!" she cackled and exaggeratedly planted her palm on her forehead in a "silly me" gesture. "But… of course… Danmaku… Though you may want to give her a quick recap of its basic principles, because sometimes it seems like she forgets that it's supposed to be non-lethal."

"If only sometimes…" Remilia muttered quietly.

"So, an alchemical stirring rod." Marisa still chuckled and shook her head in disbelief.

"It can also be used as a fire poker." Patchouli added another piece of trivia.

"You know, when I first met her, it looked as though she had ripped off a clock needle from the mansion's clock tower and bent it."

"That does sound like something she'd do," the elemental sorceress admitted, "but no. Like I said, I gave her an old stirring rod to play with. I believe no other toy in her possession has managed to stay intact for as long as her precious "Laevateinn"."

"Speaking of which, I really need to get going! The mansion won't rebuild itself. I've already wasted enough time chatting with you." said Remilia and flapped her wings. "Good luck with your work here, Patchy."\

"Thank you. And good luck with the repairs."

"If anything important happens, let me know as soon as possible. And if even one evil spirit comes out of that portal, get the hell out of here."

"Anything else?" Apparently even Patchouli's patience had its limits, when it came to Remilia's bad habit of patronizing.

"That's all. Until next time…" With just one stroke of her wings, the young vampire flew across the crypt, landing on top of the portal arch. One last wave of her hand, and she disappeared in the tunnel leading to the staircase.

The two magicians kept staring at the tunnel entrance for a moment, even after Remilia's departure.

"So…" Marisa resumed the conversation. "A temple from a fabled city that sank…"

"I can hardly believe it myself, but… I suppose stranger things have taken place in Gensokyo."

"But you were the first one to make that revelation."

"Being a former outsider and having access to the greatest library far and wide has its benefits."

"And I got to learn something new about the outside world today, as well as something about Flan. Now I'd just like to know the story behind her colorful gemmed wings."

* * *

With the mystery of the temple's origin and Flandre's Laevateinn revealed, Marisa felt the need to share the information with the rest of the self-appointed archeological expedition team. Just as she was about to scale the stairs, Patchouli halted her.

"Before you go, Remi mentioned something about a mirror…"

"Ah, I was hoping you'd forget about it." Marisa giggled sheepishly.

"Judging by your reaction, I suspect something went wrong." Marisa could feel Patchouli's purple-eyed gaze piercing through her very soul and revealing every lie and half-truth that the witch might muster. Even Satori's stare felt more comfortable in comparison.

"H-hey, it's just something Aya came up with on the spur of the moment as something that might open the portal. Just a theory, you know… Nobody can tell if it's really going to work."

"I know." Patchouli replied. "Remi already briefed me on that. And if it was just a baseless theory, someone like you would hardly bother making the effort of retrieving the said mirror all the way from Human Village."

Patchouli's meek voice and appearance indeed masked her razor-sharp wit. Her spot-on deduction and suspecting look in her eyes gave Marisa's stomach the same unpleasant tingling as Reimu's earlier scolding. She didn't even have to raise her voice.

"I broke it, okay?" Marisa finally spilled the beans. "But it wasn't my fault! If Flan hadn't blown the mansion's roof up, I would have delivered an intact, spotless mirror!"

"So, you're saying Flandre broke it…"

"W-well… not directly, but… you know… one thing led to another and… somewhere between all those events, the mirror ended up in shards."

"That's… unfortunate." Patchouli's piercing gaze turned into a slightly disappointed one.

"But not everything was in vain." Marisa quickly tried to make the librarian see the brighter side of her failed mirror delivery. "Dad promised me to stop by tomorrow. He's bound to bring all the stuff needed to make any number of mirrors that might be necessary to open the portal."

"Almost as if he had predicted you'd smash the mirror he gave you today…"

"No, Patchy, he's genuinely interested in the mechanism that supposedly opens the door to other worlds. That, and he wants to lend us a hand. But once he gets the word that the temple used to be a part of a fabled city that sank, he'll be so beside himself that having a normal conversation with him will be difficult."

"I see… That's good news. And perhaps… it's better that we are yet unable to open the portal at this moment."

"Huh? Why so?" Marisa blinked in surprise.

"Simply because I'd rather know what the writing on the arch says before Reimu and company dive into the unknown. Or would you be willing to take the risk of using a portal that opens only once in a hundred years and closes as soon as someone enters it?"

"I… I never really thought about that possibility. That would really suck if that happened, ze. Good thing you thought about everything, Patchy."

"I hardly could have thought about everything, but making sure that a portal is a safe two-way passage is the most basic rule of portal usage. Just think back a few years when Reimu was stuck on the Moon for a month."

"Yeah, I remember, and I see where you're coming from. I really ought to tell Reimu to wait until you translate the text."

"That would be appreciated. I'll do what I can to understand this writing."

"Okay, but don't push yourself too hard. Don't forget to come up to eat every now and then. Or are you determined not to eat before you solve this puzzle?"

Even though Marisa was merely joking, Patchouli's face remained stoically still.

"I consider that a challenge." she smiled faintly. "But now that I know what civilization we're dealing with, the translation process should take us much shorter."

"Heh. I can see that you're on the roll today. Decipher those scribbles and meet us in the tent for dinner. I'll even warm up your bedroll for you, if you want." Marisa gave Patchouli a smirk and an elbow nudge.

"You're the worst…" the youkai librarian spoke out her mind without batting an eye. "But thank you for your work. Your help is always welcome." She added with a soft, but honest smile. Enough to make Marisa weak in the knees.

"Eh… um… I… Of course you can count on me!" the witch nervously stuttered out, trying to hide the tremble in her voice. She hurriedly ran up the stairs, almost tripping on her way to the top. She was simply excited about Patchouli's discovery and couldn't wait to tell Reimu about it.

"If Reimu hears about this, she'll forget about that whole silly mirror accident."

* * *

"Like hell do I care where the temple comes from!" Reimu insensitively burst Marisa's positive expectations like a bubble. The witch's glorious return to the tent and her grand announcement apparently failed to impress the grumpy shrine maiden, who was running out of patience.

"But…"

"As long as the portal is sealed, I can't go through, beat up the culprit and return to the shrine for some refreshing tea afterwards."

"But Patchy said…"

"That you'd need a mirror! The one you so carelessly shattered!"

"Well, that too…" the witch admitted whilst keeping her gaze lowered. "But she'd still recommend against you entering the portal unless she was certain that you'd be able to return safely. She said she'd be able to translate the text on the arch before the end of the day. My dad will arrive tomorrow with his mobile workshop, so just take it easy."

Finally Marisa managed to douse Reimu's flames. "Also, Reimu… I'm not sure whether you, me, or Sakuya are the best candidates to go through the portal… We'd be powerless."

"Hmm… that's true. Only youkai powers work inside the temple. But to let a youkai resolve this incident…"

"We might not have a choice." Marisa also didn't feel very reassured by that notion, but she raised a finger. "However, we can still hope that there's a small chance that the power disruption field only works inside the temple and around it, but not on the other side of the portal."

"I don't like how slim that chance is." the shrine maiden sighed.

"And maybe…" Sakuya joined the conversation as she playfully rolled and flipped a throwing knife in her hand. "Just maybe… the anti-magic and anti-divine field is the reason that's rendering the portal inactive in the first place."

The attention of all the tent's occupants was now shifted towards the silver-haired maid.

"If I was the culprit, I'd certainly think of some way to prevent anyone from entering my territory while ensuring that only me or my servants are able to travel between the two places…"

"Sakuya…?" Only now Marisa noticed that she was there. "Wow… that was a pretty smart assumption for a maid."

Sakuya smiled in a chillingly sweet way. "I'm not offended, even if that sounded a bit offensive."

"Wait, weren't you supposed to go with Remilia and help her clean the mansion up a bit?" Marisa, still sporting her puzzled expression asked her.

"I asked my lady the same thing before she left Kazemura, but she insisted that I stay here and ensure Patchouli-sama's safety… and comfort. She also said that cleaning up the rubble isn't a job for my delicate hands…"

"I agree with Remilia." said Aya, who was now sitting at Patchouli's desk. "Sakuya's talents should not be wasted on such menial tasks. At least not in times like these."

Sakuya's menacing smile instantly softened up into a mellow one as her cheeks picked up a brighter pinkish tone.

"However," Aya continued, "if our negation field is generated by an object installed in the temple and not by the culprit directly, the said object is either the portal wall itself, or something directly behind it. After a little info-swapping with Hatate, she said her camera was picking up unexplained anomalies whenever she tried to take a picture of the portal arch."

"Damn… this uncertainty is killing me!" Reimu grumbled as she nervously began walking in small circles in the already cramped tent. "Patchouli better hurry up with that translation."

"That seems to be our only bet to shed some light on the origin of the field."

Despite being called "the fastest in Gensokyo", Aya certainly didn't want to rush things either. She perfectly understood why Patchouli wanted to be sure about the portal's safety.

* * *

Whereas the girls in Kazemura were eagerly awaiting Patchouli's return, the outsiders in Human Village were stuck in uncertainty about their future. Each of them fought this anxiety in their own way, and for Kyouichi Ishimaru, his remedy for negative thoughts proved to be work. Namely work around his recently renovated cabin. When focused on work, there was simply no room in his head for thoughts about failure, or homesickness. He trusted Reimu and her friends to work out the problem with Gensokyo's barrier and saw no sense in dwelling on what better choices he could have made to prevent his current predicament.

"Thanks for lending me a hand with that, Naota-san." he wiped his sweaty forehead with the back of his hand as he lightly bowed to the old man. "The cabin looks much more like a home now, thanks to your help."

"I'm just a frail old man, kid. I can't exert myself too much. All I can do for you is to guide you. You have to do all the work yourself." Naota smiled.

"I almost feel like being your apprentice. Picked up quite a few handy skills from all this work."

"It's a good feeling. Being self-sufficient. You can save quite a few coins just by being able to fix your own door or make your own furniture."

"There's already everything I'll need for living here. Now… if only I had a shower here." Kyouich remarked jokingly.

"You want a shower? Why didn't 'ya say so? It's not like it's that hard to make? And that corner over there would be a perfect place for it."

Kyouichi was genuinely surprised by Naota's reaction. "N-not that hard to make?"

"Of course not. You want a shower? You can make yourself a shower before sundown. You'll need to nail some support boards over here, take a metal barrel, put a few small holes in it… Oh, and we could also make it collect rainwater from the roof."

The young outsider chuckled nervously. "That sounds kind of complicated, you know…"

"Hey, you lived with the Saitou family, I'm sure you've taken a bath at least once at their place."

"Wha…? Of course I have! Don't tell me you thought I've lived 6 months in here without taking a ba…" Kyouichi raised his voice, but was cut off as Naota continued explaining.

"Well, guess who built their water boiler." Naota grinned and winked.

"You did? I thought you were a carpenter, not a plumber."

"That's my profession, but not my only skill. And if I could fix up a boiler for them, making a makeshift shower will be a walk in a park."

"But it's me who has to do all the work." Kyouichi mumbled, cursing himself for mentioning a shower to Naota.

"The best teacher in life is experience. Now… let's get started."

* * *

A few sweaty hours later, Kyouichi's cabin now sported a new shower. Not the most elegant kind, but it served its purpose. Despite his earlier reluctance, Kyouichi once again had to bend his back to Naota in gratitude.

"Awesome! Looks like it works. And the mini furnace under the barrel can heat the water up any time. I need to test it out."

"What did I tell you? It's not even evening and we're done. And yeah, I better give you some privacy so you can put it to the test, hehe." the old man chuckled as he let himself out of the cabin.

* * *

Kyouichi stepped out of his cabin after a few minutes. With a clean change of clothes and his soaked long hair still dripping water, he took a deep breath and stretched his body.

"I feel like a new man."

Naota, who was waiting outside nodded at him. "You should have dried yourself better, though. You'll catch a cold like that."

"Oh, yeah. That reminds me. I should stock up on some medical supplies in case I'll need them. I doubt the potions I bought will be of any use against an illness."

"They say the best cure is prevention, right?"

"Like eating healthy food and daily exercise?"

"Well… that may work for some people." Naota shrugged as he reached into the inner pocket of his kimono. "I have my own… medicine that kept me tickin' for nearly 80 years."

Of course, the old man took out a small flask filled with some unknown spirit and took a small gulp.

"Are you trying to make an alcoholic out of me?"

"No. I don't want you to live a life like me, kid. I'm an alcoholic, I admit… But for me it's already a bit too late to change."

"When did you start to drink regularly, Naota-san?" Kyouichi asked nonchalantly. "I'd like to think that you weren't born with a sake bottle in your hand."

Naota didn't answer immediately. Instead he took another small sip of his booze and looked somewhere into the distance. Then he gave Kyouichi a surprisingly punctual answer.

"By our calendar, that would be August 17th 1976."

"Wow… How do you remember that date so well?"

"Let's not talk about that, please." Naota cut the conversation before Kyouichi started prying too much into the sensitive topic of his past.

"Alright." the young man shrugged. "I'm just surprised, that's all."

He already figured that the date must have been tied to a very memorable event. An event that took place in Gensokyo and, as Kyouichi deduced by Naota's effort to avoid the subject, an event that the old man would very much like to forget.

"I wonder if Midori has done cleaning up my house by now." the old carpenter completely changed the topic.

"Did you ask her to…?"

"No. She insisted. She said it's becoming uninhabitable in there. I hope to find my furniture in its original place when I come back home." he chuckled. "She's too nice. And too stubborn."

"Once she sets her mind on something…"

"Yeah, it's hard to talk her out of it. But I appreciate her help a lot…"

"Just as I appreciate yours."

"Glad to know I'm still useful for something, even if it's just telling you what to do and what you're doing wrong. Anyway, I'm getting hungry here. About time for me to make some dinner. Do you have any plans for the evening, Kyouichi?"

"Actually, yes. I'm expecting Soudai to stop by. Then we'll hang out somewhere in the village. Maybe do some sports to pass the time…"

"Have fun, kid." Natota waved his palm and slowly walked away, heading back to the village.

* * *

Soudai arrived before sundown, knocking on Kyouichi's door in his typical rhythm, so that Kyouichi would instantly know who was paying him a visit.

"Ready to head out?" he asked as soon as Kyouichi opened the door.

"Almost. Just give me a minute…"

It took him approximately that long to gather all of his small belongings and get ready to leave his new home.

"I told some guys in the village about baseball the other day and they said they'd like to try it out. They even made some makeshift bats, balls and gloves, so this should be fun." Soudai was already excited about bringing a piece of the outside world culture into the village, but Kyouichi looked a little absent-minded. It didn't take Soudai long to notice that.

"You're still thinking about that failed attempt to get home, aren't you?"

"Heh… Am I that obvious?"

Soudai sighed. He was a bit annoyed, but also a bit concerned with Kyouichi's tendency to return to his negative thoughts.

"You radiate despair, man. But worry not, I can guarantee you that today's game of baseball with our native Gensokyan friends is gonna fix that mood in a moment. Even Midori said she'd come join us later."

"I'm not even good at baseball…" Kyouichi mumbled, but obediently followed his friend to the village. "Now basketball, on the other hand..."

"Yeah, your height makes you an ideal candidate for basketball, but alas, we have nowhere to play it. "

"And no bouncy ball to play with."

"Baseball's a fun game too." Soudai shrugged.

"Maybe, but I suck at it."

"Even if you never played baseball before, you're still at an advantage, hehe. We're sure to have a good laugh before we teach these guys the rules. But who knows, maybe we'll even discover some hidden talents… By the way," Soudai suddenly paused himself and sized Kyouichi up as if this was the first time they met. "What did you eat to grow so tall? I mean you're not exactly average height for a Japanese."

He finally got at least a chuckle out of Kyouichi with that question. "I probably have my mom to blame."

"Your mom?" Soudai tilted his head.

"Yes, she's American, but she changed her name and nationality when she married my father. It's probably thanks to her why I'm more familiar with the "western" culture and better at English than my classmates."

"I see. I see." Soudai hummed and nodded. "Why had it never occurred to me before?"

"I'm sorry. I thought my appearance was already a good hint about my ethnicity. Most of the people could tell instantly that I'm not a "pureblood" Japanese. But, thankfully I never had any trouble because of my origin."

Soudai shook his head in a bemused expression. "I ought to ask you personal questions more often. Seems like I learn something new about you every day."

"Speaking of which, I learned something about Naota today. He remembers the exact date when he started drinking. I wonder if Midori would know something more about that."

As they kept walking along the dirt path towards the western village gate, they saw a familiar person slowly heading their way. Kyouichi was rather surprised to see her, but pleasantly so.

"Yuuka-san? Good afternoon~!" he waved at her from afar. The flower youkai gently waved her hand.

"How unusual…" Soudai muttered. "Didn't people say that she doesn't visit the village in autumn and winter?"

"Well, maybe it's because autumn hasn't officially begun yet."

Kyouichi didn't care about what people said about her. He was glad to see her, which Soudai could tell as soon as Kyouichi started jogging towards her. As soon as he got close to her, his nose urged him to sneeze.

"Well met." Yuuka lightly bowed to greet him. She smiled, as usual, not showing any signs of surprise to see the outsider still in Gensokyo, even after he formally said his farewell to her a few days ago. "I walked by your house earlier, but I figured my visit would be inappropriate, since you already had a visitor."

"Oh. Yes… Naota was here." Kyouichi replied as he sneezed again. "Sorry."

"No need for an apology."

"Umm... I guess you figured it out already, but I didn't manage to get home."

Yuuka giggled softly. "You wouldn't be here talking to me otherwise. It may sound mean, but I'm even a little glad that you failed to return home."

Kyouichi did find her honest reply a little mean, but also rather sweet. "That was mean, Yuuka-san."

"It's simply because I'm glad that someone I have just become friends with doesn't have to go so soon." Yuuka sweetened her smile and made Kyouichi's heart race.

For a moment, Kyouichi even forgot that he was with Soudai, but he soon got reminded of that fact when he caught up to them.

"H-hello, Yuuka-san."

"Greetings." the nature youkai returned the greeting while slowly twirling her parasol.

As if she had heard Soudai's remark from a couple of hundred meters away, she added: "Today is the last day I'll be visiting Human Village this year."

"Eh? Is it? So where do you go in autumn and winter?" Soudai asked.

"I roam around the northern parts of Gensokyo, tending to and admiring the seasonal flowers. Chrysanthemum flowers are especially lovely in Gensokyo. I gather and store their seeds and when spring comes, I sell the seeds to the flower shop in the village."

"I see. I never really thought about how youkai make money."

"Most of them don't need money, but for those who sometimes deal with humans, it's convenient to have some money saved up."

"So this is the second time we'll bid each other farewell, huh?" Kyouichi's rapid heartbeat again slowed down when he heard of Yuuka's intention.

"It's just my yearly routine. Meeting you, however, and knowing you'll be staying in Gensokyo for a little longer may change that."

"R-really?" Kyoiuchi's pulse experienced another surge. "Does that mean…?"

"I may occasionally stop by for a visit. If you're okay with that."

"Okay? I'd love to have you visit sometimes! Even if I can't cook too well and even if my cabin isn't anything fancy, it'd be wonderful…"

Yuuka let out a giggle in response to Kyouichi's reaction. "Those aren't even the things that matter to me."

Kyouichi didn't know what to say at that moment, so it was again up to the flower youkai to cut the awkward moment of silence.

"I'm not particularly in a hurry home either…"

"Ah, I see… Well… Me and Soudai were just going to the village to play a game of baseball and… Uh… you probably have no idea what baseball is… and… I know that you said you don't like crowded places much and…"

Kyouichi's nervous blathering was interrupted by Soudai's tap on his shoulder. "Kyou, don't be an idiot, man."

"Huh?" Kyouichi blinked at him in confusion.

"Forget the baseball. You have much better things to do." he grinned and winked slyly.

"Are you sure…?"

"You'll thank me later. Please… Enjoy the evening with Yuuka-san." He did sound a little pushy, but Kyouichi needed a push to make the right decision.

"Alright, Soudai." he bowed to his friend as a sign of gratitude. "Yuuka-san, would you like to take a little walk with me?"

The flower youkai just quietly offered her hand, waiting for Kyouichi to act like a gentleman and take the lead. There was no turning back from this situation. Kyouichi was more than happy to take the lovely lady by the hand. Soudai already took a few steps back from them, showing his clenched fists as a sign that he was rooting for Kyouichi.

"Good luck. You scored well…" and with that he went on his merry way back to Human Village. Kyouichi still struggled to process the situation he just ended up in, but he quickly began to realize how much Soudai was right. Being with Yuuka was certainly better than any number of baseball games. Still holding her hand, he smiled at her and began to lead the way.

"I'll take you for a little tour of the farm I work at. Then we'll take a little break at my favorite place to rest after work."

"Sounds nice." the youkai lady nodded and walked by his side.

* * *

There was no point going back to the village, as Yuuka had just been there a while ago and Kyouichi already knew all its streets, alleys, and establishments in and out. The farmlands, on the other hand, were vast and not as densely populated as the village they belonged to.

"So this is where you work?" Yuuka asked while looking straight ahead.

"No, I work over there." Kyouichi pointed at one particular cattle ranch further away. "But I use the field lanes as a shortcut, so I often pass through these parts to get to work faster. Not that I usually hurry to work…"

"That sounded like you don't like your work."

"The pay is good, the boss is reasonable, and all of my co-workers are good friends, Soudai included, but… To put it frankly, it's not something I'd like to be doing for the rest of my life."

"I see." Yuuka nodded understandingly. "In that case, you have nothing to worry about, right?"

Kyouichi was mildly puzzled by her reassuring statement. Slightly frightened, even. "What do you mean?" he looked at her with eyes wide open.

Likewise, the youkai lady couldn't quite understand the reason behind Kyouichi's awkward reaction. "I thought you didn't plan to stay in Gensokyo permanently."

"O-oh…" the young outsider felt silly for thinking that Yuuka could have meant something else. Even more silly was the fact that he literally forgot about his greatest goal and challenge. To return to the outside world… "That's what you meant."

"Of course~." the flower-loving youkai again showed her never-fading smile. "What else did you think I meant?"

"N-nothing, nothing…" Kyouichi responded with a sheepish grin and repeated headshakes, only adding extra awkwardness to his behavior.

"You're a little strange." Yuuka summarized it in one brief sentence.

"I guess I am." Kyouichi admitted. Even he noticed that he hasn't been acting like himself, but he couldn't even tell why. Was it because of his failure to return home, or because he disappointed his fellow outsiders and betrayed their trust? Or was it because of Yuuka?

This strange mixture of feelings he couldn't even name caught him in its whirlwind and started spinning him around ever since he saw her at the village gate.

"Why am I acting so weird?" he thought to himself in a moment of self-reflection. "This isn't the first time I'm with Yuuka-san like this… Why is my heart pounding so hard?"

Indeed, he was well-aware that she was a youkai and he was a human. The knowledge of this fact never held him back when he exchanged the occasional small talk with this supernatural beauty from Mugenkan, but this time he felt different. And it wasn't an unpleasant feeling at all. It was simply starting to overwhelm him, and maybe that's what was adding a tinge of anxiety to his already baffled heart.

"But I suppose you wouldn't be nonchalantly striking up a conversation, becoming friends, and even holding hands with one of the most terrifying youkai Gensokyo has ever known, if you weren't strange." Yuuka purposefully spoke her thoughts out loud.

Even Kyouichi had to chuckle at that. "That strangeness of mine might have something to do with me being an uninformed outsider…"

"M-mm…" the lovely youkai shook her head of green hair. "There's more to it than that. It's your… what's that word…?" she looked lost in thought for a moment, before suddenly perking up. "Charm~! Yes, that's it."

"Hahaha~!" Kyouichi let his amusement out of his mouth in a loud, hearty laugh. "My charm? First time I heard of it."

"You should already know by now that I'm not known for being a social butterfly. Talking to or even being around ordinary humans rarely keeps me entertained for longer than a few minutes. Then you showed up, boldly calling out to me and surprising me with knowledge about flowers."

"You don't even know how coincidental my "knowledge about flowers" is." Kyouichi explained while futilely holding back another urge to chuckle. "I'm not the one to read botany books in my leisure time, it's just…" He didn't even get to finish the explanation, as Yuuka still went on.

"Then fast forward a couple of months and I accept your invitation for dinner. And now…" she lifted her left hand, which was holding Kyouichi's right. "We're walking together like this… That's quite the achievement on your part~."

Again, a wave of embarrassment swept over the young human when Yuuka flattered him like that. "E-hehe… I'm sorry, Yuuka-san. I acted suddenly without thinking. If you're not comfortable with that, I'll let… go…"

But Yuuka's hand wouldn't let go of his. It was a gentle, but a very firm grip.

"I don't find this the least bit unpleasant." she smiled ever so sweetly. "I wonder what will come next~." she said innocently.

"…"

"But I wouldn't want to rush it." she added after a pause, shifting her gaze from Kyouichi to the road ahead.

If she was teasing him, it worked. Kyouichi could literally feel how red his face must be, his heart still beating like a drum, but somehow, even if he couldn't explain why, he felt a lot calmer now. He held his eyes closed and felt the contrast of the cool breeze blowing against his face and the warmth of Yuuka's hand. As he opened his eyes, he looked at Yuuka and smiled.

"I wouldn't want to hurry either."

They silently walked on, hand in hand, enjoying each other's company. As they were nearing the Myouren Temple, Kyouichi broke the silence with a question.

"Say, Yuuka-san…"

"Yes?"

"Are you really one of the most terrifying youkai in Gensokyo?"

"I honestly don't know what gossip people spread about me in the village lately, but I'd still like to think that I'm up there in the top ten… Hard to believe?" she looked at him in a menacingly sweet way, as if she was asking for his approval to demonstrate all that has earned her such a reputation.

"But you're so nice and sweet and… beautiful."

For once, Kyouichi managed to give Yuuka's cheeks a slight blush. "Hm… flattering. But you have to understand what keeps the youkai alive."

"Fear, huh?"

"Yes. But it still feels very nice to hear that you think of me that way." she closed her eyes for a moment. "But as you know, times have changed a lot. Now the youkai have a sanctuary called Gensokyo and many of them, myself included, have lost their original purpose as well as dependence on human fear. I live for the nature and its beauty and the beauty of life itself. Spreading fear holds no meaning for me anymore, though it is a sort of flattery as well."

Even after Yuuka's explanation, Kyouichi was a little confused. "So, wait. Do you actually want people to be afraid of you or not?"

"Like I said, I don't care if people are afraid of me or not. I won't hurt anyone who respects life."

The door of Myouren Temple opened, and groups of people began to pour out, heading back to the village after finishing their prayers. Kyouichi knew how Yuuka felt about crowded places, so he sped up a little, trying to lead her away from there. However, the dirt path was too narrow for them to avoid the temple visitors. People walked by them, and nobody seemed to be alarmed by Yuuka's presence. Up until Kyouichi caught a glimpse of a familiar girl…

"Oh, Akyuu-chan, hello. On your way home from the temple, are you?"

The short purple-haired girl glanced upwards, looking surprised when she saw Kyouichi.

"Kyouichi-san?" she gave the outsider a wide-eyed look before she noticed the person who accompanied him. That's when her puzzlement gradually turned into utter bewilderment. Perhaps even a terror-induced paralysis. With her mouth ajar in a sheepish smile, she took a couple of nervous steps backwards, accidentally bumping into the people who were walking behind her. "Ah, I'm sorry…" she hurriedly apologized and immediately focused her attention back to Kyouichi and Yuuka.

"Ah," the young man from the outside world nonchalantly gestured at Yuuka and began the introduction, "this is Kazami Yuuka-san. Yuuka-san, this is Hieda no Akyuu-chan."

"Pleased to meet you~." Yuuka greeted her with a warm smile.

"P-p-pleased to meet you too!" she unconvincingly stuttered out a courteous reply, which was in direct contradiction to her true thoughts and feelings as she bowed in an exaggerated fashion.

Kyouichi could already guess that the introduction was probably unnecessary, and that the young chronicler was also one of those people who chose to believe the many bad rumors that circulated around the village about Yuuka. A part of him wished to tell her that she had nothing to fear about Yuuka, as long as she behaved herself, but when Akyuu looked so adorable when she was scared, he just stood there and watched her reaction.

"U-umm… It's getting kind of late and… and I still have a lot of things to do, s-so…" Akyuu explained hastily as she sidestepped around the human-youkai couple, so that she was now closer to the village than them. "Please excuse me! I really have to get going!" She bowed once more, almost headbutting another passerby, before she made a swift 180 degree turn and a dash for her life towards the village gate.

"And there she goes…" Kyouichi muttered as he watched her performing the most athletic feat he had ever seen her doing. It was obvious that there was more at play than strong dedication to her duties that made her dart off like that. And so the young human turned his face to Yuuka and jokingly asked: "And what have you done to poor little Akyuu-chan to scare her like that?"

Yuuka's smile faded into a frown at the false accusation. "What are you talking about? I don't even know the girl…"

"But apparently she recognized you. Once again, your negative reputation precedes you, it seems."

"I should imagine that especially children are most likely to take all those rumors as undisputed truth. But I'd never harm a child…"

"Well, I guess in Akyuu's case, listening to rumors is a part of her job."

"A part of her job?" Yuuka tilted her head.

"Why, yes. She might not look like it, but she's compiling a chronicle of Gensokyo's history."

"Really?" the flower youkai blinked in surprise.

"Yes. That's why most of the information she gathered, if not all of it, is second-hand at best. Therefore, she hears a lot of rumors, which may have nothing to do with facts."

"I wonder what she wrote about me, then…"

"Hmmm…." Kyouichi hummed as he tried to recall whatever information he might have come across about Yuuka in the Gensokyo Chronicle. "Only bits and pieces. Something about an incident from long ago… Come to think of it… I haven't really read the whole Perfect Memento in Strict Sense before I returned it to her, so… I also wonder if and what she might have written about you, Yuuka-san. She looked really frightened, though."

"To me she looked like she needed a hug~." The green-haired youkai lady smiled, as she watched Akyuu becoming an ever smaller figure on the horizon before reaching the village. "She looks so cute. Like a fairy~."

"You like fairies, Yuuka-san?"

"Yes~. Though I should say that not all of them are cute and not all of them help pollinate the flower fields. Some of them are merely harmful pests, which I just shoot down on sight… But this Akyuu-chan looks like the kind of fairy that I like. Just adorable…"

"I know, right? Well, if you catch up to her, you can hug her all you want." Kyouichi jested, as he had already lost sight of the young purple-haired chronicler.

"She's already too far away for me to attempt that. Besides…" Yuuka paused as her ruby-red eyes met Kyouichi's. "I already have someone to cling to."

The young outsider felt as though it was him, who had made the 500 meter sprint to the village instead of Akyuu, after hearing those words and seeing Yuuka's lovely smiling face. He couldn't help but to smile back. He felt so lucky for being able to share these moments with her. And as he thanked Soudai in his mind for allowing him, and even pushing him into staying with Yuuka, he gently took the lead and guided her towards the place he intended to take her in the first place.

"Let's get out of this crowd, shall we?"

"Please, lead the way."

* * *

Walking through the crop fields reminded Yuuka of one minor curiosity that occurred this year, regarding the autumn goddesses.

"And so, this year, the older sister started to work later than the younger one. Now, if I was on overreacting shrine maiden, I would already suspect an incident at play…"

"So there's more than one goddess of autumn?" Kyouichi inquired.

"Here in Gensokyo, there are two autumn goddesses, the Aki sisters."

"Aptly named, it seems." Kyouichi remarked with a joking tone, as he was reminded of a satori called Satori an a nue called Nue. Yuuka, however, didn't find the goddesses' names to be a funny coincidence. She gave the outsider the same look that Keine-sensei used to give to students who didn't answer her questions correctly.

"Do you think gods and their names are just a coincidence? You still have much to learn."

"I'm sorry…"

"The names given to gods pretty much determine their powers. Gods with names have specific powers, whereas nameless kami are free from the limitations instilled by a given name, and as such, their powers are undefined."

"I didn't know that names of gods had such significance."

"And it's not just about gods." Yuuka carried on with her lecture. "Youkai too… Even my name is strongly symbolic, if I do have to say so myself."

"T-that's… true." the outsider looked like he realized it only now.

"So, as I was saying, the Aki sisters are the embodiment of the season autumn. The older sister Shizuha paints the leaves of the trees, and the younger sister Minoriko governs the crops and the harvest. Usually, the harvest takes place before the turning of the leaves, but this year, it's reversed."

"So… you know these goddesses personally?"

"What's with that look? Of course I do. And we get along wonderfully~."

"It's just that… I've never really seen a goddess before, and if I have, I don't know about it."

Now it was Yuuka's turn to look surprised. "You've been in Gensokyo since spring and you haven't seen a single kami yet? Color me surprised…"

"Well, I had this drink called the 8 million kami, but that probably doesn't count."

"There are indeed many gods here. Like humans and youkai, they too divide into natives and outsiders who have chosen to settle here."

"I'm an outsider, so how do I know when I see a kami? How can I tell them apart from youkai?"

"Your question bares more weight than you may think." said Yuuka after a moment of silent contemplation. "Something many have spent their whole lives pondering. There's a fine line between youkai and gods. Even after centuries, I still don't have a definite answer. I can at best give you an idea on what I think sets gods and other beings apart…"

"I'd like to hear it then."

"Very well…" the flower youkai shrugged. "I think that in order to be a god, the humans have to acknowledge you as one."

Kyouichi found the answer very surprising. "Is that it?" he asked with a disbelieving tone.

"I could be wrong, but that is the closest to the truth I've been able to get on the subject. Since youkai and gods share so many similar traits, it's often difficult to tell them apart. At first I thought the difference was obvious: youkai hunt and eat humans and the gods, on the other hand, bestow blessings upon humans in exchange for their faith, but it's not as simple as that. There are youkai who don't really care about humans or who are even friendly towards them. Then you have gods who cause more harm than help. Gods who cause disasters, curses, illnesses, wars… So the difference between the two can't be in their helpful or harmful relationship towards humans. It's not in the ability to create or destroy either. In fact, it's not even in their dependence on human faith or fear. So what is the difference then? Especially when you consider the examples of deified youkai. Even humans themselves can attain divine status, complete with their own shrines and all… The amount of power also doesn't matter. That's why I think the only real thing that distinguishes gods from other beings is whether or not the humans recognize the being in question as divine."

"I find it hard to believe that we have, in a sense, a certain degree of power even over the gods and youkai."

"That's most likely how it is, though. And most likely the reason why the outside world is the world of humans. Well… mostly humans."

"I see… Now that I learned about how similar gods, youkai and humans may sometimes be, it's more than possible that I have already met some kami without even knowing it."

"Which reminds me…" Yuuka trailed off for a moment. "I was once mistaken for a human… By a goddess. In Makai, of all places. Then I shot her down, but that's a story for another time."

"Oh, yeah, I heard that you resolved a few incidents too, Yuuka-san. What you just mentioned… That was your confrontation with Shinki-sama, the goddess of Makai, right? Wasn't that what the chronicle described as the Mystic Square Incident? That was before the Spell Card rules were invented."

Yuuka appeared confused by the information. "There was an incident? Heh… I didn't even know. I was just bored and went on a stroll, that's all."

"Wow…" the outsider was truly amazed, even though he already knew that Yuuka was already responsible for a few incident resolutions and won battles against beings considered more powerful than her. "If that's all it takes for you to resolve an incident, then please get bored, Yuuka-san. Find out what's wrong with the boundary and send all those fairy-possessing spirits back where they came from."

The green-haired youkai let out an amused giggle. "The problem with that, Kyouichi, is that I'm not bored right now~."

* * *

They say time flies when you're having fun. For Kyouichi, just being there with Yuuka and making small talk, all the while enjoying the gentle warm grip of her hand was quite possibly the happiest moment of the day, if not the whole month. Yuuka seemed to be aware of how her ambiguous statements affect Kyouichi's heartbeat and behavior. The poor young human couldn't tell whether she meant those words honestly, or whether it was just a tease, and apparently, Yuuka seemed to enjoy keeping him in this state of blissful confusion. Kyouichi also made a few observations of his own. In spite of Yuuka claiming not to be very social or talkative, she sure talked a lot when she was with him.

Before they knew it, they have reached the ranch of Kyouichi's current employer.

"So, this is it." said Kyouichi after he and Yuuka arrived at the wooden fence encircling the pastures. "Not the most inviting of places, but since you wanted to know where I work…"

"Oh, is this not where you wanted to take me?" Yuuka asked as she showed him a slightly confused expression. "The place where you like to rest after work?"

"That's a little further ahead. On that small hill over there." the outsider pointed at the natural elevation on the northern side of the farmlands, forming a sort of milestone, indicating that the human territory ends and the wilderness begins.

"My… You're going to walk me nearly all the way to the Forest of Magic, it seems."

She wasn't too far from the truth. The small hill Kyouichi was pointing at was just about a kilometer away from the largest forested area in central Gensokyo.

"Well, almost. You can see Kourindou from there."

"I'd think you'd choose a place closer to your house to take a rest after work."

"I don't know… I just… like the scenery and the serenity of the place. I'm used to long walks anyway, so I don't mind going to that hill, even if it's further away from my cabin than the farm itself."

"I think I can relate to that." Yuuka nodded to herself. "I too can go to great lengths just to see the most beautiful places and the most beautiful flowers."

"No doubt about that. I hope you'll appreciate my taste in scenic places then." Kyouichi smiled and continued to lead Yuuka at a relaxed pace.

* * *

"What a nice view~." the flower-loving youkai slowly spun around, taking in the beautiful panorama from the top of the hill. The valley where the Human Village was nestled on the south side, the deep-green bamboo forest to the west, the tall distant mountains peeking from behind the Forest of Magic to the north… Any direction one could choose to face offered something beautiful to look at.

"I think I can even see the hill where the Hakurei Shrine stands."

"I hereby welcome you to my little retreat after a day of hard work. And this is where I like to sit." Kyouichi sat on one of the small rocks that was flat enough to provide a relatively comfortable natural chair. It was just large enough for two people to sit on, so naturally, Yuuka followed suit and took the place by Kyouichi's side. Now both of them had the same view of the forest and the tall hills on the eastern end of Gensokyo. The change of seasons has started to gradually show on the leaves and in the cooler air.

"And so, autumn begins…" Yuuka spoke softly as she gazed into the distance.

"It feels so pleasant…" Kyouichi uttered in the same dreamy tone, staring in the same direction.

"Indeed. We're lucky to have a beautiful sunny day with just a few clouds." Yuuka affirmed as she lifted her gaze to the skies above. "The wind has picked up a bit, but it does feel nice."

Kyouichi chuckled at the little misunderstanding he caused and tried to clear it up. "I wasn't talking about the weather, though. I meant the company… the company of someone I really like."

A long pause came about, filled only by the sound of blowing wind, rustling grass and the leaves of the trees. Even Kyouichi himself was a little surprised by his honesty, but it was as if Yuuka's presence was giving him courage. He felt a strange feeling of relief after saying that.

"You really… like me? In spite of being so different?" the flower master locked her eyes with him, with her usual smile now absent from her face.

"I do." the young human nodded. "For the whole time… Ever since I found myself in Gensokyo, I told myself not to become too attached to anyone, as I feared that by doing so, I would no longer have the will to return home. Or that returning home would then become a painful experience. But now that my hopes to return have become so uncertain… I'm finally brave enough to be honest about my feelings. Yes, you are different, but then again, more humanlike than you'd think."

"Humanlike? Me?"

"Why, yes. You like flowers, you like taking long walks, you like to talk about everyday things, you like watching the scenery, you respect life as a part of nature… You're powerful, but not vain. You're an adventurer and a thrill seeker who likes challenging danmaku battles, and you don't care about winning or losing. You're well-spoken and well-mannered and you treat people just as they treat you. To me you're more humanlike than some of the humans out there."

"Hmmm…" Yuuka hummed thoughtfully. "I never thought about it that way…"

"You really are a sweet-hearted person, Yuuka-san. I don't even know when or how, but I've grown to like you a lot… It's not love yet, but it could easily become that, given enough time."

The youkai beauty slowly began to smile again. "Every seed needs time to grow. And the one you planted here…" she pointed at her heart, "has already started to grow."

Even though none of them made a true love confession to each other, both of them were aware that it was starting to become serious.

"Heh… I guess I can no longer call you just a friend, can I?" said the outsider. "Leaving Gensokyo is going to be really tough for me now…"

"Regardless of how long you'll be staying here from now on… I still believe that meeting you was worth it. But I also believe that there's no need to hurry into love confessions and engagement rings and so on."

At that moment Kyouichi lost it. "Ahahahaha!" he laughed together with Yuuka. "You're funny…"

"I can be when I try."

After having a good laugh, the two of them spent the following moments watching the horizon as the sky gradually began to change its color during sunset. Both of them have already expressed their feelings for each other. Discussing the topic any further would only spoil these precious moments. The only thing worth discussing was the beauty of Gensokyo; how the autumn goddesses began to work on the changes in nature that were typical for this season.

"Shizuha-sama sure painted a lovely scenery for us, huh?" Kyouichi said as the last rays of the setting sun gave the turning leaves a dazzling bright yellow tone.

"She sure has." Yuuka couldn't disagree with that. "And she hasn't even finished her painting. She's got an amazing talent."

"And they say that fall is a depressing season…"

"Not for me. It offers some of the most beautiful flowers that I know."

"Like chrysanthemums?" Kyouichi picked up on her earlier remark about them being especially beautiful in Gensokyo.

"That's right." Yuuka nodded. "No wonder they are the national flowers of Japan…"

"Yes, those and the sakura flowers." the outsider added.

"But those aren't the only flowers that bloom in autumn. Asters, goldenrods, spider lilies, perennial sunflowers, and yes, my latest acquisition as well." Yuuka hintingly glanced at Kyouichi. "The hibiscus… I already found those seeds you gave me a lovely home~."

"They couldn't be in better care."

"If all goes well, I should be able to sell some hibiscus flowers to the flower shop next year."

"I'm sure they'd appreciate it."

"It's getting dark…" Yuuka suddenly changed the subject as she noticed the fading sunlight. The sky was now dyed a deep indigo blue. "It'd be best if we parted for now. This forest isn't exactly the safest place to be for a human after sundown."

"Agreed." the outsider gave a nod. "It was a very enjoyable afternoon, thanks to you, Yuuka-san."

"Same here." Yuuka gently bowed. "I don't think I ever stayed in these parts so late. I believe I can close my parasol now…" she stood up as she did so. The outsider followed suit and dusted off the back side of his kimono.

"As promised, I'll sometimes pay you a visit, but I don't yet know when it will be exactly."

"My doors will be open to you for as long as I'll be living in that cabin." Kyouichi felt that a parting hug would be okay, so he softly embraced Yuuka before saying farewell. She smelled faintly of flowers, which was perhaps pleasant at first, but there was something about that very scent that caused the outsider to sneeze. He still didn't lose his sense of humor, though. "Even if I'm allergic to you, I still like you, Yuuka-san."

"Thank you." she giggled.

After their brief mutual embrace the youkai and the human each went their separate ways. Even with a slight chill in the evening air, Kyouichi felt warm all over. He wouldn't mind if the day of Yuuka's next visit would be tomorrow, but he knew that he shouldn't delude himself into thinking that.

"Gotta thank Soudai for pushing me into staying with Yuuka-san today. I wonder if he's still playing baseball with those guys from the village… I don't want to go to bed just yet."


	67. Even Little Progress Counts

"There you are!" Soudai waved at Kyouichi, who just showed up in the schoolyard, a popular hangout spot of the Human Village youth. "Took your sweet time." he added while flashing a teasing, sly grin. Among the unfamiliar faces of young Human Village natives, Kyouichi recognized Daniel and Midori, but only because they called out to him, adding a few teasing lines of their own.

"How did the date go?" Dan asked without reservation.

"Probably better than expected, since he's still in one piece." Midori muttered in a tone that didn't sound very amused.

The young villagers who were being taught how to play baseball by Dan and Soudai immediately focused their glances on Kyouichi, uttering words of amazement, amusement, approval, disapproval, jealousy and contempt. Kyouichi knew that the news was going to spread fast, and in all honesty, he couldn't care less. His wide, content smile said it all.

"Just look at him." Soudai shook his head as he tried to mimic Kyouichi's current expression. "Grinning ear-to-ear, like he just discovered the meaning of life."

"Oh, I had a wonderful time, thanks for asking." Kyouichi replied to Dan's question. "I really need to thank you, Soudai, for convincing me to stay with her. Though I wonder why you insisted on it. You never really felt comfortable in her presence, and now, you suddenly approve of us meeting each other…"

When Midori heard that, she shifted her gaze from the bespectacled, long-haired Kyouichi to Soudai. "Wait a minute. So that was your idea?"

"Now don't look at me like at some criminal. I just gave my pal a little... push, that's all. He's been dealing with a lot of trouble lately and he needed some sort of distraction. True, I find Yuuka-san a bit… scary, but she's been friendly enough to us so far. I could tell after a few meetings that Kyouichi was head over heels for her."

"I was not." Kyouichi instantly denied Soudai's version of the story.

"Oh, come on. Who are you kidding?"

Midori was the only outsider of the group who didn't look amused. "I don't think that was the best idea."

Soudai raised his eyebrows at her. "Oh? What's wrong? Are you turning green with jealousy, Midori?" He chuckled and shot a quick glance at Kyouichi. "Heh… See what I did there? Midori… green…" he chuckled at his own silly pun.

"I'm serious." Midori raised her voice. "What if something bad happened? Everyone says she's a dangerous youkai."

"Really?" Soudai gave her a disbelieving glance. "And isn't it perhaps because you have a crush on Ishimaru yourself?"

"I'm only naturally worried about a friend's well-being." the girl justified her concern.

"He's alive and well, so why do you think it was a bad idea?"

"Because…" she started a retort, but something kept her from finishing, which only fueled Soudai's suspicion.

"Yes? We're listening… Because…?"

"Because I don't want him to end up like those people who left our club to pursue a romantic relationship with someone from Gensokyo."

Kyouichi understood where she was coming from, and that this could indeed pose a problem, undermining his resolve to return to the outside world, but before he could say anything, Soudai came to his defense.

"So what if he decides to stay? If he thinks that he'll be happier here and decides to settle down, who are we to tell him otherwise?"

"I know that we can't." Midori slowly lowered her head, as if nodding. "And that's exactly what I'm worried about. If our club president decides to stay, what'll happen then? The morale of our club is already pretty poor, to put it lightly. If Kyouichi abandons our cause, he might very well take the rest of the club down along with him."

"If that happens," Kyouichi finally interjected to state his opinion, "then you have my permission and blessing to take over the role of the club's president, Midori."

It warmed her heart, even if it was a bittersweet statement. She smiled meekly. "Yeah… provided I'll have any more fight left in me to continue."

"What are you talking about?" the club president blinked quizzically. "You're one of the most inspiring and determined people I've met."

"I have my resolve only because you haven't given up yet…"

"Funny. I could say the same thing to you."

"Hey, I'd still want to return, even if both of you left the club." Soudai reassured them. "Unless I'd manage to get myself a cute girlfriend like Kaguya… or maybe Kogasa…"

His honest interruption managed to derail the conversation completely off its course.

"What's with all the human males from the outside world only wanting youkai girlfriends?" Midori tossed in some food for thought.

"Hey, Kaguya's not a youkai." Soudai immediately corrected her. "She's a Moon princess."

"Still not a human…"

"Well, to answer your question, I guess it's due to the desire to try something new and unknown. True, that very same "new and unknown" can end up eating you by the end of the day, but if I could choose between an ordinary and a supernatural girlfriend, I'd pick the latter. Or the prettier…"

The topic has certainly digressed, as was often the case in their conversations. Kyouichi took it upon himself to return it back to its tracks. "Don't worry, Midori. I'm not about to tender my resignation yet."

"So what about Yuuka-san?"

"What about her?"

"You're not in love with her, are you?"

"And what if I am?" he replied with a question.

"Then if you're planning to return home, you're only going to end up heartbroken. Or you'll break her heart and she'll kill you."

Kyouichi repeated his "Don't worry." once more. "Both me and Yuuka-san understand the situation. We don't mind our eventual parting. And we don't mind our mutual meetings either."

"You're saying that now, but will you still be acting so cool when our time to leave Gensokyo finally comes? Partings hurt, you know. The feelings can overwhelm you."

"I've been there, Midori. I know… I'm not a fortune-teller. I can't predict whether I'll still be singing the same tune when our time to go comes… if it comes. But in spite of what Soudai here thinks and might have told you, I'm not in love with Yuuka-san. Not yet, at least…"

Even as he was making that claim with a straight face and serious tone, Kyouichi couldn't avoid that creeping feeling of guilt that he got every time he told a lie. He wondered himself, whether it was really the truth, or merely an attempt of self-suggestion.

"Did you two plan another meeting?" Midori asked to check the validity of Kyouichi's claims.

"We don't have a set date or time. All she said is that she might stop by for a visit sometimes. Maybe we won't see each other again… Who knows?"

"But she does plan on seeing you again."

Kyouichi responded only by a silent shrug. By now he wasn't even sure what point Midori was trying to make.

"Don't shrug it off! Even if you say you don't love her yet, every meeting you two will have dramatically increases the chance of that happening. I might as well say that it's only a matter of time. And when that happens, saying goodbye is going to be painful. For both of you…"

"Midori, please…" Soudai needed to point out a flaw in Midori's logic. "Number of meetings doesn't increase the chances of falling in love. Ishimaru and I have been meeting you on almost daily basis, and neither of us is dating you."

"We're meeting each other as friends, classmates and clubmates. That's different from meeting someone privately."

"Look, Midori." Kyouichi tried to reassure her and close the topic, "I've been through breakups and rejections before. I know they hurt, but everyone experiences them at some point. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? And as for Yuuka-san; she's lived for centuries and has seen a lot of people come and go. Even those few she cared for. She must be so used to it by now, that worrying about hurting her feelings is like worrying about a rock starving to death."

"Well, I for one think it's a mistake to assume that youkai have no feelings. She wouldn't be planning to visit you again otherwise. Unless she had some more basic, darker motive in mind…"

"I never said that she or other youkai have no feelings. Just that she is used to partings. And if she was the man-eating sort, she already had more than enough opportunities to eat me. Without any witnesses."

"Plus," Soudai complemented his friend's defense, "If you're worried about Ishimaru not falling in love, it's probably a bit too late, I'm afraid."

"Oh, shut up, Asakura. I already told you that I'm not in love. True, I won't deny that I like her a lot, but love? I don't know…"

"You shut up. You were just trying to justify your willingness to undergo a painful parting for the sake of meeting Yuuka-san again. I'm on your side. You're in love, idiot, you just fail to realize and admit it."

"Enough on this subject for today." Kyouichi desperately tried to end the conversation.

"No way. We'll keep pestering you about it for weeks. Or for as long as we'll be staying here."

"Yeah, like about your little Reimu Hakurei cosplay… Midori couldn't help bringing it up again.

"That joke's become old months ago. No need to rub in in my face again." Even though it was just Kyouichi's wishful thought that the mentioned event was merely a joke, the fact that it was too old couldn't be denied. "Anyway, what do you plan to do this evening? Are you all done playing baseball?"

"It's already too dark to play, but we had some fun. Not as much as you, though…"

"We were planning to get some tea… or something else to drink."

"I vote for the "something else" option." Kyouichi said while raising his hand.

"Something with a little more kick, eh? Yeah, I second that option as well. But where to go?"

"Uzume?" Midori suggested with a shrug, but Soudai quickly burst her bubble.

"On a Saturday evening? You might have better luck finding Eientei without a guide than a vacant table at Uzume right now. That place is packed!"

"Then the Drunken Oni." she suggested the second most well-known establishment.

"Heh! You've got guts, Midori! If you want to end up in a tavern brawl, be my guest."

"I've been there once." Kyouichi recalled, "It's not that bad."

"Maybe it isn't, but I hear that every Ryuuken who's not on a duty goes there. And brawls do happen."

"You're making it sound like all the Ryuuken are drunkards and ruffians in their spare time."

"Just saying what I've heard during my 6-month stay in their barracks. Even if the stories may be exaggerated, Midori might have a problem with so many Ryuuken per square meter."

"As long as I don't have to live and sleep in their filthy barracks and listen to their perverted crap every day, I don't care. I'll just have a few drinks with you guys. If any of those pigs tries to harass me, you will protect me."

As Midori finished that sentence, both Soudai and Kyouichi burst into a laughing fit that lasted almost half a minute.

"Did I say something funny?" Midori couldn't understand their reaction. She had to wait until her two male friends were able to speak coherently again.

"And that is how a good percentage of all tavern brawls starts!" Soudai still chuckled as he patted Midori's shoulder. "There's usually some woman to blame."

"I just want to have some drinks." the short-haired girl repeated. "I won't do anything to provoke a fight."

"You don't have to. Just being in the wrong company is enough. Also, I had a different problem in mind that you could have with the authorities…"

"Such as…?"

"Isn't Iwakami-san still underage?" Daniel hit the nail on the head with his question.

"She is." Soudai gave an affirming nod. "She shouldn't even as much as have a whiff of alcohol for at least another 4 years."

"My parents aren't around to tell me what to do anyway…" Midori pouted.

"Maybe so, but the barkeep at the Oni won't serve you a drop, if he knows what's good for his business. I imagine the same should apply to any other tavern."

"Then you guys do the ordering and I'll pay you at the table." she proposed a simple alternative.

"Underage honor students shouldn't be getting themselves inebriated." Soudai's tone and grin oozed with sarcasm.

"I was drinking during the summer festival and you didn't seem to mind."

"Yes, you were… As well as during the more recent harvest feast. Do I need to remind you how you ended up?"

"S-shut up!" Midori's cheeks blushed as she turned her face away from Daniel, the only person of the group who didn't yet know about her drunken antics from the aforementioned event.

"You got shitfaced during the summer festival too. And being 10 years older didn't help you much!" the flustered teen dug up some dirt on Soudai in return.

"Um… what happened during the summer festival and the harvest feast?" the fair-haired outsider blinked at the other three confusedly.

"Let's just say they both owe one a certain Moon rabbit…" Kyouichi played it safe by giving him a truthful, albeit cryptic answer.

* * *

In the end, they decided to try their luck at the Drunken Oni. The tavern had numerous patrons, but a few tables were completely unoccupied, so the outsiders didn't take long to decide where they want to be seated.

The boys ordered the drinks, not forgetting about their underage female friend who waited for them at the table. Everything went along smoothly. Neither the barkeep, nor any of the patrons batted an eye. Midori praised her friends' kind gesture.

The group discussed various interesting events of the recent days, and Kyouichi was glad that they gave his meetings with Yuuka a rest.

After a few more rounds, their tongues loosened up more. Their conversation became more honest and their voices louder. Midori grabbed another shot and downed it in one go. Then without a warning, she pointed at Kyouichi and said: "Hey, don't think that your lovey-dovey affair with the flower youkai is the most interesting thing that happened today!"

She almost looked like she was making a bet. Kyouichi had to lean back in his chair to avoid having his glasses stained by her index finger. Ishimaru himself had quite a few shots already circulating in his system, so he looked doubly confused when Midori nearly poked his eye out. And of course, Soudai would use his momentary silence to slip in one of his "clever" remarks.

"I'm pretty sure Kyou would disagree with that, but he's just courteously silent." he chuckled, "Though now you really piqued my interest."

And he certainly wasn't the only one. Kyouichi and Daniel both had their eyes fixed on her.

"Yeah, what interesting happened, Midori?"

Content that she had everyone's full, undivided attention, the young girl smiled smugly, crossed her arms, and leaned against her chair's backrest.

"Well," she paused, her smile instantly changing into a deadpan serious face, "as you know, I've been doing a big cleanup at Tanisake-san's house today."

"Oh, my… this is gonna be good." Soudai already had a feeling that whatever Midori had to share, it would be at least entertaining, if nothing else. "What did you find? A skeleton in his closet? His secret porn mag stash?"

"No. A photo."

"What? A photo?" Asakura sounded almost disappointed. "That's it? After all that buildup?"

Midori silenced him with just one cold stare. "Yes, a photo in a frame. The kind that you can either hang on a wall or stand on a table."

"Yeah, so?"

"But I didn't find that photo stand on a table, nor on a wall. It was in one of his drawers. Ever since I moved into his house, and insisted on helping him with chores, he almost stubbornly protested. Especially when I wanted to clean his bedroom."

"But he wasn't home this time…" Kyouichi complemented the information, since the old man paid him a visit this afternoon.

"Indeed…" Midori widened her impish grin.

"So what was in the photo?" Soudai was dying to know.

"It was an old black and white photo of two people - a man and a woman standing next to each other in front of a house. The man is most certainly Tanisake-san, some 30 years younger, and the house looks like the one he lives in now…"

"And the woman?" Soudai quirked his eyebrow, watching as Midori shrugged in response.

"No idea. I've never seen her or anyone resembling her in the village, but it doesn't take a detective to deduce from her standing next to Tanisake-san, that she is… or was his wife. Or a close relative."

The whole table went quiet as everyone present was taking their time to process the surprising information.

"Naota had a wife?" Kyouichi scratched his head. While it was true that the old man never used to talk much about his personal life, and whatever information he was willing to share was usually limited to his craft, Kyouichi didn't have him figured for a family type. Still, as much unlikely as the notion of a married Naota seemed to Kyouichi, it certainly wasn't beyond the realm of possibility.

Then, as if merely waiting for the best moment, Midori threw in the punchline.

"There was a barely-legible date on the back side of the photo. May 12th 1974." That information made Kyouichi open his eyes wide. As if all the alcohol suddenly drained away from his body, his mind was already playing back the conversation he had with the old carpenter.

"You know… before I went for a walk with Yuuka-san…" he started tentatively. "Naota paid me a visit, helped me build a makeshift shower."

"And?"

"Well, I nonchalantly asked him when he started to walk down the path of sake… To my surprise, he gave me a precise date… Damn… what was it?" By now he had already forgotten the day and month, but at least he still could recall the year. "Sorry, only remember the year he said… 1976. He never really said why, though, and I didn't feel like prying."

"So about two years after the date on the photo." Midori summed up after doing the simple math. "I wonder what happened…"

Like probably everyone at the table, she could already guess, but she was afraid to say it out loud.

"Add Naota's relentless hatred towards all youkai to the equation, and you may begin to imagine what made him the way he is now…"

"Well, shit…" Soudai didn't have any witty remark up his sleeve this time. Even he knew when making a joke was simply inappropriate. "A-are you gonna ask him about that photo, Midori?"

"Are you crazy? He'd go ballistic if he found out that I've been snooping around his drawers!"

"I doubt that. Naota is grumpy, but he wouldn't hurt a fly." Or at least that's what Kyouichi believed to be true about the retired craftsman. Midori, however, just stubbornly shook her head.

"I still wouldn't bring it up to him, if only not to peel his old wound open again."

"I might ask Saitou-san about it…" Kyouichi thought aloud, "And if he won't tell me, then Akyuu will surely know…"

"Whatever. Just promise me that you won't rat me out to Tanisake-san if you meet him again. If you do bring it up, then you didn't hear it from me, understand?"

Kyouichi let out a weak snort. "Even if I keep my word, I'm sure even he can put two and two together, leaving him only one person to suspect."

Midori sulked in her chair, seeking shelter for her guilty conscience at the bottom of her sake cup. "I'm beginning to regret sharing this secret with you, guys…"

"I won't tell on you, Midori. Don't worry." Kyouichi reassured her, but that had little effect on her mood.

"Well, I guess it's time we changed the subject to something more cheerful." Soudai suggested, copying Midori's move and taking a sip from his cup. "Alright, Casanova, tell me again how exactly did your date with Yuuka go, with all the juicy details. And please exaggerate."

The sip of sake Kyouichi just took almost ended up being sprayed all over Soudai's face.

"You just don't know when to stop, do you?"

"Of course I know! After you tell me everything, hahaha~!"

"Midori, tell him something."

It appeared that the silly antics of her friends managed to return a faint indication of a smile back to her lips. As she didn't want to spend the rest of the evening brooding, she decided to join Soudai in teasing the club president.

"Hey, I'm just curious… This Yuuka… is she pretty?"

"What? Are you questioning my taste?" Even Kyouichi stopped taking everything seriously and just played along.

"But I've never seen her."

"Let me put it this way," Soudai spoke to Midori, "Even if her presence unsettles me slightly, I can understand why Ishimaru is attracted to her."

* * *

And while the four young outsiders were having a good evening in the tavern, the girls in Kazemura were working hard, each in her own way, to get the spirit incident resolved with as little delay as possible. Marisa was reading through the tomes that Patchouli left in the tent, Reimu was cutting paper streamers to replace the old ones on her gohei wand, Sakuya and Koakuma were preparing meals for everyone at the portable stove, Aya was out interviewing, Suika managed buy some much-desired sweets from a travelling merchant from the Human Village, and Remilia, who returned from her mansion earlier than expected, appeared as though as she wasn't doing anything at all. However, she was actually studying fate strings of everything and everyone in sight, trying to make heads or tails of what situation they could lead to. The mysterious and reclusive alchemist Xeng-Yao was mixing something on his portable minilab. Patchouli was still down in the temple's crypt, but even without her, the tent was busier than ever.

The number of its occupants has fluctuated over the past several weeks quite a bit. Yesterday, it was the youngest member, Hieda no Akyuu who left Kazemura on a rather unexpected note after her father asked to return to Human Village, as the Suzunaan book renter was ready to print out and publish the latest iteration of her chronicle. Today, however, the archeological expedition team got two new "members": a resourceful mouse youkai and a mischievous and cunning nue trickster. While Reimu believed they were nothing but trouble, the other girls figured their abilities may yet prove very useful, especially since they worked in defiance to the anti-magic field.

"Seriously? That's the reason we're going to let these troublemaking freeloaders take up the already cramped space of this tent and give them free food?" Reimu shook her head in disapproval, but then shrugged and pretended not to care. "Whatever… At least when they're under my watch, they won't attempt to do anything foolish… Right?" she threw an intimidating gaze at the two youkai in question.

"Hey, we share the same goal, remember? We are all attempting the same foolish thing." Nue reminded her of the true state of affairs. "All of us would like to open that portal."

"That's not what bothers me. It's what you want to do afterwards. You still think I'm going to let you cross the border to the outside world?"

"Just for your information, I used to do that all the time. I know how to cross the boundary… All the places where it's the weakest. All the seasons when it's possible and when it isn't… This incident changed that, though. The barrier is virtually airtight now. I don't know what caused it, but nobody and nothing can get across from either side. And this has to happen at a time when I really, really need to cross it…"

"Oho?" Marisa put down the book she was reading, "You can travel across the boundary? That's interesting."

"Under normal circumstances, yes. But now, it's impenetrable. At least by all the means known to me."

"Hmm… I think I recall Yukari saying that the barrier wasn't meant to be completely impassible." Reimu admitted. "I forgot why, though."

"Well, duh." shrugged the witch. "The youkai have to get their food from somewhere. Now that the barrier's been hermetically sealed, they can't hunt for fresh humans anymore."

"At least one positive side-effect to this incident..." said the shrine maiden.

It was easy to wave her hand and see the situation from only one point of view, but Marisa believed the opposite to be true.

"Let's see: the starved out human-eating youkai will become desperate and start slaughtering people from the village, and once they've run out of even those, they'll eventually fade away due to absence of human fear and belief in their existence. In other words: bye-bye, Gensokyo. Yeah, that's very positive." she couldn't help but to coat the last sentence with a sarcastic tone.

Even Reimu had to acknowledge that the current state of the Great Boundary wasn't desirable, but rather than saying "You're right, Marisa." the black-haired maiden stayed quiet, resuming her work.

Even the young vampire couldn't stay focused on the fate strings when that topic had been brought up. She giggled as she turned to Reimu. "That's not good, indeed… I would very much hate to be forced to eat you, Reimu."

"You don't even eat humans anyway, just suck their blood." Marisa readily killed her joke.

Remilia was about to say something when Patchouli's sudden entrance took all the words out of her mouth.

"Good evening."

"Patchy~!" the librarian's bat-winged friend perked up with excitement. "Good evening."

Marisa, on the other hand, didn't waste any time on formalities, and got straight down to business: "Oh, hey, did ya translate the text on the arch?"

The short purple-haired girl nodded. "The gist of it, yes. Though I'm not sure it's very helpful."

"We'll be the judges of that. Just tell us what the sign says." Reimu was also visibly tense with anticipation, and couldn't wait to hear the result of Patchouli's translation.

Patchouli opened her notebook where she had written down the translated text, cleared her throat and quoted: "When the Great Council of Atlas, Eumelus, Ampheres, Evaemon, Mneseus, Autochthon, Elasippus, Mestor, Azaes and Diaprepes assembles, I shall open."

A brief silence settled inside the tent. "C-could you repeat that again?" Marisa smiled sheepishly.

"It speaks of the ten members of the Atlantean Great Council, obviously." Patchouli stated matter-of-factly, while shutting her notebook. "As for whether the "I" pronoun connotes the portal itself or the god Poseidon, whom this temple is dedicated to, is still up for debate."

"O-kay?" Marisa didn't feel any wiser even after Patchouli's explanation.

"I told you I wasn't sure if it's very helpful. We still have no idea where the portal leads. Just a vague clue on how to open it."

"Ancients and their riddles... I hope that it'll be enough if we just slide a mirror into that frame tomorrow."

Not just Marisa, but everyone hoped for the simpler solution to the problem. Right now, however, all they could do was wait for the following day.

"Is the dinner ready yet?" Patchouli sat down next to Remilia, looking really tired. Not that anyone could blame her.

"Almost~!" Koakuma waved back at her as she and Sakuya were adding the last few finishing touches to the stew they were cooking.

Shortly after Patchouli's return, the tengu journalist showed herself as well, sharing all the trivial gossip she had heard during her interviews.

"…and then she said that Lord Tenma himself will personally arrive to witness the opening of the portal and…" she stopped her chatter mid-sentence as her nose picked up a pleasant scent. "Mmm… That smells nice. Can I have some?"

"Better eat while you can, for all the youkai in Gensokyo are going to starve soon." Remilia jestingly brought up the topic of the Great Boundary.

"Hm? Did I miss something?"

"Yes, a few important things you might be interested to hear."

Aya let out a giggle. "As if there were such things that I wouldn't be interested to hear."

"You know how the Great Boundary became unexpectedly strong lately."

"Yes, it wouldn't even let Reimu take the stranded outsiders back to their world." the crow tengu nodded.

"Well, this human here," the vampire gestured at Marisa, "believes that it will result in famine, which will eventually bring about the end of Gensokyo."

"Really? Well, there are still plenty of outsiders running around Gensokyo to choose from. Not that this problem concerns me. I prefer non-human dishes myself."

"Well, that's that," Remilia shrugged, moving on to summarize the next thing Aya missed. "In other news, Patchy translated the text on the portal arch."

This bit of information apparently sparked much bigger interest of the tengu journalist. So much so, that she let Nue and Nazrin in front of herself, as the girls were lined up to be served the freshly made stew.

"Really now? Congratulations, Patchouli-san!"

"Please…" Patchouli just humbly lowered her gaze and held out an open palm. "There is no point in praising me just yet."

While Patchouli tried to maintain an aura of modesty, Remilia quickly turned her reaction against her. "Truly, all that translation managed to achieve was our further bedazzlement, hinting at the possibility that opening the portal might be more tricky than, as our simple-minded human friend put it: 'just slide a mirror into that frame'. But it's not your fault that the translation didn't do squat to help us, Patchy. Maybe next time your work will actually amount to something worthy of praising."

With a feeling of utter defeat, the tired youkai magician plopped down backwards onto her futon. "Mukyuu…"

* * *

The evening gradually progressed into night, and the night, in turn, gave way to the morning of the new day. The outsiders had one more day to relax, but that certainly couldn't be said about the Hakurei Shrine maiden. She got up earlier than everyone else in the tent. The thoughts racing through her head and her heart beating with impatience didn't bring her much restful sleep last night. She already missed the comfort of her shrine. Another reason for her to get this incident resolved as soon as possible. She knew that her abilities alone weren't going to suffice this time, and that she needed to wait, but she still couldn't bring herself to lie down again on her bedroll.

"Marisa's dad better show up with that new mirror today." she thought to herself as she stretched her stiffened limbs. Not wanting to wake anyone up, she silently moved to the portable stove, which was kept lit even during the night to keep the tent warm, and proceeded to prepare some tea.

"Mmmhm… Reimu…" Marisa stirred in her futon as she was turning over to her side. "The hell are you doing up so early?"

"Just making some tea." the miko's hushed voice replied. "Go back to sleep."

"Tsch… easier said than done after you woke me up." the witch wiped her sleepy eyes and sat up. "And just when I was having this nice dream with Patchouli…"

Just as she muttered that, muffled coughing sounds started coming out of the futon next to hers. Apparently Reimu and Marisa weren't the only ones awake.

"Oh, she's up too?"

The coughing quickly subsided, but Marisa doubted its timing was a mere coincidence. And as a mischievous grin settled on her lips, she proceeded to tease her fellow magician some more.

"You wanna know what that dream was about, Patchy? Well, let me tell you… We were alone in your library, just you and I. And you were only dressed in your underwear and a see-through nightgown, tied to a chair with a ribbon and…"

"Nobody's curious to hear about your sick dreams, Marisa." Patchouli stopped feigning sleep as she turned her frowning face at the witch.

"Yes, do go on…" Reimilia's sudden reaction took everyone by surprise.

Patchouli opened her mouth with the expression that Julius Caesar must have had in the moment of his assassination.

"You too, Remilia?"

The vampire, obviously misinterpreting the question just shrugged and said: "What? You girls were noisy and woke me up as well…"

The final punchline came when Sakuya began apologizing. "Ah, I'm sorry, my lady, it seems that I had forgotten to take your sleeping earplugs with me."

Basically everyone in the tent was now wide-awake, so Reimu could stop worrying about not making too much noise. She added more water to the tea kettle, to prepare the tea for everyone, not just herself.

* * *

"So, can anyone tell me why we all woke up when it's still dark outside?" In spite of being an early-riser herself, Aya Shameimaru found the situation a little strange.

"It's Reimu's fault." Marisa's oversimplified rationalization only helped to perplex Aya even more.

"I see…"

"I told you, Reimu, we could all go back to our futons and sleep for at least another 4 hours, because there's no way my dad will arrive to Kazemura that early." said the blonde magician.

"I couldn't sleep, okay? I'm already fed up with sleeping in this tent. I swear, if I won't get this incident resolved by the end of this day, I'm going back to my shrine."

Reimu's complaint made her friend giggle. "And I thought Remilia was the spoiled one…"

"By the way…" Aya interrupted them, as she noticed something that nobody else did. "Where did that alchemist go? And why is the bag with the shattered mirror gone?"

Only then Xeng-Yao's absence hit everyone. "That… is a good question." Marisa scratched her head.

The youkai alchemist must have disappeared in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep.

"Come to think of it, I didn't even see him going to sleep in the first place." Sakuya recollected yesterday's night.

Suddenly, a faint sound of nearing footsteps could be heard from outside the tent. Aya's pointy ears perked up as she listened. "Someone's coming this way."

"Probably just a tengu patrol." Marisa shrugged and took another sip of tea. But when the footsteps stopped just outside their tent, even the phlegmatic witch turned her gaze towards the tent's entrance.

The tarp covering the entrance suddenly moved aside and a person entered.

"Oh… Good morning." a familiar male voice accompanied the entering silhouette.

"Speak of the devil…" Remilia scoffed at the alchemist's unexpected appearance.

"Xeng-san?" Patchouli quizzically tilted her head. "Where have you been?"

The snake youkai stepped into the dim light of lanterns, holding some large flat object covered in cloth under his arm.

"Oh, rented a room at the Hearth. Been up the whole night putting thisss together." He gently patted the object that he brought.

"Wait, is that…?" Marisa didn't even finish the question, as Xeng-Yao theatrically removed the cloth to reveal a shining round mirror plate. Its bright gleam dazzled the witch in more ways than one.

"The mirror! You fixed it! How did you…?"

Obviously, Xeng-Yao was prepared for that question, as in his left hand he already playfully swung a small bottle back and forth, filled with some liquid that looked a lot like mercury. "Even you can fixsss your mirrorsss with thisss wonderful subssstance. I call it… ssssmart sssilver. Only 4000 yen per bottle, if you're interes…"

"We can use it to open the portal!" Not paying any attention to the youkai's attempt to advertise his product, Marisa sprung up and snatched the mirror from his hands, much like a magpie would snatch a shiny object.

"Thanks, Xeng-san! Come on, Reimu! Let's solve this incident. What are you waiting for?"

Now it was the alchemist who stood there in a daze for a moment before sulking. "Nobody wantsss to buy my potionsss…"

Although Reimu was impressed by the work Xeng did on the broken mirror, she paid him just as little attention as Marisa did. She just rolled her eyes at her fair-haired friend. "What am I waiting for? Gee, I don't know… maybe for the sun to rise?"

Marisa blinked at her with a blank expression on her face. "L-like I said; why the hell did you wake us up so early, damn it?!"

"I didn't wake you up. You woke up yourself. I just wanted some tea."

Reimu's words just slipped like a breeze past Marisa's ears, who was now pointing her accusing index finger at Xeng-Yao. "And you… Why didn't you say a word about being able to fix that mirror? Now my dad will drag his ass to Kazemura for nothing!"

"Um… well… If you want, I can break it again."

"NO! Please, don't…" Marisa tightly hugged the mirror and turned her back to the youkai in a protective pose. "My dad told me that using just any mirror might not yield any result, anyway… We still may need his expertise after all."

"He said WHAT?!" Reimu barked out the question at Marisa.

"Well, yeah… You know… It can fit the frame, but it might not have the right properties to do its trick."

"That better be a joke."

"We'll just have to wait and see."


	68. The Element of Surprise

As soon as dawn came, the whole team made their move, carefully transporting the mended mirror to its intended destination. Even though Marisa's father was expected to arrive today, nobody was willing to stay inside the tent to welcome him. Curiosity alone drove all the girls and one male back into the bowels of Poseidon's Temple. Of course, now that they knew its name they tried to keep calling it properly. At least the more academically-inclined individuals did. Other girls just stuck with the simpler designation that omitted the god's name. Even as they descended the slopes of the quarry pit, they discussed the temple's origin. Unfortunately for Reimu, their whole conversation sounded like it was spoken in a different language, which to some extent, it indeed was, as far as the names were concerned, anyway.

"So Poseidon, the god of the seas…" Marisa tried to impress Patchouli by showing off her knowledge of Greek Mythology, which was rudimentary at best, and primarily acquired from Patchouli's books that she stole. "That's the one with the trident, right?"

"In one of his most common depictions," Patchouli immediately caught on, like she was playing back a pre-recorded educational recording, "Poseidon is an older muscular male with curly hair and beard, sometimes riding a chariot dragged by horses that can run on water or by a hippocampus. Often referred to as the savior of ships, earth-shaker and the tamer of horses."

"A hippo… what now?" Marisa got distracted, as well as amused by the name of a mythical creature.

"Literally a "horse-monster". A horse with the lower body of a fish." the sorceress tried to provide as terse and simple answer as she could.

"That's kind of hard to imagine."

"And I thought Gensokyo's youkai were strange." said Reimu as she tried to imagine the creature in question.

"There are many fascinating creatures in foreign mythologies. I can lend you a book on them if you're interested."

"H-hey~!" the blonde witch suddenly felt oddly discriminated. "I always have to either fight you or take the books without your knowledge… no pun intended. And you let HER borrow books from you just like that? Where's the justice in that?"

"Where, indeed?" Patchouli sighed as she asked the rhetorical question. "For if there truly was such a thing as justice, you'd have returned me my books, rented me your house and served me for the rest of your life as my personal maid, catering to my every whim."

"Oh… So you have a thing for maids, huh? I see… Is Sakuya not treating you well enough?"

"Stop twisting my words, please."

"I concur wholeheartedly." Sakuya gently spoke her sentiment with a threateningly sweet smile and her hand dangerously close to her thigh strap, bearing a set of throwing knives.

"Well, not to worry, Patchy, I can still cater to your whims, if you'd like that." the ordinary magician grinned teasingly while making her suggestive proposal.

"I'd hit you for your constant shameless flirting with Patchy," Remilia spoke casually, as if she was just describing the weather while sitting in a garden and having tea, "but I don't want to break that mirror you're holding."

Neither threats nor calm words seemed to deter the witch from teasing everyone around her. "Oho! A rival in love has spoken. I'd best be on my guard."

"You better be." the vampire scoffed lightly. "Lest I bring up your attempts to sway Patchy's heart to a certain puppeteer…"

"Eep!" Marisa quickly realized the seriousness of the threat and the horrible potential consequences its fulfillment could have, and thus decided to stop with the teasing jokes. For now…

* * *

The group's descent into the temple's main hall was eased by the newly-installed pulley lift, similar to those that the quarry workers used to move the mined rock and excess soil out of the pit. Remilia still preferred to fly by her own natural propulsion, and like a childish little vampire that she was, she made it inside as the first, not forgetting to let everyone know about it.

The pulley mechanism squeaked and the ropes that held the flimsy-looking wooden platform of the lift were making an ominous cracking sound as they stretched under the weight of the girls who dared to stand on the lift. For safety's sake, no more than 3 persons were advised to board the platform, as they were told by the pair of yama-bito workers who operated the winch.

"Sure beats climbing a rope…" Reimu remarked as the lift was slowly lowered down.

"They had this lift installed yesterday. By the time I finished translating the text on the arch, it was already in use." Patchouli too found this method of entering and exiting this archeological site more convenient than having to rely on Koakuma or Remilia. Perhaps she would have made it down by using just a rope, but climbing it up would be a physical feat beyond her strength and will. However, she still had the image of one similar device breaking and collapsing in fresh memory. "Let's just hope this one's a bit safer than the one they used to pull out that heavy stone tablet from one of the obelisks…"

"Aww, and I was hoping I'd get to hitch a ride on Remilia." Marisa faked a disappointed tone. Since she had the privilege of carrying the mirror, someone would have to help her get inside the temple. This contraption, however, completely marred her hopes of being carried by someone who could still fly in this no-magic zone.

"What makes you think I'd carry you? I'd just take the mirror." the vampire didn't hesitate to point out the flawed logic of Marisa's thinking.

The lift reached the bottom, making a dull thud as the wooden planks met with the stone floor. Reimu, Marisa and Patchouli stepped away from the platform and met up with Remilia. Marisa tugged the rope twice to give the operators a signal that they could pull the whole thing up again.

"What took you so long, slowpokes?" Remilia grinned at the girls.

"I should really have let you carry that mirror." said Marisa, stretching out her arms towards the young vampire.

"Nice try. You think I don't know that mirrors are made of glass and silver? I'm not touching that thing without my gloves, which I forgot to bring."

"See? You WOULD have to carry me down after all, if it weren't for that lift."

"In your dreams maybe. I'd ask Koakuma to carry it." And right on cue, the winged demon girl glided down from the window and landed next to the group.

"You needed help with something?"

"We're fine, thank you." Patchouli answered her and took a better glance at the mirror. "Not all mirrors are made with silver, you know… This one, however, appears to be."

Marisa was impatiently stepping from one foot to another. "Hey, let's put it into that frame already. My arms are growing tired~."

"Shouldn't we wait for the rest of the team?" Reimu glanced upwards to see the lift coming down again with another three passengers.

"At this rate, the sun will set before they all get lowered down here. And besides… do we even need them all to be down here? We already hold the key to resolving this incident. The rest of the team are just spectators now."

"We'll make sure to remind you that line when a humongous swarm of fairies swoops down upon you from that portal." Aya just hopped off the lift's platform to reinforce the crowd along with Suika and Sakuya.

"You mean spirits, right?" Marisa corrected her. "Fairies were only being possessed, and did not actually emerge from this temple."

Aya shrugged her shoulders. "Spirits, fairies, dragons… Come what may, we'll just stand back and let you deal with them, since we're nothing but spectators after all. Oh, and we'll also let you solve the portal's riddle by yourself, as you already have the key."

"Tsch… smart-ass tengu…" the witch grumbled under her breath, and reluctantly stayed with the group until every last member of the team was standing down in the temple's large main hall.

"Alright, everyone's here, can we go now?"

"Lead the way, our savior." Aya gave Marisa the okay signal. The witch thought of replying with some witty comment, but decided against it. She lugged the mirror into the narrow passageway behind the altar. Despite everyone's misgivings and doubts, she had a good feeling about this, and with each step she made deeper into the temple, it intensified. Her heart raced with excitement when she entered the mirror tower. Only several meters separated her from the moment of truth. The rush was quite exhilarating. She just had to descend one flight of stairs and fit the mirror into its frame. She was so focused on what was to come, that she failed to perceive what was now.

"Awaaaa~!" her mind snapped back to the present when she felt her foot slip on the stair. With her ability to fly disabled, she was hopeless against the cruel force of gravity.

And just as her self-preservation reflex commanded her to close her eyes and brace for impact, she realized, she wasn't falling anymore.

"Huh?" she tentatively opened one eye to see what saved her from certain fall.

"I'm not gonna let you break the same mirror twice. Not on my watch…" Suika's voice, as cute and childish as it was, now sounded rather intimidating.

"T-thanks, Suika… I owe you one."

The witch regained her footing and continued down the stairs, very carefully this time.

"You're damn lucky she caught you," Reimu glared at her angrily, "because if the fall wouldn't hurt you, I sure would."

Finally, the last step was descended, and Marisa now stood before the iron half-circle that was fixed to the wall on the landing between the two flights of stairs. "And the moment we've been waiting for…"

She slowly lifted the mirror plate and with utmost care, she guided its edge into the small groove in the frame. The aged frame put up some resistance, so Marisa had to push the mirror with her left hand.

"Need any help?" Remilia asked from behind her back.

"No, I almost got it… Just a little more… Bingo!"

She let go of the silvery round plate, and it remained seated in its new home. Everybody held their breath, imaginations running wild with thoughts of what was about to happen…

"O-kay… why isn't anything happening?" The blonde blinked after she couldn't remain silent anymore.

"I'm going to check the portal and see if anything happened." Remilia offered herself to be the forward scout, and as fast as she said that, she glided down into the crypt.

"I doubt you'll see anything, Remi." Patchouli tried to stop her, but the vampire was gone before she could hear the librarian. "The mirror isn't getting any light…"

Sure enough, the staircase was still as dark as ever, with only a small fraction of daylight seeping in through the top of the mirror tower.

"Great. So what now?"

"I presume the sun needs to be at a very specific position to shine precisely through the small window of the tower, which may require a specific hour, day, season and even location to work… and since we're not in Atlantis…"

"Why didn't you tell us earlier, dammit?!" Marisa yelled at her.

"Because it only occurred to me now. Looks like I'll need to conduct some studies outside of the temple this time. Koakuma?"

"Yes Patchouli-sama?" the imp familiar parked up.

"Could you please fetch me my astronomy charts? I left them in the tent."

"Of course. Anything else?"

"That's all." Patchouli sent the little devil on her way and turned back to the group. "Don't worry, this is only a matter of a few measurements and simple calculations. Just a couple of minutes is all it…"

"Patchyyyy~!" Remilia's call distracted the librarian from finishing the sentence. The bratty vampire was back, and she looked disappointed as much as Patchouli could tell. "Nothing happened~! The mirror didn't work."

"I was trying to tell you that before you went down there…"

"Huh? Tell me what?"

"Never mind." the youkai magician sighed and began walking up the stairs. "Koakuma will be back soon with everything I need to determine our next course of action."

"Hey, where are you going? What did you mean to tell me, Patchy?" Remilia's questions went unanswered, as her purple-haired friend found herself a new object of fascination - the mirror well in the center of the tower. It was basically a round stone waist-tall structure, like a well, but instead of a hole, its surface was a large mirror surrounded by what appeared to be several rings, each divided into a different number of segments, and each segment baring a different symbol.

"This definitely looks like a dial." Patchouli muttered as she gently traced her finger against the metallic surface of one of those rings. She then pressed her whole hand against one, and to her great surprise, the ring turned, making a few ticking sounds similar to winding up a clock.

"And the dials turn… This is most fascinating." Her purple eyes were wide with awe, as she tested out each of the 4 dials. Even though some moved harder than others, all four dials could be adjusted. The fact that she had an elaborate dial mechanism built by an ancient civilization put her in a state of trance.

"Is this perhaps a calendar? I can only wonder…"

"Uh, Patchy? Did you really need to mess with that?" Marisa worriedly watched as her fellow magician played around with the dials and listened to the sounds they made.

Remilia tugged Marisa's skirt and silently shook her head. "She's in her own special world again… We'll need to wait for her to calm down before she'll react to anything we say."

"But… What if those dials were set up just the way they were supposed to be, and now thanks to her meddling, we won't be able to open the portal?"

"I remember exactly how the dials were arranged before I started turning them." the purple-haired magician showed that she was not as spaced-out as she appeared to be.

"Hey, I got an idea." Marisa then snapped her fingers as a grin stretched over her face. "Why wait for the sun to align itself with the tower's window when we can just use another mirror to direct the sunlight right where we want it?"

Patchouli stopped playing with the dials for a moment, looked at Marisa, blinked a few times without showing any expression and nodded: "That might actually work."

"Of course it will work!" the blonde puffed up her chest as proudly as she could. "Did I ever get any bad ideas?"

None of the members of the group decided to comment on that last part, but they had to admit that Marisa's simple solution was rather ingenious. The only problem was that they didn't have a second mirror to reflect the sunlight into the tower. The one at its top appeared to be in a fixed position, just like the one on the staircase.

"Too bad I can't just Master Spark it." Marisa sadly looked at her Mini Hakkero. "That would surely provide enough light to open 10 portals."

"And destroy half of the temple in the process." Reimu added. "Yeah, you truly never get any bad ideas."

Ignoring her friend's statement, Marisa hummed and rubbed her chin, lost in her own thoughts. "Looks like we'll have to wait for my pa's arrival after all."

* * *

And so the group began to argue whether they should stay in the temple and wait, or return to the surface, as nobody was truly sure when Marisa's father was supposed to arrive.

Their bickering was interrupted by Koakuma, who had returned from the tent, bringing a stack of parchments with diagrams, charts and scribbles that only Patchouli seemed to be able to make sense of.

"Ah, thank you…" Patchouli expressed her gratitude as she took the parchments and immediately began studying them.

"What were you arguing about?" the impish familiar cluelessly shifted her confused gaze from one girl to another.

"Nothing. It's okay." Remilia tried to pull wool over her eyes, but it didn't appear as though the young devil girl believed her denial. "We won't be going anywhere, right, Patchy?"

"I certainly won't." Patchouli spoke for herself, as she put one parchment aside and began reading the next one.

"Hey, Koa, did you see a middle-aged man with short fair hair, like mine coming to the village?" Marisa quickly diverted Koakuma's attention from the argument. "He likes wearing these unfashionable robes, usually dark… He's supposed to arrive with the merchant caravan."

"Hm?" the imp tilted her winged head to the side. "I didn't see anyone coming to the village… I think. I wasn't really paying attention."

"I just hope he'll come before sundown."

For a few more seconds only the sound of rustling paper could be heard as Patchouli conducted some quick calculations based on the astronomy charts she was holding. Then she finally broke the awkward silence by clearing her throat.

"I'm seconding Marisa's suggestion." she declared while neatly folding the parchments and handing them over to Koakuma. "Otherwise we'd have to wait until winter."

"Great. That settles it then." The witch sighed with relief. "I can get out of this ruin and wait for my dad. See ya around~." She then walked out of the tower section by herself.

Reimu rolled her eyes and followed suit, uttering: "I sure love pointless trips." as she was leaving.

"What's she talking about?" Patchouli couldn't fathom the reasoning behind the miko's reaction. "We've just made a fascinating new discovery."

"Which didn't help us in any way…" said Remilia. Her gaze trailed off to the corridor out of the tower. Even though she wasn't a big fan of natural sunlight, she was still tempted to follow the two humans who have left the party.

"Do you at least have any idea what the dials are for, Patchouli-sama?" asked the silver-haired maid.

Patchouli didn't answer immediately. She slowly walked around the whole dial contraption, scanning it from every angle. Then she crouched so that her eyes were on the same level as the mirror's surface. "Could you please turn any of the dials for me, Sakuya?"

"Eh?" the maid looked slightly puzzled. "Which one?"

"Doesn't matter… Just turn one to any direction."

"Well, if it doesn't matter, then here goes…" Sakuya shyly stepped up to the dials and turned the outermost dial in a clockwise direction by a few digits. "Is this good enough, Patchouli-sama?"

Again, the short bookworm was silent. She tilted her head slightly to the side and issued another command to the head maid. "Okay, now try the second one. The direction doesn't matter, but try turning it half-way."

"Half-way? As you wish…" Sakuya's face shaped a scowling grimace as her effort was met with the aged device's stubborn resistance. She had to push quite hard to make it turn, but she carried out Patchouil's request to the letter. "Anything… else… Patchouli-sama?" she uttered words between her panting.

At that point the librarian's mouth opened and she stood up. "One of the dials slightly titled the surface of this mirror. The second one definitely did something too… but I don't know what."

"Wonderful." Remilia muttered in a completely unamused tone. "Should we leave you to your research then?" She was just about to ask Sakuya to accompany her to the surface when all of a sudden, Hatate stepped up to the mirror well, camera in hand and snapped a few shots of the device.

"If there's any hidden machinery inside, I will be able to reveal it with spirit photography."

"That would be quite helpful, yes." Patchouli appreciated the tengu's assistance.

When Hatate was done taking pictures, she then proceeded to tapping the buttons on her camera and looking intensely at the display.

"How long is that charlatan divination of yours going to take, I wonder…" Aya meanwhile poked fun at her rival's expense. But Hatate was so absent-minded, she didn't even pay attention to what Aya said.

"This is strange…" she mumbled and continued pushing the buttons and swiping her finger over the device's glowing little screen.

"Is something wrong?" Suika asked her.

But instead of replying to the oni, Hatate spoke to her cellphone. "What do you mean "Please update to SpiritPhoto v 1.1"?!"

Aya just gazed at her with mouth ajar. "I'm not even sure what to say to that…"

"Guess I'll have to do it the old-fashioned way. Excuse me, I'll be back in a few hours!" and before anyone could stop her, she disappeared in the passageway.

"Well, that was a bit disappointing." Aya crossed her arms and leaned her back against the tower's wall.

"I wish I could disagree with that." Remilia let out an exasperated sigh. "Looks like no miracles are going to happen after all. Come on, Sakuya, get my parasol. We're out of here."

"Yes, milady."

And just as the vampire and her maid were about to leave the temple as well, they were pushed back into the tower, as someone was just coming through the narrow passage in the opposite direction.

"Well, hello there, Remilia and Patchouli and Sakuya and the rest of you all…" Marisa greeted the group, followed by the less vocal Reimu and another person. "Long time no see."

"I'm going to give this one more chance." said the shrine maiden as she crawled out of the tunnel.

"Greetings, young ladies." a male voice belonging to the person who followed Reimu and Marisa echoed within the tower's walls. "Pleased to meet you all. My name's Kirisame."

A robed man dusted off his attire and straightened up to his full height as he finally reached the end of the passage. All the members of the team focused their attention on him.

"Wow, that's quite the collection…" he chuckled as he briefly scanned all the persons in the room. "Saclet Devil Mansion, Myouren Temple, Hakurei-san, some tengu, an oni, and of course, my beloved daughter… Hehe, all that's missing is a bit of Eientei and Netherworld and your group would be complete."

"Actually…" Marisa smiled sheepishly, "we already had a few members from Eientei and Netherworld, but they've already left."

"I didn't know all of you girls were so much into history and archeology. Have the danmaku duels lost their popularity among Gnesokyo's youth?"

"Ahem, dad, please… Stop embarrassing us in front of everyone." his daughter whispered to him, but loudly enough for everyone present to hear. "I thought I already told you clearly that our team was assembled to solve the spirit incident that's been causing trouble since spring."

"Oh, come now, you know I was just teasing you a bit." the father gave Marisa a pat on the head.

"Judging by some of their expressions, I think your humor might have gone over some of the girls' heads."

"I hope you told them I've come here to help, not just to joke around."

The family reunion was interrupted by Remilia's straight-to-the-point question: "Excuse me, but have you brought a mirror with you? We could really use one to get the portal to open."

"I already gave Marisa a mirror when she stopped by the other day."

Marisa nodded. "Yes, and we already put it in its place. Now we just need another one."

"Did you know your daughter carelessly smashed that mirror you gave her? We had to have it mended." the red-white-clad maiden nonchalantly broke the news to the man, as if Marisa wasn't even there.

"Don't be such a fink, Reimu…"

"Well, I didn't bring any mirros, Remilia-san, but I did bring all the necessary materials and tools to craft one. All I need to know are the measurements and I can get to work right away."

"Uh… have we met?" Remilia was slightly baffled that Marisa's father, whom she never seen before knew her name.

"Oh, pardon me. Not personally, no." Kirisame-san apologetically bowed to the young lady. "But there aren't that many vampires living in Gensokyo. I've seen you several times before, though. Last time during the summer festival at the shrine… Better luck in the tournament next time… Oh, and of course, Marisa told me quite a lot about you. Not as much as about Patchouli-san or Alice-san, though… Ow!" he let out a pained yelp as Marisa stepped on his foot, hardly by accident.

"What I meant to say is that you're quite well-known, that's all."

"Well, dad, turns out you don't need to measure anything, as the mirror we need is just going to be used to reflect the sunlight from outside into that window of the tower." Marisa pointed up as she explained the situation.

"Quite an amazing building, isn't it?" her father observed the mirror at the top of the tower, as well as the one at its bottom. "Is this the portal you told me about?"

"No, that one is further down below us, in the crypt."

"A crypt, huh? Can I take a look?" the man's eyes gleamed with excitement.

"Sure, why not. Just don't fall into that deathtrap with spikes on the bottom."

A worried expression crept to Kirisame-san's face as he heard his daughter's friendly warning. "I'll try to be careful then. By the way, where have you put that mirror that I gave you and that you supposedly broke?"

"You'll find it halfway down the stairs. Try not to touch it, though."

"Alright… Now, please, excuse me while I take a look around this wonderful temple… Makes me wonder who might have built it, and how long ago…"

"Actually, we already learned that…" Patchouli was about to reveal the building's origin when Marisa hissed out a "Shhhh~! Quiet Patchy! Not a word about Atlantis to my fa…" the blonde quickly realized the slip of her tongue, but even when she used both hands to cover her mouth, the cat was already out of the bag.

"Did you say Atlantis?" Kirisame-san slowly turned his fair-haired head backwards before the rest of his body followed suit. "As in that same Atlantis which disappeared under the ocean and that people only believe to be a legend?"

It appeared the man was familiar with the myth, so Patchouli saw no point in hiding the discovery from him. "Even the city of Troy was once considered a mere legend until Heinrich Schliemann discovered its ruins, but I digress. This is with almost full certainty the Temple of Poseidon of Atlantis. Although, I expected there to be at least a statue of the god inside…"

"Incredible…" Marisa's father whispered in an awestruck state. Suddenly every little cobble looked like a treasure to him. "Such a discovery… But… isn't it a bit… out of place?"

"That it is, indeed." Patchouli admittedly nodded. "Or perhaps not, seeing as how all things forgotten by the outside-world humans have a tendency to show up here, in Gensokyo… But I'm afraid the only way of learning the full story behind this temple is to open its portal. And I believe we need but one more mirror to do so."

"I cannot express my amazement. This is one for the history books… I'll make you any type of mirror you'll need, but please, let me see the portal first."

* * *

"Astounding." Kirisame-san now stood in awe in front of the alleged portal arch, that was now crawling with scholars, tengu guards as well as curious visitors. "Though if you ask me, it wasn't the best decision to open the temple to the general public. It's already crowded enough as it is with all the savants and tengu soldiers, the latter of which are just getting in the way. It's not like their swords are going to be any good against intangible forces that drain all magic away…"

"That, unfortunately, was the only viable option during the negotiations." Patchouli cleared it up, sharing the man's opinion on the redundancy of the armed forces inside the excavation site.

"That's alright, Patchouli-san. Considering the nature of the tengu politics, it's already a small miracle that they agreed to these terms, rather than taking over the whole village by force."

That's when Aya interjected. "Ah, but even for old Tenma, this situation needed a more delicate approach, because not only would most of the involved parties shun such a move, it would also be a huge risk to take. If anything would go wrong, he'd take the full blame."

"I see. So he spreads the burden of responsibility to the humans and yama-bito."

"And everyone else who enters the temple." Aya nodded affirmatively. She stole a glance at a group of White Wolves standing guard in front of the temple arch. "Our guards aren't completely defenseless against spirits, you know…" she continued, "but down here, it would probably make no difference if they posted straw dummies instead. You know what I think they're really here for? To keep an eye on visitors and making sure nobody touches anything or takes any souvenirs they find inside…"

"Of that I have no doubt, Shameimaru-san." Kirisame agreed, as he kept his eyes on the magnificent arch. Everything inside the temple seemed to have a hypnotic effect on him. Thankfully, his daughter was there to remind him that he didn't come here just to do some sightseeing.

"Well, daddy, you've seen the portal. If there isn't anything else you wanted to have a look at, it would be a good time to cut us another mirror while the sky is still clear. You know how capricious the weather can be this season. It'll be your fault if you can't provide us with a mirror before it gets cloudy."

"I fully understand the situation, Marisa. But I truly needed to see the portal with my own eyes…" he tilted his head slowly upwards as he trailed the center line of the arch all the way up to the ceiling. "If my rough estimate is correct, we should now be standing precisely below the tower."

"Maybe… Why?"

"I am highly intrigued if there is any hole in the ceiling right below that mirror dial…"

Even though the interior of the ruin was relatively well-lit by lamps and torches, that was only the case for areas that were easily reachable. The ceiling, however, still remained almost completely shrouded in darkness. "If only I could see the ceiling better…"

"That can be easily achieved." Remilia snapped her fingers, like she used to do when she requested something.

"Yes, mistress?" Sakuya instantly answered the call, but it wasn't her help that the vampire needed.

"Not you, silly. You don't have any wings. I'm asking Koakuma here."

Koakuma gave her a weird look, uncertain whether she should be happy that her wings have made her so useful in this expedition or whether to be annoyed that Remilia now abuses her with menial tasks that she could have just as easily accomplished herself.

"Here you go." Remilia already borrowed a torch from a nearby stand and handed it over to the demon girl. "You know what to do, I assume."

"Yeees~." the imp replied obediently, and with the torch in her palm's grip, she flapped her wings to soar up to the darker upper part of the crypt.

"And don't hit your head!" Remilia gave her a friendly, albeit a little unnecessary warning. The torch would show Koakuma when she was nearing the ceiling. And when the solid surface became clearly visible, the devil girl tried her best to hover in one place so that everyone on the ground could have a good look.

Aya also tried using her camera and its flash to scan the shrouded ceiling. As she waited a while for the picture to develop, she tilted her head and hummed.

"Hmm… So, black today, huh, Koakuma-san?"

"That's… not exactly helpful, Aya." Marisa tried to sound condescending while holding back a chuckle. Everyone else was more focused on the temple's ceiling itself, which was rich in antique ornamentation. Along the middle section of the crypt, in one coherent axis, a pattern of circles marked the center of the hall. From each of these circles, symmetric ornaments were spreading outward, like from the center of a flower.

Kirisame-san believed that one of these circles was somehow linked to the mirror well in the tower above, but he wasn't quite certain which one. The one which Koakuma was hovering next to didn't seem in any way out of the ordinary.

"Can't see well enough…" he focused his eyes, but try as he might, all he could see was a line of several black circular ornamental hubs. "Umm… young miss, can you tell me if you see anything unusual about those black circles? Does any of them reflect light or does any of them have any holes?" he hollered up to the little demon. The hall echoed loudly with his voice and all the scholars in the crypt were giving him quizzical stares.

The light of Koakuma's torch briefly danced around a few of those circles before her voice replied: "Nothing. They're just painted black! No, wait a minute… This one here… it has a small hole in the middle!"

"Good. Do the other circles have holes like that too?"

"Let me take a look." After a brief pause came the answer that Kirisame-san was the most anxious to hear. "No, it looks like it's only this one."

Right as Koakuma confirmed his theory, Kirisame-san stepped right underneath it and looked down at his feet. "So if the mirror in the tower somehow lets a portion of light through, and if that hole is indeed connected to it, a ray of light should then be shone… right onto this stone cobble… Hmm…"

"What is it, dad?"

"It's strange… as if there was something missing… Hmm… I just hope that I'm wrong."

"Just craft that mirror already and let us figure out what to do next."

"Alright then." the man cleared his throat as his gaze returned to horizontal position. "You've kept your part of the bargain by showing me the portal, now I'll keep mine. Let's go back to the surface."

"It was about time…"

* * *

The weather looked still favorable for the archeological expedition, so Kirisame-san heeded Marisa's nagging and got straight to work as soon as he got out of the quarry pit. He worked fast, but he still didn't want to rush anything, so that his product's quality wouldn't suffer.

"Now just a little polish and we can see if it does anything with that portal."

"I can hardly wait." Marisa was already rubbing her palms in anticipation, and she wasn't alone. Pretty much every other member of Patchouli's team, Nazrin and Nue included, were impatient to see whether their little mirror experiment would yield any results.

And just as the mirror before them was nearing its completion a sudden commotion from outside the tent got everyone's attention.

"What's going on outside?"

It sounded like people were getting worked up over something.

"I'll go take a peek." Aya volunteered herself as she stepped outside. "Oh, my… So he did actually come… I was starting to have my doubts."

"Who came?" Reimu wanted to know.

"Why Lord Tenma, of course. Every White Wolf is lining up for a greeting salute. Yeah, a little déjà-vu, huh?"

It didn't take long for the rest of the tent's occupants to crawl out and see what was happening.

True to Aya's words, two lines of tengu guards have assembled in front of Kazemura's modest village hall, raising their weapons high to honor their leader.

From the west, a small group of flying silhouettes appeared, one being particularly large in stature.

"Let me guess," said Marisa with her eyes set on the arriving group, "the big one is Tenma."

"Well, they're not called daitengu for nothing." Aya replied and snapped a shot of this rare visit.

Truly, once the figures were close enough and preparing to touch down, even the less sharp sight of human observers could see that Lord Tenma was one giant of a man, or tengu.

He could easily stare face-to-face with the tallest of the yama-bito without having to tilt his gaze upwards. His long white hair and beard were a testament to his age. A golden tokin with purple bonten-fusa, a symbol of his status. He wore a bright golden-brown silk kimono with aralia leaf patterns. From his back, a pair of large grey feathered wings spanned widely and gently flapped as he was descending to the ground. Even from this distance his prominent nose could not be unnoticed. The four figures who escorted him were white wolf tengu, but unlike most of the guards that were stationed in Kazemura, these soldiers sported heavy armor and each a different set of weapons.

As soon as the tengu leader and his bodyguards landed, a group led by the elder of Kazemura approached him, making their way through the alley formed by saluting guards. They exchanged a couple of courteous bows and a few words before the yama-bito elder nodded and gestured in the general direction of where the group of girls was standing. As Tenma slowly walked around the edge of the quarry pit, he lifted his hand, as if he was responding to the salutes of his troops. And just as he lowered it, so did the soldiers lower their weapons and began to return to their duties in an orderly fashion.

"Hey, wait a minute." Patchouli muttered, as if she was just thinking aloud. "They're not headed for the village hall. Where are they going?"

Truly, the group that became the center of attention of everyone in Kazemura, didn't make a turn towards the modest village hall, but instead, proceeded alongside the shimenawa fence towards the residential area.

"Are they perhaps going straight into the temple?" Aya speculated. "But if that was the case, they could have just landed near the temple…"

And indeed, they didn't stop near one of the access ramps that would take them down into the quarry pit, they were just casually walking onward. As they neared the only tavern in the village, Suika dared to make her own assumption of the leaders' planned destination.

"Maybe Tenma-san is thirsty after the trip and wants to taste the local selection of ale."

As expected, nobody really took her seriously, but there weren't many options left in the village where these men of great importance could be possibly headed. And once they passed by the Hearth, and still didn't turn towards its doors, everyone became really confused.

"Okay, either this big old tengu landed here just so he could take a stroll around the quarry and leave the village by the southern road, or…" Remilia paused for a few seconds as her eyes trailed off to the other side of the pit. "Or he's inspecting the shimenawa barrier."

The thought of that made Reimu feel a little antsy, as the symbolic, but nonetheless important rope fence around the pit was partially her work. And having her work being so closely scrutinized by someone of Tenma's standing made her exude sweat in spite of the chilly autumn air.

The two men and their armed escort were just about to pass along the tent where the girls were watching them. They have completely hushed their chatter and just waited for them to move along, but the daitengu suddenly stopped to take a good look over the rope fence and into the quarry pit at the uncovered temple. He stood there motionlessly for a good while. Surely never in his life had he seen such a thing before. The yama-bito elder kept muttering something to him as both of them had their backs turned at the band of girls. Then, all of a sudden, Lord Tenma turned around.

All the girls gave him wide-eyed looks, as he, in turn, gave the group a once-over. Everyone expected him to keep walking and finish the lap around the pit, but to everyone's surprise, he stepped forth with his eyes fixated on one person in the group. And that person was…

"Uh… a good day to you…" Remilia shyly greeted him with a slight delay. The hulking tengu was unmistakably staring right at her.

"Hmmm…" he hummed in a deep voice as he sized the little vampire girl up. Some girls took a step back, but Remilia remained where she was, unflinching, staring right into Tenma's eyes. The daitengu then bowed, just as he did to the yama-bito elder when he arrived.

"May the gentle winds caress you, Scarlet-san…" he uttered a strange greeting before he straightened up. "A pity that our very first meeting is marked by such circumstances, but… I still must express my utmost respect for the work you and your team has carried out in gathering and recording information about this fascinating discovery."

It wasn't very surprising that he knew the vampire's name. Remilia was quite well-known throughout Gensokyo, as one of the only two representatives of her species. Tenma was apparently well-informed… or was he?

"Huh? What was that?" he leaned his ear to Kazemura's elder who just tapped his shoulder and whispered something to him. "The other short, purple-haired girl? Oh, I see… Knowledge-san, was it? Ah, I apologize. I automatically assumed that Scarlet-san was in charge of this expedition team."

It's true that in certain light, Patchouli's and Remilia's hair colors looked similar, but it was still quite the surprise to see Lord Tenma make such a faux-pas right at the introduction.

"Pleased to meet you, Lord Tenma." Patchouli quietly greeted him.

"W-wait, I'm important too, you know?" the flustered little vampire pouted at her best friend and then at the daitengu. "She lives in my mansion because I let her, so basically…"

"Yes, yes…" Sakuya stepped in to prevent any further embarrassments by gently pulling her mistress away from the tengu lord.

"Hey, let me go! Sakuya? Sakuya!"

"Well then, Knowledge-san," Tenma continued after clearing his throat, "once again, I wish to thank you for all your hard work on helping us understand this discovery at least a little more."

"I can't possibly take credit for all the work." Patchouli shook her head. "All of what I've been able to learn is a result of combined effort of everyone who had been a part of this expedition team, and you're only looking at a small part of it."

"Of course… I extend my gratitude to everyone who made this all possible and…" he stopped mid-sentence as he noticed a familiar face. "Aya? Now isn't this a surprise!"

"Lord Tenma! It's an honor to see you again." The crow tengu reporter prostrated herself.

"So you've been a part of this team, I take it? Had I known this before I sent Himekaidou-san to investigate this temple…"

"Oh… but Hatate's help was also invaluable to the research, right Patchouli-san?"

"It helped us understand the nature of the temple, so we could accurately pinpoint its origin." the youkai magician nodded affirmatively.

"She might be my rival and all, but we have previously joined forces to unveil the temple's mystery… well to some extent."

"So is it true? The temple being the source of evil spirits and that there's a gateway leading to another realm?"

Patchouli nodded and gave him a brief run-down of the situation as well as a few basic facts about the temple itself.

* * *

"I have only heard of that place." Tenma said as he gently tugged on his beard. "I wonder… Its discovery sounds strikingly similar to the history of our sacred mountain."

"Oh, you mean how the mountain was supposedly torn down by the goddess of Mt. Fuji, but reappeared restored in Gensokyo?" Marisa joined the debate.

"Exactly. I wonder if that's Lord Poseidon's way of trying to preserve his temple when the city of Atlantis was destroyed. Or perhaps he's planning to move here."

"If that's the case," said the blonde witch, "he sure has some weird manners."

Patchouli expressed her doubt about the viability of this theory by a light shrug. "Poseidon isn't known for commanding the dead."

"So… Hades, maybe? What if this is all some great conspiracy of the Greek gods to take over Gensokyo?"

"Rather than pondering the possible theories, I'd prefer sticking to the facts. And the fact is that we need to solve the riddle inscribed on the portal arch in order to learn anything more about this incident."

"Oh, come on, Patchy, I'm telling you, all we need is the mirror, which should be finished any minute now."

"Ah, excellent!" Tenma's eyes glistened with excitement. "It seems I have arrived at the right time…"

Just as he said that, the tarp covering the entrance of the tent moved aside and Kirisame-san stepped out, holding a polished round plate. "Did someone say "mirror"? So… what was that commotion outside all about?"

Obviously, he had no clue of what was going on outside of the tent while he worked on the mirror. It didn't help that the bright sun blinded his eyes that were more adjusted to the much dimmer interior of the tent. He didn't even notice that he held the mirror at such an angle that reflected the sunlight directly into Lord Tenma's eyes.

After a brief moment of embarrassing silence of all parties involved, Kirisame-san opened his mouth and immediately turned the mirror away. "O… oh, my… Sorry about that."

"Kyaaaah~!" A girl's shriek distracted him from finishing the apology. As he turned his head in the direction of its source, he saw Remilia covering her face from the ray of sunlight reflected by the mirror right at her. Her body appeared to be giving off smoke before she quickly took cover behind Sakuya.

"Watch where you aim that thing~!"

"I guess "reckless" runs in the family..." Reimu's frankness casually slipped out of her lips as she shook her head.

Now Kirisame-san had two youkai to apologize to, and so he did, being extra careful not to blind anyone else with his mirror in the process.

"A mirror is the key to opening the gateway?" Tenma raised his eyebrows.

"Well, that we are all about to find out… So, are you all ready to descend into the temple once more?"

Some of the girls didn't even reply and simply started walking towards the slopes of the quarry pit.

Lord Tenma chuckled at their reaction. "I'd say that's a "yes". I wouldn't keep them waiting. I myself am immensely curious to witness the gateway's opening."

* * *

After several minutes, the whole archeological expedition team was now inside the Temple of Poseidon. All except Koakuma, who got stuck with the unfortunate task of hovering around the mirror tower, holding the large and heavy mirror and trying to keep it steady in one position, as it reflected the light directly into the second mirror fixated at the top of the mentioned tower. She winced as she kept arduously flapping her wings, weighted down by the mirror.

"Uuuu~. Patchouli-samaaa… Hurry up and open that portal~!"

Inside the temple, a part of the group was standing around the mirror well. Aya, Suika, Remilia, Patchouli and Sakuya could all see that the ray of sunlight from above was touching the well's surface, but being reflected at a random part of the tower's wall.

"Ah, yes, I should turn these dials so that the light would be reflected to the mirror on the stairwell."

After some adjustments, the elemental sorceress found the right combination that sent the light beam further down the desired path.

"Yes! That's it!" Marisa's voice echoed from the stairwell as she confirmed the light's presence and its correct position. "We have light down here!"

Marisa checked the beam's path and noticed that it was shining right onto the second to last step of the stairwell. The one which triggered the spear trap.

"Yeah, I can see what you were trying to warn us about, but that's not very helpful anymore."

"Marisa!" Patchouli called at her, "Can you see where the light is reflected to?"

"I can, but it's not much of a help, ze!"

"What do you mean?"

"I'll go take a look." Remilia took action and flapped her wings. In a moment, she was gliding down the stairwell right past Marisa, all the while trying to avoid the ray of harmful sunlight.

"Hmm… That really isn't very helpful anymore." the vampire stated as she landed at the bottom of the stairwell.

"What about the crypt? Any light there?" the witch asked.

"I doubt it, but I'll go check it out anyway." Already feeling disappointment, Remilia took flight again, this time in a less energetic manner and flew over the spiked pitfall deathtrap to land at the top of the portal arch.

"Any luck down here?" she called at the remaining part of the group. Reimu, Xeng-Yao, Kirisame-san, Lord Tenma, Hatate, Nue and Nazrin were all staring intently at the portal wall.

"Hey! Can you hear me? I asked you something!" Remilia raised her voice, slightly annoyed that her question got ignored.

But then she saw it herself. A flash of light came from right underneath her feet. It was as brief as a lightning, but it illuminated the whole crypt for that split second.

The crowds of scholars and tengu soldiers alike were glaring at the wall in shock.

"Well…" Reimu finally noticed Remilia, "Something is definitely happening…" She grabbed her gohei tightly and readied a handful of ofuda as another flash appeared.

"Hey everyone, get down to the crypt!" Remilia shouted back at the girls on the upper level.

It didn't take long for them to gather in front of the portal. By now the flashes were increasing in frequency and in duration.

"This is most peculiar…" Kirisame-san whispered as he observed the spectacle. The whole portal wall was covered in glowing glyphs, much like the arch that embraced it. These glyphs were the source of the mysterious rhythmical flashes, like a beating heart.

It wasn't long before the rest of the team gathered in the crypt, each one of them mesmerized by the light show that was taking place. But at the same time, everyone was on edge and ready to flee or fight.

"Hey, Patchy, some more of those weird symbols appeared on the wall, can you translate them as well?" Remilia asked before Patchouli even descended the stairs to the Crypt's bottom level.

And when the youkai magician made it to the bottom and had a good look at the flashing wall of glyphs, she tilted her head and shook it.

"Remi, there is no text to translate. Have a better look…"

As the flashes intensified, it was possible to see that the glowing glyphs were in fact a picture. A work of art depicting Poseidon's torso towering over what looked like a closed gate, surrounded by water.

"Is that the…?"Remilia was finally beginning to see the picture.

"So I was right after all… Yes, that's Poseidon. Also known as Neptune in the Roman pantheon. And it doesn't seem like he's going to open that gate unless we solve the riddle…"

"Riddle? But we don't even know where to start!" Marisa exclaimed with no small amount of frustration in her tone. "It's so vague! Those 10 kings or what they were are dead for millennia."

"Indeed… And we are in a crypt…" Patchouli finally took her eyes off the glowing portal wall to look around the rest of the crypt, which was lined from floor to ceiling with countless burial chambers, each sealed by a finely crafted stone panel.

But before she could even give a suggestion on how to solve the portal's riddle another, much brighter flash distracted her from her thoughts, as it did pretty much everyone else in the crypt.

"Something's going on again!" Remilia pointed her finger at the wall again.

"Riddle, shimiddle…" Marisa became confident enough to grin again. "Apparently all we needed was to wait a while."

The crypt became quickly filled with thick smoke, which, combined with the flashes of the glyphs, made everyone feel like they were standing in the middle of a storm cloud.

"Everybody stand back!" yelled the panicking commander of the white wolf tengu. Only the sound of dozens of swords being drawn out of their sheathes resonated in this thick milky mist that had shrouded the crypt in its veil.

"Patchy! Grab my hand now!" Remilia urged her friend to grasp her hand, so that they wouldn't get separated if things suddenly became chaotic.

But just as suddenly as the smoke appeared, it dissipated, revealing the crypt with more persons than there originally were.

Reimu was just about to declare a pre-emptive Fantasy Seal when she noticed several human-like silhouettes standing in front of the portal. She could only make out their outlines, as the light of the glyphs behind the silhouettes was blinding her rather than revealing the unknown visitors' features.

"W-who are you?"

* * *

"And where in the hell have we teleported ourselves now?" one of the unknown figures spoke in a slightly raspy, but young female voice.

"I think I just heard someone say something." another person spoke, also sounding like a young female. "By the looks of it, it seems like we're in a dungeon of some sort."

As more of the smoke cleared, everyone could see that all the mysterious figures were female. They all seemed utterly confused, but given their sudden appearance, everyone treated them as potentially hostile.

"Don't come any closer! Identify yourselves immediately!" the white wolf tengu soldiers yelled at them. "One wrong move and we'll kill you!"

"Nepu! There's really someone here!" a girl with short lilac hair, dressed in a white-purple hoodie and wearing a pair of striped white-blue thigh-highs excitedly spoke to her companions in a high-pitched voice.

"You noticed that just now?" asked a shorter girl with long brown hair adorned with a green ribbon, clad in a blue coat, which looked a few sizes too large for her. "Seriously, though, Nep, I knew I shouldn't have trusted you with inputting the coordinates."

"But Iffy, I typed them in exactly as you were dictating them."

"Yes, while playing a game."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think this is the best time to be all chitty-chatty, Nep-nep." a girl with long light-pinkish hair, wearing a light tan woolen sweater and a short red plaid skirt sheepishly tried to interrupt the conversation.

"Oh my, it seems we are surrounded." a tall long-haired blonde in an elegant white and green dress summed up the situation.

"And outnumbered to boot." said a black-haired girl with long twintails, dressed almost like a maid.

"I'm not afraid to take them all on, if need be, but I suggest we should try to negotiate first." The last girl in the group, with a small frame, short brown hair, wearing a puffy white hat and a dress of matching color quietly muttered in a stoically calm tone.

Much less calmer than her, the tengu soldiers kept barking warnings and questions at them, which could be summed up to "don't move", "identify yourselves", and "state your business".

That's when the purple-haired girl cheerfully raised her hand.

"Okay~! Leave it to me! I'll do the talking."

"We're doomed…" said the one in the blue coat.

And so, the most talkative girl stepped slowly forward, still smiling even at the sight of an overwhelming number of angry-looking men with sharp swords.

"That's close enough!" the white wolf tengu captain demanded her to stop. And she stopped. "Are you the leader of this group?"

"Please…" Lord Tenma approached the captain, placed his palm on his blade and slowly lowered it. "Allow me to lead this parlay."

"My lord, you can't trust them. For all we know, they could be the ones responsible…"

"Thank you, captain, for you well-meant advice, but I believe a leader, if that's who this young lady is, should speak with the leader. Now, please lower your weapon and kindly order the men to do the same."

Unable to disobey his lord, the tengu captain gave the order. "You heard the Lord! Lower your weapons!" All the White Wolves have sheathed their swords as they were told.

"Now," Tenma took a step forward, "why don't we start with an introduction first? I'm Tenma and I represent the tengu of the sacred mountain Yatsugatake. Are you the leader of this group?

"Leader? Uh… well… Ehehe, I'm the main character, but I mostly listen to what Iffy says." the girl shyly giggled as she flung a brief glance at her companions. "Oh! I'm Neptune, by the way. Nice to meet you, Tenma-san. That shorter girl in blue coat is IF, but we all call her Iffy. Both letters of her name are uppercase. She's kinda like our older sister. Compa is the one wearing the sweater and the plaid skirt. She makes the most superblicious pudding in the world. Noire is the black-haired tsundere girl who doesn't have any friends besides us."

"What did you call me?!" the girl in question responded as one would imagine most people react if someone introduced them in such an unflattering way. "And cut it out with saying I have no friends!"

Completely ignoring her friend's complaints, the lilac-haired girl continued in the introduction. "That tall blonde is Vert and the last, but not least – Blanc."

Patchouli, who was standing just a few meters away, watched the awkward scene with her mouth ajar. "Not quite the Neptune we expected…"

"Ehehe~. Did my reputation precede me? But you know, you shouldn't believe every gossip people say and… Did that elderly man just say he's a tengu?" the girl who introduced herself as Neptune changed the topic just as suddenly as she appeared in the crypt. "He does have a nose like one. I mean, I've certainly seen stranger things, but a tengu encounter would be a first. Are we perhaps in Lowee?"

"I don't know any Lowee, I'm afraid." Tenma frowned. "Are you trying to tell me you girls don't even know where you are right now?"

"It's all Nep's fault!" the girl with the shortest name joined the conversation. "She messed up the coordinates on the teleporter and it spat us out in a completely wrong dimension. Again…"

IF's explanation of the situation didn't make it sound any less confusing than Neptune's blathering. "Eh… telepo…what now?"

"It's a big metal machine with a chamber for several people and… uh… If this isn't Gamindustri, then could you please tell us where we are, Tenga-san?"

"You're now in Gensokyo. And it's "Tenma"."

"Gensokyo?" Neptune blinked as her face assumed a puzzled expression. "Have you girls ever heard of such a place?"

"That I haven't. And I'm quite well-traveled…" IF replied negatively.

"It sounds like some sort of theme park's name…" Compa was just as clueless as her friends.

"But it sounds so familiar…" Neptune scowled from searching the deepest depths of her faint memory.

"I also feel like I've heard the name before," said Vert, "I just can't put my finger on it…"

"My first association is also Lowee…" Blanc muttered in a barely-audible voice.

"Hey, hey, Tangram-san, are you the leader of this Gensokyo?"

"Te-n-ma!" the daitengu blushed as red as a beetroot after hearing Neptune mangling his name for the second time. "But… no… I don't rule over all of Gensokyo. Just one of its parts."

"Ah, so you probably won't be able to help us with our inter-dimensional travel."

"I've already recalibrated the coordinates, but it's going to take a moment for the teleporter to activate." IF informed her cheerful purple-haired friend after she tapped her finger a few times against a strange small box that emitted beeping sounds each time her fingertip touched it.

"You know…" Reimu just couldn't remain quiet anymore and finally decided to enter the conversation. "I find it awfully coincidental that you lot appear exactly here in this suspicious temple, when there's a major incident taking place and exactly at the moment we attempt to open the portal that you're standing in front of. And of course, you all play dumb to avoid suspicion of being accused of perpetrating the whole incident... And… is that you, Yukari?"

The shrine maiden suddenly trailed off and focused her gaze on Vert.

"I apologize, but it seems you must have mistaken me for someone else." the blonde girl calmly denied Reimu's false assumption.

"So you know absolutely nothing about the host of evil spirits that has been possessing fairies in droves and subsequently raiding random locations around Gensokyo, right?" Reimu asked in a sarcastic tone filled with mistrust.

"As interesting as that sounds, we indeed don't know anything about that." Noire crossed her arms and responded to Reimu's accusation with cold denial.

"Oh! This girl…" Neptune widened her violet eyes as she beheld the shrine maiden.

"Is something wrong, Nep-nep?"

"Do you recognize her by any chance?"

All of a sudden, the very lively young girl snapped her fingers. "Of course! She's a shrine maiden!"

"…"

"…"

"No way, really?" Noire tried to make her question sound as sarcastically as possible.

"Leave it to Nep to ruin a dramatic pause moment with something dumb like that…" IF buried her face in her own palm.

"Our Nep-nep is random like that."

"Well, at least she isn't wrong for a change." Blanc found something positive about the obvious statement.

"But she's not just any shrine maiden, you know." Neptune continued and began casting glances at all the girls surrounding Reimu. "The witch, the maid, that little vampire girl, the other little girl with horns…! Your cosplay is really top-notch, girls!"

Again, a moment of awkward silence settled in the stone crypt of Poseidon's Temple.

"Our what?" Marisa blinked in confusion.

"You mean you aren't just dressed up like that for fun, so you could have people take pictures of you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but maybe you'll start making sense after I knock it into your head." Reimu again regained her battle-ready stance.

"Nepu! So is this for real? Are you the real Hakurei Reimu?"

The shrine maiden dropped her jaw as the girl she had never seen before somehow knew her name before she even introduced herself.

"H-how do you know…?! Are you a satori too?"

"Wahaaa! Iffy, Iffy, did you hear? This is amazing! So we weren't that far off course in the first place, we just ended up in a different game!" Neptune was super-excited after hearing Reimu's reaction. The shrine maiden and the rest of Gensokyo natives who gathered in the crypt, on the other hand, were just cluelessly staring at the mysterious girl's antics.

"Game? Does this look like a game to you?!" a little pulsating vein popped up on Reimu's forehead.

"That's all well and good," IF spoke in a serious voice, "but regardless, this isn't our intended destination. Not to worry, in a minute the teleporter will be fully-charged and we can be on our way…"

"Aww… Just when two main characters meet for the first time." Neptune's voice reverberated with evident disappointment. "Let me at least shake hands with her!"

And so, Neptune caught the shrine maiden completely off-guard. She grabbed Reimu's right wrist, made her drop her paper amulets and shook her hand.

"What are you doing? Let me go of my hand this instant!" Reimu felt threatened and was on the verge of hitting the girl with the purification rod, but against her better judgment decided not to.

"My little sis is gonna be soooo jealous, hehe~! Now if only I could have a picture of the two of us taken."

She didn't have to wait for too long to get her wish granted. Another flash, this time coming out of Aya's camera, briefly illuminated the crypt's interior. After a short moment and a quiet buzzing sound, a fresh picture commemorating the handshake came out of the slot.

"Oho! Can I have that one? I'll give you one of my puddings if you let me have that picture!" Neptune released Reimu's hand and reached out for the picture Aya was holding.

"How about an interview instead?"

"Ten seconds to go, Nep. Get ready." IF announced after checking the timer on her handheld device.

"Ah, that's a pity, it doesn't look like I'll be able to tell you all about myself in such a short time~."

"Wait!" Reimu halted her, even though Neptune hadn't moved anywhere from her place. "Do you think we're just going to let you get away as our prime suspects behind this spirit incident? Think again!"

"Five seconds…"

"Ah, I'm sure you'll figure everything out eventually. You're the main character, after all. We have our own little incident to resolve so… maybe some other time~. See ya~!"

"…two…one… Aaaand go!"

"Hey! Wait!" Reimu's shout got drowned out by the loud noise and the accompanying flash of light as all the six girls from an unknown world disappeared before her very eyes, leaving no traces of their presence in the crypt.

"And they're gone…" Marisa spoke after a moment of quietness.

"What the hell was that all about?" Reimu and her company were obviously dumbstruck by the sudden and unexpected visit, and even though the girls seemed amicable, nobody could be truly sure whether they truly weren't the culprits behind Gensokyo's recent incident.

"Regardless of what it was, I have some material to write about." Aya looked content as she slid the photo into her portfolio.

The portal's wall was still glimmering with the light of its glyphs. The god Poseidon still held the gate stubbornly shut pushing some girls in Reimu's group to the point of frustration.

"We are so close… I can feel it." Remilia sounded positive, even though she had no idea how to tackle the ancient Atlantean puzzle inscribed on the arch.

"And can you also feel how we are supposed to get that damn thing open?" Marisa scowled as she looked down at the vampire. Silence seemed as the best answer Remilia could think of, but the crypt didn't remain quiet for long.

* * *

They spent a good half of an hour arguing about what their next course of action should be. Before they knew it, the glyphs on the wall began to fade, returning the crypt back to its dimly-lit state.

"Oh, great. Now what?" Reimu just about had it with the pointless bickering when she noticed her surroundings becoming darker.

"I guess Koakuma got tired of holding that mirror for us." Marisa quickly drew a logical conclusion. Not that she could blame the young imp. Anyone with a hint of self-respect would have given up on such a dull and thankless task by now.

"It's back to square one, I'm afraid." Patchouli masked her disappointment under her usual quiet meek demeanor.

On their way to the surface, Reimu finally dared to be verbal about the thought that she had been flirting with for a while now.

"I honestly don't see much sense in staying here when we're barely making any progress. I'm going back to my shrine and I will only return to this hamlet when you get the portal open."

"Oi, Reimu, you serious?" Even though Marisa had already heard her friend voice similar ideas before, this time she really looked serious about keeping her word. "What if it only takes us ten minutes to solve the riddle?"

It was almost humorous to see Marisa's pessimistic attitude towards the team's progress thus far do a 180-degree turn when she tried to convince Reimu to stay.

"I somehow doubt that, but should you really pull it off, I want Aya to snap a picture of the opened portal and bring it to me as proof. Then I will not hesitate to fly back top-speed. Otherwise, I'm just wasting my time here."

"Oh? So sitting on your porch and drinking tea is not a waste of time during a full-blown incident? Good to know."

"Look, I'm just tired of this tomb-crawling business. Every time I step down into this temple, full of anticipation, I'm only met with another obstacle that hinders me from doing my job."

"Aw, come on, Reimu." Remilia made the miko turn away from Marisa as she tugged on her red skirt. "Of all the times you could choose to act as a spoiled child, you decide to do so now? You, who solves every incident by trying time and time again until you succeed?"

"I'm afraid if it doesn't involve shooting the crap out of her enemy with danmaku, her determination seems to have a declining tendency." Marisa humorously summed up her friend's motivation.

"Look who's talking." Reimu scoffed as she was ascending the stairwell back to the mirror tower. "Weren't you whining to Remilia about how to solve the riddle just a while ago?"

"Hey, we all have a way of venting our frustration, you know." the blonde defended herself, even though the thought of her acting in that way made her blush. Fortunately, nobody could really see her face too well with so little natural light.

* * *

When they made it to the tower, they were greeted with the sight of Koakuma leaning her mirror plate against the wall.

"No good, Patchouli-sama." she started lamenting as soon as she saw her mistress. "It's getting cloudy outside. Looks like it's going to rain soon."

It was still admirable of her to keep floating in one place with that mirror in hands for so long. She probably would have held it even longer if she believed there was any sense in it, but the weather just cancelled everyone's plans for a smooth puzzle solving.

"That's autumn for you." Aya could tell by the grayish light reflected in the mirror well, that the sky was indeed pulling a curtain over itself. "Still… it doesn't mean we cannot try to take a closer look at the statues in the main hall."

Aya had suspected they were somehow linked to this whole 10-king riddle all along, but she first wanted to let Patchouli carry out her attempt to open the portal with the reflected sunlight.

"To be honest, I didn't pay them much attention during my stay down here." the youkai magician admitted her oversight.

"Those statues…" Tenma's voice preceded his large figure, which just barely squeezed through the all-too-tight stairwell passage. Shortly thereafter, he was joined by his loyal escorts, as well as Hatate. But the reporter didn't seem to care about exchanging small talk with the rest of the group, as she was headed straight for the main hall, all the while tapping away at her camera's buttons.

"Tenma-sama?" Aya turned around to face her superior.

"There's obviously more than ten of them, most likely to make the puzzle more challenging."

"That's true." Nazrin's mouse ears perked up, as she also recalled counting the statues when she first explored the temple. "But I'm afraid my dowsing rods won't be able to tell me which are the correct ones. Or what to do with them."

"Another peculiar detail of note," Tenma continued once he dusted off his robe and wings, "is that the hall's floor tiles are the same size and shape as the statues' pedestals. I somehow doubt the reason behind it to be purely esthetical."

It hasn't even been half of an hour since his arrival to the excavation site and the leader of the tengu was proving his usefulness and ability to pay attention to details.

Marisa combed her fair hair with her fingers. "So we need to rearrange them… How?"

"Well, Kirisame-san, that's the charm of puzzle solving. We first need to identify which ten of the sculptures represent the ten rulers."

"In that case…" the witch's eyes slowly shifted sideways, resting upon her comrade in magic. "Patchy, it's up to you once again. Don't keep us waiting three years…"

"Um, you know…" Patchouli wanted to start a long-winded speech, when she felt the tap of Tenma's large palm on her shoulder

"I have every confidence in your success." he said, as if he was counting on her to do all the work.

"Mu… mukyuu~!" the all-too-familiar expression, applicable in so many situations escaped Patchouli's lips. This time it most likely signified the magician's fluster. It's not like everyone expected too much of her, except she had absolutely no idea on how to tackle this problem. No more than any one random person standing in the temple.

"I'd say you have an equal chance of solving it yourselves."

"That didn't sound very confident." Reimu commented Patchouli's reaction, while she was mentally packing up her belongings and preparing for a trip back to the shrine.

"Aw, come on, Patchy." Marisa, the moral support extraordinaire, saw that Patchouli's spirits needed some lifting. "You're just being too modest. Ehehe… I hope for all of our sakes that you are, because I can't tell an alpha from an omega when it comes to Greek… and that's not even the language we're dealing with here."

A long pause followed as Patchouli quietly scanned everyone present in the room before her gaze stopped at one of the shortest girls in the group.

"At least I know who's going to do all the pushing."

The look on Suika's face suggested that if she had a gimmick word like Patchouli, she'd most certainly use it.

"That's not what I signed up for~!"

"I'm not going to pretend to be knowledgeable in the field of archeology," Tenma muttered humbly, "but perhaps we could get a hint or two by using spirit photography."

Aya's frown was nothing to be unexpected after hearing that suggestion coming out of Tenma's mouth. Once again, the greenhorn rival journalist appeared to be more useful, but Aya knew better than to let her pride get in the way of putting an end to this incident.

"I do suppose you're right…"

"Aya…" Tenma addressed the black-haired reporter oddly by her first name. "Your journalism rivalry with Hatate aside, there is no reason for you to think that I consider your work less important."

"Tenma-sama…" the usually cheerful and confident crow tengu exposed her bashful side. "I don't think I've been that helpful to you."

"What are you talking about?" Remilia interjected to speak her mind. "You helped us figure out that we needed a mirror… It's not like you at all to feel all insignificant. Just like how it's not like Reimu to suddenly feel so apathetic when she's in the middle of solving an incident." she crossed her arms and let one of her fangs jut out from between her pouting lips. "Unless I beat her in a duel, that is…"

"Like when did that ever happen?" the shrine maiden raised her brows. Her question, however, died unanswered in the echoes of Tenma's laughter.

"You should listen to young lady Scarlet. She speaks some sense. Your work for this team as well as for the tengu community is of high importance. It's just that there are some things Himekaidou knows better, just as there are things that you know better."

"Should I perhaps write a detailed report about our findings?"

"No. I'll just read both your and Himekaidou's newspapers and make my own judgment. I'll most likely find the truth somewhere in between. Now, please excuse me, I'll have to fly out through the tower's window, as my bulky form won't allow me to fit through that cramped passageway. See you on the other side."

"Hey, wait!" Aya tried to halt him, but tenma had already taken off and disappeared. "What do you mean "I'll likely find the truth somewhere in between"? My articles contain only pure, undiluted, unbiased, unaltered truth."

Reimu pretended to be suddenly attacked by a coughing fit. "Yeah, right…"

"Shall we proceed to the main hall then?" Sakuya suggested before she entered the narrow tunnel, shortly followed by others.

* * *

True enough, when the whole team reassembled in the main hall, they saw the daitengu curiously inspecting one of the statues. Hatate, standing at the other side of the hall, was snapping shots of literally everything in sight. She gave off the vibe of a newbie crime scene investigator, trying her best to look thorough and professional. Patchouli walked on to join them, but the rest of the team just idly stood there and watched.

"I thought you were going home." Marisa jabbed at her old friend, who didn't show any signs of leaving the temple.

After a short pause, the shrine maiden turned to her with a deadpan expression and said: "One day… No more."

"Ha! I knew you were just bluffing."

"I'm not bluffing." Reimu corrected her. "Just postponing my departure."

Marisa already had a witty retort on the tip of her tongue, when a loud sound of a heavy object grinding against a stone surface interrupted her act in the phase of intention.

Tenma just took the liberty of pushing one of the statues onto the next floor tile.

"Alright," he dusted off his wrinkled hands and nodded to himself, "now we know that the pedestals aren't fixated to the floor." And while it was indeed an important find, his act achieved little beyond disrupting the statue formation's symmetry.

"Tenma-sama." Hatate shyly approached the great tengu and bowed. "I have taken pictures of every stature from all angles as well as the walls, floor, ceiling and the altar."

"What about the support pillars?"

"Ah! How amateurish of me to forget about them. I'm sorry. I'll get right to it!"

Even though Tenma's thick beard made it hard to see his facial expressions, his following reaction gave his hidden smile away.

"Good girl…" he mumbled as she patted Hatate's head.

It was more that he found Hatate's slight ditziness cute rather than a serious praise for a job well done, but whatever the case was, Hatate found this situation quite embarrassing, as she immediately scurried away to finish her job.

Aya, who witnessed it all, let out a muffled groan. "I want to be praised by Tenma-sama too."

"Good girl…" Reimu jokingly patted Aya on the head, impersonating Tenma's voice, all the while trying her best not to laugh.

* * *

At that point, Patchouli's team had split to two. One group stayed in the hall trying to solve the puzzle, while the others returned to the surface for some fresh air. Hatate needed privacy to apply her ability on the series of photos she had taken, so it was no surprise that she disappeared in one of the many tengu tents that dotted the edge of the quarry pit.

"I knew my dad would stay down there." Marisa chuckled as she and Reimu walked towards Kazemura's central well to quench their thirst. "No doubt he's going to fill in at least three diaries with notes…"

Reimu didn't react to Marisa's chatter, as if she was spiritually in a completely different place. Her eyes were more curious about the sky than the path she was walking on, as was obvious from her occasionally tripping over a stone or two.

"What's wrong, Reimu? Still having second thoughts about going home?"

"It doesn't look like the sky will clear up before the sun sets…" she said after a moment.

"Ah… Yeah. Too bad, huh? We'll need sunlight if we are to make any progress with the portal opening. But I'm sure we'll get it open. Piece by piece the temple is revealing its secrets to us. We need to be patient… Especially you, Reimu."

"Patience has never been one of my strong suits." finally the shrine maiden returned her gaze back to horizontal position.

Marisa could only laugh at her statement. "If that were true, you would have quit being a shrine maiden years ago. But no. You're like me. You keep trying until you achieve your goals. If that's not patience, then I don't know what is."

Marisa lowered the bucket down into the well and let it fill up.

"I'm the last Hakurei in Gensokyo. It's not like I could simply quit being a shrine maiden even if I wanted to."

"Exactly. That's why I can't understand why you'd suddenly want to turn your back on us, when it's your destined duty to protect this land."

The witch felt the weight of the filled bucket tug on the rope as she tried rolling the winch backwards. "Oi, don't just stand there. Give me a hand."

Reimu stepped up to the crank from the opposite side and together with Marisa they began pulling the bucket up.

"There could be a hundred other incidents taking place where people would need my help right now, but I can't respond, because I'm stuck here."

"I know it's not easy, but sometimes you have to make a choice and accept the lesser evil for the greater good."

"You know why I decided to postpone my return trip to the shrine?" Reimu asked.

"Pray tell."

"Because I have a gut feeling that something is going to happen soon that will require my attention."

"Well duh." Marisa responded at the same time as the bucket was reeled back to the top. "We're on the brink of opening the portal. You don't need to be clairvoyant to see that."

"You seem to be pretty confident about it. But that's not exactly what I had in mind."

Marisa was the first one to dive her cupped hands into the bucket of refreshing cool water and take a swig.

"Ah… Why wouldn't I be confident?" she asked. "Some of the most capable minds in Gensokyo are already on our side and working tirelessly to learn as much about this temple as they can. As a friend, I trust Patchouli just as much as I trust you. I mean look at her. A shut-in bookworm who spent most of her time indoors reading and writing books. And now she doesn't mind living in a tent and sharing it with the rest of us while she's studying the temple. With that determined mindset there's no way she cannot succeed."

Reimu also took a few gulps of water before she responded with a headshake. "That's not what I was talking about. The gut feeling that I have tells me we'll run into some trouble soon. I can't tell whether it will be before or after opening the portal, but I can't shake it no matter how positive I try to be."

"Hehe. Truth be told, I'm counting on something like that to happen as well. This village doesn't offer much in the way of entertainment."

* * *

Marisa was mostly just joking, not having the slightest clue that her semi-serious wish might be mere hours from being fulfilled. For in a place both near and far away, on the other side of the temple's dormant portal, a plot was being brewed.

In a dark hall, not too dissimilar from the one in the Temple of Poseidon, two figures were sitting at the table as the third entered.

"Ah, welcome back, Hagoro." a female voice, belonging to a brown-haired woman in a white toga, greeted the arriving guest. " What news from Aegae do you bring? Is our guest still sleeping tight?"

The one addressed as Hagoro pulled down the hood on their robe to reveal a young feminine face and a head of long white hair. "Of course… I honestly don't see how she'd be an obstacle."

"I know her well enough not to underestimate her." spoke the third person in a deep male voice. His dark indigo skin and a pair of horns protruding from his head made him all the more fearsome in this dimly lit hall. "Once she wakes up, it'll only be a matter of time before she escapes."

"My, my, Aoi…" the seated woman spoke in a slow and arrogant-sounding tone. "If she's as formidable as you present her, why don't you lock her away in Tartarus? You and your kind are already more than well-accustomed to traversing the underground, are you not?"

"I would not advise mocking my ancestry when you're within my arm's reach." the male spoke calmly, but he made it very clear that would take no crap from anybody. "You might have cheated death, Cleito, but it doesn't mean that it can't come back for you."

"Save that temper for when you'll be facing the enemy."

"Ahem…" Hagoro cleared her throat. "I also have a bit more troubling news to relay, if only you two would stop bickering."

"Oh? And what troubles you, my dear?" Cleito tilted her head to the side.

"The Gensokyans are getting close to activating the gateway. It won't be long before they solve the puzzle with your ten sons."

Cleito just scoffed. "Isn't that what we wanted them to do for us in the first place?"

"Yes, but not so soon." Aoi replied with a frown. "They weren't supposed to open the portal until winter. That's when our greatest deterrent for invasion sleeps and is the least likely to wake up when we'd least need it. With her out of the way, though, we'll be able to roam Gensokyo unchallenged for long enough to make our ends meet. We'll turn over every stone, even if it means razing some places to the ground in the process."

"Such hatred for your homeland…" Cleito smiled amusedly.

"I have no home. Just like her." Aoi pointed at Hagoro, who didn't seem to show any emotion.

"My poor dears… Then why wait until winter when we can start an invasion now? We've been poking Gensokyo time and time again with our fairy raids to assess their combat capabilities, and while they are impressive, they're going to need a lot more than that to face the might of our orichalcum army."

"We don't have enough spirits to animate even one tenth of them." Hagoro objected. "I would hate to have my plan thwarted due to our bad timing."

"Even one tenth of that army is more than enough to conquer Gemsokyo, but if you want more spirits, then you only have to wait. The war-torn Panthea is about to experience a second Titanomachy. Then you'll have more spirits than you can shake your finger at."

"Bad timing or no, we need to do something before the Gensokyans open the portal, lest we lose our element of surprise." the blue oni suggested.

"While I still have control over the spirits in Gensokyo, I can't summon them back. It seems there's some sort of barrier in place."

"Well, then I suggest you disable that barrier." Cleito slowly stood up from the table. "In the meantime, I'll set the portal's destination to Old Atlantis. That should buy us more time to prepare."

After Cleito left the hall, Aoi glanced over at Hagoro and asked: "How are you going to destroy the barrier with so many tengu guarding it?"

The robed girl stood silent for a while, as if she was thinking about something, then she answered: "Just wait and see."

* * *

Hours have passed without anything eventful happening in Kazemura. Reimu and Marisa were passing the time by playing various games, but a few hundred meters away, in another tent, Hatate had just finished analyzing her photos and she came to a shocking discovery. So shocking, that she stood up, spilled an ink flask and turned over a chair as she ran out of her tent.

As fast as her body would allow, she ran towards the Temple of Poseidon to break the news to everyone inside. Time was of the essence.

"Lord Tenma!" she exclaimed as she jumped straight down from the unearthed window in the main hall.

"Ah, Himekaidou-san. Is something the matter? We've already managed to identify 6 of the 10 rulers."

"Lord Tenma, you need to leave the temple immediately! No, everyone needs to leave!" the crow tengu was hyperventilating and her hasted speech didn't make much sense.

"Calm down. What are you talking about?"

"Look for yourself!" Hatate pulled out her camera and showed Tenma the fully-developed pictures that she took. They were all riddled with spots.

"What are these spots supposed to be?"

"Vengeful spirits! They'll storm the place in thousands. We need to leave the quarry pit now!"

"By the gods…" Tenma's metaphorical alarm bells were ringing as he slid through the photos. He turned to his most trusted bodyguards and asked them to help evacuate everyone from the temple as soon as possible, but without raising panic. While two of his escorts hurried to the crypt, his other two urged him to depart as quickly as possible.

Needless to say, panic had already erupted in the main hall, with everyone trying to get out first. And since there was only one way to get in and out, a tidal wave of bodies has amassed itself near the lift platform. Humans, tengu, yama-bito and other youkai were pushing and shoving each other off the lift's platform, hoping they'd be among the first ones to be pulled out. But the lift could only carry 3 persons at a time, so once it got down, they couldn't pull it up.

* * *

"Ayaya? Did you hear that?" Aya's sensitive ear picked up the noises of the commotion from inside the tent. "Could it be that they've finally solved that statue puzzle?"

It didn't take any amount of persuasion to make Reimu and Marisa get up on their feet and rush outside.

A cacophony of screams was coming from the bottom of the quarry pit as small groups were hastily pouring out of the temple.

"They don't seem to be cheering." Marisa stated the obvious as she reached for her Mini Hakkero.

They all ran down the slopes to the bottom of the quarry in spite of everyone else running the opposite direction. Shortly, they ran into Lord Tenma himself.

"Tenma-sama, what's going on?" Aya quickly asked.

"The temple is not safe anymore. You all better turn around and run before a host of vengeful spirits overrun the place."

"But Patchouli's in there! As well as my father. We need to help them get out!" Marisa objected.

"No we're not." her father's voice made the blonde witch exhale in relief. There he stood, along with Patchouli and the rest of her team at the bottom of the pit. They all appeared unharmed, but more than startled. Hatate was there too, urging the group to move faster and to get past the shimenawa fence.

"This is exactly what I was talking about." Reimu muttered a whisper to Marisa.

"Yeah, but as long as we stand on the wrong side of the fence, there's no way we can stand a fighting chance against anything."

Marisa had a point. Reimu reluctantly made a 180-degree turn and began to ascend the slope.

* * *

Once the whole group was catching their breath safely outside the shimenawa barrier, Aya began to question Hatate what exactly led to the wave of panic that had spread all over Kazemura. And so Hatate began to explain…

"So, you're saying that you evacuated the whole temple just because your photos came out all fuzzy and dotted with spots? You've got to be kidding." Aya couldn't believe what chaos Hatate started for such a silly reason. But Tenma believed her.

"I cannot let any possible risk be ignored, Aya."

"But how can the spirits suddenly infest the temple with the shimenawa fence warding them off?!"

"Look!" Hatate opened her mouth and pointed a finger over Aya's shoulder. As her black-haired rival turned around to see what she was pointing at, she couldn't help but to part her lips in surprise as well.

There, just about fifty meters away from where they were standing, a section of the rope was dangling from the hokora, obviously cut by some sharp tool.

"What the…? Who did this?"

Nobody in the group, including Tenma was able to answer that.

"A sabotage… now that's unexpected." Tenma scowled as the unthinkable thought just crossed his mind. There was no way anyone could have just walked up to the fence and cut the rope without any of the White Wolves noticing. Unless there was a traitor in their ranks.

Reimu hurried to the damaged section of the fence to observe the cut.

"Will you be able to mend it, Hakurei-san?" Tenma asked her, even though he already knew she'd respond negatively.

"Even if I did fix it, the damage had already been done. For all we know, hundreds of invisible spirits could have already crossed from one side to the other by now… What purpose does mending the rope have now?"

"That's most unfortunate…" Tenma lowered his head apologetically. "I'll make sure to investigate this act and severely punish whoever is responsible."

The daitengu's promise of justice and retribution did little to lift Reimu's sunken spirits. All she could do now is prepare for the worst.

Whoever the culprit was, they were long gone. A feeling of guilt began to rise up inside her chest, blaming her that she should have obeyed her intuition and be more vigilant.

"Frankly, it could have been anyone…" Marisa had drawn the widest possible outline for the circle of suspects.

Reimu couldn't understand the motives behind this vile act either. After shaking her head in disbelief, she could only conclude one thing.

"Nothing good can come out of this."


	69. A Crisis of Faith

Tenma didn't even have to say a word to Hatate, as she knew exactly what to do. She took a multitude of close-up pictures of the severed section of shimenawa rope. To analyze them, however, would take her some time. Time, which Reimu and her company didn't want to waste.

"I can already see we're going to have to chase some random possessed fairy all over Gensokyo. And that's probably going to be pointless even if we succeed." the shrine maiden spoke her mind. "We should focus on solving that puzzle in the temple and opening the portal."

"It's obvious that whoever did this is trying to distract and delay us from doing that." said Aya. "But we can't go back into the temple unless the whole quarry is purged of evil spirits again and the shimenawa fence restored."

"Well, isn't that wonderful?" the miko asked sarcastically. "We've used up all the available materials in Kazemura to make it."

"Why don't you just tie the cut-off ends together?" Marisa asked a question, which probably any logically-thinking person would.

"Because it'd be nearly impossible to do and because it wouldn't work as a protective barrier."

"There have to be better ways to ward away evil spirits…" the witch tried to suggest an alternative, but her red-white friend adamantly shook her head.

"I'm going to the Moriya shrine and see if they'll let me have some of their shimenawa. It'd save me a lot of time and trouble of making it myself."

"That's still quite the trip to make. Are you sure?"

"Better than waiting for Miss Kotatsu Reporter to divine some bogus information from the pictures she snapped."

"What did you say?!" Hatate puffed up her chest and clenched her fists as she asked with a raised voice. Her rival in journalism, on the other hand, was letting out strange snorts from behind Reimu.

"I can get there much faster." Aya presented an offer and a smile.

Reimu turned her head to face her and gave her the "you think I'd trust you with something that important?" look. But before she could put her rejection into words, Lord Tenma made a sudden unexpected step towards the journalist, leaned down and murmured: "Actually, Aya, I have one special assignment for you."

"For me?" the crow tengu repeated, looking surprised. "What is it, Tenma-sama?"

Reimu's sigh of relief was almost audible when she figured that she wouldn't have to convince Aya against her idea, but that's when some other nuisance opened her mouth.

"If you need something hauled, all ya gotta do is ask~! My broom was made for the task."

Of course. Marisa. It wouldn't be her if she didn't want to tag along. Sometimes Reimu just wanted to have some peace and quiet, some alone time to help her re-organize her thoughts. Due to limited privacy, or complete lack thereof, which living in one crowded tent entailed, the shrine maiden would jump at any opportunity to disconnect herself from the stress of dealing with others. Even if it was for a menial errand. It's not that Aya or Marisa couldn't handle the bargaining or the delivery part. On the contrary, they could. Perhaps even faster… Provided Marisa wouldn't find some magical way to accidentally damage the rope like she did the mirror. But that wasn't Reimu's issue. She just needed a breath of fresh air and a change of scenery.

But fate and Marisa would have it their way, it seemed.

"Come, on, Reimu!" the witch already straddled her bamboo broom, impatiently hovering a couple of feet above ground. "Stop spacing-out. We've got ropes to steal!"

She didn't even try to conceal her intentions. Reimu just shook her head resignedly, and with a half-hearted jump, she kicked off the ground.

Reimu's vision of spending some time in quiet solitude dissolved like a grain of sugar in a cup of hot tea.

* * *

Not even ten seconds into the flight, Marisa started to chat. "So, Reimu… Suppose we get the rope and fix the fence and whatnot… What's gonna prevent the mysterious culprit from cutting it again?"

"Our vigilance." Reimu replied without giving it much thought.

"Heh. You think you can do better than a few hundred tengu?"

The miko didn't respond immediately. At least not until she and her ever-loyal friend flew over the hill west of Kazemura.

"How can I possibly trust the tengu if they didn't notice anything suspicious? For all I know, it could have been one of them. Or all of them. You said it yourself."

"Oi, oi… Let's not steer into the conspiracy theory territory."

"No, Marisa." Reimu briefly turned her face towards the witch. "I'm voicing a very serious concern. You and I both know how the tengu wanted to reserve the privilege of accessing the temple all for themselves. Now that their negotiations have failed, they created this situation to make everyone evacuate the quarry and use the temple for whatever their intentions are… And of course, they are the ones carrying out the investigation, meaning they can tailor the evidence to give themselves alibi."

Whatever point Reimu might have been making was drowned out in the sound of Marisa's sincere laughter. "You're been borrowing a lot of Patchouli's detective novels lately, haven't you? Do you also suspect everyone else of collaborating in this Machiavellian scheme?"

"Look. The mastermind of this incident is powerful, resourceful, cunning and manipulative. If they could control an army of spirits to possess the fairies, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume they could possess a tengu or two."

"I see where you're getting at, but do you seriously believe ALL the tengu are possessed? Because if they were, I think they would have chosen a more direct approach of securing the temple."

"What if the fairies were a mere distraction?" Reimu continued to elaborate her theory. "What if the spirits controlling them deliberately acted in this relentless violent fashion to make everyone believe that's the only way any possessed creature can act?"

"Well, I don't know, but if I was the villain," Marisa thoughtfully scratched her chin, "I would have possessed more than just one type of youkai to make my deception more convincing."

"And if I was the villain, I would make everyone think that I'm too weak to manipulate anything bigger and stronger than a fairy." the miko rebutted.

"I guess that makes sense." Marisa had to admit. "But I'm afraid the only way for us to confirm or deny your fears would be…. to go fetch Satori again." she finished her sentence after a brief pause. "Or find the Hell's judge."

"Probably… But I'm not changing my plans. I'm headed for the Moriya Shrine."

"Hey, since I'm going with you and all… Why don't we split up?"

"I don't really care." Reimu responded with indifference.

"Oh, yes you do." Marisa chuckled. "You're just too tsundere to say it."

She really had taken a liking to using that new word from the outside world.

Marisa kept on pestering Reimu with her idle, meaningless chitchat and gossip basically all the way to the Youkai Mountain. If this was any normal day when Reimu would be sitting on her shrine's porch, sipping tea with all her chores done, this would have been a welcome distraction, but right now, she couldn't wait for the witch to finally part ways with her upon reaching the mountain.

* * *

"Finally… I swear this mountain is drifting further away from Kazemura with each passing day." the miko accelerated her flight by almost double of her standard velocity. Even Marisa had to exert some effort to match her. With thinner air in this high altitude, flight was faster and easier, but one always had to be wary of hypoxia.

"Slow down, Reimu~!"

Before long, they could see the tall onbashira, towering above the Wind God's Lake like guiding beacons. With the arrival of autumn, the mountain's scenery reminded both girls of an older incident, but that was perhaps a professional deformation, and in Marisa's case, a hobby deformation, as neither of the two could travel to any part of Gensokyo without recalling some older incident tied to the location.

"This scenery almost looks… nostalgic, eh, Reimu?"

"I wish I had time to reminisce."

"What are you talking about?" the ordinary magician sometimes failed to understand Reimu's way of thinking, and this was one of those moments. "There's always time to reminisce."

But obviously, Reimu wasn't in the mood. "Hey, weren't you supposed to go to the Palace of the Earth Spirits?"

"I will. But first, I wanna say hi to Sanae and company."

While Marisa struggled to understand Reimu's mind, Reimu in turn wished she could be as easygoing and carefree as Marisa appeared to be now.

The shrine maiden sighed as she began to descend. "Whatever. But I'm not going to wait for you after I get the rope."

"No worries." the blonde witch reassuringly waved her hand. "I'll be in and out of Chireiden before you can say "zun"."

The girls quietly landed at the entrance of Moriya Shrine and the more assertive of the two took the rope hanging over the donation box and gave it a few good pulls to ring the bells above. That was the standard procedure at most Shinto shrines when praying.

Not long after that, a mixture of muffled voices began to react to the unexpected commotion.

"Are you sure it wasn't just the wind?" Marisa could make out the words spoken by a mature-sounding voice, most likely belonging to Kanako.

"That was no wind, Kanako-sama! Someone really rang the bell." a younger girl's voice responded. And since Suwako would hardly address the other goddess with an honorific, it could only be Sanae. "You should answer that in your best interest. Every drop of faith counts. You can read my manga later…"

"Alright, alright. I'm coming… Sheesh."

A couple of seconds and footsteps later, Reimu and Marisa could hear the sound of a door unlatching. In the next moment they were staring at the face of the shrine's presiding deity.

Marisa, ever the jokester, put her side braid between her nose and upper lip to make it look like a moustache and spoke up in an altered deeper voice. "Ehm. Hello there~. We're two pilgrims from a faraway land and we've come here seeking enlightenment and an audience with the gods."

Kanako's awkward expression only became more confused after Reimu spoke up.

"Look, we're just here to borrow some shimenawa."

A couple of more seconds of awkward stares and silence, and Kanako was starting to put two and two together.

"Did something happen in Kazemura again?"

"Well… yeah." Marisa dropped the act and her braid back to its natural position.

"And there's no more hemp in the whole village for you to make a replacement?"

"It's not the lack of hemp. It's the time and effort that we're trying to save here." Reimu explained.

Kanako was about to say something, when Sanae's voice called from inside the shrine: "Who's paying us a visit, Kanako-sama?"

"Yo-ho, Sanae~! Howzit goin'?" Marisa called back without hesitation while energetically waving her hand.

The sound of rushing footsteps echoed from within. A familiar green-haired head poked out of the doorway. "You girls? Did you come for a visit, or do you need help exterminating something?"

"Both." Marisa answered, but Reimu thought otherwise.

"Not really…"

"Which one is it then?" the blue-white miko shifted her gaze from one visitor to the other.

"There's nothing to exterminate yet, but there soon will be if we don't act fast."

"From what little they've told me," Kanako interjected, "it seems that the shimenawa fence around Kazemura's quarry pit has been damaged. And now these two have come begging for a spare rope."

"Who's begging here?" Reimu scowled at the wind goddess. "We've come to inform you that we need one and will take it by force if necessary."

"Oh, my apologies…" Kanako corrected herself as she spoke to Sanae. "They've come to rob us of one."

"I can't say that'd be very nice of them, but in this situation… I almost sympathize with them."

"If that place remains unsealed, its influence could spread over all Gensokyo." Reimu warned the goddess and her shrine maiden.

"Not to mention the evil spirits which are probably already possessing fairies in droves as we speak." Marisa added.

"We don't really have a spare." Kanako frowned and noticed Reimu's upward gaze. "And there's no way we're giving you the one hanging over your head."

"How about the one hovering behind you then?" Reimu was beginning to lose patience.

Ignoring her aggressive remarks, Kanako nodded to herself, as if she was deciding upon something. "I could lend you my power to make a length of shimenawa rope…"

"Hey, if you could convert the Palanquin Ship for Byakuren into the Temple of Myouren overnight, a simple rope must be piece of cake for you." the blonde witch smiled encouragingly.

Sanae seemed to agree as well. "This will also gain you a little more faith. That's never a bad thing, right?"

"Whatever little faith I'll get from this, I'll use up by making the rope." the goddess shrugged, but she seemed to be willing to carry her plan out anyway.

"Maybe, but you'll help protect Gensokyo's peace by doing that, Kanako-sama." the green-haired miko reassured her. "People are going to hear about it and we may even get more worshippers in the long run."

"I doubt these two are going to sing praises of my divine benevolence in Kazemura. And I really don't feel like returning to that godless place. The last visit has left me and Suwako nearly powerless. And I thought the outside world was bad…"

"It's not like we're inviting you to come with us anyway." Reimu replied sternly. "Just make that rope and we'll fix the fence."

"That's right." Sanae seconded. "I'll go to Kazemura and give them a hand. And I'll let the people know that they are once again safe thanks to you."

The Hakurei shrine maiden didn't seem to share Sanae's optimism, though. "As long as the mastermind controlling the spirits is still at large, Gensokyo will never be quite safe."

"How did it happen, anyway?" Kanako nonchalantly changed the topic. "The fence damage I mean. Weren't the tengu supposed to guard it?"

"That's what we'd love to know as well." Marisa shrugged her shoulders. "We were in the temple when it happened. Hatate only noticed the severed rope by chance. And nobody seems to have seen anything suspicious."

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The enemy must have a mole infiltrated amongst the villagers or the tengu. You should first work on catching them; otherwise fixing the fence will be pointless."

"Thanks for your wisdom, but we already figured that out by ourselves." Reimu crossed her arms, frowning. "Hatate and others are already working on it. In the meantime, we're here to have the fence mended as soon as possible. Oh, and Marisa was supposed to go to the Palace of the Earth spirits to get Satori, so we could identify the culprit." She threw a sidelong glance at the witch, wondering why she was still standing there and not hurrying to the underground.

Only now did the ordinary magician snap out of her carefree mood, realizing that she still had an important task to do. "Oh, right. Satori. I should get going, shouldn't I?"

"Satori, huh?" Kanako put her finger on her lower lip in a thoughtful gesture. "I might be able to make her come up to the surface to save you the trouble."

"You could?" Marisa quirked her brow. "Are you in touch with her?"

"Not directly, of course. I try to avoid her as much as possible, but I am in touch with someone who can relay the message…" the smile that Kanako showed seemed almost mischievous. "Sanae, why don't you make some tea for our guests while they wait?"

The green-haired girl blinked perplexedly at Kanako's sudden request, but quickly snapped back to reality and obliged. "Yes, Kanako-sama! Please, come on in!" she beckoned the guests to follow her.

Without much arguing, the two followed her into the shrine.

* * *

Sanae led them through the living area where a certain earth goddess was lying dozed off with her lower body hidden underneath the kotatsu table. Her unusual hat sat there beside her, its eyes curiously scanning the visitors' faces. Marisa curiously examined the open manga book that lay on the table as she walked past it.

"This way…" Sanae spoke with a hushed voice, as not to disturb Suwako's nap. She slid open a door leading to her bedroom, where she told the guests to make themselves at home while she made the tea.

"So this is Sanae's room…" Marisa was no less mesmerized than Reimu as her eyes trailed around the room's furnishing and decorations. Unlike Reimu, who slept on a futon, this shrine maiden enjoyed the luxury of a comfortable bed. The wall next to it was covered with lots of posters, depicting all sorts of people – some real, some drawn, just like in that book that Kanako was reading. Some appeared to be music bands, some were famous scientists.

"Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Sir Isaac Newton…" Marisa read out some of the names aloud. "What a geeky room."

"At least she keeps it spotless. Unlike someone I know…"

But the posters weren't by far all that was "geeky" about Sanae's bedroom. She also had plenty of bookshelves stacked with colorful books, many of which seemingly had the same cover.

"Quite a decent book collection..." Naturally, that's what Marisa's eyes gravitated towards the most. "But why would Sanae buy so many volumes of the same book?"

Only after taking one to examine it closer, she noticed the difference in cover pictures and the numbering, which told her that the book was a part of a series.

The other half of Sanae's bookshelves was reserved for miniature statues of various characters with crazy outfits and even crazier hairstyles. It didn't take long for Marisa to put two and two together and notice that some of them were from Sanae's picture books.

"Wow… these outsiders sure know how to create some awesome, but useless stuff."

"Handle my figures with care, please." Sanae's voice made the witch jolt up slightly. The hosting shrine maiden was back with a tray and three tea cups."

"Oh, that's what they're called?" Marisa quickly glanced over her shoulder. "Can they move?"

"Well… some figures have flexible joints or interchangeable parts, but otherwise, no, they can't."

"There are more details on them than on some of Alice's dolls."

"That's all thanks to a technology called 3D printing." Sanae explained tersely and waited for Marisa to put her PVC figure back to its shelf.

"I wonder if I could have a figure of myself printed out." the blonde thought to herself.

"You probably could. If you were in the outside world…" Sanae barely finished the sentence when she saw Marisa picking up another item, like a child in a toy shop.

"Haha! Reimu, look at this! What a funny-looking gohei!" she stared amusedly at the pink wand with a circular end and a yellow star-shaped ornament set in the circle's center. The rod also sported a pair of white wings on each side of the circle. "What do you exterminate with it? Dignity?"

"Please, put that down!" Sanae pleaded. Fruitlessly. "I bought that Star Wand at a convention a long time ago. You better not break it."

"Star Wand? What self-respecting magician would use that for a wand?"

"Why, none other than Cardcaptor Sakura from the eponymous manga and anime series. She uses it later in the series instead of her old Sealing Wand."

"Well, Sakuya may be a decent Spell Card captor, but I can't imagine her using this…"

"Not Sakuya. Sakura!" Sanae corrected the silly witch, although the notion admittedly amused her as well.

"I should give it a try." Marisa assumed an action stance with the wand outstretched at an invisible foe. "Masteeeeeer Spa…"

"…it's just a prop." Sanae coldheartedly burst Marisa's bubble of childish delusion. "Anyway, this design is nothing uncommon in the genre. It is a magical girl wand after all."

"Well, it does look extremely… girly." Marisa finally put the toy wand back to its original place, much to Sanae's relief.

"Does she also touch all of your stuff when she's at your shrine?" Sanae cast a glance at Reimu's who's been quiet for a while, only to find her in the middle of trying on a cat-eared headband. "Forget I said anything…"

* * *

After thoroughly probing every corner of Sanae's bedroom and examining every oddity the girls finally sat down to have their now lukewarm tea.

"Kanako is sure taking her sweet time…" Reimu's impatience again seemed to be getting the better of her.

"You forgot to say 'nya'." Marisa poked fun at Reimu's adorable pair of cat ears, even though the miko had long since taken them off.

"You have to understand that after she and Suwako-sama left Kazemura, they haven't been doing too well. The forces at work there seem to be most aggressive against divine beings. We humans can recover from the ill effects rather quickly in comparison, but for them…"

"I see. So that's why Suwako's still asleep at this hour." Marisa made a logical assumption.

"Suwako-sama's recovery is going to be a long one. She can only stay awake for a few hours a day. She never was the one to gather faith, that's why she's worse off than Kanako-sama. Sometimes I wish she was a bit more selfish." Sanae looked down into her half-empty cup.

"Similar story as with Remilia." the witch drew a parallel. "It would be a lot simpler if your goddesses were vampires. All they'd have to do is to nibble on a few outsiders and presto. Problem solved."

"That battle had taken its toll on many of us." Sanae nodded. "But we've been getting by. Kanako-sama says that it's harder to gain faith these days more than ever, but despite that, she's recovered a fair portion of her former power."

"If the gods are weakened by that temple's field that much, it must mean a lot of people are losing faith in them."

"That's exactly the problem. Kanako-sama's greatest fear is that this malicious power will engulf all of Gensokyo, turning it into a faithless vacuum."

"That would have catastrophic consequences." Reimu seemed to have understood the direness of the situation only now, and when she did, she became even more impatient. "You should tell Kanako to move it."

Even though there was no evidence hinting towards the void field's expansion, the mere thought of that possibility was unsettling to the Hakurei shrine maiden.

"Hey, if all goes to hell, we can still bury that temple again." Marisa reminded everyone of a possible last resort.

"Not before we open the portal and beat some sense into whoever is causing this mess." spoke the hot-headed Hakurei pride through Reimu's mouth.

"You said you were already close to its opening, right?" Sanae redirected Reimu's attention as well as tension elsewhere.

"So said the big old tengu. Marisa thinks that's what provoked the enemy to cause some chaos by cutting the shimenawa fence, although we have no idea who or how they did it without anyone noticing. That's why we need Satori's help."

The blonde magician hummed. "If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say the culprit did it when the guards were hailing the arriving daitengu. That's how we slipped into the temple undetected."

"No, Marisa. We had to ask Suika to create a diversion, because there were always a few sentries guarding the quarry." Reimu corrected her friend.

"Ah, that's true. My bad~. But what if Hatate and her spirit photography had already solved that case of rope-cutting phantom?" Marisa presented an optimistic, but still realistic scenario.

"Then I'd rather err on the side of caution." Reimu answered as she slurped out the last remnant of tea in her cup.

* * *

Meanwhile in the Hell of Blazing Fires…

Deep underground, hidden underneath the Youkai Mountain, there is a place brighter than the sky in daytime. A place of scorching heat and extreme pressure. A place, where no normal human would survive for too long. This gigantic system of caves, where molten lava flows in an endless stream, aptly named the Hell of Blazing Fires, is home to only two types of entities: hell ravens and spirits. Occasionally, a kasha may be seen passing through every now and then, carrying a fresh corpse on her wheelbarrow, or heading out to the surface to fetch one. If one was to follow her trail, they'd eventually find themselves in the center of this so-called Former Hell, where the fires burn white-hot and where the naturally irregular cavernous walls are replaced by an almost perfectly symmetrical vertical tunnel. That tunnel is the Underground's Nuclear Furnace. This tremendous subterranean furnace is capable of what no other similar reactor in the outside world can do, that is, nuclear fusion. Powered by none other than Utsuho Reiuji – the hell raven, who consumed a part of Yatagarasu, a three-legged crow avatar of the sun goddess Amaterasu. It is thanks to that acquired power that the Former Hell is ablaze again. It is thanks to that power, that the kappa and the tengu have their energy to power their industry. Why did Utsuho decide to snack on a divine avatar? She can barely remember herself, even though it wasn't all that long ago. Every day down here is the same for her. In fact, she's barely even aware of the passing of day and night. Her job is as simple as her mind: heat the furnace up when the needle is below the green line; vent the excess heat to the surface when the needle is over the red line. The fuel for the furnace? The fresh corpses brought by her kasha colleague, of course. That is the extent of Utsuho's work. Day in – day out. In a place, where no days or nights exist. In a place where nothing from the surface world would ever come through. Nothing… but that voice.

"Utsuho."

"…"

"Utsuho."

"Unyu?" the hell raven girl interrupted her work and curiously glanced around herself. "I thought I heard something." She shrugged her shoulders before her eyes centered again on the important gauges, which monitored the reactor's status. She only understood the purpose of a couple of them. The rest, to her, were merely pretty distractions.

"Maybe I should dump another corpse down there for good measure." she muttered to herself, completely ignoring the strange voice she thought she heard a moment ago.

"UTSUHO REIUJI!" the voice's origin lost its patience as it roared seemingly right inside Utsuho's head. It even had a slight echo to it.

"Waaaaaa!" the startled hell raven jumped up in panic, bumping her head into one of the coolant pipes. "W-who's there?"

Looking both left and right, up and down, Utsuho couldn't see anyone, and yet, she felt as though as if the voice was somewhat… familiar. It obviously knew her name.

The voice breathed a sigh. "Really? You've already forgotten about our meeting?"

The black-haired youkai girl blinked her red eyes, clearly scraping the bottom of her memories hard for any encounters in her past which corresponded with the voice she was hearing. "Uhh… umm… Have we met?"

"Of course we've met." the voice replied. "About two years ago."

For a moment, Utsuho looked like she remembered, but… "Oh, I see… Hey, how long is a year, by the way?"

"Riiiight… I guess it's not easy keeping track of time down here. But surely you remember my voice, don't you?"

Another long pause in the hell raven's conversation with a disembodied voice. One could almost hear the gears inside her head creaking and grinding even in the constant noise of the nuclear reactor and the sea of lava surrounding it. "Two years sounds like a reaaaly long time… Okuu was probably just an egg back then."

"No, you were just asleep when I first spoke to you."

"In a dream? Now wait a minute…" Utsuho, simple-minded as she might be, finally started to connect the dots.

"If you don't know how long a year is, how do you know how long a minute is?" the voice teased her.

"Oooh… Now I remember." The hell-raven's bright red gemstone on her chest suddenly lit up bright-orange as she lifted her hexagonal cannon-like arm attachment. "You're the Voice… The one who led me to this power!" she recalled at long last.

"Wonderful. You remembered."

"Does that mean… that you're going to grant me even greater power?" the girl's giddy smile looked both cute and disturbing at the same time. "Power to defeat the shrine maiden from the surface and turn the above world into a new Blazing Hell?"

The voice remained silent for a moment. Its owner knew that she had to choose her words carefully if she ever hoped to get this bird youkai to do her bidding and not something else.

"Uhh… sure. If you do as I say, you'll be granted that power." the voice pulled out a lie.

"What must I do?"

"Listen carefully. I want you to go to the Palace of the Earth Spirits and tell your mistress that Reimu Hakurei needs to meet her at the Moriya Shrine as soon as possible."

"Satori-sama?" Utsuho tilted her head. "But… last time you told me that I was never to talk about you to anyone…"

"It took you forever to even remember our encounter, and now you remember this specific detail all of a sudden?" the voice sounded bemused as it asked the question.

The hell raven, affectionately nicknamed Okuu made a wing shrug. "It just all came back to me once I remembered how you spoke to me in my sleep."

"Well, things have changed since then. Satori won't obey her pet unless you tell her that Kanako Yasaka spoke to you."

"Kanako…? Is that perhaps… you, Miss Voice?"

Utsuho could hear three distinct handclaps. "Bravo. How did you guess that?" a sarcastic question echoed in her head. "Your sharp wit is astounding as always. That's why I had chosen you to give you Yatagarasu's power in the first place."

"But Kanako is that lady who came here from the surface once. She had these really old-fashioned clothes, blue hair and a headband made of rope."

Kanako herself was amazed by this seemingly birdbrained youkai's memory. Indeed, she had come down to Former Hell to meet Utsuho personally on more than one occasion, all behind Satori's back. She never liked the idea of having her mind read. Back then she intended to solve Gensokyo's energy crisis by creating a furnace in Former Hell, but a furnace needed an igniting agent. That igniting agent was the divine spirit of Yatagarasu, which in turn, required a proper vessel in order to be controlled. It took Kanako quite a while to find a suitable candidate. Not just anyone, be they human or youkai, could handle absorbing Yatagarasu's immense power. One would have be in a state of clear and empty mind in order to accept such a gift and burden. However, with a bit of luck, Kanako found a particular hell raven, who was, as she put it "much dumber than others". She convinced her to eat the divine spirit, and the rest is history. She successfully created Gensokyo's first and only nuclear power plant. Of course, even as a goddess, she couldn't predict that this docile and gullible hell raven would get a power trip and start overheating the reactor, causing a chain of incidents, but every boon has a price, right?

"Kanako… " Utsuho said her name again. "You are a goddess, right?" Spot-on recollection once again. "That's how you can speak to me, even without being here."

"Look at that… Seems like eating that Yatagarasu has raised your IQ by a couple of points. Good. Now that you remember me, why don't you fly along and tell Satori to kindly come up."

"Okay~!" a bright smiled stretched across the hell raven's face and her dark wings began to flap. But as she was about to take off, her smile almost instantly turned into a puzzled expression. "But… if you can talk to me remotely, why don't you just speak to Satori-sama remotely too?"

Utsuho's mind sure worked in mysterious ways. This usually childish, silly and forgetful ditz could sometimes surprise with bursts of sharp wit and logic. Her question caught Kanako off guard, as was evident by the goddess's long pause.

"Why, of all times, did you choose to wise-up now? Do you want to be rewarded or not?"

"Umm, sure. But…"

"Then don't question me!" Kanako didn't give Utsuho the chance to object. "Now hurry!"

"Yes!" the hell raven finally took flight, headed for the Palace of the Earth Spirits and leaving the huge underground reactor unattended.

"And don't mess it up, you hear~?" Kanako's last warning resonated in her ears, although now her voice sounded fainter than before.

* * *

Moments later, in the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

Satori Komeiji sat quietly in her study, in the middle of reading an interesting book on psychology, when three sudden loud knocks on the door nearly made her drop it.

"Who the…?"

"Satori-samaaa~!" a voice called from the other side of the door.

"Oh, but… of course…" Satori recognized it instantly, though she was slightly surprised what made this particular pet of hers leave her work post this early. "Come in, Okuu!"

The door slowly creaked open and the hell-raven's head with her green hair ribbon popped in.

"You're home from work early today…" Satori stated bluntly, waiting for her pet to enter the room properly.

"Well… um… you see… What did I come here for again?" Okuu was trying to string a sentence together as she walked into her mistress's study.

Satori gave her a quick once-over, smiled and nodded. "Yes… I see. Looks like someone urgently needs to meet me."

"Yes, exactly!" the hell raven affirmed with a series of nods. "I've done a good job delivering you this important message, huh?" she puffed up proudly, even though she hardly said anything.

"You've done well, Okuu." the satori slowly walked up to her much taller pet. "Bow." she asked of her.

Utsuho obliged. Satori could then reach her head with her hand and give her a few deserved caresses.

"But whatever that voice promised you was a lie. You know that, right?"

"Eeeeh?! So… no turning the surface world into a new Hell of Blazing Fires?" Utsuho sounded genuinely surprised, disappointed and even slightly angry.

"You were not granted the Yatagarasu's power for that purpose, Okuu, so please stop talking about burning the world."

"But working the reactor is so dull~!" she pouted. "Could I at least come up to the surface with you? Just for a little. The furnace can stay unattended for a while. Nothing bad is gonna happen."

"I'm sorry, but this isn't like the summer festival." Satori turned her request down. "Something serious and maybe even dangerous is going on."

"Uuu… That makes me want to go with you even more~." the hell raven fidgeted around restlessly. The soft-hearted Satori never enjoyed seeing her pets dissatisfied with something, but spoiling them wasn't right either.

"They probably just want to talk about something. I'll be back in the palace shortly. You just stay down here, Okuu, and be a good bird."

It almost broke her heart to see Utsuho hang her head in disappointment.

"That Kanako lied to me…" the raven youkai murmured to hrself. "Next time I meet her, I'll scorch her with my danmaku."

At that remark, Satori let out an amused giggle. "She's just a bit too shy to talk to me personally, like almost anyone from the surface."

"Then she should have just said so."

"Perhaps. And perhaps she was worried you wouldn't do as she says otherwise. Whatever the case, she and I are going to have a few words, if I meet her." Satori put her book back into the shelf and started getting ready to break the taboo of not leaving underground once more.

* * *

"Whew, that tea made me feel a bit hot." Marisa opened the door of Sanae's room. "I'm gonna sit on the porch to cool down for a while, okay?"

"Sure, go ahead." Sanae replied with a shrug.

Reimu followed Marisa outside as well. Not just to cool down, but also to ask Kanako how much longer she would have to wait for her to call Satori to the surface.

"Hey, Sanae, where's Kanako?" the Hakurei shrine maiden asked her comrade and rival.

"I'm right here, Hakurei." a door behind Reimu suddenly opened and Kanako's familiar voice responded.

Reimu turned around to face the goddess who was holding a coil of shimenawa rope in an offering pose. "Any luck contacting Satori?" she asked as she took the coil from Kanako's hands.

The sky goddess's look appeared rather sheepish and uncertain as she composed her answer. "Just… give her a few more minutes."

Judging by Kanako's answer, Reimu deduced that Satori was indeed contacted and on her way, which was a good sign. Certainly better than having to descend the underground all the way to Satori's palace. It didn't mean that Reimu wasn't impatient, though.

"Who exactly is this "someone" who is in touch with her that you were in touch with?"

"Well, if I take your past adventures into consideration, I believe the two of you would not need to introduce yourselves to each other."

"That's what I was afraid of." the miko muttered as she breathed a sigh. Fortunately, Marisa was there to help her relive the excess stress…. Or add to it.

"Oi~! Reimu~! Come out for some fresh mountain air too!" the blonde beckoned from the shrine's porch.

"Coming…" Reimu muttered a barely audible reply as she shuffled her feet towards the shrine's opened main entrance.

"If Satori comes, tell her I'm not home, or something…" Kanako made a nervous request before she closed herself in her room.

"Now that's not very polite, you know…" Sanae shook her head as she carried the three empty tea cups to the kitchen area to wash them.

"You're right, she'll just read your mind." Kanako's muffled voice spoke from her closed room. "How about you just tell her that I'm feeling a little sick. That's not a lie, so she should believe it."

"Kanako-sama, Satori-san is helping you too you know… Hiding in your room is very… un-goddess-like."

"Don't make this harder for me, Sanae~."

"I think I see a person in the sky~!" Marisa loudly announced Satori's probable arrival. "Aaaand It IS Satori! Get your tinfoil hats ready!"

Even Reimu now noticed the approaching dark dot on the horizon, coming from the mountain's summit.

"Kanako actually did it." Reimu nodded in acknowledgement. "And she's not bringing any unstable pets of mass destruction. That's a good sign."

As the dot in the sky got closer, Reimu could recognize the pink and blue colors or Satori's outfit.

"Well, hello, Satori! Guess what!" Marisa greeted the youkai mind-reader with a tease.

The petite youkai girl landed in the Moriya Shrine's courtyard, right in front of the miko and the witch. She first looked at Reimu, then at Marisa before she spoke.

"Okuu told me that Kanako Yasaka spoke to her…"

"I knew it!" Reimu exclaimed. "I'm sure glad she didn't come along."

"She wanted to, believe me." said the short youkai girl. "It took all my convincing to make her stay put… Anyway…" she focused her third eye on Reimu. "Looks like… you have quite the problem…"

"That's one thing I like about Satori." Marisa chimed in. "You don't have to waste any time explaining."

"You still loathe me, though."

"Hey, at least I didn't shut myself in a room." Marisa looked away and crossed her arms.

"Yes, I intended to speak to Kanako personally, but… I feel this problem in Kazermura is more urgent…"

"So you know what we want you to do once we get there, right?" Reimu asked Satori, just to make sure there was no misunderstanding.

"You want me to identify a culprit who cut the rope. You suspect one of the tengu is possessed… If they are still in the village, I should be able to do that, but… poople in Kazemra already know who I am…"

"That's… true…" Reimu admitted, scratching her chin thoughtfully.

That's when Marisa spoke. "Oi, Reimu… Let's be smart about this. If we barge into Kazemura with Satori, everyone's gonna recognize her. Culprit and innocent alike."

"I know." the miko frowned. "If the culprit gets wind that Satori is coming to Kazemura, they'll flee before she can identify them."

"Right. But if Satori's arrival and investigation was kept under cover…" Maria elaborated.

"And how do you plan to do that?"

"Hmm… Let's see…" Marisa twirled her braid as she tried to come up with a solution. "We should make Satori change her clothes. Some cape with a hood should do the trick."

"That's so stupid." Reimu didn't mince words when it came to evaluating Marisa's plan.

"Well, I'm open to discussion." the blonde pouted, allowing Reimu to come up with some better alternative.

"Let's see…" the red-white paused for a while. Then an idea sparked inside her head. "I got it!"

"You do?"

"Yes. Nue!"

"Nue Houjuu?" Marisa tilted her head along with her question. As if there was any other nue.

"She defeated me in the summer danmaku tournament." Satori muttered, but didn't seem to protest Reimu's train of thought.

"Marisa… You should go to Kazemura ahead of me. Bring Nue and meet us on our way there. She'll make Satori look like a normal villager. Then she can carry out her investigation without alerting any potential culprits."

"Ooooh. That might actually work!" Marisa grinned mischievously, rubbing her palms together. "Nobody will suspect a thing!"

"She was a formidable opponent…" Satori continued her mumbling, still referring to the events of the summer danmaku tournament at the Hakurei Shrine.

"Right." Reimu assured herself that her plan was perfect. Or, at the very least, better than Marisa's. "You're going on an undercover mission now, understand?" she asked Satori in a serious tone.

"I guess… But my sixth sense is telling me that…"

Satori didn't even finish her sentence before Reimu cut her off. "Great! Okay. So… we're going back to Kazemura now. Marsa, you go on ahead. Bring Nue and we'll meet behind the hill west of the village That's when we'll disguise Satori as one of the villagers."

"Are we like… waiting for something?" the witch asked. "Cause I'm ready as ever!"

"Oh, don't go yet!" Sanae shouted from within the shrine. "I want to come with you!"

"You're not needed, though." Reimu sternly turned her down.

"I owe it to Kanako-sama and Suwako-sama. Let me come with you!" the blue-white shrine maiden walked out of the shrine, gohei in hand.

"Your goddesses need you more." Reimu expressed her genuine concern. She had this strange feeling, like a premonition, that if Sanae left the shrine, something bad might happen. But Sanae would have none of it.

"Reimu. Don't make me delay you with a danmaku battle… I'm going to Kazemura, like it or not."

Reimu let out a heavy sigh.

"Come on, Reimu." even Marisa began to convince her. "She's not going to jeopardize Satori's assignment. Also, it'll make everyone think that we've left Kazemura to call for Sanae's help.

"I guess so… But that will leave this shrine undefended."

"From fairy attacks?" Sanae chuckled. "Kanako-sama can handle them, should they come."

"But she can't handle talking to me…" Satori again interjected with a stinging argument.

"Listen…" Reimu walked up to Sanae, looking right into her eyes. Even though Sanae was pretty much a rival to her, she had at least some respect and understanding for Sanae and her work. She would never wish anything bad to her, and that's why she tried to warn her. "I have a very, very bad feeling about this… And my intuition is seldom wrong. You shouldn't leave your shrine. Your goddesses depend on your protection now. An enemy lies in waiting. Waiting just for the moment when the shrine is at is weakest."

"What are you talking about?"

"Kanako and Suwako are weak. Kazemura's temple has drained them of their powers."

"I know that!" Sanae yelled back. "That's why I want to go to Kazemura and gather some faith for them."

"If you do, something bad is going to happen…"

"I cannot verify the probability of that." Satori shrugged as she read Reimu's mind.

"I appreciate your worries, Reimu-san, but I know what's best for this shrine. It needs faith. And I'm going to help recover it."

"I can't tell you what to do, Sanae… But let me tell you that when I get a feeling like this…. It rarely ends well…"

"I will only stay in Kazemura for a while. Nothing bad is going to happen."

Reimu didn't have the time, or the willpower to convince Sanae to stay at her shrine to defend it.

"Don't say I didn't warn you…" was all that she responded with before she took flight, heading east for Kazemura. Marisa, Sanae and Satori flew right alongside her.

* * *

As they were leaving Gensokyo's tallest mountain behind, the squadron of flying heroines discussed the details of their cunning plan.

"I've already told this to Reimu, but…" Marisa spoke to the mind-reading youkai, "it's also likely that Hatate has already found out who cut that shimenawa rope."

Satori knew that well, but she'd still go, just to make sure. Like Reimu, a strange tingling feeling in her stomach was making Satori feel uneasy, but she'd still go to Kazemura to find out the truth.

"If you truly believed that, I wouldn't have been summoned."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Marisa acknowledged. Even she wasn't feeling as calm and carefree as she acted, but she knew that Satori would easily see through her act.

"But hey, evil spirits fear you… Maybe just by your presence alone, Reimu and Sanae will be able to make the quarry pit safe for anyone to enter again…"

Satori didn't respond to that. She didn't dare to say whether or not these invading spirits truly feared her. She would have to see the situation in Kazemura with her own three eyes.

* * *

The valley in which Kazemura was located was slowly, but certainly getting closer. Reimu was about to repeat the plan to Marisa, when a loud booming sound erupted from the other side of the hill.

"Are they still firing those explosives?" Marisa gave Reimu a puzzled look. But as soon as a series of colorful danmaku projectiles soared towards the sky from behind the same hill, it became obvious that Kazemura was yet again caught in a battle.

"Well, that changes our situation." Reimu drew out a couple of sealing amulets. Sanae and Satori both prepared themselves for a fight, but Reimu halted them.

"Satori, you should stay here while we check out what's going on. Don't follow us unless you see me casting a yin-yang orb skywards, ok?"

"Alright…" Satori reluctantly brought her flight to a hovering halt. "Be careful."

Reimu, Marisa and Sanae jetted over the hill to see what was going on in Kazemura this time.

"First one to shoot down a hundred faeries wins!" Marisa swiftly left the two shrine maidens behind as she flew over the hilltop and took a sharp dive.

Reimu and Sanae were falling a few seconds behind her. Both of them could see more danmaku projectiles randomly shooting towards the sky. They each made last mental preparations before unleasing a flurry of their own danmaku on the unsuspecting flocks of fairies, when Marisa suddenly shot up from behind the hill, heading back towards her companions.

"I think Satori can help us here! There's plenty of fairies for everyone~!"

Reimu stole a hesitant glance at the mind-reader before giving a small nod. A cue that their plan has been completely changed by the current situation.

Sanae couldn't spare Reimu a sarcastic remark before joining the fight. "Where was your wonderful intuition when you were leaving this village?"

"My mind was preoccupied with other thoughts, okay?" said the red-white to her defense.

All 4 girls flew over the hill and began raining their magical projectiles on the fairies, which have yet again invaded the quarry village. A furious battle ensued…

* * *

Kanako remained in the Moriya Shrine's courtyard for a while after she ended communicating with Utsuho. Establishing contact with the hell raven as well as hastily creating a spare length of shimenawa had drained her of even that little bit of power she managed to recover since her last visit to Kazemura. She breathed a sigh and sat down on the shrine's wooden stairs. Rarely had she felt so weak, so vulnerable, as she did now. She didn't regret lending what little power she had to a good cause, but she certainly didn't enjoy depending entirely on Sanae or anyone else for that matter.

"I hope at least a few worshippers will come to pray today." she muttered to herself as she sat there. Despite its rather isolated location, Moriya shrine did get a fair share of visitors, namely the tengu. But even they didn't come by every day. As she watched the drifting clouds, lost in thought, she lost her track of time. Only when a chilly wind began blowing, she snapped out of her musings and stood up to return inside. That's when she heard a quiet distant knocking sound carried by the wind. A rhythmical knocking of wood against stone. Kanako perked up, her heart racing from excitement.

"Looks like my wish got answered." she uttered under her breath with a light smirk. She couldn't mistake the sound with anything else. It was the sound of footsteps of someone wearing sandals ascending the stone stairway to the plateau where the shrine stood. But the tengu usually didn't bother walking. Kanako couldn't help but wonder who the footsteps could belong to.

"Okay, Kanako, get your act together and look divine." she uttered a few words of self-encouragement as the sound of footsteps drew closer. Before long a single female figure emerged from behind the plateau's horizon, making her way slowly, but certainly towards the shrine.

"Just one, huh?" the goddess thought to herself as she watched the approaching woman. "Still better than nothing, I guess."

Even from afar, it was obvious that the visitor was not a tengu, in case her method of arrival didn't make it clear enough. The woman appeared to be in her mid-thirties, jet-black hair done up in a bun, dressed in a bland-looking grey kimono with a dark-brown sash. She spotted Kanako right away, but she didn't seem to show any reaction as she silently marched forward.

She stopped just a few steps short of reaching the shrine when she locked eyes with Kanako's.

The resident goddess expected her worshippers to show at least some gesture of reverence when they approached her, but this one just stood there and glared.

"Perhaps this is her first time visiting the Moriya Shrine." Kanako mused as she returned the woman the same silent treatment she was giving her.

Or course, Kanako didn't know the face of every single one of her worshippers, but she would've remembered this one. It certainly wasn't the prettiest face she ever saw. Quite the opposite, actually. But the goddess didn't judge people by their appearance, especially when they went through all the trouble of hiking to the shrine to pray. Kanako found it strange that a woman like her managed to ascend all the way up here by herself when the native tengu populace wouldn't let a human even as much as approach the foot of their sacred mountain. Not without a fight at the very least. But perhaps due to her desperation for faith, she ignored this somewhat suspicious detail.

"Is she mute?" Kanako wondered why the woman just stood there like a pillar. "Even if she is, about now would be a good time to at least bow."

Instead of bowing, however, the woman shook her head lightly, as if disapproving of something.

"This shrine has seen better days…" she finally spoke, thus sweeping aside Kanako's suspicion of her being mute. At the same time, she made it obvious that this wasn't her first time at the shrine.

"It did get attacked by a few possessed fairies recently, but the damage was minimal." Kanako also broke her silence.

"Not just the building itself, but that which it enshrines as well…" the stranger added cryptically.

Kanako raised her eyebrows. Was her lack of power that obvious? In spite of getting uncomfortable vibes from this woman, she still maintained an image of stoic calmness.

"I hope it doesn't deter you from praying."

"Oh, I haven't come here to pray, I'm afraid." the woman replied, much to Kanako's surprise.

"Then what business do you have here?"

"I've come to issue a warning, Kanako Yasaka."

"Who are you and what warning you speak of?" Kanako asked with a demanding tone.

"Forgive my manners." Only now the woman showed a gesture of politeness by lightly bowing her head. "I am Iwanaga, the goddess of immortality and the unchanging and the rightful goddess of Mount Yatsugatake."

Kanako's lips parted in an expression of awe, as well as realization. "Iwanaga… I should have known."

Even though the two goddesses never really met, Kanako knew well of Iwanaga and her history. The way she showed up at Kanako's doorstep as well as her lack of reverence towards her should have been a dead giveaway. That and her legendary lack of beauty. According to the legend, god Oyamatsumi offered his two daughters to Ninigi in marriage. The daughters were Konohana-Sakuyahime and her older sister Iwanagahime, The goddess of blooming blossoms and the goddess of rock-long life respectively. The very sisters who would later come to argue whether Mt. Fuji or Mt. Yatsugatake was taller. Ninigi couldn't bear how ugly Iwanaga was and sent her back to her father. Oyamatsumi then said to him, that he offered both of his daughters with a vow that the life of emperors would be as eternal as the stones, but since he refused Iwanaga, the emperors' lives would be as fleeting as that of the blooming blossoms.

"What warning do you bring then, Iwanaga?" Kanako prompted the other goddess to state her intentions.

"Dark times are ahead…"

"That much I'm aware of."

"Strife in a foreign land, not unlike Gensokyo, is causing a rift in faith of its people for their gods, and the bridge connecting the two worlds is bringing that strife with it."

"Are you talking about the temple in Kazemura?"

"Correct. You've been there yourself, haven't you?"

"That I have." Kanako confirmed. "But what's it to you?"

A crooked smile began to form on Iwanaga's face. "That was a rhetorical question. I know for a fact that you've visited the site. You, your precious friend who once owned this shrine and your dear shrine maiden."

Kanako didn't like the tone of her voice one bit, but she let her continue.

"Faith is like water in a dam. If the dam is released, it flows from the place of its abundance to the place of its lack, until it is distributed evenly… Or until the dam runs dry."

"Do you love talking in riddles?"

"Not as much a riddle as a colorful metaphor." Iwanaga corrected her. "But it rings true. Do you think I can't sense the massive shift in power that the foreign temple has caused? How quickly it drained you and left you nigh-powerless? Like a vortex, it sucks faith and magical energy away from Gensokyo, and it grows larger the more it consumes."

"That's hardly any news, Iwanagahime. I had taken precautionary steps to prevent the spread of the temple's influence, but just a while ago, I've been informed that the protective barrier in place was damaged by an unknown culprit."

"It is of no consequence. Your petty little rope fence was only good at preventing spirits from crossing it anyway. It did nothing to plug the hole leaking Gensokyo's divine essence and mana away. It would only be a matter of time before the hole would eventually outgrow the whole fence. And since shimenawa is a faith-based tool, it would effectively cut it off from its source of power, rendering it useless even at keeping evil spirits at bay. And perhaps that's what already happened."

Now Kanako was beginning to understand why she had a bad gut feeling during the whole conversation. Of course, if Iwanaga's words had even a lick of truth to them, it would mean that at this very moment, the entire quarry village was in danger.

"Sanae… Damn. I must warn her at once! I need to warn everyone!"

Iwanaga just covered her mouth with her sleeve as she let out a loud cackle.

"What exactly do you find so damn funny?" Kanako hissed at her.

"And how are you going to do that when you can barely stay afloat?"

Begrudgingly, Kanako had to admit that in her current state, such a trip would be haphazard at best.

"Now why don't you just stay here and let me finish what I've come to tell you." said the ugly goddess with a teasingly calm voice. "What were to happen should the bad come to worse, hm, Kanako?"

"I really have no time for this nebulous drivel of yours. Either get to the point or get out of my way."

"My question was far from nebulous. It's a scenario that is already beginning to take place. How long it will be before all faith and magic in Gensokyo disappears? Weeks? Months? You and I both know that this will eventually happen if a solution isn't found fast enough. Every god and their servant will lose their power; youkai and evil spirits will run amuck. Such is the future of Gensokyo."

"You seem awfully calm, given the bleakness of your envisioned future."

"All gods but one…" Iwanaga added, widening her smile. "As I am the goddess of the unchanging, this crisis doesn't affect me, but… I can't say the same about you, or Suwako Moriya, or even the dragon god himself. That is… concerning."

"So what? Are you trying to say you're taking over Gensokyo as its sovereign ruler?" Kanako tried to scoff, but her genuine worry was reflected in her voice.

Iwanaga brushed her off with the wave of a hand. "I have no such ambitions, my dear Kanako. However," she slowly turned her back to the other divine as she cast a thoughtful gaze upon the magnificent scenery that the mountain plateau offered, "Mount Yatsugatage is my home…" She spoke with a tone that indicated either worry or sadness. It was hard to say, as Kanako couldn't see her face. "I love my home. I would sooner see the hell freeze over than myself letting this mountain be overrun by malevolent beings. And I'm not talking about the friendly tengu and kappa."

"I don't intend on letting that happen either."

"Ah, but therein lies the rub, Kanako. Despite us sharing the same intentions, you in your sorry state will hardly be able to defend this mountain. I am Yatsugatake's only hope if all hell breaks loose. By creating a field of permanence, I'd be able to turn this mountain into an incorruptible safe haven. But that, as you surely know, won't be possible without some sacrifice…" she paused to turn back to Kanako once more, "…on your part."

"And that would be?" Kanako inquired, even though her gut was telling her that she wasn't going to like the answer.

"That you surrender the Moriya Shrine to me." came the cold-shower reply out of Iwanaga's lips.

The indigo-haired goddess stared at her blankly for a few seconds with her lips parted. Was this really happening? Did she just hear her right? Surely the fierce mountain winds have twisted Iwanaga's words into something else. But the deadpan serious frown on Iwanaga's face remained still like a stone.

A concoction of disbelief and anger was slowly beginning to boil inside Kanako's head.

"You must be out of your mind."

"I know it's not an easy decision, but…" Iwanaga's sentence was cut short by the sky goddess's echoing outburst.

"To think that I'd agree to something as outrageous as giving the shrine to you, is nothing short of madness!"

"It makes perfect sense, if you pause to think about it for a while. I wouldn't be asking this of you if I had a shrine of my own. Well, I used to share one with my sister, but I couldn't stand her anymore. After the tantrum she threw when she learned that Mount Yatsugatake was indeed taller than her home Mount Fuji, I just up and left. I've come to you, because unlike the Hakurei Shrine, Moriya Shrine already has a network of branch shrines all over Gensokyo. Gathering the faith necessary for me to protect the mountain for all eternity would be much easier through this shrine than the other one."

"You are truly testing my patience. Leave. Now."

"Choose your words carefully." the goddess of the unchanging said with a cautioning tone. "You may not have as many options left as you believe."

The nerve of this woman, goddess or not, was more than just yanking Kanako's chain. She was livid, and she let it be known by emitting an ominous glow. She was ready to fight if it came to it.

"Choose my words?! You come here to MY shrine and shamelessly demand me to hand it over. You've already crossed every line there is to cross. I've been tolerating your insolence long enough!"

"It is I who has been tolerating your presence ever since your arrival to Gensokyo. This is my mountain now. You and your shrine are only here due to my benevolence. And I find it ironic that you consider my demand as crossing all the lines, when you yourself sent your shrine maiden demanding the same thing of the Hakurei Shrine only a couple of years ago." Iwanaga laughed in Kanako's face. "Can you spell 'hypocrisy'?"

"…"

This time, the visiting goddess struck a sensitive string, and she knew it. Kanako did indeed try to monopolize Gensokyo's faith in the not-so-distant past. Believing that her expansionist habit, which long ago earned her the ownership of a rival deity's shrine, would bring her success in the land of illusions, she sent Sanae to the Hakurei Shrine in order to make its miko close it down. Needless to say, her ambition never came to fruition, thanks to Reimu and Marisa's intervention. Now, she found herself on the receiving end of a very similar ultimatum. A bitter taste of her own medicine. But just like how Reimu fought for the future of her shrine, Kanako too was willing to fight tooth and nail fur the future of hers.

"My answer is no. Turn around, walk back the way you came and don't come back. Or should I help you with that?"

"Empty threats will get you nowhere, Yasaka."

Kanako grinned and raised a card in her hand. A sudden gust of wind picked up around her. "Why don't you step closer and see how empty my threats really are!"

Iwanaga closed her eyes and sighed. "You truly are a foolhardy one."

* * *

As the noises of battle died down and the dust slowly settled after another fairy raid on the quarry village, it was time to assess the damage. A few tents had singed holes in them, a couple of houses had broken windows, some of the defending villagers were wounded, but all in all, Kazemura was pretty much okay.

"Another invasion crushed and again no deaths on the defenders' side!" Marisa smugly grinned as she blew the smoke off from her mini Hakkero. "It wasn't even that hard."

"Maybe because there weren't as many fairies as the last time." Reimu speculated. "The tengu have already cut their numbers down by the time we got here."

"Frankly, you didn't miss too much of that skirmish." Aya chimed in. "The last attack was definitely worse than this one."

"Looks like our mastermind is running out of cannon fodder." the witch stated with the same victorious grin plastered on her face.

"And perhaps not." Patchouli rejoined the group after being separated from them in the heat of battle. "What we've just seen could have very well been just a diversion or a distraction… I see you brought the rope." she added after glancing over at the shrine maiden.

"And some extra company as well…" Aya winked at the short girl standing quietly behind the witch and the miko.

"Well, there goes our plan." Marisa sighed disappointedly. It would be extremely naïve of her to hope that Satori's presence would go unnoticed for long. However, due to the unexpected fairy attack, keeping her arrival a secret from the rest of the village was no longer a concern.

"Good afternoon." the subterranean youkai muttered a quiet greeting.

Aya wasn't exactly hiding her bemusement when she saw her. "May I ask what brought you back to these parts?"

As a reply, the petite satori lifted both of her hands and pointed her index fingers at Reimu and Marisa.

"Why?" the crow tengu shifted her quizzical gaze from Satori to the duo of incident resolvers.

"To find out who cut the rope, of course." Reimu answered matter-of-factly. "It was supposed to be undercover, though…"

"Ah, about that…" Aya nodded understandingly. "Just before the fairy attack, Hatate reported to Lord Tenma what she learned from analyzing the spirit photo."

"And? What did she learn?" Marisa asked impatiently.

"Supposedly the rope was cut by a being about as old as the ruined temple itself. She said it must have been an evil spirit."

"Nonsense!" Reimu immediately objected. "Evil spirits can't cut a shimenawa rope without a body."

The crow tengu could only respond with a shrug. Her knowledge on the subject of evil spirits and spirit photograpy was rudimentary at best. "I'm only quoting what she said. It's not like I could gather much information from those blurry overexposed photographs that she took. I just saw a bunch of white orbs in them. But if what she says is true, then I'm afraid you've dragged Satori to the surface for nothing."

"We'll see about that." Satori didn't let Hatate's alleged findings demoralize her.

As Reimu racked her brain over the mystery of the cut rope, Sanae stepped in to bring her back to reality.

"Hey, let's go fix that fence already."

Letting out a sigh of resignation, Reimu slowly followed Sanae towards the damaged section of the fence.

* * *

After several minutes of hard struggle, the battle between to two divines was nearing its conclusion. Kanako's last Spell Card had just fizzled out, and with it her hope of honorably defending her shrine. With an expression of defeat, she slowly descended until her feet met the ground. They could barely support her weight. She gave it her all. There wasn't an ounce of strength or faith in her. Her knees gave way, making her painfully drop down into a surrendered wariza position. Her fate was sealed. She just lost her home. Not only her, but Suwako and Sanae as well. Oddly enough, she didn't feel bad for herself. After all, she used to live without a shrine for so long. But she couldn't stand the thought of telling Suwako and Sanae that they no longer have a home, all because she was weak.

Iwanaga towered over her in silence for a while, then she stepped toward her and lifted Kanako's chin up to look her in the eyes.

"As you can see, you are woefully unprepared to protect this mountain. Though I must say, I'm surprised you managed to resist me for that long. Regardless, this shrine can only survive with a strong deity."

"Don't think… that winning… some silly… Spell Card duel… will make me surrender my shrine…" Kanako uttered as she panted.

"I could seize your shrine right now if I wanted to… But I am not an evil goddess, so I'll give you a month. One month, not a day more. If you can regain your faith and your power by the end of that month, you can keep your shrine. Not only that, but I swear I'll never show up on your doorstep ever again. Convince me that you are worthy of owning this grand shrine. That your victory over the Moriya goddess was well-deserved. I'll test you again. If you fail to impress, then you can start packing up. Until then, goodbye." And with that, the goddess of Mt. Yatsugatake turned around and slowly walked away, accompanied by that typical knocking sound of her sandals.

"Ugh… what a day…" After catching her breath, the defeated goddess picked her battered physical body off the cold stone cobbles, dragging her feet as she headed back into her shrine. A shrine, which would not be hers for long… Under normal circumstances, losing or winning a duel was not considered a big deal in Gensokyo, but this time there was much more at stake than just pride. This defeat didn't feel just frustrating or embarrassing. It felt devastating. Depressing. Even tragic. The shrine was so much more than just a home. But now it would be a mere memory.

"I'm so weak… I disgust myself." Kanako grumbled to herself as she shuffled into the living quarters. Suwako was still there, napping under the warm kotatsu, completely oblivious to the fact that she would become a homeless deity in a matter of 30 days. How was she going to explain that to her? And to Sanae? She had no idea. She wasn't able to think straight about her immediate actions, let alone near future. She clumsily shut the door with a loud thwack, and with the same lack of grace, headed for her room, almost bumping into the kotatsu, stepping on Suwako's hat and knocking a vase over in the process.

At that point nobody could blame the sleeping Suwako to stir herself awake to see what the commotion was.

"Hm? Kanako?"

She only caught a glimpse of Kanako's back before she secluded herself in her quarters.

"Hey, Kanako, what's going on?"

A muffled voice from behind the sliding door responded: "Nothing. Just feeling a little tired."

The earth goddess yawned and put her iconic hat on. "Where's Sanae?"

"She flew to Kazemura a while ago to help with something."

"Again? And she promised to make the supper today… Hey, how about we made a hotpot?"

"I'm not really hungry…" Kanako turned her brilliant idea down. Even to Suwako, who's been asleep until recently, she seemed to be acting a little off. Kanako loved hotpot, so her response came as a surprise to Moriya Shrine's native goddess.

"Huh? Really?" she slowly approached the door of Kanako's room, "Is everything alright?"

She tried pulling the door open, only to find out that it was latched. Kanako never locked it, so Suwako was starting to become really suspicious. She jiggled the door a few more times to zero avail.

"I'm fine…" came an unconvincing answer from behind the latched door, followed by a dull thud. "I just… need… a rest…"

Suwako pouted at her friend's weird behavior and called out to her: "Your lies stink through the door! Open up and tell me what's wrong!"

Her plea was met with silence. Suwako wasn't giving up, though.

"Kanako! Kanako~!" she kept calling the sky goddess's name, adding a few hand taps on the door for emphasis. "Open the door! Please… talk to me! Do you need help?"

Although it pained Kanako to hear Suwako so worried for her, she remained lying motionless on the floor, staring at the ceiling. A million thoughts raced through her head, but opening the door of her room wasn't one of them. She couldn't bring herself to face Suwako and tell her the truth, even though the native goddess had every right to know it.

"One month, huh?" she whispered into the still air of her room. Iwanaga did give her a chance, but… "There's no way I'll regain my full power in such a short time."

If anything, Iwanaga's "chance" sounded more like an eviction notice. Her intentions might not have been inherently evil, but the goddess of the unchanging certainly had no room for sympathy or pity in her stony heart. Not that Kanako would ask her for it anyway. As a goddess, she had her pride, even if it was now tarnished by her recent debacle. Ideally, she would solve this problem by herself without ever letting Suwako and Sanae know about it, but the reality was anything but ideal.

"I'm going to have to break the news to them one day…" she murmured to the empty and almost quiet room, had it not been for Suwako's persistent, but futile attempts to establish communication. "Surely, they'd fight for the shrine, but… this is my battle and mine alone."

Iwanaga would surely see to it that there'd be no third party interference during the decisive showdown.

"Is this how Suwako felt when I took over her shrine, I wonder…?" the tired goddess kept on musing. "I had little sympathy for her back then. I only let her live in the shrine out of need… I couldn't keep the Mishaguji curse gods at bay. The shrine would have served me no purpose if worshippers kept avoiding it like the plague… Only with time, I became amicable towards Suwako… Hmph. Is this what Buddhism and Hinduism call karma?"

She highly doubted Iwanaga would let the Moriya Shrine residents live alongside her under the same roof, not that Kanako could see herself staying, if that was the case.

"Why did she have to show herself now of all times?" was another question that truly bothered her. Clearly this goddess had been living on the mountain for thousands of years, not intervening even when the tengu founded their village on its slopes, or when Kanako moved her shrine to its plateau. She only appeared when Gensokyo was facing this particular incident. She also seemed to have some insight as to what was happening in a faraway land that was supposed to be linked with Gensokyo via a portal in a ruined temple.

"Does she perhaps have anything to do with what's going on?"

Regardless of Iwanaga-hime's role in this major incident, Kanako had bigger things to worry about now, and worry she did.

By now, even Suwako had given up on trying to talk to her.

With the strange silence settling around her, she closed her eyes.

Perhaps for the first time in her eons-long life, Kanako experienced what it felt like when gods lose their religion.


	70. Finding One's True Potential

Replacing the cut section of the shimenawa fence didn't take the shrine maidens more than a couple of minutes, but now they faced the difficult question of what to do next.

"I wouldn't recommend anyone entering the quarry. It could be crawling with vengeful spirits by now for all we know." Reimu warned Tenma as well as Kazemura's elder.

"I understand the danger, but…" the old yama-bito frowned, "the quarry is our livelihood. If we can't mine here, we might as well all pack up and abandon this village."

"You could always start a new quarry nearby." Tenma said to his comfort. "This whole valley is rich with high-quality ore. With a bit of luck, you might even strike gold."

Sanae also found the situation disappointing. "Awww, I wanted to see the temple's interior. Why couldn't we just make a purification ritual in the quarry?"

"Because we'd be drained of power before we'd even begin. Not to mention, that ritual is only good if the spirits have a way to leave the area, and we just fenced them off."

"So what do we do now? Sit and wait?"

Even Reimu didn't know the answer to that, as evidenced by her absent-minded silent stare at the center of the quarry pit.

"There's got to be a way for us to drive the spirits away from the quarry…" Sanae declared confidently, but her faith alone wasn't going to figure out the solution to this problem.

"If only there was a way for us to see them."

"Can't Satori-san see them though?" the green-haired miko tilted her head.

"Hmm." Reimu rubbed her chin as she hummed. "We should go back to the tent and figure out our next step. Thanks for helping me with the fence, Sanae, but as you can see, there really isn't much for us shrine maidens to do at the moment. You can go back home."

"Are you kidding? There's tons of work for me to do here. For starters, I need to gather some faith for our shrine. The people of Kazemura should know that we've got their backs in these tough times and that the divines haven't forsaken them."

The red-white shrine maiden didn't prepare any counterargument to that kind of response. She turned around and retreated to the tent as she said. A new plan had to be devised to cope with the current problem, and so the expedition team gathered for yet another serious meeting.

And it wasn't the only serious meeting that was due to take place…

* * *

Come next morning, Kyouichi got out of his bed after barely getting any sleep. It was still dark outside, but he knew that the roosters from the farm across his new home wouldn't take long before singing their morning songs. He lit a few lanterns to see his surroundings better and absentmindedly prepared himself for an uneasy return to school after a turbulent weekend. Although "absentmindedly" was probably the wrong word, as his mind was anything but absent. It was working in overdrive, thinking of what was to come, rather than what he was doing now.

By now, no doubt everyone and their dog in the village must have heard the latest gossip about a group of outsiders attempting to leave Gensokyo while avoiding detection by the militia and failing spectacularly. Surely a newspaper article dedicated to this topic was already in the making, if not already published. It was more than certain that the teacher/principal, Keine, was going to call him on the carpet, demanding an explanation to what went wrong. And on top of that, he would have to reunite with all those people who put their trust in his plan and endure their accusing stares for days to come.

Needless to say, he wasn't looking forward to this day. He couldn't enjoy the taste of his breakfast, or his morning tea. It didn't help that he could hear the faint drumming of rain against his cabin's roof and windows. He even noticed a dripping leak in the roof, so with a sigh and a frown, he placed a bucket underneath it before he put his raincoat on and headed out. He didn't meet a soul on his way to the village gate, but once he crossed it, he could see people already up and about, either on their way to work, or in the case of children – to school. He quietly headed the same way as the children have, listening to their carefree chatter until he heard his name being called.

"Yo, Kyou-kun~!"

He lifted his gaze and saw the Saitou siblings with school bags on their backs. He wondered how they could recognize him in a crowd so easily with a hood on, but then it dawned on him that it was probably because he was wearing their father's old raincoat.

"So, what's it like living all by yourself?" Chitose started the conversation nonchalantly.

"I'm still getting used to it." Kyouichi gave a neutral answer.

"So, you're cooking and cleaning and washing your clothes and all that?"

Kyouichi couldn't hold back a chuckle at her rather redundant question. "No, I employ an army of fairy maids who do all those chores for me."

"If that was the case, you probably wouldn't have much left of your home." Tadao joined in. "Fairies have been going nuts lately. You heard what happened to the post office, right?"

Both siblings acted as though Kyouichi's attempt to leave Gensokyo never happened. Like it was just another Monday, they discussed their plans for the afternoon with seemingly no care in the world. Either way, Kyouichi was glad he could rest his worried mind over small talk with the two kids as they headed for school.

"Mom said that she'll be paying you a visit every now and then." Chitose continued, "She said you should stop by as well."

"Better not let her down then…"

* * *

As they walked and chatted, Kyouichi stole quick glances at groups of passerby in search for familiar faces, but he recognized none until he entered the schoolyard.

Near the entrance, he saw the one he probably had the most disagreements with, Yuujin Ueda. He was leaning against the wall, smoking a pipe and chatting with two other members of the Transfer Students' Club. He couldn't make out what they were talking about, but as soon as he saw Kyouichi's face, he went quiet and gave him an unpleasant glare. Kyouichi didn't expend any pleasantries either and just passed him by without even uttering a greeting. Just as he did so, he could faintly hear: "Goddamn Ishimaru…" muttered behind his back.

Being a person who normally avoids conflicts and confrontations, Kyouichi intended to ignore the remark and carry on to the classroom, but then he felt a pebble-sized object bouncing off the back of his raincoat's hood.

"Hm, Kyou-kun? What's wrong?" Chitose turned around when she noticed that Kyouichi wasn't keeping the pace with her and Tadao.

"Nothing." he brushed them off. "You can go on to your classrooms. I'm going to have a little chat with a friend here."

Both siblings gave him puzzled looks but obliged. Kyouichi then turned around, pulled his hood down and looked Yuujin straight in the eyes.

The stare-down lasted a few seconds before he spoke up. "If you have anything to tell me, tell it to my face."

"Just wanted to thank you for all the trouble you put us all through." Ueda replied sarcastically and smirked. "All that planning, all that research, all that work and money… And here we are, still stuck in this shithole. Really, good job. I really appreciate the way the militia interrogated me like some criminal."

"I've been interrogated too. What's your point? It's not like I intended to fail."

"My point is you foolishly betted everything on one plan without even making sure this shrine maiden could keep her end of the bargain. "

"Reimu WAS our backup plan, as we were unsuccessful in finding the boundary youkai. I already told you, she had already demonstrated her ability to me. I had no reason to doubt her."

"Yeah? When was that? Half a year ago?" Yuujin barked back, "You should have asked her to demonstrate it again before you led us all gullible sheep out of the village."

"You, as all the other people, have joined me voluntarily and agreed with that plan." Kyouichi defended his position,

"Yeah, trusting you! We had one chance to make it out of here without a hitch. Yet, you stubbornly insisted on delaying the day by months just for the sake of buying tons of unnecessary camping gear and food, which, by the way, we can all throw away. Do you really think we'd be that far from civilization that we'd need supplies for a week? And the best of all, now every damn Ryuuken knows of our intentions and will keep a close eye on us. Even if the barrier would let up again, we're not sneaking out of here. I doubt the time-stopping maid will bother with us again anyway. You squandered my one opportunity to see my family again."

Some of these points, Kyouichi begrudgingly had to silently agree with, but there was one point, which Yuujin was misinformed about.

"About the Ryuuken, I've actually asked them whether we'd be allowed free passage once the barrier issue is resolved. The elder gave us his word. We'll need Reimu's escort, but otherwise, he said he won't stand in our way."

"Is that so? The same elder who fined our asses for disobeying his regulations? I find it doubtful he'd suddenly have a change of heart. Sounds to me like you're just making it up in order to appease me. But let me tell you, I am sick and tired of being stuck in this place separated from my family. Sick and tired, you hear me?"

"I know you're pissed, but you're not the only one with a family here. I want to go home just as badly as you do."

"Then you should show at least a speck of shame! Instead, you casually go out on dates with the local youkai. The reason several of us have left our club. Now you're planning to settle down and betray it too… You should be deeply ashamed."

Of course, Yuujin didn't live under a rock and kept up-to-date with the latest gossip. And of course he'd bring THAT up in the conversation. Kyouichi could only sigh and chuckle at that.

"You should check your sources if you believe I plan on settling down."

"You're not convincing anyone with your bullshit, Ishimaru. We can't trust you anymore."

"If that's what you believe, you're free to start your own club. Nobody's holding you here against your will. I'm just saying that I will keep trying to find a way home."

"With a love affair on the side, right?" Ueda scoffed. It was obvious to Kyouichi that no matter what he'd say, this man would not believe him. Not that he could blame him much. Kyouichi himself wasn't sure who came out on top of their little argument, as the subway train conductor did make several valid points. He was like a megaphone for that little voice inside his head that robbed him of his sleep for the past couple of days. Their exchange would probably go on for a couple of more minutes if Keine-sensei hadn't arrived on the scene.

"Good morning. What's this commotion about?" she asked without waiting for an answer. "Please put that pipe out. No smoking allowed on the premises." she scolded Yuujin and before he could react, she swiftly snatched the pipe out of his hand.

"Hey, that's…"

"Don't worry, it'll be returned to you after school. And after you show me your homework, Ueda-san. Inside the classroom, everyone!"

"Homework? Are you kidding? I expected to be home by now. Who cares about some stupid homework?"

"Hm… Fair enough." Keine shrugged and quickly came up with an alternative way of punishment. "You'll clean up the classroom after school."

Kyouichi would find this situation quite hilarious if the previous conversation didn't already get his blood boiling. Now he wondered what the half-youkai teacher had to say about that misadventure of her "transfer students".

* * *

Once inside, Kyouichi met up with the rest of the outsiders and casually greeted them as he took a seat at his desk. As it was Monday, the first class on schedule was the history class. Kyouichi reluctantly pulled the appropriate textbook out of his bag and spread it open on his desk. Keine took a piece of chalk in her hand and turned to the blackboard. Everyone expected her to write the name of the next history topic, but instead she began to write down numbers - a date and a sum of money.

"Before we begin our history lesson, I'd like to remind you all that the scheduled field trip to the newly-built hot spring resort near the Youkai Mountain is due to next week. It's a ten-day sightseeing trip and it costs 50 000 yen per person for children and 75 000 for adults, just in case any of our transfer students are interested. It's not a compulsory trip, so please consult your parents or guardians whether you'd like to go or not. The trip will be both educational as well as recreational. You can find the details of the trip and the places we'll be visiting on the bulletin board along with a form where you can sign up." she pointed at the back wall of the classroom.

The classroom became loud with chatter as Keine announced that. Most of her regular students were excited about the idea, but there were some who questioned the whole idea.

"Keine-senei." one girl raised her hand tentatively.

"Yes?"

"What about the students who decide not to go? Will they get 10 days off?"

The were-hakutatku teacher chuckled. "I'm sure if that were the case, everyone would decide not to go. No. The students who for any reason decide not to partake in the field trip will have a regular schedule with substitute teachers until we return."

A wave of disappointed "awww"s echoed throughout the classroom.

"Of course, it doesn't mean that the students who do attend will be slacking off. I've already prepared a program filled with fun and educational activities that will help you learn more about Gensokyo."

"Like visiting a brothel?" Soudai uttered jokingly from behind Kyouichi's back, making him snicker. "That would definitely be 'fun and educational'."

Luckily for him, Keine didn't hear his dirty joke due to the clamoring of other younger students. They got so loud, in fact, that Keine had to calm them down.

"Quiet~! Keep it down, class!"

Another hand had risen up from the crowd.

"Yes?"

"Keine-sensei, is it really safe to go on this trip?" asked the boy in the front desk, slightly puzzling the teacher with his forward question.

"Why, of course it will be safe. I'll be protecting you. What makes you think it'd take you somewhere dangerous?"

"Well… The Youkai Mountain is in the northern part of Gensokyo. Dad said that the whole northern Gensokyo is not safe."

"If he was referring to the recent incident involving fairies, then I assure you, there have been no reported fairy attacks in any of the locations we're planning to visit. And even if they did attack, the mountain is home to the tengu who are more than capable enough to dispatch even large numbers of hostile fey. They will be watching over our safety as well. But if you or your parents think that you shouldn't go, it's perfectly fine. Like I said, the trip is not compulsory. Any other questions?" Keine asked as she looked around the classroom. "No? Okay. Now with that out of the way, open your books on page 82. We have another interesting and important event to learn about…"

She grabbed a sponge and wiped the field trip date and cost off the board and scribbled the name of the lecture. "The Vampire Incident."

As the students collectively readied their writing tools, Soudai whispered to Kyouichi: "Hey, how about you? Are you going on this field trip?"

Kyouichi just shrugged his shoulders. Just as when Keine first told the students about the trip in spring, he remained indecisive about the matter. A part of him was still curious about new sights to see, but perhaps the louder part of him was apathetic about it. His mind was still recovering from the failed return trip to the outside world, and wished for nothing more than to be left alone. He doubted this unnecessary adventuring was going to put him at ease.

"As for myself," Soudai continued, seeing as Kyouichi wasn't responding in any way beyond his shrug, "I'd be willing to go, but damn… 75K. That's our whole monthly salary. But if you said that you're going, then I'd sign up as well. We got nothing left to do besides killing time. Might as well spend it in a 'fun and educational' way. Hehe. Maybe there'll be some hot tengu girls in that hot spring resort…"

Before Kyouichi could react, Keine cleared her throat to get the students' attention. "Oh… And I almost forgot." She picked something up from the drawer of her desk and lifted it up for everyone to see. It was a book, and even the short-sighted Kyouichi could see that its cover was oddly familiar. "The most recent addition to the Gensokyo Chronicle has been officially published." the teacher announced, waving the book slightly. "This 166-page book written by Hieda no Akyuu-san is titled "Perfect Memento in Strict Sense"."

No wonder it seemed familiar. Kyouichi had already held its beta version in his hands, but out of all the books he borrowed from the chronicler, this was the one he got to know the least before he returned it.

"This lovely illustrated book is a simple and easy-to-read encyclopedia dealing with most of the currently-living youkai, as well as Gensokyo's prominent locations and historical events. It will make an excellent textbook, not just for our history classes. I've already ordered enough copies for all the students, but it will take a few days before they get all printed. In the meantime, I'll let you take a peek at it. Make sure you pass it along to all of your classmates, okay?" Keine smiled and handed the book over to the first student. "Of course, it's also going to cost something, but since I ordered so many, I got a bit of a discount. This new textbook will cost 2500 yen."

"Great, more expenses." Soudai "rejoiced" sarcastically.

Kyouichi turned his head over to him. "The best thing is, I already had it borrowed, but I foolishly returned all of Akyuu's books."

"Well, then just borrow it again." Soudai suggested.

"I doubt it's going to be for free this time."

"Didn't you work at a bookstore? Just have one copied on that fancy kappa printing machine you told me so much about."

"Yeah, well, I've already lost all my perks as a part-timer ever since I quit working there. And since the store changed its name, owner and purpose. I even doubt that the previous owner left that printer there. He spent a small fortune on that thing."

Soudai shrugged. "I'm just trying to help."

After a while the book that was being passed along reached Kyouichi's desk. "Ah, we meet again."

He examined the cover closely. It still had that nice smell that new books have. The image on the cover hasn't changed from the unofficial version that he had borrowed, but the book seemed slightly thicker. Understandable, since the one he had before was unfinished. He flipped through its pages and saw illustrations depicting many familiar faces. Many of whom he had already met. The entries for humans and youkai were separated and the youkai had a familiar chart dealing with their abilities, threat level, human friendship level and lastly - main places of activity, All-in-all, not a lot seemed to have changed about the unofficial book, but then again, Kyouichi hadn't seen all that much of the unofficial book either.

"Hey, are you gonna pass it over here or what?" Soudai was already getting impatient.

"Sure, here you go." the long-haired outsider shut the book and handed it over.

He briefly watched as the teacher jotted down some notes on the chalkboard that were relevant to today's lesson, when he felt the prod of Soudai's finger on his back.

"What?" he turned around in annoyance.

"Hey, found a page about your wife." he grinned like an idiot as he held the book opened on a page dedicated to Yuuka Kazami.

"Huh?" Kyouichi's eyes widened. Even the sleepiness he felt since getting up seemed to have vanished in that instant. "Give me that!" he snatched the book right out of Soudai's fingers and slammed it on his own desk so he could read the article. He did it so enthusiastically, though, that even Keine stopped writing mid-sentence to raise a confused look in Kyouichi's general direction.

"Please don't damage that book. I want it to return to me in pristine condition, understood?"

"Ah… yes, Keine-sensei…" Kyouichi sheepishly apologized and bowed. Then he adjusted his glasses and started reading.

_Flower Master of the Four Seasons_

_Yuuka Kazami_

_Ability: Manipulation of flowers_

"Yup, sounds about right…"

_Threat level: Extremely high_

"Ehe…ehehehe… damn." Kyouichi chuckled nervously and read on.

_Human friendship level: Worst_

"Wow…" Kyouichi stared at the chart in amusement. "If I didn't know you any better, I'd say you're trolling, Akyuu-chan."

"May I have the book, please?" Midori's voice returned Kyouichi's mind back to the classroom.

"Oh, sorry, class rep. Here you go." he reluctantly let go of the Perfect Memento. A strange surge of excitement and fear raced through his body. Those few lines he just read sounded like a gross exaggeration, and yet… they didn't.

"Akyuu really must fear her…" he quietly mused. Given Akyuu's reaction when he so casually introduced her to Yuuka the other day really provided support for such an assumption. He then quickly remembered his earlier conversation with the flower youkai herself about fear, and how it provides most youkai with sustenance and power, and how it is, according to her own words, considered a form of flattery. Certainly, Akyuu wasn't the only human to show signs of extreme anxiety in the presence of the smiling flower-loving youkai.

"Should I be afraid too?" he pondered that question for the remainder of the history class. His focus was all over the place throughout Keine's lesson, and so were his notes. The only thing he managed to memorize about the Vampire Incident was the fact that it led to the creation of the Spell Card System. Only the recess-announcing bell managed to snap him out of his daze.

* * *

As the history lesson ended, some students went over to the teacher's desk to pay for the new textbooks, others gathered at the bulletin board to sign up for the upcoming field trip.

Kyouichi's mind resembled an internet browser with 20 different tabs open at the same time. The field trip and Yuuka were merely the tip of that iceberg. Among other things, he kept thinking about his not-too-successful role of a club president. He knew that the club's regular meeting was scheduled for Tuesdays, but he couldn't wait until tomorrow. With mixed feelings of anxiety and willingness to make up for the recent failure, he stepped up to the blackboard and clapped his hands.

"Excuse me! May I have your attention, please?"

It took a moment for the noisy students to calm down and start paying him any attention, but soon, the whole classroom's eyes rested on him. Even Keine looked rather surprised by his sudden action.

"I'd like to make an announcement." he began, pausing briefly as he tried to string his thoughts into a sentence, "To all the members of the Transfer Students' Club, I would like to call for a special club meeting this afternoon in the library."

His sudden announcement was met with less support than he expected, though.

"Why today?"

"Can't it wait until tomorrow?"

"I'm sorry, but I already have other plans for the afternoon."

"Are you going to resign?"

Those were just some of the responses of his clubmates. Even Keine disapprovingly shook her head. "I'm afraid the Literature Club will be using the library this afternoon."

"I see…" Kyouichi lowered his gaze and slowly walked back to his desk. "So much for my good intention."

"Hey, what was that all about?" Soudai asked him in puzzlement.

"Nothing… Just thought I would have a talk with everyone and help raise the club's morale a bit. Maybe try to steer it the right direction again."

"I'm sure tomorrow will be a better time for that."

"Not if I want to sleep well tonight…" Kyouichi disagreed, but he knew he wouldn't convince the unwilling club members to hold any special meetings today.

"Do you have any new plans for our club perhaps?" Midori chimed in.

"Not really…" Kyouichi admitted with a sigh. "I just have a few short-term ideas that could at least help us get some money back."

"Okay then. Write them down and present them tomorrow. I'm sure you'll have a more willing audience."

"Yeah, you're probably right, Midori."

"Of course I'm right. And you know what else I'm right about?" the class representative smirked lightly.

"What?"

"That you need a rest and a change of scenery."

Kyoichi blinked at her in confusion. "I'm not sure I'm following you…"

"Don't play coy. You know well what I'm talking about."

It took but one glance from Midori over Kyouichi's shoulder at the back of the classroom for Kyouichi to catch on.

"You want me to go on that field trip?"

"I'm merely suggesting it. Who knows, maybe you'll learn some new information that will help us in our search for the boundary youkai. Or perhaps a way to cross the barrier even without her or Reimu's help."

Even though Kyouichi wanted to say how much he doubted that, Midori effectively managed to plant a bug in his head.

He kept staring at the bulletin board, as if he hoped it could help him solve his dilemma for him. To go, or not to go? That was the question.

"Oh, what the hell… I live only once, right? I'm probably not going to have a second chance…" he mumbled as he took a pen in his hand and stepped up to the bulletin board of destiny.

A few scribbles on the paper and the decision became official. After he signed up, he noticed that Midori's name was already there.

"Oh, you've signed up, huh?" Soudai took a peek over Kyouichi's shoulder. "And Iwakami too… I guess that means I should keep my word, doesn't it? Can I borrow your pen, Ishimaru?" he asked politely, but didn't wait for an approval. He simply plucked the pen out of Kyouichi's hand and marked the paper with his autograph. "There… Bye-bye, 75 000 yen. I'll be missing you. This trip better be worth it."

The day went on as usual for the outsiders. Kyouichi's paranoid thoughts from morning did not come true after all. It almost seemed disappointing that Keine didn't call the transfer students to her office for counseling, but by the same token, none of the outsiders came knocking on her office's door once the school was over.

* * *

Normally, Kyouichi would spend the time between school and his part-time job taking a nap or hanging out with friends, but now he had other plans. His first stop on his way from school was the Hieda house. While he was well accustomed to dealing with the chronicler herself, he wasn't all that comfortable around the rest of her family. The feeling he had when he knocked on the door was akin to that when he first visited the place as a complete stranger.

Fortunately, he heard the familiar voice calling: "Come in~!" from the other side of the door.

"Good afternoon, Akyuu. Hope I'm not interrupting your work…" Kyouichi removed his sandals and stepped inside.

"Oh, Kyouichi-san. Afternoon…" the girl greeted him casually from the table. Scrolls, books, ink flasks and brushes obscured nearly all of the table's surface. She was still writing something onto one of those long scrolls when Kyouichi entered the room.

"You're interrupting, yes, but just a little…" she smiled and put her brush down. "I just have one more scroll to finish…"

"Ah, I'm sorry then…" Kyouichi apologized and rose back to his feet. "I can stop by some other time."

"No, no, you don't need to leave!" Akyuu quickly tried to make up for the misunderstanding. "Please… sit. I'll go and make some tea and…"

"I'll pass, thanks. It's not the tea I've come here for anyway."

"Oh. Right. What can little old me help you with then?"

"About those books I had borrowed from you earlier…" Kyouichi sheepishly approached the point of his visit.

"Yes?"

"Would it still be okay if I… you know… borrowed one of them again?"

"Oh, sure." Akyuu replied with a kind smile. "Provided I didn't already lend it to someone else…"

"Oh." Kyouichi figured there'd be a catch and now he hoped his desired book wasn't in someone else's hands.

"So, which book you have in mind?"

"Uh… the Perfect Memento?"

"Ah, my most recent one. I'm glad that you liked it. It just recently got published, you know." the teenage chronicler's petite chest seemed to swell with pride as she spoke. "Unfortunately…"

And here came the catch that Kyouichi anticipated, but hoped he could avoid.

"...since it was recently published, I naturally handed the original to the publishers - the Motoori family, and they still haven't returned it. Hm… I might have to pay a visit to Suzunaan, as they should no longer need it."

"So I'll go rent it from Suzunaan then."

"Well… you see…" another catch slowly made its way out of Akyuu's mouth. "They have this policy that they only rent books that are older than 3 years in order to promote the sales of new publications."

"Bummer… But it does make sense. From a business standpoint anyway." Kyouichi nodded.

"So, there's no helping it. I'll have to buy it after all…"

And as he mumbled to himself, the chronicler perked up. "You know… I would really, really appreciate it if you helped support my work by buying it. Each copy sold means more pocket money, ehehe~." she punctuated the truthful statement with a cute smile and a giggle.

"Playing the cute card… not fair." said Kyouichi jokingly.

"Well, if you're really short on money, you could borrow my draft version of Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, but it's a mess… I wouldn't recommend it."

"Nah, I'm not short on money, I was just hoping I could save some." the outsider made a shrug.

"I understand." Akyuu nodded as she pulled herself away from the table and stood up. "Here's an idea: why don't we both pay a visit to Suzunaan? With little luck, we'll only run into Kosuzu. Maybe I can coax her into giving you a discount."

"Isn't she still in Kazemura, though?"

"No, she and I both returned to the village to get Perfect Memento published."

Now that Kyouichi was again up-to-date with the situation, he responded to Akyuu's suggestion with a nod. "Alright then. Let's go."

* * *

And so they went. It wasn't much of a journey as Suzunaan was just across the street. Just as they opened the door, they were welcomed by the tunes of jazz music playing from a vintage-style gramophone. Even though the shop had a bell that rang whenever someone opened or closed the door, there didn't seem to be anyone inside.

"Uh… hello?" Akyuu gently called out, but got no response. Together with Kyouichi she slowly approached the main counter with an empty chair behind it. "Anybody home?" the chronicler tried her luck again.

Kyouichi was still trying to get used to the rearranged furniture of his former workplace when he heard some noise coming from the back room where he used to work with the kappan printing machine. A sound of light footsteps preceded the emergence of a young girl, who Kyouichi was already introduced to back in Kazemura.

"Welcome to Suzu…" she enthusiastically began a greeting when she recognized her visitor. "Oh… It's just you." She casually waved her hand, as if Akyuu was just an annoying fly that found its way into the shop.

"Not _just_ me, this time." the 9th child of Miare corrected her, and right on cue, Kyouichi stepped out from behind one of the shelves.

"Good afternoon."

Not being possessed of perfect memory like Akyuu, it took Kosuzu a moment to connect the face in front of her with a name. She succeeded, though… with Kyouichi's help.

"Ah, yes, yes, Ishimura Yuuichi."

"Kyou… ichi. And it's "Ishimaru"." the outsider was genuinely amused how this girl butchered his name.

"Ah, sorry… I'm terrible with names." she confessed with an apologetic bow. "I heard about the setback that prevented you outsiders from crossing the boundary…"

At this point, Kyouichi would be more surprised if there was anyone in the village who hasn't heard about that failed attempt yet.

"…That's unfortunate." she tried to empathize with his plight, but stating the obvious didn't seem to help the situation by the tiniest margin.

"Yes, well…" Akyuu broke the awkward moment of silence. "…let's get down to business, shall we?"

"Oh. Yes. You must want your manuscript back, right?" she managed to correctly guess Akyuu's reason for visiting. "Just give me a moment…" she ducked behind the counter and began to rummage through its shelves. "It should be right here. Hm… no. Or was it here…? Not here either."

Akyuu and Kyouichi exchanged confused glances as Kosuzu desperately tried to locate the original version of Perfect Memento.

"I swear I had it safely put away around here somewhere, just waiting for you to pick up." Kosuzu's frantic search intensified, as now her visitors could see sheets of paper being scattered about from behind the counter.

Akyuu let out a sigh. "You know this wouldn't happen if you organized your workplace instead of just dumping everything willy-nilly onto one pile."

The sound of rustling paper was now replaced by the noise of drawers being pulled off their grooves and placed on the floor.

"I told my dad to keep it where it was..."

"Blaming it on your parents now?"

"Aha! Here it is~!" Kosuzu stuck out her hand, holding the book like a victory trophy.

"You're lucky." Akyuu took the manuscript and checked it for any signs of damage. "Your parents wouldn't be too happy if they had to pay a fine for losing it."

"If it's their fault, it's their problem. I know where I leave my stuff. Anyway," Kosuzu straightened up again, "You're already making a killing with that book of yours even without us having to pay you any fines."

Akyuu's lips parted in surprise. "Huh? So someone already bought it?"

"Well, yes. Someone indeed…"

"Let me guess: Kamishirasawa-sensei?"

"Whoa! How did you know?" Kosuzu sarcastically pretended to be impressed.

"Of course she'd buy it. But how does one sold book constitute "making a killing"?"

"Well, the thing is, she's planning to introduce Perfect Memento as an official textbook. Once she collects enough money from the students, she said she's going to order the book in a bulk. That could be a couple of hundred copies easily."

"A-are you serious?" Akyuu stuttered in disbelief. "That… That's amazing!" Even though a few hundred sold copies would barely satisfy any author in the outside world, by Gensokyo's standards Perfect Memento would be considered a bestseller.

"Did you hear it, Kyouichi? The school bought my book~!" the young chronicler hopped excitedly.

"That's. uh… great, Akyuu-chan~!" he tried to share her enthusiasm, but he knew about it all along, just never really mentioned it to her.

"It is~! And you're attending that school, right? That means good news for you too~! You can order a copy from Keine-sensei."

"Riiight… I forgot to mention that's the reason I've come to visit you in the first place…" Kyouichi admitted with a sense of guilt on his chest. "After I found out that Keine wants us to use Perfect Memento as a textbook, I instantly remembered how you let me borrow all those volumes of Gensokyo Chronicle for free and I thought…"

"You thought you'd just borrow it again." Suzunaan's little clerk finished the sentence for him.

"Well, yes." the outsider shrugged. "Or at least that I'd get a better offer."

"In that case, you're going to have to ask the author. We don't usually rent books that aren't at least…"

"Three years old, yes, Akyuu already told me. And she also told me she'd appreciate if I actually bought a copy rather than just borrow it."

"Of course, if you wish to buy it, that's a whole different story." Kosuzu pointed at the top shelf behind her, where new books were neatly stacked. The price tag for the Perfect Memento read 2999 yen. Almost 500 more than what Keine said it would cost.

"At this rate, I'm really better off ordering it from the teacher then. Unless…" he stole a pleading glance at Akyuu, who took a while to catch on.

"Ah, yes… Unless Kosuzu-chan here offers you a better discount, right?"

"It's not really in my competence to tamper with the prices that dad puts up…" Kosuzu tried to squirm out of haggling. Which would probably work on Kyouichi, but Akyuu was there with him and she knew the redhead far better and for far longer.

"Nor are you in competence to dig through his collection of occult books and study them in your leisure."

Kosuzu's eyes widened in disbelief. The deer in the headlights had no room for evasion.

"You wouldn't rat out your bestie, would you, Akyuu?" she asked pleadingly, her voice hushed and her gaze nervously darting all over the room, as if to make sure no eavesdroppers were around. "Would you?"

"I'll think about it." the "evil" chronicler smirked back.

"Occult books?" Kyouichi nonchalantly inquired. "What sort of occult books?"

"Y-you didn't hear anything."

"Oh, but I did. She said 'occult books', right?"

They both had her cornered. And even though Kyouichi had no idea what books Akyuu mentioned, he pretended like he did and decided to play along. "Like books on witchcraft, demon summoning rituals, black magic, necromancy…"

Kosuzu gasped. "How do you know?!" Then her eyes reverted to Akyuu. "You told him about them?"

"I didn't." Akyuu responded truthfully, but not convincingly enough.

"Liar!"

"No, seriously, I didn't."

"So this is what it's come down to? You're going to blackmail me? You're going to betray all those years of friendship for the sake of doing your boyfriend a favor?"

"W-what?! No! Look, we're not really dating…" Akyuu's cheeks were in full blush mode as she tried to explain and clear things up. And Kyouichi just stood there, smiling and enjoying the show.

"Where is popcorn when you need it?"

* * *

After a brief soap-opera moment between the two friends, Akyuu finally managed to calm Kosuzu down.

"…so you can relax. We're not here to blackmail you."

"Wait, we're not?" the outsider looked at Akyuu.

"Kyouichi, please…"

"Okay."

"Well then, if I can trust your word, I ask that nothing we just spoke of leaves this shop." Kosuzu knelt down and pulled a book from one of the counter's drawers. Leather-bound, old-looking. Its cover was inscribed with a bunch of unknown characters, the like of which Kyouichi had never seen. Not even on the ruins in Kazemura.

Both he and the young chronicler leaned over to look at it.

"What's this one about?" Akyuu inquired, tilting her head to the side. But no matter what angle she looked at the fading letters, she couldn't make them out.

"Can't you read?" Kosuzu smirked provokingly.

"Not this gibberish, I'm afraid."

"And how about your boyfriend?" she joked about it, even though Akyuu had already made it clear enough.

Kyouichi squinted his eyes, looking just as puzzled as Akyuu at the short text. "Hmm, let's see… Ash nazg durbatulûk..." he jokingly started a line from the inscription on the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings, but then he quickly dropped the act and shrugged. "Nah, I got nothing."

"Hmm… So it really is just me." Kosuzu muttered to herself and nodded. "Interesting…"

"Just you…? What do you mean, Kosuzu?" Akyuu lifted her gaze off the book to look her childhood friend in the eyes. "Are you saying you understand what it says?"

"I'm honestly surprised you can't. Weird…" Both Kosuzu and Akyuu wore similar puzzled expressions on their faces, and Kyouichi, though maintaining a nonchalant demeanor, likewise couldn't make heads or tails of the situation.

Akyuu thought that Kosuzu was just pulling her leg and was just pretending to understand the unknown language, so she decided to test her.

"So what does it say?"

Kosuzu put her finger on the beginning of the book's title, reading it from left to right, tracing her finger along the name as she read: "The Doors to the World Beyond."

Kyouichi could see from Akyuu's face that she wasn't buying it. The chronicler was well-aware that the Motoori family owned quite a number of occult books, but she wasn't ready to believe that Kosuzu just suddenly and inexplicably learned to read the enigmatic symbols written on the book's cover.

"Is that right?"

"You don't believe me, do you?" Kosuzu sighed in disappointment, but she couldn't really blame Akyuu's skepticism.

"Well… You could have just made that name up on the fly…" the purple-haired girl smiled and shrugged. "What about the author's name?"

"It isn't mentioned anywhere. Whoever wrote this book wanted to keep their identity unknown. I've already skimmed through the book and as the name suggests, it deals with spirits, binding rituals, protective rituals, summoning and spirit travel."

"Care to read us a passage?" Kyouichi too wanted to see a more convincing proof that Kosuzu could indeed understand the text. Anyone could think of an occult-sounding name for a book in a few seconds, but coming up with actual content on the fly would be a lot trickier.

Akyuu, however, wasn't as thrilled about the suggestion. "I'm not sure this is the best idea."

"No problem." Kosuzu smiled and opened the tome on a random page. It was filled with the same strange-looking characters as written on the cover with a disturbingly detailed illustration of an entity that resembled the grim reaper. It was draped in a tattered robe and had skeletal features with no legs as it floated above the ground. In its bony hand, it wielded a staff of some sort and wore a thick-chained medallion around its neck. Just the picture alone was enough for Akyuu to take a cautious step backwards and gulp. The sinister background of a graveyard on a moonlit night wasn't helping it.

Kosuzu appeared unfazed and put her index finger on the beginning of the text. After clearing her throat she began to read: "Of those seeking eternal life on earth, many a mortal had been tempted by the idea of lichdom. Rather than facing judgment that would have them sent either to Heaven, Purgatory or Hell, these souls would remain bound to their own mortal remains, forever to roam earth as restless wraiths that came to be commonly known as liches…"

After a brief demonstration of Kosuzu's reading skills, Kyouichi slowly shifted his glance at Akyuu. "You know, I don't think she's just making it up."

Even Akyuu had to acknowledge that the wording wasn't the typical way her friend spoke or wrote. "Kosuzu, you're starting to scare me."

Kosuzu widened her smile, obviously enjoying the awe of her visitors and continued reading.

"Unlike the mindless re-animated skeletons and corpses raised by necromancers, who rarely used the original body's spirit, if any spirit at all to bring them to life, a lich is a fully sentient, autonomous undead entity retaining the knowledge, intelligence and memories from its mortal life. And unlike an earthbound spirit, it can physically interact with its environment with far greater ease. To this day it is considered among the highest forms of undeath and was often chosen and performed by the most powerful and knowledgeable of black mages or kings, as it allowed them to carry on their studies, rule posthumously or exact acts of revenge from beyond the grave. A lich doesn't need to be bound to the will of any necromancer, (although several documented cases when a master necromancer directly controlled several dozen of these entities exist) and many dark art practitioners prefer lichdom over vampirism as the former option is not dependent on regular doses of fresh human blood and doesn't come with a plethora of other weaknesses that plague the vampires.

Such existence, however, does not come without its price - the most noteworthy being inability to stop and reverse the decomposition process of the body. As the spirit-binding method used in the process of creating liches requires an intact phylactery, (most often the body or a specific part of it) liches aren't immortal in the truest sense of the word. Embalming techniques may be applied to slow the deterioration process, but ultimately the lich's body will forever remain its greatest weakness. This is by no means to say that they are easily destroyed. Every lich is first and foremost a powerful spellcaster, making nearly any direct attack futile. They were feared since the times of Merlin and for good reason, however even they could be beguiled and outnumbered. And nobody managed to demonstrate this fact better than the Inquisition, which nearly wiped out the entire lich population from the face of Europe. Nearly. Ever since the Great Purge, necromancy and witchcraft became a lost art, as anyone even remotely associated with these practices was usually burned at the stake and all their heretical texts along with them…"

"Alright, Kosuzu, I think I heard enough." Akyuu stopped her friend from reading any further. She really wasn't in the mood to hear every dark detail about these terrifying creatures, their origins or history. Kosuzu, however felt like a fish in the water.

"But I want to know how liches are created. Don't you find it fascinating? Not just these foreign undead creatures, but the very fact that my dad had this sort of book lying in his bookcase all this time… And the fact that I can actually understand it."

"Yes, that's probably the most disturbing fact about it." Akyuu remarked with a matching expression of worry.

"So? You believe me now?" Kosuzu smugly tilted her nose upwards.

"D-do I have a choice? Look, I don't know how you do it, but I'm honestly starting to become worried about you."

"I believe her too." Kyouichi admitted with a nod of acknowledgement. He certainly appeared to be more on Kosuzu's side in terms of fascination with the topic. "I've heard a thing or two about liches before, but only from fantasy-themed video games mostly. But to think these things are real…" he shuddered at the thought.

"Kosuzu, tell me honestly…" Akyuu grabbed her friend's hands and looked her dead in the eyes. "You weren't always able to read that book, right?"

Even Kosuzu found the intensity of Akyuu's stare unsettling. "I… I wasn't."

"So how did you learn that language?"

"I don't know. I just recall flipping through its pages as a 5-year old. True, I could barely read common kanji back then. But I really didn't understand a single letter of its text. I asked my dad about what it said, but you know how that ended…"

"Yes…" Akyuu sighed at that memory.

"How?" Kyouichi wanted to know.

"Well, basically, she got a good spanking and was told never to touch weird books. Her dad hid the book away from her. Poorly, mind you… She still knew where to find all the really juicy occult books in his collection." Akyuu summarized the history with an almost sadistic grin of satisfaction. "At least according to what Kosuzu told me. I didn't know that it was for this particular book, though."

Kosuzu frowned and lowered her head, as if ashamed of her childhood mischief. "I wonder why he was so protective of it if he knew nobody could read it."

"Unless he had a hunch his little girl would awaken a mysterious power within her to decipher strange texts and start practicing necromancy in his basement." Akyuu remarked jestingly.

"I doubt I have any such power." the shopkeeper's daughter shook her head in denial.

"We'll see about that." Kyouichi wanted to put Akyuu's theory to the test. "Kosuzu-chan, do you happen to have any other books written in a foreign language?"

"We do have quite a few scrolls and books written in Chinese, a couple in English and a handful in some unidentified languages…" Kosuzu started to point at the yonder bookshelves in the corner of the shop.

"Okay, so do you know any foreign language?"

Kosuzu's hair bells rang as she shook her head in a negative response.

"Alright, and when was the last time you tried reading a non-Japanese text?"

"About a minute ago?" the redhead grinned sheepishly.

Even Kyouichi with his high tolerance for bad jokes cringed slightly at Kosuzu's reply. "I meant the last time BEFORE you figured out you could understand it." he re-formulated the question.

The young girl hummed as her eyes trailed off towards the ceiling. "I don't know… A year ago? No, wait… it was when I visited Kazemura and tried reading the strange symbols on the ruins."

Kyouichi nodded as he was personally present when Kosuzu first arrived in Kazemura. It was the first time they had met.

"Okay, Kosuzu-chan…" Kyouichi took out an English book titled 'Steam and Clockworks' out of the shelf. Him being more than proficient in the language, it seemed like a perfect way of verifying whether or not Kosuzu could understand foreign languages. "Can you tell me what the title says?" he asked as he held the book in his outstretched hands.

The Motoori child squinted in the same way Akyuu did when she saw "The Door to the World Beyond".

"U-um.. err… S-su… Su-chiimu a-ando… ku-roku-waakusu…" she struggled to squeeze out a syllabized approximation, which sounded just as though she was reading the title in katakana.

"Hmm…" Kyouichi gave a nod of acknowledgement, but he was far from impressed. "Alright, that was easy." He opened the book in the same random fashion as Kosuzu did a while ago and put it on the counter in front of her. Here… try reading something. No, rather than reading, translate what it says."

Kosuzu hesitantly lowered her gaze at the opened page, regarded the text for a while but no words came out of her mouth. She nervously adjusted her glasses, but that didn't seem to help either. The clock in the shop ticked quietly in the background, yet not a peep was uttered by the daughter of the Motoori family. Even the record, which provided gentle jazz ambience reached the end of its cycle and just quietly spun on the gramophone and emitted a light crackling noise.

"She can't read it after all…" Akyuu concluded with a disappointed headshake.

But Kosuzu wasn't giving up yet. She took the book in her hands and leaned it slightly upwards and put her finger on the first line of the text.

"You can stop pretending like you understand it already…"

And that's when little Kosuzu began: "...the super-heated steam then pushes the piston forward. As the piston pushes, the crank and the connecting rod turn the wheels. When the piston has reached the end of the cylinder, it can push no further. However the wheels' own momentum then drives the crank further, pushing the piston back into the cylinder the way it came…"

Silence. After Kosuzu read but a couple of lines from the book, the only sound in Suzunaan were the scratches of the record player's needle against the spinning vinyl.

Not just Kyouichi and Akyuu were wearing dumbfounded expressions, but the reader of the book as well.

"I have no idea what I just read, but… I read it." the redhead finally spoke and blinked at the open book in disbelief.

"It appears to be a basic description of how a steam locomotive operates." Kyouichi explained. He was paying close attention to the text as Kosuzu read it and was stunned by her quick and precise translation. "I wouldn't have translated that better myself."

"A-amazing…" her friend only managed a one-word reaction.

"I don't understand…" Kosuzu kept staring at the page in confusion and shaking her little head left and right. "I couldn't understand the text at first glance, but then… but then… It's like it just… came to me. Like an epiphany."

"Well, isn't this a wonderful day." the outsider spoke as he regarded the young girl with fascination. "We've just discovered that Kosuzu-chan has an extraordinary gift."

"As much as I am amazed," Akyuu spoke up hesitantly, "the implications are somehow more terrifying than awesome."

"But I don't even know how I did it!" Kosuzu loudly declared as she looked at Akyuu and Kyouichi. "If I have a gift, then I have no idea how to use it. I could read that occult book without a problem, but it took me a while to read the English one…"

"Maybe you need to focus really hard…" Kyouichi theorized.

"I was focusing hard, but I honestly couldn't translate what it said right away but then… I grabbed the book and…" Kosuzu left the sentence, as well as her jaw hanging in the air upon a sudden realization. "I grabbed it… Grabbed it! That must be it! I have to try this out with another book!"

She rushed like a little steam locomotive from behind her counter to the foreign books section and grabbed the first book she saw… or that her short frame allowed her to reach. She touched the cover and… "'Curses, Blessings and Incantations'!" she exclaimed excitedly as she effortlessly shattered the language barrier. She put the book back to its place and pulled an old scroll and repeated the process. "'Earth's Healing Plants – scroll one by Eirin Yagokoro'! I've never been able to read those!"

"I'm glad I wasn't the only one." Kyouichi remarked as he tried his best to suppress his chuckle. Instantly, the memories of him working at this shop and trying to transcribe Eirin's old manuscripts from her scratchy and barely-legible handwriting to proper kanji came back to him like a flood. Apparently, some of Starlight Glyph's original inventory was left here when the shop changed owners.

Akyuu wondered why he snickered to himself when Kosuzu pulled out the scroll, but the outsider offered no explanation. Meanwhile the shop owner's assistant was far from over showing-off her new power. If Akyuu didn't stop her, she'd probably take every foreign book out of the shelf and read its translation aloud.

"Alright, Kosuzu, enough demonstrations."

"I… I really do have it… an ability to decipher any text." Kosuzu could hardly believe it herself. "Could I have really acquired that in Kazemura?"

"I'd sooner blame it on all those youma books you've touched in the last decade."

"You think so, Akyuu? I haven't touched THAT many of them, you know… But now that I can read them at last, I'm going to study them ALL extensively!" the redhead beamed and rubbed her palms against one another.

"If only her dad knew…" Kyouichi chuckled at the irony.

"Listen, Kosuzu, I know you're excited about this, but hear me out. There might have been a very good reason why most of these books were written in a way so that no mortal could read them. Namely because the knowledge within them could prove to be very dangerous in the hands of said mortal. I know I've already said this to you, but you're exposing yourself to a great risk by merely handling them, let alone studying their content."

"If they were as dangerous as you believe, something bad would have already happened to me ages ago." Kosuzu argued.

"I just don't want to see my childhood friend ending up being possessed by something."

"Hmph… Sounds to me like you're just jealous of my newly-awakened ability." the young redhead smugly turned her head to the side and tilted her nose towards the ceiling.

"My opinion of you would suffer a major blow if you truly believe I'm that petty." Akyuu frowned at her friend's childish reaction.

"Wasn't it you who threatened to blackmail me a few minutes ago?"

"I already told you that I was merely teasing you. Heck, do whatever you please. But if strange demons infest your home after a séance gone wrong or something like that, don't run crying to me. Call your local shrine maiden. But then again, if she catches wind of what you're studying, you'll be in so much trouble that the demon tormenting you will be the least of your worries."

"Now, now, girls," Kyouichi stepped in between them. "I don't like to see you arguing."

Both young ladies discontinued their little stare-down as they looked up at the only adult in the room, who took their momentary silence as a cue to change the topic.

"Speaking of worries… Akyuu, may I just ask why are you so afraid of Yuuka Kazami?"

The purple-haired chronicler widened her eyes at the mere mention of the youkai's name.

"I mean. I heard some rumors and all," Kyouichi continued in the same light-hearted tone, "but don't you think that what you've written about her is a bit mean?" he raised an eyebrow as he opened a copy of Perfect Memento on the page with the short article about the aforementioned youkai.

"Ah… that's right… Kazami-san…" Akyuu mumbled sheepishly, "She wasn't around during my predecessors' lifetimes, so she's a fairly new face in Gensokyo. That day when I saw you and Kazami-san together… It just… really surprised me…" she averted her gaze, clearly not comfortable talking about her.

"Eh~?" Kosuzu tilted her head, making her decorative bells jiggle. "What happened? Fill me in."

"Well… I…" Akyuu tried to string a sentence together, but Kyouichi spilled the truth without hesitating.

"She ran like a bat out of hell. And all I tried to do was introducing them to each other."

Kosuzu beamed at her older friend, whose expression was in direct contrast to her own. "Is that true? Akyuu ran away from someone she slandered in her book?" she asked with a cruelly teasing tone as she struggled not to laugh. "Oh, sweet karma!"

"I didn't slander anyone."

"Really? 'Human friendship level: worst'? What is that if not slander?" the outsider asked.

"I compile my books mostly from eyewitness testimonies and most of those testimonies don't describe her as someone you'd want to be around."

"Psh.. what do _they_ know?" Kyouichi waved his hand dismissively.

"She really is an extremely dangerous youkai, Kyouichi. Deadly. Especially to an outsider. I don't know what circumstances led you to meet her, but for your own safety…"

Having heard a similar sentence from enough people before, Kyouichi could already guess what Akyuu wanted to say. "Oh, please, Akyuu, spare me that nonsense." he interrupted her with a sigh of annoyance. "Honestly… you sound just like old Naota. Yuuka is actually much nicer than you'd think."

"She may look so on the surface, but believe me…"

"Believe you what? How many times have you met her? How many times have you talked to her? I bet that I've done so more times than you. Besides, wasn't it you who encouraged me to befriend a dangerous youkai when I first met you? That it's one of the greatest achievements a human can accomplish?"

"I did say that," Akyuu admitted, "but I also said that it shouldn't be attempted without experience…"

"Well, don't you think I've already gained some during those 6 months I've spent here? I've met Yuuka several times already and I'm still alive. Not only that, I also believe she's a genuinely sweet person."

"Oh? Do you perhaps… like her, Kyouichi-san?" Kosuzu smirked impishly as she listened in on the conversation. "Because you sound like someone defending their lover's honor."

"Okay, let me clear that up… I haven't met her THAT many times, Kosuzu-chan." the outsider corrected the misunderstanding with a flustered look in his eyes. "But from my personal experience I can say that Yuuka has been nothing but nice to me. How's that for an eyewitness testimony?"

"Is that so?" Kosuzu asked. "Well… Regardless of your experience, it's a little too late to edit that article now."

Kyouichi let out a chuckle. "Indeed. And it's probably for the better. One might even say you're doing Yuuka a favor by spreading this intimidating image of her to the human populace. I actually wanted to tell you not to be afraid of her when I met you that day, but you're just too adorable when teased, Akyuu. Even Yuuka said so herself."

Unsure whether to feel flattered or embarrassed, the chronicler murmured something unintelligible under her breath.

"Yes, very adorable~." Kosuzu chimed, enjoying the sweet payback for Akyuu's previous teasing.

"Though, to be honest, your article is not entirely off." Kyouichi concluded as he finished reading. "She's really crazy strong. Physically and magically. And her smile looks scary sometimes, but she's a dear… I won't lie; I've grown to like her a lot."

"Now I'm really curious to hear how you met her." Kosuzu's eyes gleamed in the dim light of the shop's lanterns.

"Perhaps some other time." Kyouichi gave the article about Yuuka one last glance before closing the book. "By the way, does any one of you know where this Garden of the Sun is? I don't think I've heard about it before." he asked nonchalantly about the flower youkai's supposed main place of activity.

The still-skeptical 9th child of Miare deflected the question: "I think it's better for you not to know."

However, her cute younger friend saw no harm in Kyouichi knowing that information. "The Dangerous Area Guide starts on page 135~."

"Oh? Let me see…" the outsider's curiosity got certainly piqued. He reopened the book, flipping through its pages to find the section mentioned by Kosuzu, only to have the book snatched out of his hands by Akyuu.

"Hey!"

"Kosuzu really doesn't know when to shut up."

"Aw, come on!" Kyouichi tried to reason with the worrywart purple-haired teen. "I just want to know, that's all… Do you really think I'll actually go there?"

"…Judging from what you said earlier, I think you might be tempted to." Akyuu defiantly clutched the copy of her chronicle.

Kyouichi sighed and couldn't help but to smile. "You really are adorable when you're worried… But you do know I'm going to get my own copy anyway, right?"

Even though she realized the utter pointlessness of her action, she still refused to share the information. "I… I'm going to tell Kamishirasawa-san not to sell you the copy!"

She was grasping at straws here.

"Now you're just being silly. But have it your way." Kyouichi turned his face to Akyuu's best friend. "Kosuzu-chan, please be so kind and tell me where Garden of the Sun is."

"No, don't!" Akyuu protested. By now she had nearly given up hope that she'd keep the garden's location a secret from him. Her big-mouthed childhood friend would surely just spill it with a beaming smile just to spite her. But that's where she thought wrong.

Sensing an opportunity from Kyouichi no longer holding Akyuu's manuscript, Kosuzu's mercantile spirit had kicked in and the redhead, to both Kyouichi's and Akyuu's surprise, decided to haggle: "U-uh. Information is a valuable commodity and we don't give it away for free here at Suzunaan."

"Smart girl…" Kyouichi gave her a praiseful nod. "Very well… How much?"

"2999 yen if you want to buy a copy."

"I think you missed the part where I said Keine was asking only 2500 yen per copy. If you want to make any money here, you'll need give me a better offer."

Kosuzu sighed and giggled. "Okay, okay… You win…"

"Wait… what do you mean?" the outsider didn't quite understand her response. Was she just joking?

"I can't just haggle with customers without my dad's permission. And unlike Akyuu, I don't think you'd be stupid enough to barge into the Garden of the Sun, so…"

"Why thanks! I'm flattered you think so highly of me." the outsider coated his gratitude with an extra layer of sarcasm.

"You've been warned…" Akyuu muttered as she turned away from both of them and pretended not to care anymore.

"The Garden of the Sun is at the very center of Gensokyo." the redhead gave a somewhat unspecific, simplified answer.

"The very center…?"

Surprisingly enough, Akyuu spoke up to give a more detailed description: "It's a small crescent-shaped sunflower meadow surrounded by dense woods."

Perhaps she finally understood that there was no point in hiding the information, which was already made public anyway.

"See? That wasn't so hard." the outsider smiled at her.

"It's not easy to find, unless you're looking from the Youkai Mountain."

Kyouichi's mind returned to the memory of his first flight on Marisa's broom, and even though that memory had slightly faded with time, he did recall a streak of yellow amidst the sea of green when the witch took him for a ride.

"I think I actually might have caught a glimpse of it." he spoke with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. "So that's where Yuuka lives, huh?"

"Well… Nobody really knows that for sure. She's a wandering youkai who migrates from place to place. Usually if that place is filled with flowers and she stays at that place until the seasonal flowers wilt away. That's why I rated the Garden of the Sun with a mere medium danger level. But Yuuka Kazami is very territorial, and with the exception of her visiting the village, she's merciless to anyone and anything intruding the location she's currently on."

"I see… that's why she said she wouldn't be visiting the village until spring." It was all making more sense now. "So I should be safe as long as I don't invade any of her flower fields, right?"

"In theory…" Akyuu replied hesitantly. "But I wouldn't get too comfortable even when dealing with her in the village."

"You know what, Akyuu? I have an idea. If I'm still in Gensokyo by next spring, I'll ask her to meet you the next time she visits the village to show you there's no need for you to fear her. On the contrary, I think you'll be good friends. Just don't tell other people about it. It's good that she's feared."

Akyuu shuddered at the thought. "Well… perhaps if Reimu-san was around during the meeting…"

Kyouichi laughed at her sheepish response and gave her a gentle pat on the head. "May I have another look at the manuscript?"

Since Kyouichi had already got what he wanted despite Akyuu's disapproval, the compiler of Gensokyo's history handed him the book. Let the outsider educate himself, even though he was already playing with fire.

"Let me just quickly check for what youkai I've already encountered."

He rapidly flipped through the pages of Akyuu's manuscript, only reading the names. He skipped Reimu, Marisa and Sakuya, as they were humans. "The fairies - yeah of course… The Scarlet sisters - check… Patchouli, Meiling - yup. Alice… Yeah, Almost forgot she's a youkai as well. Youmu and Yuyuko, Reisen, Keine-sensei, Eirin-sensei, Princess Kaguya… Oh, that's interesting, she's not listed as a youkai and neither is Mokou-san… guess I assumed wrong. Who's next…? Yuuka, Aya, Suika, Mystia and yes, Rumia too… There are some comparatively much weaker youkai in your book that I'd fear much more than Kazami-san."

"Wow, that's quite the number of youkai you've already met. Impressive for an outsider." Kosuzu sounded impressed. "I'm a little envious…"

"And quite a few I haven't met yet…" Kyouichi said as he was nearing the end of the book. "By the way, what about the likes of Yuugi-san, or Satori-san, Byakuren-san and others? I don't see their names mentioned anywhere…"

"I… I plan to include them in my next book." Akyuu revealed a plan for her future project.

"Why not just put them all in one book?"

"To make more money from book sales, why else." Kosuzu smiled slyly as she explained Akyuu's resoning.

"Heh…" the outsider chuckled in amusement. "This new child of Miare is quite the businesswoman, isn't she? You know, when I read Aichi's book, or even books by your later incarnations, I couldn't help but to notice the stark difference between the language used in them as opposed to the Perfect Memento, which uses a… let's say a much simpler, colloquial wording. No doubt to make the book appealing to more common folks rather than just a few intellectuals…"

"That was actually Kosuzu's suggestion." Akyuu revealed another secret as she gave her best friend a wink. "If it weren't for her, I'd probably written the latest volume of the chronicle in the same style as usual. But I'm glad I listened to her advice. I've never managed to sell more copies in the first week after publishing a book in any of my nine lifetimes as I have now."

"And you won't even mention my name in the book. That just makes me sad." Kosuzu might have had a talent for trade, but her acting certainly needed some work, as nobody was about to fall for her fake frown.

"Not that you need any special mentioning. As my publisher, you're getting most of the money from the books you sell and rent. I'm only getting a small cut out of that."

"You mean my parents do." the book renter corrected her.

"Oh, so Kosuzu-chan is the business mastermind here…" Kyouichi gave the younger of the girls a scrutinizing gaze.

The redhead's face blushed slightly. "I wouldn't call myself a mastermind exactly, but my parents taught me a thing or two about running a business."

"So you're going to take over the family business one day huh? Or would you rather become a necromancer?" The outsider joked as he gestured at the occult book lying on the counter. Judging by the passion this young girl had shown in studying the occult, it really wouldn't surprise him much if she'd choose the latter.

"I want to run Suzunnaan!" Kosuzu responded without hesitation. "…and be a scholar of the occult!" she added after a brief pause.

"I hope she grows out of that phase." Akyuu muttered at Kyouichi. "Preferably before she becomes a lich or something…"

"Hey, when I was her age, my future career aspirations were a dilemma between a ninja and an astronaut." the young man confessed with a shrug.

Apparently the two of them weren't trying to keep their voices down too much, since Kosuzu puffed up her cheeks in an angry, yet adorable pout.

"Just you make fun of me! You won't be laughing when I summon a demon!"

And with the precision of a Swiss watch, just as she exclaimed that, the bell hanging over the shop's entrance chimed and a well-dressed bespectacled gentleman entered.

"I'm back, Kosuzu~! Oh, customers. Welcome!"

* * *

If a pin had dropped in the following couple of seconds, it would have been the loudest noise inside the shop. The dimly-lit, usually quiet and slightly mysterious atmosphere of Suzunaan could make one quickly forget that it was indeed a place open to public. Not that Starlight Glyph was much different in that regard. All eyes were glued to the man who had just walked in. All except Kosuzu's, who scurried in panic to hide the occult book, which lay casually on the counter.

"H-hi, dad!" she chimed with overexcitement. "You're back early…!" Her welcome sounded more shocked and accusing rather than cheerful.

"I did tell you that I was just going out to buy off some antiquities… Oh, if it isn't Akyuu-chan! Thanks again for your hard work." Kosuzu's father smiled and nodded when he recognized a familiar face. In the meantime, his daughter took his momentary distraction as her best chance to try and inconspicuously hide the heavy occult tome back under the counter.

"Hey, Kosuzu, why are you hiding behind the counter? Go and make some jasmine tea for Akyuu."

"N-no, no, thank you, Motoori-san." Akyuu sheepishly refused as she shook her open palms. "We were just leaving."

"We?" Mr. Motoori tilted his gaze in Kyouichi's direction. "Er… you're from the Hieda family, right"

"No, Ishimaru." Kyouichi didn't hide his amusement at the man's wrong assumption.

"Ishimaru…? There's no Ishimaru family in this village."

"Heh, I feel more special already. No, I'm from the outside world. I involuntarily ended up here in spring… Been looking for a way out of here ever since. And as you can see, with little success."

"Wait a minute… Are you the one who snuck out of the village with a group of other outsiders but failed to cross the boundary?"

The slightly forced and bitter smile on Kyouichi's face told a story of that failure quite well. "Yes, that one."

"Amazing! How did you pull it off?" Mr. Motoori appeared very curious to hear Kyouichi's story. Almost too much so. "I mean, it's a shame you weren't successful in the end, but… wow. For a group of outsiders to sneak out of the village undetected… that's really something. Care to tell me how you managed that?"

"I… I'm not really in the mood to talk about that."

"Ah, sorry." Kosuzu's father bowed apologetically, "I don't mean to pry."

"Let's just say we wouldn't pull it off on our own had we not been helped by a certain someone."

Kyouichi's vague reply hardly satisfied Mr. Motoori's curiosity, but he considered the topic closed and didn't push the outsider any further. Instead, he took a businessman's approach.

"So… what brings you to our humble shop, Ishimaru-san? Interested in borrowing a book or… perhaps buying some antique souvenir?"

"No, thanks; I already have quite a few souvenirs from Gensokyo. I was actually interested whether or not I could find some books on the occult here." he lied about his intention for visiting Suzunaan for no other reason than to see what kind of reaction he'd get from the owner. To his surprise, Mr. Motoori took it quite well.

"Well, look at that… And here I thought you outsiders weren't the type to believe in superstitions."

"I guess ending up in a land full of youkai and magic users would turn even a hardened skeptic into a believer." Kyouichi shrugged in response.

"Hah. Rightly so. Well, you've come to the right place…"

Indeed, Mr. Motoori appeared to be pleasantly surprised by Kyouichi's interest. It was his daughter whose reaction proved most entertaining.

"T-that's not what he said when he came here!" Kosuzu exclaimed. And even though she was true, her father reminded her of the golden rule of a salesman.

"Now, now, Kosuzu-chan… The customer is always right. We Motoori proud ourselves in owning what is believed to be the largest collection of occult books outside the Scarlet Devil Mansion."

The redheaded girl began to sweat bullets. She really didn't like the way this conversation was going. Mostly out of fear that her secret studies of said occult books would be made known to her dad who forbade her from reading them.

"We have a few occult books on display here, but let me just quickly fetch the rest of my collection from my safe."

"But dad, w-wouldn't it be better to just ask him what particular occult topic he's interested in before dragging the whole collection here?"

"Oh, right…" the shopkeeper paused. "Anything particular you had in mind, Ishimaru-san?"

The outsider smirked. "I was just curious to see what you had in stock."

"The whole collection it is then! Please excuse me. I'll be back in a minute."

* * *

Kosuzu watched with horror as her father disappeared in the back section of the shop. She tried her best to distract her dad from fulfilling Kyouichi's request to no avail. Seconds before Mr. Motoori rolled in with his almost complete collection on a trolley, Kosuzu gave Kyouichi one last glare that if translated to words would most likely say "Why…?"

"Sorry for the wait. Here it is… the rest of my collection. Impressive, is it not?" Mr. Motoori smiled proudly as he patted the topmost book of the large stack on his trolley. "From ancient tengu spellbooks and mysterious alchemical recipes to witchcraft, demonology, and of course – necromancy. We just about have a little bit of each."

He then proceeded to line the books next to each other right on top of the counter. "But be warned: some of them... umpf… are really expensive."

Kyouichi almost thought he'd say something like "dangerous to touch or read", but the owner believed the price range was the most concerning thing about them.

Meanwhile Kosuzu's breathing and expression became increasingly more panicked with each book her father put on the counter. Only a matter of seconds before he'd realize…

"Huh? Hold on a moment… It seems I'm missing one book."

"Perhaps someone already rented it." Kyouichi pretended like he had no idea what book he's talking about.

"No, no… I'd have it marked in the ledger… Where did I put it…? It was a leather-bound illustrated book on necromancy. Unfortunately written in illegible gibberish."

"Good afternoon! Welcome to Suzunaan!" Kosuzu suddenly exclaimed in what had to be her most forcefully enthusiastic greeting she ever uttered as her eyes were fixated at the shop's entrance. One quick glance, however, revealed that nobody had in fact entered the store since Mr. Motoori. But that one second was all she needed. In one amazingly swift motion, she dove under the counter, pulled the heavy tome from the drawer and shuffled it neatly into the stack on top of the counter.

"Are you feeling alright, Kosuzu?" her dad raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, hehe… guess that person was just window-shopping after all."

"Whatever… Oh, there it is!" Mr. Motoori's eyes brightened up when he spotted the book he thought he misplaced. "Hiding in plain sight all along… Well, let me put up the rest of the titles."

Kosuzu sighed the biggest sigh of relief as her dad unloaded the contents of the trolley.

"Nice one, Kosuzu." Kyouichi thought to himself as he gave the girl a smile of admiration and respect. She responded by pouting and purposefully averting her gaze.

Kyouichi took a couple of minutes briefly examining the covers of the books without daring to lay a finger on any of them – even those that Mr. Motoori deemed "safe". Akyuu kept her safe distance as well, but her natural curiosity compelled her to take a closer look at the books now that the full collection was laid bare on the counter.

They listened to the shopkeeper's brief summary of every book. He seemed to have a good understanding of the occult, but occasionally Kyouichi noticed Kosuzu shaking her head in disagreement behind her father's back, implying that Mr. Motoori was only pretending to know what each book was about. When they finally went through the whole collection, Mr. Motoori looked expectantly at the outsider and asked: "So… Interested in renting any of these? I'm sure we can negotiate an agreeable price, yes?"

Kyouichi, of course, had no intention of renting any of those dubious books, but he didn't want to offend the owner. He had to come up with a diplomatic response, which to his fortune wasn't too difficult for him.

"Ah… Well, that's an impressive collection indeed." He reached in his pocket to pull out a pen and a notepad and began scribbling random doodles on the paper, pretending to be making a list of books he was interested in. "There's a couple in here I found interesting, but since I'm on a tight budget here, I'll have to take some time to decide which one I'd rent…"

"Of course. That's understandable. Take your time and come visit us when you've made your decision. Don't wait too long, though. Someone else might come along and rent it in the meantime."

"They'd be the first person to rent any of them since we opened the shop…" Kosuzu remarked snidely.

Slightly disappointed, Mr. Motoori turned his hopeful gaze toward the compiler of Gensokyo Chronicle. "And what about you, Akyuu-chan? You like reading books, right? I'm sure the information in some of these could make for some interesting articles for your chronicle, no?"

Akyuu smiled nervously. "Ehehe… well… The Perfect Memento has already been released, so…"

"Oh, right, right…" the shopkeeper's eyes drooped a little. "Well, should you change your mind, don't hesitate to ask."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Kyouichi thanked the store owner for his time and willingness to bring forth his entire occult book collection and together with the young chronicler he left Suzunaan.

* * *

As soon as the door closed behind them accompanied by the sound of the bell hanging over it, Kyouichi and Akyuu felt the cold raindrops on their faces.

"Ah, it's raining again. Should have taken my umbrella…"

"What for? You live like 50 meters from here." Kyouichi retorted as the two of them walked down the empty street in the rain.

"I don't mind a bit of rain, but my manuscript…" Akyuu hurriedly folded the portfolio she held in her hand and tucked it under her kimono to protect it from the elements.

"Why worry so much about the manuscript when the book has already been published?"

"Well… yes, but… even though the book has been already published, I always keep and archive the manuscripts of my finished projects. They have a sort of… sentimental value to me, you know?"

"Weird…" Kyouichi mumbled as he trudged on along the rain-soaked dirt road which made his sandals bury themselves in the dirt with each step.

"I guess only another author will understand such a thing." Akyuu shrugged as she tried to bury her head as deeply into her kimono's collar as she could.

Kyouichi chuckled quietly. "I can understand it perfectly. I was just teasing you a bit."

"I think you've already done more teasing than just 'a bit' for today." Akyuu gave him a patronizing look. "For a moment there I truly thought you'd straight-up tell Kosuzu's dad that she'd been studying necromancy."

"Yeah, I've been a bit of a jerk there, I'll admit. The girl probably hates me now, but… I just couldn't resist." The outsider grinned self-satisfactorily.

"Well… Kosuzu and I tease each other all the time so… I guess I can understand that perfectly as well…" Akyuu copied the grin making her look both cute and evil at the same time.

"You know… One of my life dreams has always been writing a book. Or maybe even more than one." Kyouichi confessed suddenly. "Fiction or non-fiction; It doesn't matter. But I've always dreamt of leaving a lasting impact on people by the means of literature. Something that would outlast me by hopefully at least a couple of decades. But as it usually goes with me, it remained just that - a dream."

Akyuu didn't look or act surprised by his confession. She was a good-natured girl who had pretty much the same dream, but unlike Kyouichi, she was actually living it.

"Why not start today?" she asked.

"Today? Heh. And what would I write about?" the outsider asked more in a rhetorical way rather than directing the question at Akyuu. "You see, despite me having this dream in my head since my teen years, I never really knew what I'd write about… Probably part of the reason why I never got to it in the first place."

"Well, don't you think that your time spent in Gensokyo would make for an interesting story?"

"Hmm… perhaps it would. But who would be interested in reading it? I mean… all the people living here already know what it's like to live in Gensokyo. And if I were to publish such a story in the outside world, it would just be considered another one of those dime-a-dozen 'other world' fantasy light novels."

"And what's wrong with that?" Akyuu asked with an oddly encouraging smile. "You just said yourself that it didn't matter whether you'd write fiction or non-fiction. And while it's true that the native people of Gensokyo already know what life here is like, I'm pretty sure they'd be curious to read about an outsider's perspective. Sure, there have been many outsiders living here since the barrier's creation before you, but you'd be the first one to actually publish a book about their experiences. So why not start today?"

Kyouichi was honestly taken aback by her encouraging words. It took him a moment before he made another excuse. "Wow… You really think I should? I don't know anything about formatting or storytelling."

"You'll never know if you won't give it a try. I can give you some pointers if you'd like. You can start by writing a diary. That's how I got into this whole chronicle-compiling business."

"A diary, huh? A pity I didn't start writing one since the first day I ended up here. I kind of forgot about some things that happened to me during my half-year stay here and some I can remember just vaguely."

"And that's where creative writing comes in. You can make some things up, embellish some details or omit them completely. Besides, I never write down every single detail that I remember when I'm compiling the chronicle."

"So you started compiling the chronicle by writing a diary?"

"Well, not exactly. It was Yukari Yakumo who visited me… I mean Aichi, a long time ago and told me to start compiling the chronicle of the land that is now Gensokyo. She seemed to know about my ability even before I did. I didn't quite understand her reasoning behind that request, but… I was afraid of what she'd do if I refused, so that's how I started."

"I didn't know that." Kyouichi stated his surprise.

"Yes, it was she who gave me that push. Naturally, over time I learned that I had no reason to be afraid of her and we gradually became close friends. Had it not been for her, I'd probably never really use my talents for anything useful and find a meaningful purpose to my life. Sometimes people need a bit of nudge to set them on the right path. A bit of encouragement. So just like how Yukari helped me set out on my path, I would be happy to help you set you on your path of fulfillment."

Kyouichi stood in silence staring into the distance ahead. He then slowly raised his hand and used his index finger to wipe the area around the corner of his right eye.

"Are you alright, Kyouichi-san?

"A raindrop fell in my eye…" he mumbled casually, but his voice sounded a bit trembling as he turned away and rubbed the "raindrop" from his left eye as well.

"You're way nicer to me than I deserve, Akyuu." he said as he turned his face back towards the chronicler. "Thanks for the encouragement. I'll give this diary thing a try."

A charming innocent smile adorned Akyuu's face as she gave an encouraging nod. "I'm looking forward to reading it. If you allow me to, of course."

"Sure. If I manage to even start at all…"

"Yes. Beginnings are always the hardest. Even for me. Research and interviewing aside, it usually takes me several days of thinking and planning before I start writing a new volume. But once I start, the words just… flow naturally. Just like the raindrops."

The two of them stopped in front of the Hieda house to bid each other goodbye before they'd part their ways.

"Hopefully the field trip I've signed up for will give me some interesting experiences to write about…" Kyouichi mused aloud as he stood at the gateway to Akyuu's house.

"Oh? You're going to the mountain along with Keine-sensei?"

"Yes, and about a dozen noisy kids from the class as well as a bunch of us outsiders."

"Well, then I wish you a safe and pleasant trip."

"Thanks, Akyuu-chan." Kyouichi smiled and bowed gently. "Now hurry up inside before you catch a cold."

"Good idea. See you, Kyouichi-san~!"

Akyuu's jogging footsteps echoed for a while throughout the empty street before they were replaced by the sound of sliding door opening and closing, and the subsequent silence.

"Diary, huh?" Kyouichi resumed his walk towards his new home outside the village gates. And even though he'd rather spend the remainder of this dreary autumn day in the comfort of his bed, he knew he still had several hours of work on the farm ahead of him.

* * *

When he unlocked the door to the cabin and stepped inside to change into his work attire, he found a sizable pool of water forming around an overflowing bucket. The one that he put on the floor this morning underneath the dripping leak in his roof.

"Oh, damn! I need to plug that hole somehow." He looked at the ceiling whilst grabbing the heavy bucket. He then walked up to the primitive shower that he built himself under the guidance and supervision of Naota and filled its tank with the rainwater from the bucket.

At least the water wouldn't go to waste that way. Having decided to fix the leak later, Kyouichi put the empty bucket back to its original spot, put on his work outfit along with Mizuto's raincoat, and with much reluctance stepped outside into the rain, headed for yet another shift of farm labor.

He kept thinking about what Akyuu told him all the way to the farm and contemplated how he'd start writing his diary. He had his doubts and misgivings about the idea, but felt unusual excitement in every heartbeat as he envisioned himself writing and publishing a book. Just like how Kosuzu discovered her dormant ability, the young outsider felt like something new was being unlocked in his life thanks to Akyuu's words of support.


End file.
